Chapter 9

I decided to give her some space. I had been a little aggressive, after all. That was my nature. I generally just said whatever I thought. This was the first time in a long time that I wished I'd been a little less "me" and thought before I spoke. So I put on some sweats and drove to the gym. It was too cold to run outside, but we had a YMCA with a beautiful indoor rubberized track, so I put in a few miles on it. Then I went swimming. I was reminded I was still out of shape.

When I got back she was clearly relieved.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"I thought you went away mad," she said.

"I went away to give you some space away from the creepy guy," I said. "And to get a workout. I went to the gym."

"You needed a workout after that?" She was clearly amused.

"I needed a workout because I wasn't finished yet when you chased me away," I said, with full bravado.

She laughed. I didn't take offense. She has a beautiful laugh. I'll listen to her laugh any time, even if it's at my expense.

"You're not really creepy," she said. "I shouldn't have said that."

"I don't know," I said. "I said some pretty creepy things."

"You said some really romantic things," she corrected.

"You call that romantic? Hey baby, how about letting me knock you up?"

She laughed again. "Not from just anybody, but from you it was romantic."

"Oh. Good. I feel much better."

"I was just surprised. Actually, astonished is a better word."

"You find it surprising that a man might look at you, and the two beautiful kids you've already brought into the world, and not be interested in helping you do that again?"

"I find it surprising that a man with so many options might be willing to hazard limitations on a carefree lifestyle."

"Think of it as a man who might think about trading in a boring lifestyle, in which his hand is his only faithful lover, for life with two invigorating, interesting children and a woman who is both intelligent and so beautiful it makes his balls hurt every time he looks at her. Then toss in the opportunity of a lifetime, to mate with that woman, a woman many men would literally kill for the chance to inseminate. Then it doesn't seem so strange that he'd abandon the dreary past for an exciting future."

"There's that tongue of yours again," she sighed. "But did you have to use the word inseminate? Ewwww."

"Fertilize ... infuse ... soak ... drench ... saturate. Those are the only other words I could think of," I said.

"Even more ewwww," she said, in mock horror.

"I'm glad you're not mad," I said. "And I'm sorry if it sounded like I was laying claim to your womb."

"I'm not mad. It's kind of flattering in a way."

"A sort of creepy, but not really, kind of way?" I suggested.

I know I sounded hopeful. I didn't mean to.

It just came out that way.

I offered to take them out to lunch, and then go do something fun. While we were eating, I found out Valerie had never been to the Niagara Aquarium. Actually, she hadn't been much of anywhere, because they were on a tight budget. Having decided to buy instead of rent, Valerie had been hard pressed to pay the mortgage each month. But the kids had been to the aquarium on school trips, and they wanted to go again, so we spent three hours there. We were greeted by the harbor seals, which are in an outside exhibit and welcome visitors to the building with barks and antics. They also do a show, which we all enjoyed. Seals are more fun to watch than apes in my opinion, because they have better manners. The kids loved the shark tank and watching the piranhas, with their bulging sharp teeth. The moray eels were also fascinating. The staff was friendly, knowledgeable and fun to talk to. It was a good afternoon.

After that we swung by the site of their old house. The slab had been scooped clean. Next door, where the house had had a basement, everything had fallen into it. Nothing had been done to that house yet. If the clean slab looked like progress, the house next door was a reminder of all they'd lost. There was no evidence of Dean having done anything beyond get rid of a lot of debris and I wondered if he was having a harder time getting together a crew than he thought he would.

To get them past the visual downer of the charred slab, I took them shopping for more clothes. I also got some more games for the kids to play.

On the way back to the car, we walked past a jewelry store. The window was full of glittering diamonds. I tugged Valerie to a stop.

"See anything you like?" I asked.

She looked at me, her stare level, and then surveyed the plethora of jewelry in the window.

"Don't tease me, Bob," she said.

"Who says I'm teasing?"

She looked at me again.

"For as romantic as you can be, sometimes you are sadly lacking in that department."

"I haven't had a lot of practice," I admitted.

"Every time I try to slow things down a little bit, you jump way ahead," she commented.

"I've never been known to be a patient man," I said.

"I'm learning that."

"I'll try to be more patient," I said. "We can always look at jewelry later."

"See? You're doing better already."

She hugged my arm to her breast and pulled me after the children.

That evening the kids were busy with their new games. Valerie managed to keep me out of bed by going through old files with me, making me explain each case and how I had resolved it. Along the way she found out why I have so much money.

"Three percent doesn't sound like much," she said.

"They never think it is," I replied, smugly.

"Who'd think three little percent could amount to so much?"

"Me," I said, proudly.

"And they keep hiring you."

"I have a gift," I said. "I make them money."

"You cost them a lot too."

"Not really. Even when you consider my cut, they come out with a lot more money than they had before they hired me. And that's all the stockholders care about. They've tried to use other people sometimes, but my results usually show greater gains."

"You're irresistible to other people too, not just me," she observed.

"Does that mean it's bedtime?" I asked, hopefully.

"Did you buy any condoms while we were out today?" she asked, sweetly. She knew I had not. We hadn't gone any place that sold them. And since I was the one driving all day, that was on me.

"Sadly, no," I said.

"Then it's not bedtime," she said, firmly.

"Does that mean I'm back on the couch?" I asked, trying to sound miserable.

"I think it's best," she said, not sounding miserable at all.

Crap.

Several hours later I settled in on the couch. My sheets and the blanket were still there. The twins were already in bed, so they didn't see me in my demoted status.

I got all the way to sleep this time, before a sharp fingernail poked me in my ribs and I woke up with a start.

"I changed my mind," she said.

If anything, she was even more passionate and ardent that night than she'd been the night before. If the gym had suggested I was out of shape, she confirmed it. She woke me twice more that night. I spurted in her twice, and on neither occasion did she scold me for failing to pull out. The third time she had a very quiet, very tense orgasm with me planted deep in her, only moving in small circles, and then relaxed. I was happy. I was stiff, but I didn't feel the urge to cum again. I just loved having her in my arms and being planted deep inside her.

We fell asleep with me embedded in her, but woke up having rolled apart in the night. She really did move around in the bed a lot.

Sunday morning the children didn't raid the bedroom. I was drained, but Valerie was full of pep and got up at least an hour and a half before anyone else. I have no idea what she did, because when I heard the thumping of the twins' bare feet and got up myself, all there was in the kitchen for breakfast were bowls of cereal and some fruit. She hadn't spent that hour and a half preparing breakfast.

That was a lazy day. I napped twice. The kids were at the game console again. Valerie sat curled up in a chair, reading.

It was nice.

We didn't go anywhere.

Which meant I didn't get any condoms. Again.

There was no talk about the couch that night. In fact, Valerie picked up the sheets off the couch and dropped them in the hamper. The blanket, she folded and put away in the linen closet.

When it was time for bed, she hustled the children off and then turned to me.

"Don't make me wait."

Valerie was, as many women are, difficult to understand. She could be submissive in the extreme, but ten minutes later she was in charge of everything. That last comment I told you she made is an example. She told me not to make her wait, and her tone of voice suggested that she meant I was to stop what I was doing and come be at her beck and call immediately.

And that's what I did.

Only to find her naked, on her knees and forearms, with her cheek on the covers of the bed. She was literally offering up her gorgeous bottom in the classical submissive position to be taken from the rear.

"I've never done it this way," came her soft voice.

That's what I mean. Her attitude and behavior changed with the winds. When we met she was frightened. When she found out her house and all their possessions had burned to the ground, she was both frightened and hopeless. When I took her in she was appreciative, but worried. She didn't know me from Adam. When she got to know me, and was attracted to me, that made her wary because she didn't want to be any more vulnerable in my presence than she already was. Her heart had been slashed, long ago, and the scar was thick. She fought the attraction between us until it became too strong. Even then, she went down clawing and scraping, trying to do what she thought was the best thing to do.

But when Valerie Martin finally accepted the situation, she went into it with wide open arms and hope in her breast. She took that leap of faith, and trusted that I was the man I had held myself up to be.

I am, of course. Which is why all this turned out well, and I am telling you this story now.

Jack had taken her virginity, and fucked twins in her belly. But Jack had not been her lover. She'd never had a lover, not really. And while I had enjoyed relationships with a number of women over the years, none of them reached inside and gripped my soul like Valerie did. In many ways, I had never had a lover either.

It was a match made in Heaven. Which is interesting, when you consider it got started on Halloween, which is a holiday that is based around the opposite of Heaven.

Sorry. I got distracted. I've learned a lot over the years Val and I have been together, and that just seemed like a good place to put that bit of information in there.

Back to that night.

By the time I crawled up onto the bed, behind her, she was waving her butt back and forth.

"I hope I like it this way," she said.

"You want it top or bottom?" I asked, as I gripped the soft skin on her hips.

"What?"

"There are two entries in front of me," I said. "One on top, and one on the bottom."

She stopped moving her butt.

"You mean in my ass?"

It was comical, because she sounded horrified at the same time she lunged forward, flipped on her back and kicked me with one foot. Luckily I caught it.

"You can't fuck me in the ass!" she wailed. "No! No! I don't want to do this any more!"

"Calm down," I said, stroking the arch of her foot. "I was only asking. If you don't want to be butt fucked, then butt fucking you will not get."

"That's awful!" she moaned. "How can you even think about putting your penis in there?"

"Some women like it," I said, shrugging my shoulders.

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Bewitched

Lubrican

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