Chapter 14

The next day, I got up and was showered and wandering around the kitchen in shorts and a t-shirt when the door opened.

I came to the kitchen door and beamed as Lori came to kiss me. “You mentioned something about breakfast,” she said hopefully. “Where do you want to go?”

“Sit down,” I gestured to the kitchen table. “I was just getting things started.”

“Are you sure about the milk?” she asked. “We didn’t get around to checking it last night.”

“I went shopping after you went home,” I told her. “Everything’s fine.” I poured some batter into my favorite kitchen appliance, my waffle-maker, and started on coffee, pausing to kiss her cheek every time I happened to be passing the table.

We talked while I made her breakfast. “I dreamed about Jeff last night,” she told me. “I haven’t done that in a long time.”

“Was it a good dream?” I asked, watching her face.

“Yeah,” she smiled. “We were just talking. I was standing and he was in his wheelchair. I don’t remember what we talked about, but then he smiled at me and said, ‘he’s waiting’ and then told me that I looked beautiful in my dress. I looked down at myself and I was wearing a wedding dress. When I looked up, Jeff was gone, but I was about to walk down the aisle.”

I arched an eyebrow. “Interesting,” I said and put a waffle in front of her, bringing her butter and syrup to go with it. “Should I ask who was waiting nervously for you?”

“You’re going to look good in a tux,” she answered me and smirked as she drowned her waffle in syrup.

That was what I’d hoped for. “That’s good to know,” I said with a smile. “I don’t remember my dreams from last night, but the pills normally leave me like that. When I have my discussion with Sabrina, I’m sure it’ll be just as vivid as that, though.”

“I want to see her,” she said. “I mean her picture. She was important to you. I want to be able to put a face to her name.”

I nodded and promised to dig up her picture after breakfast. I sat down a few moments later when she told me that she didn’t need another one. We ate together in what became our habitual way to start the day. She laughed the first time I had a lunch ready for her when she got to the breakfast table. I learned the foods she loved and I took a little time to make sure she ate with a little variety. So, after a couple of weeks, she showed up at the apartment with several bags of groceries.

“What’s all this?” I asked, as she started putting things away.

“Food,” she said with a smile. “I don’t eat at home. We have breakfast here, you make me lunch and then I’m back here for dinner. Some of this came from my kitchen, but I went shopping for food too.”

That night we were planning on going out for dinner and I could tell she was nervous. She was changing here and wouldn’t show me her dress until it was time to go. We were taking my truck, which was normal for us. She knew about my anxiety about car accidents and she was perfectly comfortable with the truck. Since I bought the truck after the accident, I’d gotten it with entry assist steps on both sides, so I wasn’t as concerned about her modesty in a dress as I might have been otherwise.

I was instructed to go get into my suit for the evening and she took over the guestroom to get ready, apply makeup and start on her hair. I was dressed in about fifteen minutes, but she took over an hour and I thought it was a waste of time. She could come out in a poncho made from a trash bag, with no makeup and she was still the most beautiful woman I could imagine. I wisely didn’t suggest that though, contenting myself that she would look beautiful no matter what she was wearing.

When she was ready, I mentally kicked myself. “You look like royalty!” I told her. She was wearing a red dress and she’d made her hair and makeup look like she had the power to execute workers who displeased her. I couldn’t see the makeup on her. I didn’t know what she’d done, but it was flawless. She looked like herself idealized. “You always take my breath away, but tonight, you’ve gone to a whole new level.”

She smiled dazzlingly and twirled, for my inspection. I was a lucky SOB and I had no idea how I was going to keep my hands off her all night. So I compromised. I didn’t, but I didn’t mess up her makeup. I wrapped my arms around her and held her. She felt so good in my arms that I didn’t want to go to dinner, but we eventually locked the apartment and I held her door for her, helping her up into the truck, since her heels weren’t meant for the climb.

I stole frequent glances at her as we stopped at lights, but I turned into a hawk when the light turned green. I’d learned about distractions while driving. She could see the anxiety in my body language and the look she gave me when we parked at the restaurant was sympathetic.

I smiled and got out to come around and get her door. I took her hand as she climbed down from the truck, thinking that I might want to look into something a little lower for occasions like this. We’d made reservations for tonight and the restaurant was something well outside of where either of us normally ate, but we’d both wanted tonight to be special. I didn’t tell her that the dollar menu at Burger King would have been just as special to me if I was out with her, but I think she knew. We were pampering each other tonight.

Dinner was fabulous and I had to admit that they had BK on the ropes. We were just leaving when I saw a familiar face entering the restaurant.

“Hello, Chloe,” I said quietly. “It’s been a long time.”

She took me in from the bottom of my cane to the top of my haircut and smiled. “Hello,” she said. “How’ve you been?” She asked, coming to hug me thinking that I was an industry contact. The cane had been a present from Eve and she said she’d picked it up for a song at a storage locker auction she went to. It was ornate and black, inlaid with mother-of-pearl and carved intricately. There were small semi-precious gemstones and gold accents. It was suitable for formal occasions and this was its maiden voyage. “It’s been ... Oh, how long?”

I smiled, and hugged her back. She was seventeen now and I wondered if she was still a menace. “New Year’s Eve,” I reminded her of when we met. “I must have passed out shortly after we ran into each other, but it was that kind of party.”

She stiffened when she realized that I was the person she’d hit and when she pulled back, there was worry on her face. I smiled at her reassuringly. “Let me introduce you to my girlfriend. Chloe Sinclair, this is Lori Johnson.”

They exchanged pleasantries, with Chloe recovering a little now that she knew she wasn’t gonna get my cane wrapped around her head.

She bit her lip and looked at me sheepishly. “How have you been since the accident?” she asked delicately.

I shrugged. “It took a long time to get here, but life is starting to feel like it’s worth living again,” I told her and then looked at Lori. “That’s her doing.”

“Have you told her about the accident?” she asked.

“No, when the settlement was reached, I promised not to. She has to marry me before I can tell her,” I smiled at Lori.

Chloe stunned me when she told her. “I was the one that hit Mr. Hamilton,” she said. “I was scared and drunk and a little high and I was running from the cops when the accident happened.” She turned to me and looked worried all over again. “I wanted to apologize from the first day,” she said. “The lawyers told me to say nothing and admit nothing though. They were trying to see if they could fix it.”

I nodded. “Lawyers are picky like that,” I told her. “Thank you for saying it now. I appreciate it. I don’t want you to worry about it though. I know you didn’t mean for any of it to happen.” I really didn’t want her to agonize over it. “How have you been since then? I heard that you had some injuries too.”

She laughed mirthlessly. “A nose bleed and a sore wrist,” she said. “I ... I stopped drinking after that night. I heard that you’d first wanted me to do rehab and volunteer with a charity to fight drunk driving. I actually started doing that,” she said. “The volunteering, that is. I realized that I’d almost killed someone. If I’d been going a little faster...” She shook her head.

“I’m glad you’re doing better,” I told her sincerely. “I’m thrilled that you’re helping others too.”

She smiled and thanked me. “It was nice seeing you,” she said when she was told that her table was ready. “I’m glad you’re feeling better.” She kissed me on the cheek and then told Lori that she must be a miracle worker to get me back on my feet.

We said goodbye and then walked back to the truck. I held her door and then got in behind the wheel. “So you got put in a coma by a Hollywood starlet, huh?” she asked when we were settled.

I nodded. “I’d have told you, but the terms of the settlement included a non-disclosure agreement.”

“That’s okay,” she assured me. “It’s interesting that she told me though.”

“I think she was looking to make amends,” I admitted. “I was surprised, but pleased.”

After dinner, we had tickets to a comic at a local venue and then we were going to try dancing a little. I was hopeful that I could still take to the dance floor. The comedian was funny, but a little flat, like he had his material down to a science and was phoning it in, but the dancing went better than I could have hoped.

My leg cooperated and Lori wasn’t an avid dancer, so my mistakes were mostly glossed over. I gave her my all, even if my all was less than I wanted it to be. We danced and laughed and fell deeper in love with each other. We drove back to the apartment and I held her close as we stood just inside the closed door.

“I don’t want tonight to end,” I admitted. “You make me feel so much more alive than I can remember feeling. I crave that feeling when I have to share you with the world.”

She blushed beautifully at that and melted in my arms. “I’ve got tomorrow off,” she confided. “We don’t HAVE to call it a night.” She punctuated her statement by nibbling on my earlobe.

I shivered in response and ran my hands over her back. “You always say the sweetest things to me,” I whispered back to her and started kissing her neck, intoxicated from her perfume and her shampoo and the scent beneath it all that was just her. “I love you, so much,” I breathed in her ear.

“I love you too,” she told me and I felt her fingers stroking my neck gently as we necked softly. She started to push my suit jacket off my shoulders and I let it slide to the floor readily enough. I reached for the clasp on her dress, but she spun out of my arms nimbly. “Ah, ah, ah!” she chided with a smile on her face before she returned to me. She loosened my tie and pulled it off, tossing it aside and beckoning me to follow her. She unbuttoned my shirt and kicked off her shoes while she led me toward the bedroom. I realized that she was leaving a trail of clothes across the apartment.

“You leaving clothes everywhere for a reason?” I asked playfully.

“It’s fun to think of someone stopping by and seeing clothes everywhere,” she told me and pushed my shirt down my arms, dropping it right there at the entrance to the hall. She surveyed her handy-work and frowned. “It needs something.”

“A red dress?” I asked with a smile.

She nodded. “I think that’s the next step.” She turned her back and gathered her hair over her shoulder so I could unzip her dress. “Help a girl out?” she asked coyly.

I stepped up and started to nuzzle her neck as I opened the clasp and drew the zipper down to her perfect ass. She’d worn a black push-up bra and it matched her garter belt and panties as I helped her out of her dress.

“You get to place this one,” she said. I looked around the living room and then tossed it into the kitchen, letting it spread over the table like a newspaper. She looked at it and nodded her approval. “Perfect,” she said and my attention was drawn back to her.

She was a goddess. Her long blonde hair fell around her shoulders and her golden skin was accentuated by the black lingerie. I hungered for her and I wrapped my arms around her, wanting to feel her skin against mine. She came to me just as eagerly, her lips seeking out mine as we poured our lust into each other. My fingers found the clasp of her bra and I opened it, freeing her breasts as I pulled it from between us. I let it drop from my fingers where we stood and the two of us kept moving down the hall. My pants went next, with some difficulty. Long ago, I’d mastered the knack for taking off my socks with out the use of my hands, so they soon followed.

She grasped the waistband of my shorts in her hands and pushed them down off my hips. I let them pool at my feet and stepped out of them, leaving me naked. I awkwardly lowered myself to my knees in front of her and pulled her panties down, revealing her womanhood, inch by delectable inch. I held the panties for her to step out of them and she put her hands on my shoulders while she did so. I noticed that she was obviously wet, the inside of her panties showing considerable lubrication. I looked up at her when I had them free of her legs and lifted them to my lips, snaking out my tongue to get my first taste of her sex.

She bit her lip, as we locked eyes. I was inflamed by that brief taste and draped the thong over the doorknob for the Master Bedroom before putting my hands on her hips and pulling her closer. I wrapped my arms around her hips and kissed her mound, noting that she was freshly shaved as I ran my tongue over her labia slowly.

She groaned and tangled her fingers in my hair, pulling my head back. “Take me to bed first,” she said. “That can’t be comfortable for you.”