Read Online Hausfrau by Jill Alexander Essbaum - Free Book Online Page B

tightly he’d been holding on until the next day when she was in the shower and saw the little purple bruises where his fingers had dug in.
    “You’re hurting me.” It was a statement; she wasn’t protesting. Archie grunted in a way that Anna took to mean he was almost done, which he was. He pulled out so quickly that he nearly shoved her off of him. He came hard, on her belly. There was blood on his cock. A lot of blood, and all of it a shiny shade of red, the color of a stop sign, a flashing hazard light. “Christ!” It was everywhere. On his cock, her thighs, his lap, the couch. It glistened in her pubic hair and rolled past her knee in a line halfway down her calf. “Shit.” The blood shook Archie from his orgasm. They didn’t have a towel so he took off his sock and gave it to her. “I’m sorry,” Anna said, near tears.
    Archie laughed lightly as Anna mopped herself. All violence in his voice had been replaced with a jovial, practically chummy friendliness and concern for Anna’s welfare. “No apologies—I’m the one who should be sorry.” He winked. “Didn’t mean to split you open.” He winked again and broke into a rascal smile. It was the wrong wink at the wrong time. Anna’s expression said so. Archie homed in on her distress. “You’re all right, yes?” Anna shook her head yes, sniffling. This had happened before, rough sex jarring the blood and spongy tissue loose at just the right time of her cycle. It wasn’t exactly his fault. The period would have come anyway, but likely not that afternoon and most definitely not on his couch. “No need to be embarrassed.” Archie was trying to be kind. He didn’t need to be. Anna found it condescending. She wasn’t embarrassed at all.
Why would he even think that?
But she
was
something. What it was, she couldn’t yet name. She sniffed again and swabbed her thighs with the sock. Archie ticked his head toward the bathroom. “Go take a shower. I’ll make you something to drink. That’s a good girl.”
    Anna gathered herself, her clothes, her purse, and fumbled into the bathroom, the sock between her legs and blood now streaking the inside of both thighs. She found a washcloth on the towel rack and a tampon in her purse. She cleaned up quickly, dressed, and told Archie she didn’t have time for a drink. “I have to go,” she said, but she was already almost out the door. She’d left the washcloth and the still-bloody sock in the sink.
    “E N GUETE !”
B RUNO SAID before the first bite was taken. Mary asked him what that meant and Bruno explained it was Swissfor “bon appétit.” Mary was an excellent chef and her dinner was well received by all. The conversation remained friendly and upbeat. Tim mentioned to Mary that Bruno had given him investment advice.
    “Oh, good!” Mary’s voice rang sincere.
    Bruno smiled deferentially. “This is what I do. It is my job. I am glad to help.”
    The children behaved well, though Victor momentarily reverted to pouting; he hadn’t wanted to play with a girl. He hadn’t wanted to come at all. Anna frowned at him and Victor took his usual sulky defense and muttered something about having a mean mother and ordered her to stop looking at him.
    “Victor.” Bruno’s voice carried a warning in it and Victor responded with a near inaudible
Yessir
or
Jo,
Anna couldn’t tell. It didn’t matter. Bruno was agreeable enough that night to defend her. She was gratified. Max and Charles laughed at a series of in-jokes and distractions, behaving like the best of friends. Alexis sat and ate. She wore a blankly compliant expression. Biddable but frigid. Not exactly passive, but not exactly not. Anna recognized the expression and felt a pulse of compassion.
I know this girl,
Anna thought.
I’ve been her.
    “T HE FACE ONE WEARS as an adult is a mask that’s cut to fit in her youth.”
    There are many kinds of masks,
Anna thought.
Theater masks and Halloween masks and surgical masks and fencing masks and diving