Chapter 24

I ran up the steep hill, heart pounding, sweat pouring off my shirtless body, legs burning willing myself to get to the top. Images of Mary kept intruding. I ran faster, harder trying to purge them from my mind. I couldn't stop the images; indelible pictures of Mary, naked, making love to me while it rained, Mary smiling at me the first time I saw her, Mary crying on the train as I left her, Mary pledging her love, vowing to wait for me, and I for her.

The letter had come the day before Thanksgiving.

"Dearest James, I want you to know that I will love you forever. I have tried to start this letter at least a dozen times..."

My stomach lurched as I read those words.

"I hope you will not be disappointed in me or hate me but I am carrying our child. I knew the first time we made love in the little house by the lake that we had conceived a child. I don't know how I knew... but I did. Everyone thinks it is Richard's but it is ours James."

I was stunned. I hardly knew what to think - I was going to be a father! My God!

"I already love this little being inside me, partially because she (I know it's a girl too) is part of you that I will always have. Now here comes the hard part my darling James - Captain Tom Kinney - you remember him from his visit to the hospital? He has visited me frequently here in Annapolis. BUPERS has promised him an assignment to the Academy as soon as his Pentagon assignment is up - He has asked me to marry him as soon as the divorce is final. I have accepted."

My stomach turned into knots. "I have accepted" burned into my brain. I felt like a truck had hit me.

"Believe me James, I didn't accept without much soul searching. Tom clearly loves me and can provide a wonderful home for our child, a home close to my family and his. I know how this must sound - I do love you desperately - I never felt this way about anyone before and I am certain will never again - but I must think about our child. I know this will be hard to understand and I hope in time you will forgive me. I am sorry to hurt you James."

"Our revels now are ended... these our Actors,
As I foretold you, were all spirits, and
Are melted into air, into thin air,
And like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind:
We are such stuff as dreams are made on..."

"I will love you forever. You taught me about love and about myself and gave me the courage to change my life. You are my heart and soul and I take great joy and comfort in that a part of you will always be with me. Always, Mary"

I put the letter on my desk where it still sat, like a viper that was ready to burry its fangs in my heart once again. I still had not answered.

I ran and ran, trying to get those visions and memories out of my head. In the past two weeks I had come to accept that Mary was lost to me. I had come close to getting on a plane for Annapolis and having it out with her. I had doubted myself and looked for all the things I had done to drive her away. I was furious half the time and depressed the rest. I had called Karen only to discover that her husband was home and she was leaving town to be with her parents near Omaha. On Thanksgiving Day I moved in with Susan.

I knew it would take a long time to get over Mary. And what about my child/daughter? Wasn't she my child too?

Perhaps the worst part was coming to terms with the idea that Mary made the right decision. She was right... Tom could and would provide for them and love them and give them a wonderful home in Annapolis. I remembered his words from that day in my hospital room in Japan... "If I were your husband Mary... I'd resign from the Navy so we wouldn't be apart."

Tom could now be all the things I could not - husband, father, provider, protector. Tom could provide for them while I was still trying to figure out what the hell I would do with the rest of my life. Tom would be faithful and loving. I had lost Mary to the better man. That only took some of the hurt away.

I was so happy to have met Rita. She had helped me more than she knew - maybe more than I could ever tell her. I knew we only had a few days left but I was also pretty sure we had formed a special bond that would survive time and distance.

Muscles aching, lungs about to burst, I finally made the crest of that long hill and turned right onto a series of residential streets. About a mile from the house I slowed to a walk, giving myself a chance to cool down. The early morning sun felt great, as did the cool breeze off the ocean. I concentrated on how lucky I was to be able to run that hill and to feel so alive.

A few minutes before, I had watched a red Jaguar E-type convertible pass going the other way. A quick glance showed the driver to be an attractive dark-haired woman wearing large sunglasses. Now she was back, driving parallel to me. She motioned for me to stop and she pulled the car to the shoulder. She turned around to look at me as I moved from the back of the car and close to her door. "Damn she was good looking!"

"I'm sorry to bother you... but I'm completely turned around. I need to get down into the village and I can't figure out how to get there." She moved her sunglasses up into her hair revealing very dark brown eyes. She seemed to blush a bit as I gave her a not so quick appraisal - dark green sleeveless wool sweater which only accentuated her large breasts - breasts that strained the material in all the right ways, a dark skirt that had moved about half way up her thighs and dark sheer stockings, and black pumps.

She returned the favor. I watched her give me a slow appraisal from the top of my close cropped hair down my bare chest, past my well-defined abs, stopping momentarily at my crotch and down my tanned legs.

"Sure... no problem... you just turn around here... go to the first stop sign, turn left, left again and then go down the hill to Coast Highway... turn right."

I watched her as I gave the directions. She wasn't listening. She just looked at me. She was no more lost than I was. I wondered what she was up to. I noticed a large diamond engagement ring on her left hand and a wedding band. "Well... well... well", I thought "is the lady out looking for trouble?"

"Do you live... around here?" she asked. The gentle raise and fall of her wonderful breasts straining against the green sweater had me mesmerized. She looked to be in her mid-thirties and wealthy.

"Yes ma'am... just down the street." I pointed.

"Not too many Marines around here I expect." She smiled as she said it. She was right. La Jolla was not exactly a Marine hangout and she had me pegged for a Marine all right. Most Marines couldn't even afford to gas up their cars in this town.

"That obvious... I'm a Marine?" I smiled at her.

"I'd say about 100 percent chance. Am I right?"

"Yes you are... I'm just staying with some friends."

She gave me another appraising look. "Female, I'll bet!" She laughed as she said it. She had a nice musical laugh.

"You at Pendleton?"

"No, Balboa... temporarily." "Oh" was all she said as she realized what that meant. She gave me a close look as if looking for wounds, not wanting to ask.

She then leaned over away from me and opened her purse which was on the passenger seat, giving me a nice long look at her sheer dark nylon covered thighs and a peek at garter clips. She had a small tight looking ass too. The skirt pulled nicely across it as she hunted in her purse. She seemed to fumble in her purse for a long time, finally coming up with a business card. "There it is." she said. She turned back around smiling. Her eyes got wide and her smile slipped a bit as she saw the results of her teasing - my cock had gotten hard and there was a large bulge against the front of my shorts. The Jag was so low that her face was at eye level with my cock.

She looked flustered for a moment and then laughed. "Makes a woman feel great when she can still interest a gorgeous young man!" We both laughed.

I leaned toward her, both hands on the top of the door, smelling her perfume and maybe a touch of arousal. "Is there anything else I can help you with ma'am?"

She blushed. I didn't know how far she would take this game... but she had started it. Visions of her red lips around my cock kept me hard. Her left hand, as if it had a mind of its own, reached out to touch my cock. She had a far-away look in her eyes. The sun sparkled on the large diamond. Suddenly she seemed to come back to reality and she jerked her hand back.

She looked at me, looked at the ring on her finger. Looked again at the bulge in my running shorts.

"Get in!"

I didn't hesitate. I ran around the back of the car and dropped down into the bucket seat, smelling her arousal more strongly now and her perfume as it was broadcast throughout the car by her overheated skin. I was barely in the seat before she roared off, gravel flying, shifting gears, making that beautiful car's engine sing. She obviously knew the area well and we went steadily up hill, the houses thinned and the area became almost park like. Working the clutch caused her skirt to ride up even more. She smiled at me when I put my hand on her exquisite feeling nyloned thigh. She wiggled her ass on the seat as I pushed my hand up to the toned bare flesh above her stocking top. My cock felt like it was going to burst.

Within minutes she slowed quickly and made a left turn up a hidden driveway. It was startling cool after the sun of the open road. I still had not put my shirt back on and I shivered with cold? Anticipation? At the end of the drive was a large English looking home. It was massive, made of gray stone, with a tile roof. It looked oddly out of place - an English manor house surrounded by date palms and southern California vegetation. It was obviously unoccupied. It just had that look of a place that had been put to bed for a while while the owners were away. We skidded to a stop in the tan gravel where the drive circled to the front door.

She shut off the engine and opened the door. "Hurry!" Was all she said as she moved to the trunk and removed a red plaid wool blanket. I stood near her, getting a good look at her slim body, fantastic legs atop 4-inch high-heeled pumps. She was so desirable that all thoughts of Mary or any other woman were washed out of my mind by a rising tide of testosterone.

She looked at me, lust in her eyes, obviously intent on one thing, getting my cock inside her as quickly as possible.

She grabbed my arm and pulled me toward a grassy area under several large date palms. We moved as fast as her heels would allow. She hurriedly opened the blanket and I pulled her to me, kissing her for the first time, standing in this bucolic setting. She moaned as my hands found her breasts and caressed her hardening nipples. Her tongue went wild in my mouth. I moved my hands to her firm ass and pulled her against my throbbing cock. She moaned again, hands and red tipped fingers exploring my shoulders and back. I pulled up her skirt feeling the hot nylon of her stockings and the hot flesh above. She broke our kiss and moved back - unsteady on her high heels. She dropped to her knees and freed my cock. Her eyes widened as she finally saw the cock that would be soon buried to the hilt inside her wet and willing pussy.

It was my turn to moan as she kissed and licked and then sucked me. She was a woman who obviously loved to suck cock. I was very close to cuming when she pulled back.

"Hurry... hurry!" she demanded as she lay back on the blanket, arching her back as she pushed her dark blue silk panties down over her slim hips. Naked now except my running shoes, I knelt over her and pulled them the rest of the way down her sensuous legs and over her sexy black pumps. She spread her legs. Her light brown pussy hair was damp. She was such an erotic sight - dark-nylon covered legs spread, garter belt suspenders pulling at her stocking tops, knees bent, the heels of her pumps digging into the blanket, skirt bunched around her waist. She still had her green sweater and bra on, but there was no time for them now - not while the lady was demanding to be fucked.

I moved between her legs and positioned my cock at her portal. "Yesssssssssssssssssss!" she hissed as I slowly entered her slick canal, feeling the exquisite tightness, the primal need to fill a female with sperm. I watched her face as I entered her, slowly, slowly, letting her get used to my size. She had her eyes tightly shut and her mouth open, breathing heavily with passion as I moved into her. "Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh... God... yesssssssssssssssssssssss!!!!! Give me your cock! All your cock! Ohhhh... God... oh... God... ohhhhhhhhh... God!!!!!!!!"

Her eyes flew open as I withdrew about half my length and then pushed my way all the way into her now very wet and spaszming vagina. She howled like a wounded animal as she came, and thrashed under me as I pinned her to the blanket. She wrapped her legs around me, the feel of the nylon against my ass, caused me to lose my mind. I pounded into her, faster and faster. "Hurry... hurry... ohhhhhh... God... ohhhh... God... ohh... ohhhh... hurry!" She came a second time as I felt the sperm race to the head of my cock. I didn't want to hold off

"Please... please... hurry... hurry!"

"I'm... going... to... cummmmm... cum... in... side... you!"

"Ohhhhh... God... oh... God!" Just then she seemed to realize I was about to fill her with my cum and she was not protected.

"No... God... no... no!" She thrashed under me as I started to pump my cum into her.

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!! I'm... cuumming!!!!!!! Yessssssssssssssssss!" She cried as she pulled me to her and clenched her legs tight around my waist. "Fill me! Fill meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!! Ohhhhhhhhhhh... God... Yessssssssssssss!!!!!!!"

My cock throbbed and spurted shot after shot of my sperm deep into her as she came and came, milking every drop from my rampaging cock. She gripped me even tighter as we kissed, our passion at the explosive stage.

We stayed that way for several minutes. I finally moved up and leaned on my elbows, taking the weight off her. My cock was still firmly embedded in her cum-filled pussy.

"God bless... That... was... was... the greatest fuck I ever had!" She pulled me down on her again and kissed me hard. She gave me one more squeeze with her legs and dropped them to the blanket.

When we came up for air again I said, "I'm James... James... Reid... very pleased to meet you." "Oh God... how awful... we've not been introduced!" She said it with a laugh.

I twitched my recovering cock inside her and smiled and said, "Well I think we've done okay so far."

She smiled back and said, "I'm Charlotte Bingham... so pleased to meet you!" "I'm pleased to meet you too, Charlotte." She closed her eyes and moaned as I stroked her - just easy short strokes, strokes to let her know how much she excited me and how much I wanted her again.

She opened her eyes and smiled a kind of dreamy smile. She glanced at her expensive watch. "Oh... Christ... I'm... I'm... late... James... I... really have to go!"

I kept stroking her but I could see she really was distressed about being late so I stopped and slowly withdrew. She moaned again. My hard cock felt cold outside her warmth. I knelt between her widespread legs and looked at her. Her pussy was still stretched open and our cum had leaked everywhere. It trailed down her thighs and on to her stocking tops. There was a lot. I stood and retrieved a black pump that had flown onto the grass and then offered a hand up. She eyed my hard cock and licked her lips and then stood on wobbly legs and leaned against me as she put her shoe back on. Her skirt was still around her waist as she moved to the still open trunk of the car. I folded the cum stained blanket and watched her pull a box of tissues and a packet of stockings from the trunk.

"God, I'm a shambles James" she said as she turned away from me, suddenly modest, and tried to wipe the cum from between her legs. "How much is there anyway? It just keeps flowing... my God James... I've never been so full of cum!" She laughed and turned toward me. I handed her her panties. She pulled them on holding me for balance. She smelled so wonderful. There is no better smell then the mixture of expensive perfume with freshly fucked woman. I went over and picked up my shorts where they had been thrown. My shirt was still in the car. I pulled it out and got dressed as I watched her. She was beautiful and so sexy.

"My stockings are ruined... good thing I always carry a spare pair." I chuckled and said "Good thing for a lady to always be prepared." I wondered how many other times she had picked up runners and near fucked them to death in this spot.

She must have caught my thought. She pulled down her skirt back down and moved into my arms. "James, don't judge me by what just happened... I've never done this with anyone before. I do have a confession though..." I just looked at her and said, "You weren't really lost were you?" She laughed and hugged me. "No... no... I wasn't... actually I only live about a half mile from where I picked you up!"

"What about this place?"

"I sell real estate... have for several years around here... actually sold this place to the new owners who spend every winter in the south of France."

"Too bad you don't have a key."

"Who says I don't?!" she said with a wink as we got into her car.

She gave me a great view of her legs and ruined stockings as we drove. "She caught my glance... "I'll change them when I get there." "I'm not complaining... it's very erotic knowing I helped cause those runs." She just smiled and let her skirt ride up more.

Suddenly serious she said, "I saw your scar, down your... your... leg. Is that why you're at Balboa?"

"Yes." I didn't elaborate.

"You know James you're gorgeous... but your eyes have the look of a much older man. My grandfather who was in the Marines between the wars... was in Central America... he had the same look. He said he could always tell the men who had "seen the elephant"."

I knew what she meant. That was a phrase I had heard before form old time combat vets. It meant experienced combat. It was interesting to hear her tell it and see it in me. She was right, there is a loss of innocence that comes to those who have experienced what I experienced.

At the end of the secluded driveway she stopped the car and turned to me. "James... I want to see you again... I really do..."

"Charlotte, I'd like to see you too." I didn't know what I was getting into but I very much wanted to see her again and experience more of her brand of wild uninhibited lovemaking.

"How about next Saturday?" She asked. I smiled and nodded. "That would be wonderful."

She smiled and hunted around in her purse until she found another business card. She wrote something on it with a slim gold pen. Her hands were quite beautiful - her manicured nails were bright red and perfect.

"Here's my personal phone number and the address of a little place just north of here on the beach." she said as she handed me the card. "How about 10 in the morning?"

"Yes, that would be fine."

"Oh, you do have a car don't you?... I could pick you up."

"Thanks... I have a car... but I won't be staying in La Jolla much longer."

She smiled and put her hand on mine. "Why don't you just pack a bag and stay at the beach house for a few days?" She blushed slightly as she said it.

"I would love to... but what about Mr. Bingham?"

Her smile vanished. "I discovered shortly after I married Mr. Bingham seven years ago that he is not sexually interested in women. He's a lovely man who treats me with respect and is very generous but ours is a marriage of convenience..."

I kissed her lightly. "I'll be there Saturday."

She pulled the car out onto the street and we raced down the road. I had her stop on the street and not drive into the driveway. Too many questions if anyone was awake at the house.

She picked up on that and said; "Don't want to have to think of a reason why you're coming home with some woman in a red Jaguar convertible?"

"Something like that... I guess when I get out of the car I could limp."

She laughed and I got out of the car. "Just make sure... on Saturday... you're not!"

"Not what?" I replied.

"Limp!" She laughed and waived as she pulled away. The sound of the Jag's exhaust loud in the morning stillness.

I grinned as I walked up the driveway. "Yes, indeed just my kind of woman... beautiful, sexy, smart, rich, and married!" I chuckled.

Rita was still snuggled down under the blankets - just the top of her blond head could be seen. I couldn't believe it was still not quite 10 in the morning. I peeled off my sweaty and now cum stained running shorts and shirt and put them in the hamper - no sense leaving incriminating evidence lying around. I got into the shower and reveled in the feel of the hot water and soap. Showers still seemed a luxury after so long without them. After I scrubbed myself clean, I stood under the showerhead and just let the hot water roll over me. I didn't move as I heard the shower door open. Soon I felt Rita's hands wrap around my waist and pull me to her - her nipples hard against my back. We stood like that for a few minutes until her hands found my growing cock and she began to stroke me.