Chapter One

 

Harmony was not a happy girl. The disdain she generally felt for her parents had only grown since they'd picked up and moved here to Los Playa. She was in her final year in high school at the time and certainly had no choice about coming with them. Los Playa was a suburb of San Diego, in Southern California near the border with Mexico.

The house was pretty nice, and certainly better than the place they'd had in Michigan. The weather was definitely an improvement, at least in winter. In summer she had to slather herself with sunscreen and wear a hat with a broad brim to keep her skin from burning. In the daytime, anyway.

The house even had a pool! Though, sometimes she felt as if she was an exhibit in a cage since it was completely screened-in. Still, that did keep the bugs out - mostly - she conceded.

What San Diego lacked were her friends. Her parents had moved her in the middle of her senior year! Which, as far as she was concerned, was absolutely unforgivable! And she didn't care that it was a sudden job opportunity that 'fell into' her father's lap. Nor that they'd bought her a car for graduation.

And now what? She had graduated from high school among people who were virtually strangers and found herself with no contacts to find jobs. Nor did her parents have any. Trying to find jobs on websites was a sucker's bet. Most of them were fake or for jobs nobody else wanted.

And with no friends and of course, no boyfriend, what was she supposed to do in the summer other than wait until it was time to go off to college? Hang around the pool and laze away the days? Alone? Go clubbing - alone - and try her luck with what guys she met? She didn't even know what clubs to go to. And didn't even have a fake ID to get into the good ones!

The drinking age was 21, and she had almost three years before she'd reach that. And she hadn't had much luck with fake IDs anyway because she had kind of a rounded babyface. So where should she go that wasn't just a meat market for perverts, most of them way older than her? Online? Those sites were strictly for horny guys to find girls desperate enough to let them do what they wanted and then walk away. Oh, and fat girls desperately hoping to find a guy who would overlook their excess weight so they didn't have to diet.

On top of that, most of the neighbors seemed to be Asians. Harmony didn't have anything particularly against Asians, but they were, as a whole, not a fun bunch. All they wanted to do was study. And there weren't a lot of studly Asian guys. At least, she hadn't run into any. Asian girls could be cute, but they were so prudish and strait-laced!

Only another month, she thought. June and July had already passed. She was still mostly sane. Just another month and she'd be off to college. Full of people her age who wanted to party. Maybe she'd grab some big, hunky football player. She knew she could. In all modesty, not that Harmony had often been accused of being modest, she knew her value as a girlfriend.

She was reasonably tall, which was good if the guy was an athlete. She was blonde - a real blonde - and had a great body with nice, full, firm breasts. In fact, she'd had so little to do the last few months she'd really gotten into exercising, determined to get her midriff into perfect shape. Not to mention working her chest muscles so her breasts wouldn't sag even a little.

So, her body was in great shape. And she'd always been a beautiful girl, with creamy, unblemished skin, bright blue eyes, a small, button nose, and perfect teeth. She had been eye candy for the boys since before junior high. And by the time she was out of junior high, she was eye candy for the men, too.

Other girls might be self-conscious, but she'd always loved the attention and approval. She never dressed in a slutty way, but she definitely dressed in form-fitting clothes to accentuate her body. She liked turning heads, liked turning guys on, liked being wanted.

So, she knew she could have just about any guy she wanted, and intended to grab a big, strong, handsome one in college to keep her amused during her studies. She'd have to put out, but that wasn't much of an effort. She was an expert at oral sex, or so she told herself, and so the boys seemed to think.

And sex itself, well, it didn't last all that long anyway and made the guys happy.

Sex, to Harmony, was a currency used to purchase the favor of whatever guy she was interested in. It wasn't something meant to bring her pleasure. Other than the emotional pleasure she felt at guys losing their minds when they got to touch her, of course. But that was ego, not physical.

She sighed, as she dashed off a quick comment on Snapchat to her friend Leslie, back in Michigan. She tried to sound happy. No one liked a Debbie Downer. They were so boring. Besides, she liked to brag, so she'd bragged about their great house and great pool and how great the weather was and the scenery and the city.

She wasn't about to admit she was bored sick.

And the great house tended to be way too noisy because her idiot father had insisted on remaking the basement himself. Why? That was the kind of thing you hired people for! And hopefully, they'd be so good they'd do it fast and get lost. Instead, he was treating it like a hobby, coming home from work, eating, then going downstairs to hammer and saw. Ghhaa!

Which was why she was out in the backyard by the pool at nine pm. At least having the pool screened in meant she could do that and not worry about bugs, even though it was nicely lit. But it made her think of herself as being in a cage even more since the yard was pitch black outside the screen. Sunset was at Seven-Forty-Five here.

Sometimes, she pretended she was on display, like in the zoo or something. Then she'd pose in a sexy way, as if hot guys were looking at her through the screen, especially when she went topless. Not at night, though. It felt too weird at night. There actually could be someone out there peeping at her!

She liked to fantasize about such things, including being a stripper and flaunting her body before a crowd of men, but the reality was something different. Besides, it might be a geeky guy or some old geezer type in their thirties or forties. Being peeped at by a hot guy was okay, but how could she be sure of that at night and not some weirdo?

She sighed and looked up from her phone. The water looked inviting, but it would muss up her hair, and she wanted to go for a walk now that the sun was down. It could be pleasant in the evenings if it wasn't too hot. Even then, it was mostly a dry heat, though not always. There was a heat wave on and if she went walking she'd sweat.

Which was what she wanted. It wasn't like she was going to meet anyone. It was a quiet, suburban development with lots of Asians. So, she rarely saw people out on the street. And they weren't sexy, so it didn't matter if she was all sweaty. She wanted to get all hot and sweaty, come back, and dive into the cool waters of the pool!

She stood up and looked down at her body. She was wearing a very small black bikini. It was the kind she wore in her backyard, not out in public. There were limits to how much she wanted to show off, especially without a big guy next to her to keep other guys from getting rude.

She certainly wasn't going for a stroll like this!

She headed inside, then up to her room. She found a short, loose skirt she could slide into, then pulled on a short, tight pink crop top. She exchanged her sandals for sneakers, then went back downstairs again. Her mom was in the living room watching TV so to avoid questions, she went out the back, unlocked the gate, and left that way.

It was a fairly nice-looking neighborhood. She had to admit that. And the sounds of the summer night were gentle, with no traffic from the distant highway. She padded along the road, there being no sidewalks, and her head turned from side to side to take in the view.

Unlike the housing development where she'd lived in Michigan, this place was old enough that all the houses looked different. There were lots of big palm trees, as well as smaller ferns and carrot wood trees. Lots of bushes, too. Not really a lot of green lawns because it was very dry here, but people had been creative in making their yards look reasonably attractive.

She started jogging. It was a bit awkward since she wasn't wearing an athletic bra, though the bikini top was fairly tight. Even so, her breasts did kind of move more than was comfortable. At least no one was staring as she jogged by!

Until she noticed a shadow on her as she moved. Startled, she turned her head and let out a gasp as a large black guy jogged along behind her. He gave her a grin, then increased speed to get ahead of her.

"Now you don't think I'm chasing you," he said over his shoulder.

She flushed.

"I didn't!" she exclaimed.

Which was only because she hadn't seen him at first. Having him jog ahead of her was less scary than having him jog behind her. She hadn't seen many black people in this neighborhood so far, let alone a big guy like him. He was older than she dated, but not ancient. And he sure was a big, strong guy.

She'd never dated a black guy, though. Her friends back in Michigan wouldn't have said anything, but they wouldn't have approved. And since she had a seemingly endless line of guys wanting to date her (meaning fuck her) she could afford to pick whoever would be easiest, help her reputation most, and be most attentive.

Everything she'd heard about black guys said they just wanted to fuck you and then show you off - as long as you kept your mouth shut and didn't disagree with them - ever. Who needed the hassle? She preferred guys who would pretty much do as they were told in exchange for getting access to her body.

He had a nice butt, though. And unlike a lot of them, he had his shorts on properly rather than hanging halfway down his ass. He had strong-looking legs, too, and nice shoulders. It occurred to her that he should be the one running behind her so he could ogle her body. Why hadn't he done that? Was he gay or something?

She let her mind toy with the idea of seducing him - just as a fantasy, of course. Having wild animal sex with a sexy black guy could be interesting. Especially since he was older. As long as he didn't start getting ideas about being her boyfriend or something like that.

And since nobody around here knew her, and she'd be off to college soon, she didn't even have to worry about him blabbing - which all the guys did. They all wanted to brag about their latest 'conquest'. Especially when that was a girl as hot and sexy as her.

But she sure wasn't set up for it. She was all sweaty, and God knows what this jogging and sweating was doing to her hair.

He turned right at the next street and she turned left, with both relief and regret. Maybe she'd see him around again soon when she wasn't all sweaty and ragged-looking.

She sped up to get even sweatier now, turned onto her street, and then, panting, cut across the lawn and around the side of the house. She peeled her top up and off immediately, pushed through the open back gate, tossed the crop top onto a table, then slipped off her skirt, toed off her shoes, and ran across to jump into the pool.

She dove in neatly - she'd had a lot of practice - with hardly a splash as her body slipped lithely beneath the waves. Luxuriating in the feel of the cool water flowing across her nearly bare skin she twisted around and around as her momentum carried her deep, then curved up and kicked until her head was out of the water and she could breathe again.

She swam slowly across the pool, turned over, and half floated, swimming on her back across the pool again before diving under once more. She came up and pulled herself out of the pool, then ran her hands up and back through her hair to squeeze the water out.

Which was when he appeared out of the shadows.

The black guy who had jogged past her.

She let out a squeak of surprise even as he moved swiftly forward. A very large hand shot out and grasped her firmly by the neck, though carefully. Her hands instinctively grabbed at his wrist but he was far too strong as he grinned down at her.

"Sexy blonde girl," he taunted.

Then he gave her a light kiss on the lips and released her, laughing as he backed off, turned, and left.

"Y-You... asshole!" she sputtered!

She hurried after him, but only after making sure he'd left the yard, and then closed and locked the gate. Her heart was still pounding as she stared at the gate, then moved quickly back toward the house. Her adrenaline surge was fading, as was the quick fear she'd felt.

He must have followed me! Bastard!

She thought about telling her father but that would just lead to far more trouble than she wanted to see. Which included him not wanting her to go out alone, or perhaps even calling the police! No way she wanted that.

This guy was... well, she'd feared him at first, but he'd just left after kissing her. If he'd wanted to do more he could have. The doors and windows in the house were closed and the A/C was on. Her mother was in the front of the house and her father was in the basement.

He could have done anything!

And what that 'anything' involved was fairly predictable and involved her being naked and helpless and... and well, other things!

She put her hand up to her neck, but he hadn't really squeezed it so much as used the top of his hand to control her jaw and turn her head up and toward him so he could kiss her. If he'd intended strangling her, well, he could have.

No, she thought, he didn't want to harm me. He just wanted to fuck me. Like almost every other guy who isn't gay.

He was just more aggressive about it. And aggressiveness in guys was... attractive. So was his size, and his looks. But he was way too old! And besides, she was going to college in a month! She wasn't about to begin some sort of romance now, especially with someone like that.

He probably isn't interested in romance either, she thought. He just wants to tear my clothes off and fuck me.

That was not a really scary thought since almost every guy she'd ever met wanted to do the same thing. No doubt that would include all the guys at college when she went, and most of the male teachers. It was the way guys were, and she'd reconciled herself to it.

He sure had balls to come right into her yard and kiss her, though. She could have shot him, or, well, her dad could have and would have.

She had no doubt how he'd respond to some strange black guy putting his hand on her throat. Though, in fact, guys did tend to do that sometimes. It was a sexy kind of possessiveness, a show of dominance during sex that turned her on - as long as it was done right and at the right time by the right guy.

Otherwise, she'd kick them in the balls! Which is what she should have done to this guy, she thought ruefully. Even if he was kind of hot. Of all the nerve! Coming in and taking her by the neck and kissing her! It wasn't even a good kiss! It was like a peck on the lips. Of course, if he'd stuck around for a longer kiss she'd probably have remembered she should be kicking him in the balls or screamed or something.

She grabbed her towel and dried off; her mind awhirl. He must have been watching when she climbed out of the pool. She'd done what was natural in putting her hands up and back behind her to wring out her hair, but she'd done it deliberately at other times to get male attention. She knew very well what effect that pose had on them.

She felt a little flutter of satisfaction that he'd seen it, that it had the same effect on him. Would he go home and masturbate to fantasies of what he might have done? That was a little disturbing, but again, something she had reconciled herself to.

This time she might do the same about him!