Chapters 24-26 *** Rose and Jack
24
My heart is on fire, my soul's like a wheel that's turnin'... My Love is Alive��� (Gary Wright)
October moved in with a flourish of dry leaves, yet the nights were still warm, warmer than the season warranted. Marjorie had to leave town. Her job was preparing to migrate to a whole new system of doing business, and her employer was sending a group of ten employees to some 3-day class in Atlanta to learn the new system, scheduled for the week after Rose's 13th birthday. The class was Monday through Wednesday, but to get a cheaper airline fare, the company had purchased tickets on a flight leaving the Friday night before, so they'd actually be gone for five days. Marjorie fretted over it for a long time; she really wanted and needed to go to this class, but she was worried about leaving Rose alone. She actually came to see me, to ask if I would mind staying at their apartment to keep an eye on Rose while she was out of town, she'd make it worth my while, and I was to feel free to sleep in her bed and use their car while she was gone. I almost begged her not to put the responsibility on me, I was so worried about the possibilities of loose talk by neighbors, of our secret being discovered. But in the end I kept my mouth shut, and agreed to stay with Rose; who, when she learned of this arrangement, actually knocked me over with her excitement and joy, knocked me flat on my backside while she jumped on me, rubbing my hair and squealing, "OhmyGod, ohmyGod, ohmyGOD, we are gonna have so much FFUUNN!!!" With enthusiasm like that to draw on, I soon lost any nervous edge I might have had over the whole thing.
We drove Marjorie to the airport. While we were waiting for her flight to be ready, she fretted and fussed over Rose, nervous and out-of-sorts at having to leave her. Just before she boarded, she turned to me and, with a nervous flinch or three, put her arms around me so she could put her lips up to my ear. "You take good care of her, Brent," she whispered, "I'm giving you charge of the only thing in my life that means anything." I wanted to tell her I knew exactly how she felt, that Rose was the only thing in my life that meant anything, too; but I settled for just promising to take very special care of her, grimacing a little inwardly at the dichotomy between what Marjorie would understand by 'very special care' and what I actually intended. With a nervous smile, she turned and walked down the ramp with the rest of the passengers, pausing just before turning the bend of the ramp to wave at us. Rose and I waved back, and then she was gone from sight. We watched as the plane took off, getting smaller and smaller until it finally vanished into the fading afternoon. Even after the plane was completely gone, Rose and I just stood there side by side in the lounge for a long time afterward, savoring the weirdly mixed taste of freedom and responsibility, knowing the night was completely ours to do with as we chose. Eventually, we stirred ourselves out of our reverie and headed back to the car, walking very close but not touching, hearing each other's breathing in the still autumn night. When we were about 50 feet from the car, Rose's hand sought and slipped into mine, our fingers locking together, the slightest hint of moisture beginning to form in the hollow between our palms. We glanced at each other briefly, then took another look, and another; and by the time we were at the car, we were gazing openly into each other's eyes. Rose wrapped her arms around me and slipped her hands down the back of my pants. Shocked, I looked quickly around the lot. Apart from an older couple that was threading their way through the rows toward the terminal, we were alone. Bending over Rose, I put my mouth on hers for an exchange of breath and saliva that felt like a handful of seconds, but in that handful was an eternity of promise. We got in the car, and with my hand on Rose's knee and her hand on the back of my head, rubbing and scratching my scalp, we drove in silence to Flinger's, where we parked at the very end of the lot, just behind the fenced-off dumpster. As we sat there watching the final rays of sunset fade below the horizon, massaging each other's thighs and savoring the delicious, heady feeling of having the night ahead with only Marjorie's call from the hotel to worry about, Rose leaned over and laid her face in my lap, her sweet mouth covering my crotch with it's tender warmth. As I was gently kneading her buttcheeks under her panties, a group of teenaged boys came ambling over, to climb into a car parked two spaces down from us. My heart was pounding an insane rhythm in my chest, but I couldn't stop what I was doing, or warn Rose to stop. Rose could tell something was wrong, and as she sat up to look out the window, the car full of boys slid past us. A couple of them seemed to be looking right at us, and I was certain they'd seen Rose's head emerging from my lap; but the car just kept on moving, out onto the frontage road and into the night. Rose and I exchanged a significant look, but neither of us said anything more about it. Our meal was a little more subdued than I'd have wanted, but before it was over, we were back in our old familiar patterns, laughing and joking and swatting each other on the arm like the old pals we'd always been. Rose wanted one of the dessert menu's oversized creampuffs, boxed up to take with us for later, and I felt so good that I left a 5 dollar tip for an 18 dollar meal.
Back at the apartment complex, we pulled up and parked in Marjorie's usual spot near the back of their building. I told Rose to go on in, that I had to get something first, then I'd be right up. With a look of quiet joy, she nodded vigorously (did she know how weak I got at the sight of her ponytail bobbing up and down like that?), then bolted up the steps two at a time, pausing at the landing to look around. Assured nobody could see her, she blew me a kiss, then whirled to skip down the hall to her apartment, the styrofoam container with the creampuff tucked under her arm. I hustled over to the clubhouse, where I stuffed a condom (from the box I had bought especially for this night) into my left pocket, grabbed the bottle of ros� wine that I had hidden at the back of the refrigerator, and retrieved the 13 roses and vase from the closet where I had hidden them the day before, after having picked them up at The Little Flower Shop next to Sav-Rite. Rose had left the door to the apartment standing open, and as I stepped inside and shut the door with my foot, I got a powerful whiff of Nag Champa incense, and the sound of the campus radio station's nightly jazz program reached me from somewhere further back in the apartment. As I sat the wine down on the kitchen counter, Rose came in from the hall. She had changed into what I assumed was one of Marjorie's nightgowns. It was a little big for her, a little baggy, but made from a shimmery and almost-but-not-quite transparent material, with a slit all the way up past the hips, and it was through this slit that her leg and bare hip emerged as she walked over to me. She had applied perfume; a dainty daub, not the bath she took the night she came back to me, but the lightest little dab behind her ears, on her shoulders; a trace on her creamy tummy, a brush under her tender, tender rosebud breasts. She took the roses from me with a gooey sweet smile smeared all over her face, her hands shaking at the unaccustomed, implied weight of such a gift. "OhmyGod, they're so beautiful!" she cried, stroking the petals and burying her nose in the middle. Feeling like my smile was going to reach all the way around to the back of my head, I told her, "That's just the same way I feel about you. Sorry it's late. It's 13 roses, for your 13th birthday." As she hustled over to the sink to fill the vase with water and arrange the flowers, she saw the bottle of ros� the counter. Her priceless expression will be locked in my head forever. "Not a lot," I cautioned, wanting to be careful to manage her expectations, "just enough to feel it. You remember what I said about tonight?" She nodded solemnly. "Magic," she breathed, and I breathed back in agreement, "Magic."
While I opened the bottle, Rose got out a couple of plates and split the huge creampuff between them, licking the whipped cream off her fingers with an impish grin. I poured a couple of glasses and handed her one. We sat on the couch, our plates and glasses on the coffee table, and for the first five minutes or so, we just sat there gazing at each other, gently touching each other's hair and faces.
Rose had had burgundy before, so she was prepared for some kind of burn when she took her first few sips, but the ros� surprised her anyway. She said it made her chest cold, but then about 30 seconds later, she felt like it was burning. She downed the glass and asked coyly if I thought she could risk just one more. How could I say no? She took her time with the second glass, savoring the interplay of wine and creampuff, and in the process teaching me anew how to appreciate such things. She smeared a blob of whipped cream on my neck, then slowly and teasingly licked it off. I retaliated by smearing her face and cleaning it off the same way. More little tendernesses, trifles, tidbits we exchanged like almost-careless gifts, until we were laying full out on the couch, our hands exploring with greater urgency now.
The ringing phone startled us both. Pulling away from me, Rose answered and found it was Marjorie, calling from the hotel in Atlanta, letting us know she had arrived safe and sound. At Marjorie's request, Rose handed the phone to me. "Brent, thanks again, you don't know what it means to me to have you around. You're such a sweetheart, you really are a gift from God," she said, and I could tell that if she said anything more, she was going to start crying, so I wound it up and handed the phone back to Rose, who snuggled up on my lap to finish the call, her face against mine as she gently caressed my cheek. A minute later the call was over, and Rose returned the handset to it's cradle with a slow and thoughtful expression.
I slipped out from under her, then stood and scooped her up in my arms to carry her down the hall. When I hesitated at the door of her room, she gestured with her head to Marjorie's room, then took her hand from my shoulder to point. "In there," she whispered, "let's go in there." So I carried her in and stood her next to the bed, where I bent to kiss her honey-sweet lips. As we were kissing, Rose unbuttoned and removed my shirt in a very unhurried and meaningful way, then undid my pants, letting them fall to the floor, leaving me standing there in my briefs, with my erection pressing to escape. I reached into my shorts and pulled my stiffness up so it was trapped against my stomach. Rose held her arms up, waiting on me, and I obliged by pulling off the nightgown. She stood naked before me, any possible trace of shame having been transformed to desire long ago.
As I lay back on the bed, Rose climbed up on top of me like she had in so many dry-hump sessions before, and bending over to kiss my neck, she started slowly grinding her mound against my underwear, giving out little animal moans as she did so. The front of my briefs were starting to get very moist. My hands felt like they weren't under my control anymore, and I watched with a curious detachment as I kneaded and fondled the backs of her thighs and spread her buttcheeks, then roamed up her torso to tickle her under the arms. She moved up to plant her breasts in my face, and as I sucked on her nipples and fingered my way down between her buttcheeks, she ground herself into my stomach and hugged my head close.
"Jack, is this ready? Is this right? Is it going to happen tonight?" she was breathless from her exertion, and from the sheer nervousness of simply asking aloud, and from sheer disbelief that the night had finally arrived. "Are we going to... are we going to fu..." In response, I gently slid her off of me, got up, picked up my pants from the floor, and pulled a condom out of the pocket. When she saw that, Rose's eyes and mouth both made the same perfect O, and she reached in slow motion for the condom as if it were something in a dream, something that you know you have to be careful with, but that you can't help but reach for. With the little foil square trembling in her fingers, she looked up at me for direction. I touched the nightstand; "Leave it here for now," I whispered, and reverently, she laid it where I had indicated. Slipping off my shorts, I lay back down next to her. As if she had been holding back and couldn't stand it anymore, she attacked my balls, squeezing, stroking and licking, fondling and playing, pulling and squeezing hard and harder. I feared for a moment she might do some damage, but it was like my balls had become crush-proof; the harder she squeezed, the better it felt, and I just kept nodding like an idiot, eyes screwed shut, my mouth moving soundlessly, forming the word 'harder' over and over again. Then she was squeezing her tender young breasts together around them, trying to smother my balls in the soft folds of her flesh, her mouth buried in my stomach. Gripping her by her shoulders, I laid her on her stomach and straddled her. As I massaged her shoulders and back, my stiffness rubbing up against her buttcrack, she wriggled to push her hips up to me, pressing and rubbing herself against my member as her hands slipped down to her vagina to stroke and diddle. We played like that for a minute, both of our hands exploring and stroking the folds between her legs, our fingers touching as we sought the same flesh. Then she twisted around to lay on her back, spreading her legs as wide as she could. In the dim light from the living room, I could see as well as smell the moistness, the dewy exulation that drenched her down there. I had seen Rose wet before, but now it literally looked a faucet had been turned on. Powerless before the flow, I bent down to suck up as much as I could, my tongue exulting in the feel of that heat and juice. As I looked up to she her moaning, I saw her rolling her head slowly from one side to the other, lost in the feeling, drifting, drifting... little jolts in her thighs were making her legs spasm against my face. Somewhere above us, the music from the radio blended perfectly with the music from her throat, and I knew what it was to ride a tidal flow. Her inner walls gripped my tongue, seizing it an an embrace of joy that was tight and hot and altogether too much to quite believe. I moved up from her pussy to her stomach, then rubbed my stomach against her sex as I took her nipples, one at a time, into my mouth. Sliding further up, we were face to face, and the top side of my shaft was being drawn between her labia, getting soaked by the hot liquid.
Looking into my eyes in the darkend room, Rose breathed, a husky intake that was almost possessed. "I'm ready, Jack, I'm ready now, put it in me, put it in me now," she panted.
Rolling over onto my back, I took the condom off the dresser and held it up to her. She took it from me as if receiving a blessing.
"Open it," I urged, and she slowly tore open the top seam, then reached in to pull out the little rolled latex circle. I took her hand, showing her how to place the condom on my penis, encouraging her to roll it down around the shaft and make sure it was a snug fit. She squeezed the resevoir at the tip a couple of times, fascinated in the knowledge of what it would soon hold, and touching the ridges now circling my shaft as if they were some kind of Braille that she wanted desparately to learn.
I laid her back on the bed and knelt before her open legs, squeezing and pulling those hard little nipples. I gripped my shaft between my thumb and first two fingers. Slowly rubbing the head between her nether lips, I was directly over her, looking down into her eyes as I pushed in just the tiniest little bit, then a little bit more, and then I had the whole head in, where I had to stop so we could both take in the amazing feeling. Slowly, oh god so slowly, I eased my way further and further in, her moan so low it would have been frightening if I hadn't been so aroused, watching the perfect circle of her mouth as she said "oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh," and I continued to push in, slowly slowly slowly. She was so hot and tight and welcoming, the shock on her face as she felt me entering her was almost more than I could bear, and I wondered briefly if I would actually cry from the pleasure of it all. Suddenly I was pressed up against an obstruction, and Rose whimpered a little at the sensation.
"Okay, baby, you know what's coming next," I whispered, "you know how sorry I am that I have to hurt you. I'm going to push through, and then I'll just stop, okay? You ready?" I could feel, rather than see, her earnest nod. "On three, okay?" I told her. "One..." and then without thinking about it, I pushed as hard as I could, breaking through and suddenly plunging in up to the hilt, my balls smacking wetly against her ass. Her sudden cry of pain was at once horrible and beautiful. Her arms wrapped around me, her nails digging into my back, as she sought to cope with the agony. After perhaps ten or twelve seconds, her fingers relaxed, and her shuddering breath told me she was slowly coming to terms with the feeling.
"Are you okay?" I asked. Again, the nod that I could feel rather than see, then from the darkness she said, "I think so, it's fading, it's almost stopped hurting..." and as I put my face against hers, I felt her melting into the dewiest, tenderest, most satisified smile. "Oh God, it's so good, it's so good, it's so good," Rose murmured, "OhmyGod, ohmyGod, ohmyGod, it's so good, it's so good, it's so good," finally trailing off into a series of mmms and aahs as she wrapped her arms around me and pulled her nails down my back. This was all just from me entering her and sliding all the way in; I hadn't even started to stroke yet, we had only just achieved complete union. We lay together like that for countless hearbeats, my manhood fully buried in her female embrace as we gazed wonderingly into each other's eyes, both of us struggling to come to terms with the enormity of what we had just accomplished. Slowly, I started to pull out, riding high to try to brush her clitoris as I did so, then just as slowly pushed back in again. I repeated this several times, until Rose started to match my thrusts. As we ground our hips together, she pulled my ear down to her mouth so I could hear her whispering, "Fuck me Jack, fuck me Jack, fuck me, fuck me, fuck me, fuck me, fuck me Jack." My hands were under her buttcheeks now, squeezing and pushing her up onto me, and she wrapped her arms up and around me as if she were holding on for dear life. When she sank her teeth into my shoulder, I felt a brief twinge of pain, then my body somehow transmuted the bite into pleasure, and as she bit in deeper, her scream muffled against my flesh, the pleasure became a wave that swept through my chest and neck. We were thrusting against each other full force now, the sounds of our bodies smacking wetly together, and I slipped my hand into the space between us and started massaging her clitoris as we pounded together. "oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh," was all Rose could manage, and then breathlessly, "Oh God, I can feel you inside me, you're in me, you're inside my body... I'm so full, oh God, oh Jesus, oh Jesus, oh, I'm so full of you... I love you Jack, I love you, fuck me fuck me fuck me, I love you I love you fuck me fuck me fuck me." I had been worried that I might only last a few seconds, scared I wouldn't be able to give Rose the full treatment; but now, as I slid in and out of her, I knew I had nothing to worry about. I sat back on my legs, my penis still buried in her vagina, and looked over at the mirror on Marjorie's dresser, where I could see the two of us reflected perfectly in the darkness. I watched myself pumping away for a little bit, then I laid back down to cover Rose with my body. Wrapping her in my arms, and taking care to make sure my penis stayed inside her, I rolled over on my back, and now Rose was on top and bouncing up and down on me. I pointed to the mirror, and Rose found the sight fascinating; she couldn't take her eyes off the reflection as she continued to pound away, her clitoris riding the ridges of the condom up and down, up and down, up and down... "Oh God, yes, it's so good, it's so good, I'm fucking you Jack, I'm fucking you, I can feel your cock deep inside me, oh Jack, don't let this end, I want to feel this way forever and ever, I love you, Jack, oh God, you're my man, you're my cock, you're my man, you're my cock, oh fuck me, fuck me, fuck me..." Wrapping my hands around her waist, I found that her gorgeous little breasts were right in front of my face, and with no effort at all, I was able to put first one nipple, then the other, into my mouth, where I was able to suck and bite her rock-hard nipples while she continued to bounce on me, her hands grabbing my hair and pulling my head closer. I knew that my nerves were registering the hair pulling as pain, but by the time the impulses made it to my brain, the feeling had become pure pleasure, a tingling and pulsing that shot green darts through my skull, and I sucked her nipples as if they contained the Secret of Life. In one instant, I knew I was about to climax, I knew I was past the point of no return, and yet it felt like it was still a lifetime away. Rose suddenly arched her back, her nipple pulling away from my mouth, and she let loose a howl like a wild animal, a scream I'd never heard before. "I'm gonna cum, oh God, I can feel it," she sang, "oh God, oh God, I'm gonna cum, I'm gonna cum, I'm gonnnnnaaaaaa... AOOOWWW GOD, OH OH OH OH OH OH OH!" She was halfway between singing and shrieking, and it was more than I could stand. I felt myself explode in the most overwhelming rush of feeling I've ever had, and for the first time ever, I literally saw fireworks, an insane riot of stars and pinwheels and explosisons of light, and my ears were full to overflowing with a sound that I couldn't hear, a pressure on the eardrums that could only be some ancient blood surge that drowned out anything that wasn't our hearts crashing together. I was literally blind and deaf; somewhere in the consensus universe, it must have lasted for maybe ten or twelve seconds, but in the reality I was in at that moment, I think I touched eternity; I was in a timeless state where thought was not possible, and I can't even be sure I was breathing. Was this it, I wondered, when the capacity for rational thought evenutally returned, was this the Little Death? It had never been like this with Lilly, never even close. I had thought I knew what ecstasy was, but now I knew I didn't know anything.
Slowly, slowly, the room came back into being around me, and I became aware of Rose, naked and spent, laying full out on me, still wrapped around me down there, breathing breathing breathing, her head on my chest, her fingers twitching, spasming, raking little trails through the sweat on my shoulders. She looked up into my face, drew closer, and as her lips melted into mine, her body did the same; any trace of stress or tension having vanished in the flood, leaving only a drugged relaxation that she was unable to stir from. As I gazed at her peaceful face laying there on my shoulder, I felt that I had to tell her about my experience before I lost it, but what could I say? What language could even approach it? "Rose," I started, and stopped; and again, "Rose," and she looked at me with wonder and reverence, "Rose, I don't know what happened to me just now, but I've never felt that before. Never. Even my wildest moments with Lilly... Rose, you took me to another universe, I can barely even speak right now..." I looked at her, looking at me, and I swear she was glowing, she was literally emitting light from her eyes and nose and mouth. "Rose, I want to tell you I love you, but even that feels so incomplete and inadequate... God, Rose, you're my life, you're everything I could ever even dream of wanting..." I may have been aware of her, and of the room around us after that, but I really don't remember anything else. Sometime during the night, I roused enough to become aware of the feeling of the condom being pulled off my penis, then everything faded again. The next thing I was aware of was waking up in the morning, the condom gone from my limp member and Rose's arm over my chest as she lay there sleeping; a blanket covering us up to the waist and the first, palest light of dawn beginning to show through the window.
As I stirred, Rose woke and looked over at me, blankly at first, then with the world's biggest smile gradually taking over her entire face. "Good morning, lover," she grinned, and added in a husky whisper, "you were right. Magic. Real live miracle magic, that's the only way to describe it. I think I actually passed out for a little bit, it felt so good. It still feels wonderful, I'm still feeling it from last night."
"Rose, listen, I have to tell you something," I started, and had to pause as I tried to collect my thoughts. She laid her head on my chest and gazed earnestly into my eyes, waiting rapturously on me to find the words. "What happened last night, what I felt, was like nothing I've ever felt before. Lilly never did to me what you did to me. I never had any idea it could be like that. Even though I've had sex before, in a very real way, last night was a first time for me. Rose, you took me to a place that was no place and every place at once. It's like you found a virginity in me that I didn't even know I had. You took me to another universe. I think I might have actually touched Heaven. I mean it, sweetheart, the real thing, the real, truly live, Heaven. You took me there." Her only response was to put her mouth on mine and kiss me for long, long minutes.
The shower was another small miracle. When we first got in, the purple bruise on my shoulder where she had sunk her teeth was throbbing and sending little spikes of agony through to my back, but by the time the shower was over, the only evidence I had left was the fading bruise; the pain had been seemingly rinsed away by the water and I felt fine. We spent a half hour together under the hot spray, playing and teasing, and she finished me off by dropping to her knees and stroking me until I exploded all over her face and chest, giggling uncontrollably as she caught the last drops in her mouth, then licked me clean, the water washing the rest away seconds later. It took us another hour to dry off and get dressed.
Breakfast was a trip to Walt's in the Sangreal plaza, where I had a Belgian waffle with pecans and maple syrup and Rose ordered a stack of banana-chocolate chip pancakes. She tried some of my black coffee and found it horrible. I added enough sugar and creamer to make it taste like hot ice cream; she found that much more to her liking, and had a cup of her own.
The world was different. The world was changed. What more can I say? The world was changed. I felt it in the water. I felt it in the earth. I smelled it in the air. I had had love before, but now I had Love. Now I had... I had... oh God, how can I tell you? What words can I use? What can make you understand? I had Rose. I had Rose. I. Had. Rose. Can you see the tears? Can you taste the salt? Rose. Alpha and Omega. Love. Om. Rose.
25
...feels like you're mine, feels right, so fine, I'm yours, you're mine, like paradise... Paradise��� (Sade)
The rest of that Saturday was a long, smooth ride through autumn perfection. Everywhere we went, everything we did, all was just one steady flow of honey and cream. We drove to the mall and moved slowly, slowly, up one side and down the other, our arms around each other's waists, blissing out on the Hallowe'en decorations, the older kids running from one temporary novelty outlet quickly thrown up in an empty store space to the next, the younger ones running and shrieking around the bizarrely colored, plasticized mushrooms and stepping stones and climbing rocks in the fenced-off area adjacent to the food court. We walked down to Burnside & Regent to browse the magazine racks, where we considered the latest offerings in fashion, anime, cinema, science fiction, photography, journalism, alternate music, cooking, architecture, government; then drifted into the CD section of the store, ambling from one display rack to the next, pausing to don headphones and listen to samples of the music being hawked; then out to the heart of the store, to examine the volumes in every aisle, one by one: history, fantasy, comics, romance, games and puzzles, music, religion, new age, psychology, and coming to rest in the sociology section, where we spent a long time reviewing books on sexual technique and practice. Rose found a chapter on anal intercourse in one of the books and drew my attention to it. Looking up at me with those huge brown eyes, she mouthed the question, 'Lilly?' I nodded slowly and meaningfully. She touched an index finger to her chest and mouthed, 'Me?' I placed my hand on the side of her face and kissed her on the forehead while I considered my answer, then bent my mouth to her ear and whispered, "If that is what you want, my love, then you shall have it." A strange, slow smile crossed her lips, and she visibly shivered in anticipation at the thought.
After pausing at the B&R coffee shop to get a couple of cheese danishes and a single Mocha Rococo with two straws, we eased out into the magnificent golden firewine of an autumn afternoon that made it damnably difficult to doubt the existence of God(dess?)...
We didn't say much to each other the entire time. We didn't need to. We had slipped into the same groove, we were walking in each other's skin, we were riding the same wave. After we got back from the mall, without a word, we both went to the storage shed where the bikes were, mounted, and in ten minutes' time, we were at the Griffin Ridge intersection, then down to the old trail that it seemed only we knew about, and a quiet rest in the first grassy clearing we came to. There was no playing or teasing, only a long, quiet restful pause where we lay with our arms wrapped around each other, gazing at each other, at the earth below us, at the sky above us, at the universe around us. A gaze that showed our reverence toward the earth, a thankfulness toward whatever creator or first cause had put us here and allowed us to find each other. Rose leaned into me and placed her lips on mine, and we shared a single kiss into which we poured a lifetime's worth of love. It was a moment where we touched eternity again. No matter where I am in my life, or in the universe, I know that moment is an anchor, a touchstone I can grasp, a knowledge of at least one real thing, one absolute that I will never doubt, no matter what else life brings me.
As the sun made it's final ride down the sky that evening, we stirred ourselves from the long grass. After a languorous stroll to the bikes, a five-minute kiss, and another fifteen minutes to slowly ride back to the apartments, we stowed the bikes in their regular site. While we were still in the storage building, but before I opened the door, Rose slipped her arms around me to bury her head in my chest and take a souldeep smell of my skin.
"You smell sooo good," she murmured, "your smell is a man smell, it just smells like man, like strong and protecting and loving and..." she trailed off dreamily, then gave me just a brush of her lips.
"I have to..." I started, and she nodded to show that yes, of course, she knew. At the question in her eyes, I said "Fifteen minutes." As a very tiny frown crossed her face, I had to chuckle and amend it to, "Okay, ten minutes." A quick peck was my reward, and then she opened the door and slipped out into the common area, to go skipping lightly across the open space toward her apartment. I made like Charlie Hustle and rounded up all the used towels at the pool, threw them in the washing machine (knowing full well I'd have to wash them again in the morning because I wouldn't be back tonight to throw them in the dryer before they started to mildew), checked the levels in the pool, did a quick run-through of the kitchen and rec areas, made sure both bathrooms had toilet paper, and stopped off at the locker room for a quick shot of mouthwash and a quick slap of Old Spice, ducked into my room to shove a fistful of condoms in my pocket, and sauntered over to Rose's apartment.
She had shut and locked the door! The little tease. I knocked gently, and it was about thirty seconds before Rose answered. She opened the door a crack, and I could look in to see she was wearing her bathrobe, with a towel across her shoulders. She had smeared a breathtaking purple across her eyelids and her lips were burgundy blasphemy; her hair hung down over her face, a curtain through which her eyes sparkled and teased.
"Yes," she answered coyly, putting her forefinger on her bottom lip and gazing up at me in her best Betty Boop fashion, "what would you like, sir?"
"Well, miss, I happen to know you've nobody in that apartment with you at the moment. If you're feeling in the least bit needy for some protection, or some company, or anything your heart desires, you just let me know. I'm the guy to make it happen."
"Well now, that sounds like an offer I can't refuse," she husked, suddenly Marilyn and hungry, and she opened the door wide, still standing in my way so that I had to walk right into her to come into the apartment. As she opened her arms to wrap them around me, her robe parted to show me her creamy flesh. She pushed the door shut behind me, and as I scooped her up into my arms so I could better enjoy her bared beauty, she hung her head back and placed her entire being in my hands.
"What's your pleasure, miss? Shall I rub some oil into your skin, or perhaps a leg rub? Scalp massage? Anything you want, you have but to name it, for I am your fool."
She chewed her lower lip for a second as she considered her answer, then laid her head against my shoulder and said, "I would like a hot bath, slave. Draw me one, scented with lavender and jasmine, if you please." And she slapped me! Not a hard slap, almost but not quite gentle, enough to leave a warm sting that lasted a few seconds. I growled deep in my chest, and she squirmed in my arms at the feel of my growl against her cheek. I deposited her on the couch, took another long look at her beautiful breasts peeking out from the open space in her robe as she lay there, then made my way to the bathroom and started filling the tub. The scent was easy enough to find; a bottle of oil labeled "Audrey's Lavender Love" and a jar of crystals reading "Jazz Mine" were sitting next to the sink, and I sprinkled a generous amount of each under the faucet. Waiting for the tub to fill, I stepped out into the hall and slipped off my shoes and socks. As the shag carpet curled around my toes like an invitation to relax, the phone rang. I stepped into the kitchen to answer it, but Rose beat me to it on the living room phone.
"Hello," I heard her say, then, "Oh, hi mom! Yeah, everything's fine here. No. No, we had breakfast at Walt's. No, nothing special, we just schlepped around all day, wasted time, you know, just junk." As I stuck my head around the corner to look at her, Rose smiled up at me and shrugged out of the robe, then lay down and slung a leg up over the back of the couch so I could get a full view of her bared vagina. I stuck my tongue out and panted like a dog, and she smiled and winked at me. "No, he's not here right now, he had to go take care of some stuff at the pool or something. Yes. Yes. Yes, I KNOW. Yes, I KNOW, mom. Yes, mom, he'll be here soon. No, we're just gonna stay in and watch the boob tube or something," and she grinned a devil's grin as she said this, caressing her breast, pinching her nipple and licking her lips. "I dunno, maybe order a pizza or something. No, mom, I KNOW he's not made of money. C'mon mom, that stroganoff's a week old, you shoulda tossed it out. Okay, okay, three days old. NO, mom, I DON'T mind strokin' off," and she looked me right in the eye as she rubbed her vagina with her free hand. Holy God. My heart began racing like a Formula One engine at this little display, and the look on her face told me she knew it. "No mom, you don't have to call later, he'll be here. No mom, it's oka... NO, mom, its... hang on a minute, I think he's just now coming in." She hooked a finger at me, and with some small difficulty (owing to my raging erection), I walked over to the couch and took the handset as she offered it to me.
"Hello Brent," Marjorie said in response to my hello, "she's not giving you any trouble, is she?" After I assured Marjorie that everything was fine, I asked how she was doing, to learn she had spent the day sightseeing; visiting the Coca-Cola museum, the Atlanta Underground, the Westin Peachtree. I told her to relax, that Rose was being a perfect angel (as I said this, Rose placed a foot on my thigh and wiggled her toes against my hardness, giggling softly), that we were just now settling in for the night, and that she should relax and enjoy, she certainly deserved it. After handing the phone back to Rose, I went back to check on the tub and found it had filled nicely; the scented oil and crystals left a subtle aura in the room, and I dialed down the dimmer switch for the light to about 20 percent of full, then selected a huge mint green towel from the linen closet and laid it on the sink. Before I could exit, a naked Rose sashayed in and took a quick glance at the tub.
"Thank you, slave, that will do nicely," she purred, her hand running up the back of my thigh and cupping my butt for a gentle squeeze, "now get in with me so you can please me."
"Your wish is my command, mistress," I said with my head bowed, and I shed my clothes in less time that it takes to tell. I held her hand as she stepped into the tub and sat down, then climbed in myself. The water level rose dangerously, and a tiny wavelet slopped over the edge onto the floor.
"That won't do," she pouted, "we might have to move around a bit. Be a good boy and let some water out, will you?" I eased the stopper open and let the water drain until it was a few inches below the top of the tub. While I was doing that, she was gently teasing my balls with the toes of one foot, the other foot draped over my shoulder. I kissed and licked the calf that was by my face, slowly reaching into the space between her legs and drawing a finger between her labia, ticking and teasing, making her squirm and coo with delight. We didn't get much beyond that, and no real washing happened; it was more therapeutic than anything else, simply stroking and playing, with no real urgency, a lover's bath. When the water had cooled enough and our fingers and toes were wrinkling nicely, I stood and reached for the towel, then helped her up and out. The towel was large enough that I was able to wrap it around both of us, and she snuggled in close and straddled my erection while exploring my ass with her probing fingers.
"Are you hungry?" she asked. "Cause I'm not. Not really. Not for food, anyway," and without any warning, she slipped a lavender-softened finger into my asshole, up to the second knuckle, and wriggled it deliciously for a few seconds. I had never had that sensation before, and my sharp intake of breath told Rose she had succeeded in giving me yet another first. She gazed up at me with a fierce hunger and whispered, "We can do this tonight, yes? I mean, you're gonna... gonna fuck me... in the ass... aren't you?"
"Rose," I scolded, "you should know better than to ask. I can't refuse you anything, you know that." She sighed deeply and pulled her finger out of my ass, then slapped me again, just a shade harder than she had the first time. "If you don't stop doing that," I warned, "I might start to enjoy it." She made a soft shriek of delight and wrapped her fingers around my scrotum, then gently, gently, so as not to hurt me, but firmly, firmly, to let me know she was in charge, pulled me by the balls, out of the bathroom and down the hall to Marjorie's bedroom. She turned on the bedside lamp to create a warm glow, then sat on the bed and, using my balls as a steering mechanism, placed me directly in front of her, my erection just level with her throat, and she bent down to swirl her tongue around the head. Suddenly, she pulled back and looked up at me.
"Can we have some more wine," she pleaded, "please? It'll relax me, and help me when you..." she paused a second, clearly excited at what she was saying, "when you put your cock up my asshole." I could only nod in agreement, and I went to the kitchen and got the remaining ros� and a couple of glasses. When I got back to the bedroom, an irresistible tease of Navy crawled into my awareness, curled around several times, and settled down for a long nap in a corner of my subconscious where it could make it's influence felt without being noticed; Rose had applied the perfume to her neck and, as I was soon to discover, to the small of her back, just above her asscheeks. I filled each glass and handed her one, then sat beside her and took a drink from mine.
"Tell me about when you did it to Lilly," she said, "what did you do? Did you have to prepare or do anything special, or did you just put it in?"
"Well, even though Lilly had done it a lot before she met me, and she was really used to it, she still needed me to take it very slowly whenever we started doing it. We had to use lubricant, because a rectum can't get wet and slippery like a vagina can. Even when she was totally lubed up, it probably took more than five minutes for me to work my way all the way in. I couldn't go any faster than that without hurting her, and even then, she said it still hurt a little bit. But once I was all the way in, she was able to really relax into it, I guess because her asshole was able to stretch to fit, and once it did, she had me just start pounding away really hard, I mean, really slamming it in, and she said it felt fantastic."
"Mmmmmmm..." Rose murmured. "I'm a little scared, but I think I'm more excited than scared." Her nipples were sticking straight out from her breasts, and as I pinched and rolled them, her breath came in harsh little gasps of delight.
"Do you have any petroleum jelly we can use to make it slick?" I asked, and Rose nodded, then went to the bathroom to fetch it. I called after her to bring my pants back from the bathroom. When she handed them to me, I retrieved a condom from the pocket and was about to open it; Rose stopped me with a hand on my arm. My questioning look brought a deep sigh from her.
"If I can't get pregnant from taking it in the ass, then I'd like to feel you, I mean, really FEEL you, inside me. Your flesh, that is, without a condom. Is that okay?" I could only smile in acceptance.
"If that's what you want, angel," I told her. She nodded eagerly, and a warm glow filled my chest as we each downed our wine. Rose refilled the glasses, and we toasted each other, then linked our arms to toss down our drinks at a single draught. There was only enough wine left in the bottle now for one more glass each, and I said nothing as Rose poured. Again we linked arms, and after finishing, set our glasses on the dresser.
"Whooa," Rose breathed, "wow, I'm a little dizzy. And fizzy. And fuzzy." Her eyes came to rest on my stiffness. "And horny." She took a handful of my balls and massaged them tenderly, kneading and stroking. She bent to take me in her mouth, her incredible, warm, wet, talented mouth, and I laid back and let her work her magic. As she sucked, she moved around into a 69 position, straddlng my face, and I was staring up into her two openings. I licked her vagina for a bit, feeling her wetness flow down over my nose and chin, then worked my way up to her rectum. As I stuck my tongue in, Rose continued to suck, but she was making little mewling noises in the back of her throat each time I penetrated her. I fingered her vagina, soaking my digits in her juice, reaching inside and stroking, then slipped my middle finger into her rectum; it slid easily in, all the way to the base, and Rose stopped sucking to let loose a little cry. I asked if she was okay, and she said, "God, yesssss, that feels so weird but it feels so good, too." I pulled out, then locked my pussy-slicked index and middle fingers together and slid those in. Rose gasped and squirmed, then said, "God! Damn! God damn! OhmyGod, that feels so damn weird! Oh Jack, stroke it, please, stroke my asshole!" I obliged by finger-fucking her ass, then quickly tried to add my ring finger for a three-finger penetration. I managed to do it, but it was so tight, so very tight, and Rose started to hyperventilate. "Ow, Jack, that hurts, it hurts, but it's good, it's a hurt that feels good, I can't describe it. No, don't stop, don't stop hurting me good like that!" I stroked for a little longer while Rose kept bobbing up and down on my cock, grunting and groaning. After a few more minutes, I pulled my fingers out and asked if she was ready.
"Yes, yes, God, yes, I'm ready for it Jack, I'm ready, please do it, do it now, I'm so horny, fuck my ass, lover, fuck me hard in my ass!"
Hearing my precious little Rose talk like this made me so hard it hurt. I could have punched through a concrete wall with it and never noticed. I pulled Rose off me, then reached over to take the petroleum jelly off the nightstand. I smeared a glob of it all up and down my member, then rubbed another glob into her sphincter. She scrambled to her hands and knees, facing the mirror on the dresser so she could see herself as I entered. I positioned myself behind her and gripped her hips, then rubbed the head of my cock slowly up and down her crack, letting the head catch on her rectum several times before stopping there.
"Are you ready, angel?" I asked. Rose bit her lip and looked back at me, nodded briefly, then turned back to look at her reflection. I pushed gently, and for a moment, nothing happened. I stroked her back, telling her to try to relax. I pushed a little harder, and the head of my cock began to push her open. I kept going until half the head was in, then pulled out. I repeated this several times, each time making my way just a tiny bit further. On the last push, I got the entire head in, then stopped to ask Rose if she was okay.
"Yes, I'm okay," she said, "it feels SO weird, it kinda hurts, can you just stop there for a second?" I assured her we had all the time in the world, and I continued to kneel there, not moving, letting her adjust to the sensation. When she nodded, I pushed in a tiny fraction more, then another tiny fraction, then another, pausing each time in case she wanted to tell me to stop. After the fifth push like that, she suddenly cried out, "Stop, Jack, stop, it hurts, it hurts, no, no, don't take it out, don't take it out, just stop, but leave it there for a minute, okay?" I did precisely as she asked, and as we bided our time, I was stroking her thighs, massaging her waist, touching her back, giving her every possible pleasurable distraction I could. After a minute more, she nodded. "Okay, I'm ready for some more, but slow, okay?" Looking her reflection in the eyes, I nodded, then slid in yet a little more, then a little more, then a little more... by the time I was halfway in, she was breathing heavily. "Stop, stop, it's better this time, but I still need you to stop for a minute," she panted. We waited again. This time, instead of telling me to go, she took the lead, slowly pushing herself backwards onto me, controlling the entry, and she kept pushing steadily until I was all the way in, and she stopped and dropped her head to the mattress. "God, it hurts, it hurts Jack, but it's not terrible, it's just so weird."
The feeling was unbelievable. Her tight, tight, tight hole gripped me, and as I flexed my cock inside her, she cried out. I asked if she was okay, and she nodded vigorously. "It's starting to get better, it's really starting to feel good. Pull out some and then put it back in," she directed, and again, I did as she asked. This time, I was rewarded with a long "ooooooo, ooooooo, oh God, Jack, it still feels so weird, but it feels really really nice now." She pulled herself off of me, almost all the way, then backed into me again. "Oh God, oh God, oh that's it, that's really it, Jack! I'm ready for it now, love my asshole Jack, love my asshole as hard as you can!" Gripping her firmly by the hips, I started to thrust in earnest, reaching around to put my fingers at the top of her pussy, stroking and sliding my fingers over her clitoris. She buried her face in the mattress again and said, "mmmmm, mmmmm, mmmmm, mmmmm". The friction on my shaft was almost unbearable, and I knew I was about to lose it. I didn't do anything to warn her, I just kept pumping hard, slamming into her, making her whole body vibrate, smacking my balls against her, and then the feeling got so intense I roared without realizing I was doing it, and suddenly I was shooting into her, pumping my semen at a hundred miles an hour, and she screamed, "OH YES, FUCK YES, FUCK YES, FUCK YES, don't stop, don't stop, keep pounding me, keep pounding, oh God that feels SO GOOD!!!" After I finished cumming, I didn't let up, just kept pounding into her, shaking her, stroking her clitoris, and then her head sprang up and down wildly, dangerously out of control as her orgasm slammed into her, and I fell onto my back, still gripping her hips, still buried in her ass. She was gasping, we were both covered in sweat, and she rolled off of me to lay her head on my arm, her face buried in my armpit.
"Mmmmm, aaahhhh, oh Jack, that was too much, it was fan-freaking-tastic! Anal sex is SOOO good, I wish you could feel how good it is, I wish I could do it to you." We lay quietly for a while, just relaxing in the glow; but I was waging a fiece internal dialogue, trying to come to terms with her wish, wondering what it would mean for me if I gave in. In the end, it was my love for her, my desire to grant her every wish, that won out.
"Sweetheart," I started, stroking her hair, and she kissed me just below the armpit before looking up. "Angel, what would you say if I told you there WAS a way you could do it to me?" She just looked blankly up at me, not understanding. I took a shuddering breath to gather my courage, then told her, "There's a device called a strap-on, that you can wear, that's like a stiff penis attached to a harness that straps around your waist. If we got you one of those, you could have your wish, you could perform anal sex on me."
No matter what else I may have thought or felt, the wonder and hope in her face at that moment made it all worthwhile. She was absolutely radiant at the thought of being able to pleasure me the way I had pleasured her.
"Oh, Jack, you'd really let me do that to you? For real?"
"Yes, my love," I sighed, "for real."
The afterglow we were feeling induced a euphoric drowsiness, and for the second time in two days, as I fell asleep with my contacts still in my eyes, I knew that in future, I'd have to make a habit of taking them out before we started any sexplay.
26
...I'll be your daddy, I will be the one who loves you 'til the end of time... Father Figure��� (George Michael)
Rose must have turned the lamp off after I fell asleep. It was still dark when I woke. Rubbing my eyes to try to loosen up my contact lenses, I was able to make out the clock on Marjorie's nightstand; blurry, but I could see the time was 2:17 AM. As I floated further up toward the waking world, I became aware of Rose beside me; she was awake, covered up to her chest with the blanket, arms behind her head as she lay gazing up at the ceiling.
"What's wrong, love?" I asked. She turned to look at me in the darkness, and I felt the back of her hand gently stroking my cheek, then turning over to cup my face in her palm.
"Jack, I know you love me, I know you do. But sometimes I wonder if you ever feel guilty about it. About us, I mean, about us making love. I mean, you said you knew you loved me for a long time before we first made love. I think I understand your reasons for not telling me, for not starting something earlier. It's 'cause you were scared, right? I mean, scared of the age difference, and scared that somebody might find out and then you'd have to go to jail, right?"
"That's part of it," I admitted, not really wanting to have this conversation, but recognizing that it was important, that it was bothering her, and that I needed to let her explore the subject. "But another part of it is because I was confused about how I felt. Not only because the world at large keeps telling me how wrong it is to want to have sex with someone so young, but also because you were so much more than my friend. I was confused because I felt so protective of you, protective and maybe a little possessive. I guess I felt toward you the way I might feel toward my daughter, if I had one. I felt like a father, or how I suppose a father is supposed to feel. I just wanted to shelter you, to keep you safe. A father is supposed to protect his daughter from all the bad things in the world, even those bad things that are in the father's heart. I knew I never wanted to hurt you, and I just couldn't shake the feeling that making love to you would be a bad thing, because it meant I would be taking advantage of you, it meant that I would be using you for my own pleasure before you were old enough to understand exactly what that meant."
"But you don't feel that way now, do you, Jack?" her anxious voice floated out of the darkness. "You know I'm old enough now to make that choice for myself, don't you?"
"Rose, my beloved, yes, I do trust you. You're smart enough to know what's best for you, and you're smart enough to know what's best for me, too. When it comes to us, I trust your instincts completely. It's the world around us that I don't trust. I don't think any amount of argument or reason would sway the police or the courts." Rose's hand slipped from my face down to my chest. She began to stroke and play with my nipples, and I was mildly surprised to discover how delicious this felt, how arousing and relaxing it was. "And as worried as I am about them, about the police, I mean, I'm even more afraid of Marjorie finding out. She trusts me completely, trusts me to take care of you, to treat you right."
"But you DO take care of me, Jack, you take such wonderful care of me!"
I couldn't help but give a mournful laugh at that. "She might agree with you, love, as far as that goes, but I don't think her definition would stretch to include a romantic, physical, sexual relationship. And even if it did, even if the law would allow us to be together, and Marjorie would somehow understand, I'd still be afraid of the implications. Well, not afraid, really, more like weirded out."
"Weirded out? What do you mean?"
"Well, think about it, sweetheart. Do you love me enough to marry me?"
"Of course I do, Jack, you know I do. I've spent whole days just dreaming about being married to you."
"Well, I have too. I've thought a lot about it. So, say we did get married. That would make Marjorie my mother-in-law. She's 38, isn't she?" I laid my hand on the side of Rose's face, and felt her nodding slowly. "My mother-in-law would be younger than me. I'm still struggling to wrap my head around that one, babe." I let my hand wander down to her neck and shoulders, lazily rubbing and stroking, and together, we turned on our sides to face each other so we could stroke and play a little easier. "The alternative to marrying you is someplace that I don't think I could go. I mean, I've thought about marrying your mom so I could always be close to you, but what kind of a lie would that be? Plus then, I'd be your father for real, and that means that every time I touched you in a romantic way, it might feel like incest."
Rose was quiet for a long time after this, just slowly rubbing my chest and neck, absently stroking my face. Then, "You've thought about marrying me? For real?"
"Yes, I have. I've looked as far into the future as I can, and I just can't see myself being without you. It's selfish of me to feel that way, selfishness on a level I never dreamed I would be capable of, but there it is."
"Selfish? What do you mean? If we make each other happy, then how..."
"Think about our ages, love. When you're 18, I'll be 45. When you're 23, I'll be 50. And worst of all, when you're 33, when you won't have even started middle age yet, I'll be 60. There's so much in life for you to discover, for you to know about, and I'm just scared I'll be an anchor, a weight that you won't be able to shake."
"Jack, stop, don't talk like that. You've given me so much, it makes my heart blow up like a balloon, like I can't contain all the wonderful things I get from you. You've taught me so much, Jack, SO much, about music and movies and philosophy, about my body and yours, about love, yes Jack, especially love. You taught me what it means to love so completely. And don't even get me started on orgasms. Remember when you told me that orgasms are one sure way we know how much God loves us? And you were there for me, to make sure my orgasm is everything it's supposed to be. When life gets hard, you're always there for me. Always. You saved me, you pulled me out of the lonely Hell I was in and showed me a whole world I never knew existed. I'm in over my head, Jack, and that's a wonderful thing, because I have you there to keep me from drowning."
Now it was my turn to be quiet for a long time. Eventually, I told her, "You've taught me as much as I've taught you. Maybe more. You freed my frozen heart. You're the woman who looked at me and saw me as I really am and said, yes, this will do." I reached over and kissed her, a long slow joining of the lips that let us share each other's breath, and I marvelled anew at the miracle of how this wonderful young beauty was mine, and of how much she wanted me.
At length, we pulled apart. Rose draped her arm over me, pulled me close, and whispered, "I have two things to tell you. First is, I love you forever and ever. And second is, Jack, it's kinda starting to smell bad in here." This total non sequitir took me so completely by surprise that I started giggling, rapidly running up through complete hilarity, to be joined by Rose, who hugged me tight to her so we could feel each other's laughter.
"You know what we should do?" I asked after I had recovered enough of my breath to speak, "we should strip the sheets off the bed and wash them, and while we're waiting for that, we should go for a naked swim." Rose's sudden intake of breath told me how much she liked that idea.
"Really? You don't think we'd get caught?" she queried. "Cause that sounds like a great idea."
"Totally," I told her, "it's the dead of the night, absolutely nobody will be around."
We got up and dressed, and I pulled the sheets off while Rose appropriated the pillowcases. Carrying our bundles, we slipped out into the cool evening and quietly made our way to the clubhouse. Rose followed me into the laundry room, and we stuffed everything into the biggest washer and started it. I took her by the hand and led her into the men's locker room, into the shower area, and in utter darkness and hot spray, we soaped each other's bodies and got ourselves all cleaned up. Then we made our way out to the chlorine-smelling pool area, where I had left the underwater floods turned off. The only light came from the moon and stars above; it was dark enough that we could barely make out each other's silhouettes as we slipped our clothes off, then slipped into the warm water. We splashed around, slowly moving here and there in the shallow end, but we came together every few minutes for some tender stroking, and every other time we did so, I slipped my hardness into her, taking care not to stroke or thrust, to ensure that I didn't accidentally let loose a load inside her.
By the time we finished and pulled our clothes on, it was almost 4 AM. I put the bedding in one of the driers, and we settled down in the common room, in front of the TV, to watch a Mexican vampire movie that turned out to be a great sleeping aid.
It was after 8 AM when I woke to find morning sunshine lighting up the room and Rose curled up with my arm around her, snoring softly and chuckling gently in her sleep every now and then. She woke when I got up to use the bathroom, and after she went also, we retrieved the bedding and took it back to her apartment. While I made the bed, Rose scrambled some eggs and tossed some precooked bacon in the microwave. It was a simple breakfast, but one of the best meals I'd had in a long time.
After breakfast, Rose announced she wanted to stay in bed all day, making love while listening to music. When she showed me the mix tapes she had created for this purpose, I realized she had been thinking about it for some time. Another first from her, another thing I had never done before. Iris and I had made love while the radio played, but that was just random music, nothing chosen especially for lovemaking; and when I did it with Lilly, it never occurred to me that we should play music. Rose, on the other hand, had put quite a bit of thought into it. She had dug through my collection of CDs and tapes, pointing out with vast amusement that more than half of her selections came from tapes I had labeled as "guilty pleasures". There was Donna Summer, Earth Wind and Fire, Herb Alpert, Gary Wright, Nat King Cole, whole albums by Sade, and I don't remember how many more. She had done a masterful job, and if the day before had been beautiful, then that day (that I will forever think of as Sunday In Bed) was nothing short of exquisite. We used up all the condoms, and by the time I had my fifth orgasm (and Rose, probably her twentieth), evening shadows were filling the room, and we were both starving.
"Oh my God," I muttered when I looked at the clock, "it's after 7 PM. Rose, do you realize we've been at this for the entire day?" She smiled dreamily and nodded.
"I know," she said, "wasn't it perfect?" I had to agree.
The rest of the evening slipped by before we knew it. We ordered a pizza with double pepperoni and double cheese, and before it was delivered, Marjorie had checked in with us from the hotel, to make sure we hadn't forgotten the next day was a school day and to remind us that Rose shouldn't stay up too late. Grateful for the reminder, Rose and I got her books and schoolwork gathered together, bundled up, and ready to go on the kitchen table. We snuggled together on the couch, eating pizza and watching the Errol Flynn "Adventures of Robin Hood" on TV. Dessert was a bowl of vanilla ice cream with chocolate sauce that we shared, feeding each other, smearing each other's faces with the sticky stuff and laughing at own idiocy. By the time we were done, it was almost 10 PM. While Rose set the alarm for 6:30 AM, I stripped the sex-soaked sheets from the mattress and made the bed fresh with a spare set from the linen closet. Naked, we crawled in and doused the light, and with our arms around each other and our hearts pressed together, we were soon dead to the world.