Chapter 2

Brayden's finger slipped into the tarnished ring seemingly of its own volition as he dipped his hand into the box of old jewelry in the back of the cramped antique shop. He pulled his hand out and looked at the ring, idly pushing it back past his knuckle the rest of the way onto the ring finger of his right hand. It looked like it might have been a signet ring, the heaviness and size of the piece obviously meant for a man's hand, but the whole thing was so tarnished, it was impossible to tell what metal it was made of let alone what the incuse signet in the top was meant to represent.

Whatever it was, it certainly wasn't an appropriate gift for his mother, the ostensible reason he was poking through this antique shop. He tugged on the ring but it didn't budge.

He tugged again, twisting the ring, but succeeded only in bunching the skin of his finger up around his knuckle. I'll ask the clerk if she has any hand lotion, he thought to himself.

He continued to idly work at it while looking around the rest of the shop, his eyes finally settling on an antique Victorian cameo brooch that he knew his mother would love.

He took his prize up to the front of the shop, winding his way between the furniture that crowded the sales area.

The clerk behind the counter was a curvaceous blonde in her late twenties and the vintage dress she wore exposed a goodly amount of cleavage.

She smiled at him as he approached and Brayden's ears burned, sure that she knew he was undressing her with his eyes. Thoughts of asking for some hand lotion to remove the ring vanished as he searched for his voice and fought to keep from dropping his eyes to the expanse of soft skin revealed to him.

"How much for the brooch, um, and the ring," he asked. She took his hand to examine the ring, sending an electric thrill through him that reached to his toes but seemed to concentrate somewhat higher.

"The brooch is forty dollars, and I'll include the ring with it. I don't even know what it was doing out on the sales floor, it's in such sad condition. Do you really like it?" she asked. He nodded mutely then managed to stammer out a response.

"I-I thought it might clean up nicely." He quickly paid for the brooch and the clerk wrapped it and tucked it into a small gift box for him. As she handed him the box, her fingers brushed his hand again and he felt his ears burning as he went outside to his car.

Brayden tried soap, hand lotion, even olive oil to try to get the ring off once he got home, but it still would not budge. He decided he'd need to get the thing cut off. He looked at the ring speculatively and tried various types of metal polish to remove the tarnish, but nothing seemed to work.

He gave up and changed into his bathing suit and went out to the pool. He had been on the swim team in High School and still loved to swim to keep in shape.

It was one of the reasons he bought this house. He dove in with a splash, knifing easily through the water to warm up with a few easy laps doing a backstroke. He flipped over and changed to a crawl, using a racing turn at each end of the pool until he lost count of the number of laps he had done.

He climbed out of the pool, dripping water from his tall, lean, swimmer’s body, his short dark hair plastered to his head.

He went inside and got dressed, then nuked a couple frozen burritos and slathered them with mango chutney and Korean chili sauce and sat down on the sofa to watch a movie on cable.

Once the movie was over, he went to his workstation and began working on one of his short story anthology projects. The dangers of working at home, Brayden thought, You can't leave work behind at the office. A nagging voice at the back of his mind told him that this was one of the reasons why he hadn't gotten laid in nearly four years.

Later that night in bed, he tossed and turned, trying to get to sleep, but it proved elusive. His wandering thoughts turned to the clerk at the antique shop, her smile, her sparkling blue eyes, her long blonde hair, and most especially how her dress hugged the curves of her hips and the swell of her breasts.

He found himself growing hard and reached down to run his fingers lightly over his stiff cock. He groaned and knew he wouldn't get to sleep now until he came.

He reached over to the nightstand where he kept a tube of lubricant and squeezed a dollop into his hand.

The slippery jelly was cool on his overheated member as he wrapped his hand around it, but soon warmed up. His cock thickened as he began to stroke very slowly, the pressure of his hand light.

He drew his legs up and planted his feet flat on the bed, spreading his thighs so he could reach down with the other hand to play with his balls. He imagined the delicate hands of the blonde touching him there, while her red lips stroked over his cock.

His grip on his cock tightened as he became more aroused, his stroking faster as he lost himself in the feeling.

The blonde's appearance changed as he imagined his usual masturbatory fantasy girl: long red hair, green eyes, a trim, athletic figure and perky breasts. His breathing became heavier as he pictured his usual masturbatory fantasy girl: long red hair, green eyes, a trim, athletic figure and perky breasts.

His breathing became heavier as he pictured himself pounding into her lithe form, spread out beneath him. His hand was moving furiously over his turgid member, gripping it tightly. He could feel his climax approaching starting as a pressure at the base of his cock that seemed to radiate outwards into his thighs and balls.

His orgasm hit him and he arched off the bed with a loud groan; the first jet of cum hit his chest. The second got as far as his stomach.

The subsequent spasms were less strong, but went on for some time, his cum pouring out over his right hand still pumping himself idly.

He lay back, panting, his eyes closed. He didn't see the dim flash of light as his semen came into contact with the ring, nor did he notice how it seemed to be absorbed into the tarnished metal, leaving only the traces of lubricant on his hand.

He reached over and grabbed the towel beside his bed and wiped himself off then rolled over to go to sleep.