I'm a Nutcase (2)
"Wh-what?!"
Flustered, Cloud scrambled upright and yanked his pants back up.
"I-I was just, um, lying down!"
"May I come in?"
"Yes! Yes, of course, come in!"
By the time he'd stammered out his reply, the door was already opening, and Barbara stepped into the room. Cloud perched on the edge of the bed as if nothing were the matter, swallowing hard and doing his best to scrub the panic from his face.
Barbara suddenly wrinkled her nose and sniffed the air, glancing around the room.
"Doesn't it smell a little stale in here? I aired the room out this afternoon, but I suppose it didn't take. The house is old—that must be it. I'm sorry."
"D-do you think so? I don't smell anything at all, haha..."
Barbara wore nothing but an ivory slip that left the valley of her ample breasts on full display. Beneath the silk, the telltale peaks of her stiffened nipples showed through, and the slender straps resting on her shoulders looked one shrug away from sliding off.
To Cloud, in his current state, it was a devastating sight.
"I thought you might not sleep well alone tonight..."
She said it as though offering an excuse for the nightclothes she had never once let him see before.
"Y-you're sleeping here?"
"Mm-hm. You look like you're hurting, so I want to stay beside you and comfort you a little."
Cloud's heart lurched and began to pound.
He hadn't shared a room alone with Barbara since he was a small child. He'd stayed over plenty of times as he grew older, but those were always family affairs with Emilia there too—and back then, he had always slept alone on the floor.
"A servant from the Cotton household came by a little while ago. It was too late for her to walk back, so Emilia is staying the night there."
"Oh. Is, is that so? Good for her."
"Cloud, if your heart aches, it's all right to say so."
Barbara sat down beside him on the bed and took both his hands in hers. Then she gave a small start and looked down, staring at his palms.
"Your hands are burning hot. Are you coming down with something? Why are they so red and feverish?"
Cloud flinched. There was absolutely no way he could tell her it was from jacking off.
"I-I did some push-ups before bed. I like to exercise."
"Really? Well, I'm glad it's nothing serious. Liking exercise and all—you've grown into such a fine young man, my Cloud."
When Barbara gazed at him with those soft, deep eyes, Cloud couldn't hold her look and quickly burrowed under the covers.
"I-I'm sleepy, so I should really get to sleep. Are you actually going to sleep here, ma'am?"
"Of course."
Her answer was light as air. Cloud, on the other hand, was in agony. He had no idea how he was supposed to act, and it made him squirm. They thought of each other as family—if he refused, she would be hurt, and the whole atmosphere would turn awkward. Besides, this was her house. Who was he to tell the lady of the house what she could and couldn't do?
Left with no choice, he surrendered more than half the bed and pressed himself flat against the wall. He faced the plaster and curled up like a shrimp.
"Good night, ma'am."
"Wait just a moment."
"Huh?"
The instant Cloud turned his head, Barbara rose from the bed and slid the straps down off both shoulders. In a heartbeat the slip pooled at her feet, and her naked body stood bared before him. Cloud's eyes went wide without a sound, and his breath died in his throat.
"Gah...!"
Skin that glowed white and flawless. Lush, heavy breasts. The bare mound of her lower body. Long, silken-smooth legs. His heart felt ready to burst at the dizzying sight before him. Buried in the blankets up to his chin, Cloud found he could not tear his eyes from her body to save his life.
"This is all I have to give you."
"All you have...?"
"It's entirely my fault that you're like this. If I had put my foot down with Emilia, you wouldn't be suffering now. But I let her meet Adelio. Purely out of my own selfishness."
Her tone was that of a woman cursing her own venality.
"No, it isn't. Emilia's heart simply turned that way on its own. How is anyone supposed to change who another person loves? Not even a parent can manage that. So this has nothing to do with you, ma'am. I'm fine. Really, I'm fine."
But the guilt on Barbara's face would not fade.
"You don't have to go out of your way to comfort a woman like me. You can be cold to me if you want."
"Please don't say that."
"I can't help it—I feel guilty. And I want to comfort you properly, Cloud. I can't stand to watch you hurt anymore."
Standing there, she took a single step toward the bed. With not a thread on her body, her breasts swayed with every movement, shamelessly provocative. Cloud's eyes went wide, flicking between her chest and her face.
Barbara gave him a gentle smile.
"The pain of a broken heart, you know, is meant to be forgotten in another woman's arms."
"A-another woman?"
"That's right."
She slipped beneath the covers and lay down beside him.
The moment her bare skin brushed his, Cloud flinched and went rigid as a statue, eyes nailed to the wall. And all the while, her sweet fragrance seeped into him, stoking his lust, and he felt himself growing heavy and thick below.
"Do with me as you please. Tonight I'm not the kind ma'am you've always known. Tonight, I'm your woman, Cloud."
"Your—my w-woman...!"
Gulp! Cloud's eyes lit up.
Barbara kept her gaze fixed on the ceiling, the rims of her eyes going red.
"I'm a truly terrible mother. I knew full well who my daughter was going to marry, and I let it happen anyway, all because I wanted an easy life..."
She let the words trail off, then opened her mouth again.
"You must resent me, handing Emilia over to another man. So trample me, Cloud. Ruin me without end, until there's nothing bitter left inside you."
"Why do you assume I resent you at all?"
Cloud turned his head and studied her profile where she lay staring at the ceiling.
"...Because it's my fault."
"Like I said before, you haven't done anything wrong."
"I have. I've looked after you since you were a boy. I have a duty to see you through to the very end."
"Who ever gave you a duty like that, ma'am?"
"Well, I decided to take care of you when you were little, so—"
Before she could finish, Cloud reached out and seized her ample breast.
"Ah...!"
Barbara let out a faint moan and shuddered. She must have been every bit as tense as he was.
"I'm not touching you because I resent you."
He tightened his grip and kneaded the soft flesh. Her breasts, like a pair of melons pressed together, were firm and yielding all at once.
Barbara's cheeks flushed a shy pink, and she turned her gaze away—then fixed it squarely on Cloud lying beside her.
"You do resent me, don't you?"
Cloud nodded hard.
"I see... I suppose you would..."
Cloud pressed a finger to her lips.
"I can't have that. If you're going to keep drowning in guilt, then I'll torment you exactly as you wish. That's the only way the guilt will ever wash away."
Then he added:
"Everything that happens tonight, I'm taking with me as my last memory before I leave this village. So that I never, ever forget the woman who looked after me all these years. Brace yourself."
Her fifth climax was right before her eyes. It was rapturous, like drifting through a dream.
"Aaahn, ahhhhn!"
"Nngh! Barbara!"
Cloud's hips convulsed as he spewed his hot seed.
Her insides were already a sodden mess of everything he'd poured into her before, overflowing and spilling out around him, but still he erupted, flooding her deepest valley with his life-giving waters as if he would never stop.
"Haah, haah...! Nngh!"
Shuddering from head to toe with the pleasure of release, Cloud emptied himself to the very last drop into the hot, clenching sheath of her.
Then he collapsed onto Barbara's breasts, gulping down air. Her skin was slick with heat and sweat, and he was still buried inside her.
"Ma'am, do you know something?"
"Whew... hah... know... what?"
Barbara asked between ragged breaths, and Cloud smiled.
"You're my first, ma'am."
"That makes me happy. But for your first to be a woman like me... don't you regret it?"
"How could I? If anything, I think it'll be one of the best memories I'll ever have. I'm the lucky one."
At his answer, a shadow of sadness crossed Barbara's face.
"'A memory,' you say... so you really do mean to leave the village?"
"Yes, I mean it. I'm leaving. I can't keep living here."
"If you want, I'll share your bed every night. I can be your woman and yours alone, just like tonight. I won't be a bother, I promise. Only until you find yourself a girlfriend. Can't you bear it that much?"
Cloud gently rolled her still-stiff nipple between his fingers and said, teasing:
"So you've finally learned what an ogre's cock tastes like, haven't you, ma'am?"
She covered her mouth with her hand and giggled.
But as they laughed together, Cloud's smile quickly faded, and he spoke again, his expression turning serious.
"It's not because I'm lonely. And it's certainly not because of Emilia. It's for my own sake, and nothing else. For my future. Trapped in this tiny village, I'm nothing but a delinquent. And if I spend the rest of my life here, I can feel it—my fate is already written. Nothing more than a poor shepherd's son. That's why I'm leaving. I want to go somewhere no one knows my name and start over. And then I want to succeed, just to shove it in everyone's face."
"Have you been thinking about this for a while?"
"It's what I was turning over in my head at the tavern earlier, drinking alone. Honestly? Watching Adelio leave the village and come back a success lit a fire under me. I've developed a taste for what he did—going out into the wider world, making something of myself, and coming home in glory. I'm a man too, you know. I want to do something great with my life. I can't spend it farming until I drop dead."
Cloud gave a lonely little smile.
"So I've made up my mind. To forget it all, and go."