Chapter 29: Aftermath

On Friday morning, Toni drove into Ned's driveway and thumbed the garage door opener. When she had parked and the door had closed, she trudged up the short flight of steps and entered the house. She found Ned in the kitchen, naked, pulling together the things they usually kept available outside on the sun deck for refreshment. She snuggled up to him, giving him a sloppy, half-hearted kiss. "Morning, Ned, you wonder."

"You look wiped, Toni," he said, "What happened to you?"

Toni headed out to the deck, pulling off her t-shirt, the tiny pair of short shorts and her g-string, letting them fall wherever she was when they left her body. "Later, Ned. I'm exhausted. I've got to sleep. Please keep me greased up." On the deck, she dropped wearily onto the lounge, rolled onto her stomach, and fell instantly asleep.

Ned set the tray of drinks and snacks down on the table and picked up Toni's bottle of sun-screen oil. He poured a quantity on her back and began spreading it over her, reaching down to the sides of her breasts, between her thighs and in the crack of her ass, giving her a thorough massage and completely covering her body. Normally, it would have made her passionately eager for sex. Today, she did not stir, even as he ran his fingers through the fuzz on the folds at the bottom of her buttocks.

Ned smiled, and sat down, picking up a book, adjusting his half-hard cock for comfort and easy access, and began to read in the morning sunshine.

As the hours passed, Toni stirred, turned in her sleep. Ned oiled the newly exposed surfaces with no more reaction from her than before, and returned to his book, drinking water, wandering off to look at things in the garden, spending a quiet morning in the sun, almost as though he were alone. Yet, he reflected, there on the lounge was one of the most beautiful and passionate women he had ever known. He knew that, when she woke, he would learn exactly what lay behind her unusual exhaustion, and that he would end up loving her even more than he did already. He opened the umbrella and shaded her extravagantly naked body, totally exposed in the innocence of sleep.

When her eyes opened, Toni saw Ned sitting in the sun, a floppy hat on his head, his book on his lap, and his eyes staring, unseeing, into the tall hedge that granted them the privacy for nudity. She lay there, feeling the sun on her body, the slickness of sunscreen in every part of her exterior, and sensing the warmth and love that radiated from the man who sat there, lost in some reverie. She took a deep breath, let it out slowly. As though the almost silent exhalation had been a trumpet call, Ned returned to the here and now, turning to look at her. Toni felt her lips part in a warm smile, her body respond to his gaze with moist arousal.

"Thank you, Ned," she said.

Ned smiled, put his book aside. "How do you feel? Need anything?"

Toni twisted and sat on the edge of the lounge, reached for a tumbler of water that had been sitting, warming, in the sunshine. She drank it down, grimacing at its warmth, but finishing every drop. A sudden look of surprise swept her face, and she rose and dashed inside, returning minutes later, her hair brushed in her rough fashion, smiling. She went to Ned's settee and kissed him long and ardently as he ran his hands over her. She sat next to him, lifting her legs to share the footstool he, too, was using.

"Better," she said. "I'm still tired, but I'll live. Thank you for oiling me all day — what time is it?"

"A little after three o'clock. You had about six hours sleep. You were out cold — I greased everything I could reach, and you never noticed."

"No, I didn't. Well, I won't make that mistake again."

"What mistake is that?"

Toni pondered. "I think I ought to start at the beginning. There's a whole bunch of things, and I want to tell you all of it so I can figure out what it means." She looked at Ned, who merely looked receptive.

"Wednesday night, I took Sheldon home with me. You probably noticed."

"Well, I knew you weren't with me," he said, "but that's okay. I don't think you noticed that I brought Jenny here."

"Did you? Oh, I'm so glad. How was it?"

"Later. You first."

"Yeah. Okay." Toni paused a long moment. Her eyes, unfocused, wandered over the hedges, as Ned's had done. "We got to my place, and we went to bed. No. That's not the beginning.

"Wednesday morning, I was at Melanie's. One thing led to another and she came to the office for lunch and we made love." She noticed Ned's surprise. "I'll tell you more about that later. Anyway, at the store we were talking about how all of us, the Wednesday people, are a kind of family; we help each other. You helped me, Dana and Ed helped Jenny, Rudy and Melanie helped Sheldon..."

"How's that?" Ned asked.

"Rudy and Melanie took him to bed with them one weekend. And Jenny had him, too, you know, with Ed and Dana."

"No, I didn't. Doesn't matter. Go on."

"So, I decided to try him out myself; I bit off more than I could chew, Ned."

"What do you mean? Sheldon doesn't strike me as a tough guy."

"Oh, no, he's not. He's a wonderful man, I like him. I just got more than I could handle."

"I think you'd better be specific, if you can." Ned laid his hand on her thigh, feeling the oily surface, caressing her. Toni touched the back of his hand, and went on.

"We went to bed. He's got a pretty big cock, and it's long. It felt wonderful, Ned, I loved it. Well, I just came and came. And after a very long time, he came, too, and then he fell asleep. But I didn't." Toni looked closely at Ned, her face slightly flushed beneath her tan. "I couldn't sleep because he left his cock inside me; it never fell out, even though it went soft. I could feel it inside me, and it kept making me come, just lying there. I tried not to move, but I couldn't stop, and I'd move a little and then I'd come again. And then, after a while, he woke up and got hard again and fucked me again and it was wonderful. It went on like that all night. It didn't matter if he was in my cunt or in my ass, I couldn't sleep because I kept fucking him and coming all the time."

"Uh, did it occur to you to pull away? Just get his cock out of you?" Ned asked, stroking her leg deeply between her thighs. His cock was half-hard.

Toni, looked at him strangely. "Never. It never occurred to me." She giggled, then looked rueful. "It felt so good, I never wanted it to stop, at least not then..." She thought for a moment, shook her head, and went on. "By morning, I was wiped out. Sheldon had gotten a pretty good amount of sleep, so we got up and I made some breakfast, and off he went to work. I told him to come back again that evening, and he said he would. By then, of course, it was time to get to the office, so I showered and went in. I took a nap after lunch, but by six, I was home again, and so was Sheldon."

Ned looked at her. Her breasts were full, the nipples hard. His hand, between her thighs, felt how wet she was. "How did the evening go?" he asked.