Chapter 16: Agreement

“Look,” Diane asked when she came in to find Eric in bed, “is financial dependence a make-or-break issue for you?”

“No.” Eric didn’t even seem to pause to consider. “I’ve said what togetherness is critical for me. A joint checking account isn’t among the parts that I need.” A joint checking account was only a tiny fraction of what he had offered. “I might want to wrap you in cotton batting, but I have always been clear that you had to fly free. I love you, and I love that you fly free.”

“Well, could we have me flying free in the way that I see it instead of just in the way that you see it?”

“It’s not really freedom if we don’t, is it?” he asked. The man could see that. The man was loving, and he was possessive. She would always have to deal with his being possessive, but that was just part of his way of being loving. He was also intelligent -- scarily intelligent, sometimes. Kicking and screaming wouldn’t work with him. Laying out how it looked to her just might.

“Your own question back to you,” he said. “Is this a make-or-break issue for you?” That was a good question, and -- as he’d said -- it had been her question. Now, if only she had a good answer.

“I don’t know. I just don’t know.” Suddenly, she couldn’t imagine not being married to him. Without him, her future seemed awfully bleak. And living together without marriage wasn’t really a realistic option. They were sort of doing that now, but Valerie wouldn’t be as accepting at sixteen as she was at six. On the other hand, she could imagine quite clearly marriage with the income sharing that he wanted with her as his appendage, and that was a nightmare. She took off the robe and got into bed naked.

“Well, whatever you finally would say, it’s clearly more important to you than to me. So, we’ll do it your way. Why don’t I ask my lawyers to draft a prenup? On the car, do you see that this is simply a need of my own?” It was a need of his. He was unduly worried about automobile accidents. She’d known white-knuckle flyers; he was a white-knuckle driver. On the other hand...

“It’s wrapping me in cotton batting again.”

“Well, only if there is a collision,” Eric said, “And, in that case, you would want the Rover. Until then, it’s just reducing my nightmares. I have two hostages to fortune now, and I can’t put both of you behind me.”

“Behind you?” She didn’t see that he was trying to put her behind him. He certainly wasn’t excluding Sparky from his life.

“That’s where Sparky rides in the car. Common sense says that another car is as likely to hit you from the left as from the right. Still, if one does and hits hard enough to kill her, it would probably kill me, too. I survived Laura, and I don’t want to go through that again.”

“Let’s compromise. I’ll keep the Toyota until my residency is over. Then, when I buy a new car, I’ll buy a new Rover out of my own money. Well, I’ll buy it on time. It’ll be easy to get financing with a new job as a doctor.” She could buy it with the banked dividends now. Would it keep her dependent on her family if she used the money and repaid it?

“Well, okay.” He was clearly accepting his worries as a price for her freedom. He was a dear, and, clearly, both sides of his conflicted wishes were his love for her.

“I love you, too,” she said. She wanted him then.

“Well, I love you.” He said, but he didn’t reach for her. “Our problem is that parts of the way I love you aren’t ways you want to be loved.”

“Well, right now, the way I want to be loved is one you can supply.” She reached for him, and he rolled over and above her to kiss her. They had a long and wet kiss, but his tongue wasn’t the part she wanted in her. His hand stroked down her abdomen to her delta. When she parted her legs, he went on. Still, his finger wasn’t the part she wanted in her right then, either.

“No foreplay,” she said when he broke the kiss. “You. Now.” He was already hard in her hand, and she pulled gently toward where she needed him.

“Love,” he said. She raised her knees to hold more of him. He was parting her labia with his fingers while she was guiding him with her hand. Then he slid in slowly, but deeply. He shifted so that he held her breasts leaving space for the nipples to feel his chest hair. “Love,” he repeated. Then he kissed her.

He was filling her, and he was above her pressing down, and his mouth was on hers. He was everywhere he could be. She wrapped her arms around his chest and hooked her ankles behind him.

“Mine,” she said.

“Oh, yes.” Then he was moving in and out slowly. He was cupping her breasts, and his chest hairs were brushing her nipples. She began to soar within. She felt the heat spread from her breasts and loins. She felt the peculiar excitement that was sexual arousal, but she was equally conscious of him.

She watched Eric’s face inches above her own. His eyes were locked on hers. She felt his smooth back with its slickness of perspiration and the flexing of his muscles beneath her fingers. She slid her hands down to feel the greater flexing of his glutes. She felt his abdomen move across hers and his chest hairs as they brushed over her distended nipples. She felt his calves beneath the edges of her feet and his thighs driving within the hug of hers. She felt his firm phallus moving in and out of her vagina, and in all of that she felt his love.

Suddenly, her arousal peaked. She felt a rush of heat spread to her fingers and toes and her legs push down on his to raise her pelvis to swallow the last bit of him. She felt herself pulse around his driving hardness.

“Diane!” he said. He drove her down into the mattress, and she felt him pulse inside her pulsation.

Then he was heavy on her, but it was the weight of his love. He tried to move off, but she tightened her arms and legs.

“You know,” he said in a whisper that was quite clear as his mouth was an inch from her ear. “I’m not a complete idiot. I had a wedding gift planned, and then I saw that it wouldn’t work. I was going to give you a whole charity clinic.”

“I don’t think that those are for sale.” Though Eric might just buy one if they were. They hadn’t really discussed the income side of Eric’s sheet, but the figures there were in millions. The tax-free bonds paid more than a hundred thousand a year. This thought caught her attention, and she relaxed her arms. Eric pulled off her and lay on his back but with his side touching hers.

“Cuddle?” he asked. “Well, it would hardly be benefiting anyone if you took over one already in operation. I had it all planned out. You would need, after all, to finish your residency before you could really operate it. Then, too, we need to take a honeymoon.” He stopped to get her pillow on his shoulder. She lay on the pillow with her head facing him and his arm down her back.

“Um,” she said. “We hadn’t discussed the honeymoon.”

“That can’t be until you finish your residency. I don’t really think that flying home from Paris fits in the twelve-hour time slot.”

“Is that where you planned the honeymoon to be?”

“Wherever you want,” he said. His voice sounded fond and excited. “Paris, Tahiti, wherever. You get off your residency, July first. Or is it the second?”

“July first.”

“Then we’d take the honeymoon for July.”

“Well, tell me about this clinic.” The subject of a honeymoon was one for much later. First, she should find her post-residency position.

“Well, understanding I saw the problem before I brought it up to you, here’s what the plan used to be. I would buy a building in the proper neighborhood and get it equipped. Then, August first or soon after, the clinic would open with you in charge. Depending on the neighborhood, you’d need bilingual nurses, but I don’t think those would be a problem. Then, I saw that I’d be doing to you what I’d done to myself. If you had that clinic, you wouldn’t be a doctor anymore. You would be an administrator. Well, even if I thought about putting you in that trap, I did see the trap before I brought it up.”

“I love you,” she said. She did love him, and not only because he loved her, though that was an important part of it. Still, he didn’t understand her. Well, she didn’t understand him, either. With that thought, and none too soon, she drifted off.

The alarm was horrible, but she got herself clean, dressed, fed, and to work. Well, Eric really got her to work, and Mrs. Grant got her fed. Still, she was on the floor reasonably awake when six o’clock struck.

She was following Dr. Steiner late in the day. He stopped to talk to the worried parents of a kid whose bladder infection wasn’t responding so far to the second antibiotic that they were using after the first antibiotic had caused a serious allergy.

“Well,” Dr. Steiner said, “we’re dealing with a serious problem. All we can tell you is that you have our team on your side. I’m treating the disease, and Dr. Thibault here is treating your son.” They looked at her trustingly, and she tried not to look astonished. “That’s really the way it is,” Dr. Steiner said on their way to the next patient. “I’m the hospital expert on disease. I don’t claim to know the patients.”

She tried not to get a swelled head, though praise from Steiner was praise indeed. She didn’t know how to convey that to Eric, so she didn’t when she called.

“I got a prenup from the lawyers,” he said. “I sent back my response, and I’ll show you the second draft when I pick you up.”

“You aren’t trying to fool me with legal gobbledygook?”

Eric was definitely not doing that. “I told them to use as plain language as would be enforced by a court.” The truth was that Eric wasn’t particularly afraid that Diane wouldn’t marry him. She had said she would, and had told Sparky that she would. Diane was a woman who kept her word. On the other hand, he was much more worried that she would find that she couldn’t stand being married to him. He’d seen one divorce as a child, and he didn’t want to experience one for himself. Diane kept her word, but he didn’t think she’d stick to a marriage she couldn’t stand. His task, then, was to make it one she would enjoy. He got the second draft back by e-mail. They didn’t need messengers since they didn’t have signatures, yet.

Whereas, The Party of the First Part, Diane Thibault, and The Party of the Second Part, Eric Barnes, intend to marry, and whereas each has property and each desires to retain control of his or her own property, they enter into this agreement which will take effect upon their marriage:

Each party retains ownership of any property in his or her name at the time of the marriage, and each retains ownership and control of any income each may receive thereafter.

Each party shall make a will leaving his or her estate without consultation with the other. Each party shall donate to charity out of his or her income without consultation with the other.

They shall file a joint federal income tax return and a joint State of California income tax return. The party with the larger income in any year shall pay the entirety of the taxes.

They shall maintain a joint residence. Until and unless they jointly agree to modify this provision, the residence shall be (Here the lawyers had listed the legal description of the house. Eric hoped that was the right house.) The Party of the Second Part shall retain title to that house and shall continue to pay all taxes, and housekeepers’ salary, housekeeping supplies, utilities, necessary repairs, reasonable preventive maintenance, lawn care, and other charges for the maintenance of that house as a comfortable place of residence.

Any furniture in addition to the furniture presently in the house shall be subject to agreement of the parties, and they shall agree as to the person who shall be liable for the purchase price.

It is agreed that The Party of the First Part’s present contract of residency at Children’s Hospital takes priority over this agreement. Any absence from the house for reason of fulfilling that contract does not represent a violation of this agreement.

Any period of hospitalization of either party by reason of accident, illness, or confinement does not represent a violation of this agreement.

Parental supervision of Valerie Barnes shall be shared equally by the parties. Rules presently in effect regulating her behavior shall remain in effect until the parties mutually agree upon changing them.

Either party may make reasonable exception to those rules in special cases, and either party may make further rules in emergencies.

The Party of the Second Part shall provide all the monetary support for Valerie Barnes except for occasional minor gifts. This support shall include any child care or hired supervision that either party deems necessary.

Food for the household shall be at the expense of The Party of the Second Part.

He handed it to her when he picked her up.

He said, “I hope that’s not too complicated in language. They asked me all sorts of questions about things that I hadn’t thought about. I didn’t check with you, but it’s still a draft. What you want can be in the third draft.”

“Well,” Diane said after a bit, “I’ve read it once. Now, points: One, I see that if you get pregnant and are hospitalized for delivery, that doesn’t count as cheating on the ‘staying in the same house’ rule.” He laughed with her. “Okay. We don’t consult on how we leave our property. Why do I suspect that this means that you leave yours to me?”

“Not all of it, really. I have more money than does me any good, and it will be more than would do you any good. If you don’t want to own a huge block of DSI, though, you should take care to keep me alive.”

“You pay food, housing, taxes, Sparky’s expenses -- that’s only fair, though I get parental rights. (Is that enforceable, by the way, if I don’t adopt her?) What do I pay, my Internet bill?”

“Well,” he admitted, “I did pay that for the machine you don’t want to use. You pay clothing. I only pay for the household food. You pay for hospital-cafeteria food unless a husband gets visitation rights that a suitor doesn’t. You pay for the car, and we’ve agreed that it is a damned expensive car. Gifts to your family, gifts to Sparky, although you have to be careful of those. Won’t you require malpractice insurance? Don’t medical journals cost like sin? Scientific journals do.”

“And I get to give away anything I want to give away. Actually, that’s lucky. You might not have freed me from your own clutches, but you’ll free me from my family’s.”

“Well, suggest something concrete, and I’ll send it over to them. You can say that I’ll pay the taxes, but probably I’ll pay less in taxes on a joint return than I would as a head of household. I told you that money is freedom, and I told Reverend Patterson that it’s not money which causes problems; it’s lack of money. When all is said and done, however, that much money is a tar baby.”

“Well, why don’t I pay withholding?” Diane asked. “Then you would be responsible for the rest.”

“Okay, if that’s what you want to do.” He could tell she wanted to load up the W4 so she would pay more than she would ordinarily. Well, he wanted to make her happy. If that sort of sneaking would make her happy, then they’d do it.

They got home to Sparky. After dinner, Diane went off to edit the second draft. He stopped by to send it to her by e-mail, so that she could edit in by word processor without anyone having to retype what wasn’t changed. Queen Victoria and Prince Albert once wrote each other letters while living in the same palace. He was sending Diane an e-mail while sitting in the same room with her.

He kissed Sparky good night and left Diane to read the story. He was naked and in bed well before she came in. She was lovely, and she stripped and got into bed without making him look away or take off his glasses. He took them off to kiss her. She tasted delightful.

Diane was ready for this. Eric wanted to give her orgasms, did he? Well, she wanted him to give her orgasms, too. The man was delightful. He would encroach, he’d always encroach. As long as she could press him back, though, that put her in control. How many women were going to bed tonight wishing their men would give them another orgasm? How many were going to bed wishing their men would give them one? Well, if she wanted another, she would only have to tell him that when she went to bed. She would, really, only have to tell him that she permitted another.

While she thought that, Eric was kissing all over her body. The heat was rising, and she didn’t do anything to bring it except turn a little to give him access. And when she was ready, without saying anything, she merely spread her legs. He chuckled, a sinister chuckle, but he got between them and he kissed her thigh. Well, she was a little further along than he thought. She reached down to hold his head in both hands. She brought it to her mound.

This time, she felt the laugh more than she heard it. It was bursts of warm breath on her vulva, and it was arousing as hell. Then his lips were there instead of his breath, and that was even more arousing. His fingers parted her outer labia, and his tongue stroked her inner ones. The heat spread. When his tongue found her clitoris, the heat pooled, and she began to undulate.

Then the flame flared. The flame passed through her in waves, and she was moving in the waves.

He lay beside her in the bed, and he was murmuring in her ear. She didn’t distinguish words, but she knew that he loved her. He was reaching the whole way over her to stroke her left arm. She lifted that arm to hold his.

“Now?” he asked.

“Now.” He got into position above her and parted her labia with his hand. She guided him until his penis was in her vestibule.

“Oh, Diane,” he said. He spoke her name as though it were special. Then he was parting her labia further, spreading her, filling her.

“Oh, Eric.” She trailed he hands up his arms to his shoulders as he began moving in and out. She smoothed down his back to his glutes. They tensed and thrust in time with his motions. The heat spread to her hands and to her feet. The heat concentrated in her pelvic region, driving it up to meet his descending thrusts. She knew that her orgasm was coming, but she enjoyed this time of their motion before.