Rachel stepped out of the shower, grabbed her towel and started to dry off. As she did her mind drifted once again to the same recurring thoughts that seemed to dominate her life recently, being all alone and how much she hated it. Rachel had become a widow at the tender age of 36 and in her wildest dreams she had never imagined that anything that traumatic could actually happen to her and her husband. Bill had gone off to work just as he did every morning except on that day he hadn't returned home, instead the police arrived just before ten in the morning to inform her that her husband been the victim of a reckless driver. That had been seven years ago and now at the age of 42 she still missed Bill and wished he was here to see how good the children were doing.

Rachel dried her face then got most of the water out of her hair and dried off her arms. She took the soft towel into her left hand, bent forward at little and began drying her breasts. She looked down at what her husband had always called her best assets and smiled to herself. They still stood proudly out from her chest even after two children but she knew that some of that perkiness was no doubt due to not having huge breasts, just nicely rounded orbs with silver dollar sized brown areolas and finger-tipped nipples. She remembered how Bill had loved to suckle on her breasts and how she had enjoyed it too and the memory almost caused her to started crying.

Sniffling she dried her legs and then that special spot between her legs, the one that hadn't been used in years at least not by anything except her own fingers. She tamped her pubic hair dry then sat down on the vanity bench and with two fingers opened her labia and felt herself — dry as a bone. God how she missed making love! Oh Rachel had been on a couple of dates over the years but it just wasn't the same as being married and besides she had two children to raise and just didn't have time to work on personal relationships.

When she finished drying off she walked into her bedroom and rummaged through her dresser until she found a nice pair of panties and when she looked for the matching bra there wasn't anything that even vaguely resembled the pattern of her panties much less looked like a matching set. Well tomorrow, she thought, when I go shopping I'll purchase myself a few sets of nice sexy lingerie and toss out all of this old stuff. Rachel finally found an acceptable bra, put it on and then picked out a pullover blouse and a pair of shorts and went downstairs. She looked around the almost 2500 square foot downstairs with dismay, the dammed house was just so big and so empty with everyone gone that it almost broke her heart. Her daughter Judy was still two months away from coming home from her freshman year in college but her son James was due home in two more days having just graduated from the Marine Corps boot camp in North Carolina. God it was going to be good to have at least one of the children home for a little while.

The two days passed quickly and Rachel had stayed busy preparing for James' homecoming celebration. The day he was due at the airport Rachel showered and dressed for her son's return and in doing so put on a pair of her brand black lace panties with a matching bra. She searched through her closet until she found a nice opaque cream colored blouse and dark green skirt. She wasn't sure why she felt the need to wear a sexy outfit on this particular day but somehow it just made her feel like more of a woman even if no one was going to see her undergarments. That afternoon she drove to the airport and parked in the short-term parking and walked to the terminal. Fifteen minutes before his plane was due in she was waiting at the bottom of the arrival's escalator for James. When she finally saw him coming down towards her she thought that he looked so darn handsome in his Marine Corps uniform that she couldn't do anything but smile. When he reached the bottom of the escalator she pulled him into her arms, kissed his cheek and hugged him and that's when she first noticed another Marine standing right beside James.

"Oh, mom let me introduce you to Rick. This is Rick Brock and we went to boot camp together and now were both going to California too, some place called Camp Pendleton which is near San Diego. God can you imagine that mom, California, the beaches and the girls!"

Rachel smiled at the typical teenage comments then took a step back and looked at Rick and held her hand out. "I'm please to meet you Rick. Any friend of James's is always welcome in my home."

Rick took Rachel's hand and was surprised at how beautiful she was in person, even more beautiful than the picture Jim had shown him in boot camp. "I'm pleased to meet you too Mrs. Scott. Jim has told me a lot about you."

"Please Rick, call me Rachel. My husband has been gone a long time now and Mrs. just sounds strange."

"Alright then, Rachel it is."

"Come on boys, let's get your luggage and head home, I've got a light lunch waiting and there will be plenty for everyone." Rachel drove home and the two boys spent the whole trip telling Rachel all about their experiences in boot camp. When she finally pulled into the driveway the boys hopped out, grabbed their bags and raced into the kitchen. "Remember honey, I've got lunch waiting." She yelled at James.

We'll be right there mom."

Rachel walked into the kitchen and put another place setting out for Rick then served the sandwiches. After everyone had finished eating Rachel asked if they were tried and wanted to just lounge around and relax.

"Thanks for the lunch mom, but I have to tell you that Rick and I have been dreaming about using the pool. If it's alright with you we'll grab a couple of beers and go outside and relax."

"Sure sweetie, let me get the dishes put away and then I'll grab a glass of wine and join you both."

"That's great mom. I'll show Rick to his room and we'll change and be right down."

As they both raced off for the bedroom to change Rachel marveled at the unbridled energy of their youth. She opened the fridge and found an opened bottle of Chardonnay and poured herself a glass and then walked out the back door onto the deck and pulled a chair so it faced the pool. She put on a pair of sunglasses and sipped her wine while she waiting for the boys to return.

James was the first one out the back door closely followed by Rick and after they set their beers down on the patio table and dove into the pool it dawned on Rachel how grown-up her son had become in such a short time. He wasn't the shy, skinny boy that had left home three months ago, now he was a chiseled, tanned young Marine who looked very much like he could handle anything the world threw at him. Rick too looked very much the man. He appeared to be a little older than her son, maybe 20 she thought as she sipped on her wine - and what a body! He was at least six feet tall with close-cropped brown hair and bulging muscles everywhere. She thought his waist couldn't have been over thirty inches and the pair of trunks he was wearing certainly didn't do anything to hide the fact that he was well endowed.

After playing around for a while the boys got out of the pool and laid down on their deck chairs to sun dry. Rachel was watching them and musing over which of them had the best looking butt when James called.

"Hey mom, would you put some lotion on my back, I don't want to get burned?"

She got out of her chair, grabbed the bottle of lotion and started walking over to the chair. "Sure honey." She sat down on the side of his lounger and he moved over to give her some room and she started spreading lotion over his shoulders. As she worked her way over his shoulders and down his back she noticed that he had become well toned in just three months. When she finally got down to his waist she patted him on the butt. "You're done mister." Then almost as an afterthought she said, "Rick, would you like some lotion on your back too?"

"Yes that would be great, thanks Rachel."

She moved over to Rick's lounge chair and sat beside him and squirted some lotion onto her hands and started on his shoulders only this time something was very different. It wasn't her son or husband she was spreading oil on now, it was a complete stranger. Rick's shoulders felt smooth but taught and then without even realizing it she changed from spreading the lotion on his shoulders to massaging his shoulders. As she moved lower on his back she heard a slight moan and she smiled as she worked the lotion into his body. Her hands went further down his body doing his back and his side all the way down to his waist. The whole thing hadn't taken more than a couple of minutes but when she finally quit and went back to her chair her hands were shaking just a bit and she realized that she was damp, damp in a place that hadn't been damp in a long, long time. As the boys talked and joked Rachel looked at Rick and for just a moment fantasized about what he would look like completely naked.

That evening as Rachel cooked dinner the boys helped by setting the table then they all ate in the formal dining room. Rachel had put out the good, for company only, china and her best silverware and in general made a big production out of the whole meal. By way of an explanation she said that living all alone wasn't at all conducive to having nice meals and certainly not in one's formal dining room.

As they ate Rachel asked Rick about his family and where he grew up and he told her that he was from a small town in western Virginia and he joked that in his house they didn't have a formal dining room, just a kitchen. As Rick talked about his life and growing up in rural Virginia he finally confessed to being twenty-one. "You see Rachel I got a late start in life so to speak. My parents are pretty poor and I didn't get enrolled in grade school until a year after most everyone else then in the fifth grade I didn't do very well and was held back another year so I just graduated high school last year." Then Rick bragged that he was the first and only member of his family to have graduate from high school and that he had enlisted in the Marine Corps as a way to get away from the poverty of the coal country of western Virginia and make something of himself. Rachel was so impressed with the boy's story and obvious sincerity that she almost cried right at the table.

They finished dinner and the boys helped her clean the table and get everything out into the kitchen. Both James and Rick left to watch something on the big-screen television in the den and Rachel began hand washing the fine china. She was just finishing putting away the plates when Rick stopped by the kitchen.

"Anything I can do to help out Rachel?"

"No I think I'm fine Rick. You and James go ahead and enjoy yourself I think I'm just going to sit her for a while and enjoy the quiet."

"Alright if you're sure."

"I'm sure, now go on." She watched him leave and poured herself another glass of wine and sat down at the kitchen table and again thought about the young man her son had brought home. She closed her eyes and could almost vision him naked and taking her into his arms and kissing her. Her nipples would be hard and poking into his chest and he would drop one hand down to her butt and squeeze her as they kissed. She was so deep in her thoughts that she didn't hear him come back into the kitchen.

"Are you okay Rachel?"

Startled, she knocked over her wineglass and watched helplessly as it rolled off the table and on to the kitchen floor where it shattered. "Oh my God Rick, you scared me half to death."

"I'm sorry I just came out for a coke and you had this really weird look on your face. Here let me get that glass picked up, you don't want any shards cutting your feet." He grabbed a couple of paper towels off the counter and was on his hands and knees cleaning up the broken glass and wiping the floor when James walked in.

"Hey what happened?" James asked, standing in the doorway.

Rachel looked up. "Oh nothing honey my mind was a million miles away and when Rick came into the kitchen it startled me and I dropped my glass."

It was about a half an hour later when Rachel decided to go upstairs, change clothes and read for a while. She got up from the table and walked out to the den and looked around the corner. There was a football game on the TV and both boys were animatedly rooting for one team or the other. "Hey honey," she said to James, "I'm headed upstairs to read for a while."

"Okay mom, I'll stop by and say goodnight if your lights are still on."

"Goodnight Rachel." Rick said with a smile and a wave of his hand.

Rachel walked into her bedroom and closed the door the she stripped out of her clothes and wearing just her bra and panties, walked over to the mirror and looked at herself. She looked at her front for a second, did a 360-degree spin then turned to her right and looked at her profile. She smiled to herself thinking that she wasn't half bad looking especially for being 42! She took a deep breath then slipped out of her panties and unsnapped her bra and laid them both on the vanity chair and opened her closet and took out her brand new peignoir set she had just purchased. It was a silk sheen sleepwear set with full length pants with an elastic drawstrings, a top that showed off the tops of her creamy white breasts and made her figure even more sensuous looking and it came with an off the shoulder jacket with a full collar. It was available in three colors but Rachel had chosen Gazelle beige because it set off her light colored blonde hair and green eyes. She fluffed up two pillows and then slipped under the covers and picked up the novel she was reading and opened it to the book marked page.

After a while there was a light knocking on her door. "Yes?"

"It's me mom."

"Come on in honey."

James walked into the room and over to the bed. "I'm beat and headed to bed." He kissed her on the cheek and turned to leave. "Good night mom, see you in the morning."

"Goodnight sweetie, sleep well." She watched as her son pulled the door closed and she picked up her novel and continued reading. Sometime later she looked over at the clock and saw that it was almost midnight. Thirsty, she decided to go downstairs and find something to quench her thirst. She slipped out of bed and moved quietly down the hall so as not to awaken the boys. Rachel walked across the foyer and living room and into the kitchen and opened the fridge but nothing grabbed her attention. Deciding that maybe a drink would settle her down for the night she walked into the den and across the darkened room to the wet bar. She found the backlight switch and turned it on and was just leaning down when she heard him.

"Can't sleep either?"

She turned and saw that Rick was still sitting on the couch exactly where he had been when she left to go upstairs. "No actually I can't and I thought that a drink might settle me down. Would you like one too?"

"Sure that would be nice." Rick rose and walked over to the bar and watched Rachel.

"What would you like?" She asked.

"What are you having?"

"Well I was thinking of just a bit of bourbon, is that good for you?"

"That would be great Rachel, pour me two fingers, no ice please."

Rachel was pouring the drinks and Rick was staring her and that's when it dawned on her what she was wearing. Having assumed that the boys were fast asleep she had just come downstairs in her sleepwear. She blushed then took a quick peek down at herself and saw that Rick had a good view of the tops of her breasts and that the rest of her outfit was pretty revealing too. Oh well, she thought, there isn't anything I can do about that now. She handed him the drink and they toasted.

"Can I tell you something Rachel?"

"Sure."

"Well don't take this wrong but I've been watching you and when you blush you are the most beautiful woman in the whole world."

She stared at the boy, her mouth open in amazement. Was he actually coming on to her? "Well I'll take that as a compliment, thank you Rick." They both stood there sipping on their bourbon not saying anything, but there was a certain amount of tension in the air.

She was being so quiet that Rick was sure she was angry. "Look Rachel I'm sorry if I offended you I certainly didn't mean to."

She looked at him, so young and so damned good looking. "I didn't take any offense Rick it's just... well I'm not used to having men giving me compliments, that's all. It's been, well a long time."

He set his glass down and moved around behind the bar and stood next to Rachel. "If I kissed you would I be out of line?" Then he gently pulled her into his arms and when she didn't resist he bent his head down and his lips barely touched hers and he kissed her. Still Rachel didn't say anything so he put an arm around her back and pulled her even closer and kissed her again, this time his tongue slipping just inside her lips, searching around, playing and darting in and out. He could feel her breasts against his shirt and he was positive her nipples had hardened. After a minute or so he broke the kiss and looked down at her. "I'm amazed Rachel, you look like a Helen of Troy and kiss like a Greek Goddess, what other secrets are you hiding?"

Rachel was in a state of shock! The kiss had been so sudden and even though he had asked permission she hadn't said a word, too shocked that he would be so bold but when his lips touched hers every possible denial she had thought of was gone in a moment of passion. He felt so damned good, his strong arms around her, his lips on hers and she could feel her nipples as they hardened and she could also feel the wetness between her legs. Oh my God what do I do now? This boy is almost the same age as Judy and not much older than James. She pushed him back a bit. "Look Rick I'm sorry but I think we should stop this right now, after all I'm old enough to be your mother."

He just chuckled. "If that's what you want Rachel that's fine but you shouldn't worry about the age difference between us because in the big scheme of things it just isn't important." He decided to give her some space so he moved away and walked back around to the front of the bar.

"But it is important Rick, it's important because it makes me feel strange. I'm sorry I don't mean to offend you but everything in my body is saying that this is just plain wrong."

"Alright Rachel, if that's the way you feel I certainly understand. Still... I think you're beautiful and it's not like your married or anything, so I'm not sure how it can be wrong?"

"Look Rick, you and James are leaving for California and you'll find a lot of women out there that are your own age and I'll just be a fading memory, just an old woman from Kentucky." She set her empty glass down on the bar. "Good night Rick, I'll see you in the morning." She turned and left the den and left Rick standing at the bar watching, stunned.

Once inside her bedroom she took off the sleepwear jacket and slipped into her bed and curled up under the covers. She thought about Rick and about his kiss and let one of her hands slip down inside her pants and down between her legs where she was still wet. Damn, damn, damn she said to no one in particular and then she fell asleep.

The next morning Rachel woke up, stretched and her thoughts drifted back to Rick and what he had said to her the night before, that she wasn't married so why was it wrong? Damn good question she thought as she put on her robe and went downstairs to make breakfast. The bacon was sizzling and coffee perking when James and Rick came into the kitchen. She looked up and smiled. "Good morning to both of you. Everyone sleep well?"

"Yea mom, I slept great. It's nice to be back in my own bed even if it's only going to be for a few days."

"Rick smiled at Rachel. "The bed was wonderful Rachel, a lot better than the bunk beds we had in boot camp."

The boys ate breakfast and then after cleaning up James told Rachel that he and Rick were just going to cruise around Lexington for a while and see what was happening and not to expect them home much before dinner.

After the boys left Rachel finished cleaning the kitchen and then went upstairs and showered, dried off then sat at the vanity and put on her makeup. While she applied her makeup she thought about what she wanted to wear and decided that she had just the right outfit. She walked into her bedroom and picked out another one of her new sets of under clothes, this time she picked a pair of forest green panties and a matching bra that was soft and velvety. The bra was half lined but had the most beautiful combination embroidery and mesh setting off her skin tone perfectly. She opened her closet and took out a pair of black wide-legged trousers and slipped into them. They sat low on her hips and showed off her butt to her best advantage and then slipped into a red long sleeved blouse that had a huge bow tie holding the top close yet was opened enough to give just a hint of breast to anyone looking. She looked at herself in the mirror and smiled knowing that she could have anyone she wanted dressed like she was and she was sure that it would accomplish what she had planned.

James and Rick didn't get home until just after four and Rachel was already working on fixing dinner. When the boys came into the kitchen James came to a sudden and complete stop and just stared at his mother, wide-eyed. "My God mother, where did you get that outfit?"

Rachel spun around showing off her outfit. "Oh down at the mall why honey, don't you like it?"

"Like it, Jesus if you weren't my mom I would be having dirty thoughts and chasing you around the house."

She turned and looked at Rick and smiled, a wicked smile. "What about you Rick, what do you think?"

Rick smiled back and knew that she had put it on especially for him. "I agree with Jim, it looks absolutely stunning on you!"

They ate dinner then cleaned up afterward and went into the den to watch a movie Rick had picked up that afternoon at the video store. It was a love story, romantic and mushy without being too sexy. When the movie was over James grabbed the clicker and changed the channel to ESPN to catch that day's scores. The three of them sat there watching but there was a perceptible tension in the air as Rick waited for Jim to go to bed so he could be alone with Rachel and he knew that Rachel was waiting patiently too. Finally at ten when ESPN was finally over James yawned, got off the couch and said that he was going to turn in for the night.