Chapter 7

The sun felt warm as Ashley stood there, naked by the sliding-glass door, soaking in the rays and the wonders her night held and her morning brought. She placed her palms on the glass and smoothly stroked it with her fingers, pleasantly staring down at nothing. She felt at peace, like her life finally froze in a moment worth holding onto. Time stood still as she meditated in the light while her naked body, now more womanly than ever, left a slender silhouette when seen from the other side of the room, the small of her back and the crest of her ass still faintly visible in a soft, orange glow. She didn’t hear him leave bed, but she soon felt John’s lips on her neck. A warm smile spread across her lips as she closed her eyes and lifted her chin in the air, basking in the touch of her first lover. “I want to try something,” he whispered. He disappeared for a short while and, upon returning, Ashley caught a brief reflection of him massaging his love muscle with lotion while it rose to a peak.

He made love to her then, carefully inserting and eventually thrusting himself in and out of her ass. It was a slow, questionable process, but to them, they had eternity. He held her in the air, hands under her thighs with her butt, glistening with oil and lotion against the sun, sticking out and allowing him the freedom to enjoy the full pleasure that part of her body possessed. It was quite a lot, giving Ashley new chills she hadn’t experienced, even after the previous night’s sexual discoveries. Her small hands pressed up against the glass door, leaving imprints from her sweat. Her breath condensated the window with each thrust, the top of her head pushing against the glass, completing the balance. They both had prime positions to stick and move, pulling the most from their frictions.

The partially enveloped sun fully emerged from a final, lonely cloud, shining on rain droplets still clinging to the window from the night’s storm. The droplets prismed, shining colors across Ashley’s face and body while warming her chest in ways that complimented her pleasure beyond words. Her tongue panted out as they reached climax, John filling her with what remained of the night’s encounter. Ashley, now overwhelmed with happiness, kissed the window and its little droplets, shining their sparkling, colorful life into her mouth, blessing her image despite the forbidden pleasure she was experiencing. Her heart, she knew, was pure, and she felt confident she could say the same for John. They chose this; it was not for others to decide.

And the choices continued. Later that morning, the decision to keep seeing each other was made without question, though Ashley thought the chances of them getting caught were likely. However, she gained hope after seeing her dad’s reaction when John dropped her off later that day. Her dad gave a blank stare, rubbing his pasty forehead with one hand while scratching his nasty, stained t-shirt with the other, near the side of his respectable girth. If suspicions existed, they weren’t apparent, but after Ashley explained that John was the father of her new best-friend-Megan, her dad gave the slightest hint of a smile and returned inside. Like that, John became Ashley’s exclusive chauffeur, deliberately setting Ashley up to be friends with his daughter so they could continue their secret romance while evading suspicious eyes.

But Ashley never met Megan; other plans were already put in motion, plans John later admitted knowing nothing about. Linda had found a new man, a rich man, and they were in love. As it turned out, Linda didn’t have Megan the weekend of John and Ashley’s romance, but she did pick her up from school before John got there. She ran away, taking her daughter with her and giving neither Megan nor John a fair chance to simply say “Goodbye”. Linda, having full custody, had the say in the matter, effectively removing John’s ability to oppose. He didn’t mind so much, though; after talking with Megan on the phone weeks later, she acted as if she was happier where they went. He knew she never liked her hometown and he felt happy for her, even if she forgot to mention she missed him, even the slightest. He caught wind of it, though, before she hung up, giving him a brief moment of held silence before her sudden “I ... I guess we’ll talk again, sometime,” followed by John’s own stutters, agreeing they’ll keep in touch, visit each other, etcetera. But through the years, John only saw his daughter a handful of times, almost always at very special occasions, like her marriage when she turned 19, or at family funerals. Despite losing what remained of his immediate family, Ashley found John to be more or less unaffected by their departure. It simplified his life and gave him more time to spend with her.

The initial suspicions about John giving Ashley rides sans Megan were put to rest when Ashley told everyone her father was paying him to help with her transportation. John did, after all, not live far from her, and on occasion Ashley’s father did, in fact, pay him gas money to continue convincing himself he was taking care of his daughter. For everyone else, being that John previously dropped off and picked up his own daughter, John picking up Ashley looked almost exactly the same.

Fear did nip the backs of their minds for a while; John would take Ashley to school, pick her up, all the while having incredible sex in the various avenues they found themselves in, now with proper sexual protection in place (They got lucky the first time). Initially, it was relegated to John’s place, but once the fear of getting caught subsided, the Subaru became a likely contender when a sudden urge pounced into one of their laps. Being discreet was the key to not getting caught and they were both smart not to. They carefully parked the car out of sight, hid condoms in the trash, prevented themselves from being seen together in public outside of school and they never talked about each other around people. Each day, Ashley expected some police officers to appear in her classroom doorway, give her a stern, discerning eye and inform the teacher they needed to speak with her in the principle’s office. She would lie about John, of course, but it would be only a matter of time before the truth came out and she would see him cuffed, stowed, and taken from her, possibly forever.

The fear lasted for days ... months ... and into years, until one beautiful morning when Ashley had a sleep-over at her “friend’s” house. She awoke in the arms of her beloved, swinging calmly in a large hammock he bought specially for them. She glanced around, startled, afraid of being seen with him in the broad daylight, until her heart slowed a little and only the quiet of his breathing could be heard. She stared at his broad shoulders and his chest slowly rising and falling, the steady tempo of order, of control. All the fear, the fear of their exposure and the calamity that would follow, was lifted away like dandelion seeds blown into the air by a playful schoolgirl. She thought about those officers showing up at her classroom door, staring at her with those sad, discerning eyes, and her own, imagined self brazenly laughing at them. She knew there weren’t going to be officers at the door; that day would never come.

As time passed, years, that dark cloud that initially shrouded their thoughts started to clear, giving them the freedom to explore their romance like real couples, or as close as they could emulate. They would invent dates, usually at John’s place. He didn’t have many friends locally, at least any that would randomly stop by, and his family lived further from him than Linda now did. Ashley and John would watch movies, cook, even read together. Still, even with this newfound freedom, Ashley wished for more ways to take their romance further. She wished a lot of things, but she knew wanting to fly after learning to breath underwater was a lot to ask for.

At 15, John taught Ashley how to drive the Subaru. At 17, he helped her prepare for college. And on the morning of Ashley’s 18th birthday, great change happened, starting with John showing up at her house, ringing the doorbell and, when Ashley’s father opened the door, punching him square in the jaw. He knocked out cold, so cold he had no recollection of his assailant hours later, but after waking, he realized his little girl had left him, something he was unsure as to how and react. Ashley’s father, now broke from gambling and back on the paper plant line where he used to work, came to a grand realization where his greed as a widower and his ineptness as a father had taken him. He was alone.

Even though they now lived together, Ashley knew John was afraid. Not necessarily of their past forbidden relationship being discovered (at her current age, of course, society deemed it appropriate), but afraid that she may forget him, leave him for another boy closer to her age, and possibly even reveal their entire hidden affair. She put these doubts to rest one night, having a friend drop her off at his place after prom. When John opened the door, Ashley made certain she was more beautiful than when she left his home that morning. She wore the dress he gave her; since she spent the day at a different friend’s house, this was the first time he had seen her wear it, a bareback black-jeweled wonder that cascaded down her fully developed chest and sultry body. Her face was tweaked to perfection with dangling ear rings and her hair was long, wavy, dark, and absolutely phenomenal. John looked down her body and pulled his eyes back into hers. He leaned forward and pretended to brush something off of her shoulder. Her smile shined. She adorned a corsage to his shirt, kissed him, and he took her into his arms and carried her upstairs. That night, they made more love than when they first met.