Chapter 18

The next morning, I got dressed and hit the gym early. Mel was driving today, and I wasn’t expecting her until close to noon. I started with my yoga routine, getting a few weird looks from the mostly power-lifter crowd and then went into my own workout, starting with cardio and then moving on to weights for the second half of the morning. About 1PM, Mel whistled for me from the front of the gym. I grinned and got up to greet her enthusiastically.

“Wow!” I breathed. “You look amazing! Not that you don’t always, but wow!”

I looked her in the eyes, drinking her in. She looked relaxed and beautiful and perfect, but she always looked perfect.

“Get your stuff,” she said lightly. “We’re going back to the hotel, so you can shower and change and then we’re going to lunch and then shopping.”

I kissed her very carefully, not wanting to ruin her makeup before I went to collect my things and we got out of there with a few longing looks directed at Melody from the rest of the people working out. She sat and watched while I showered and talked about how wonderful the spa had been. She got a dozen gift certificates for an all-inclusive spa day and decided to split them evenly between Beth and her mother.

“That’s a nice gesture,” I said, grinning at her from the shower as I quickly washed up.

I got out and dried off while she laid out one of the three suits I’d brought with me. We went to an upscale restaurant I’d been to a time or two that specialized in Southern cuisine and we had a pleasant time drawing stares from the other patrons. Even I admitted that I looked good in a suit.

After lunch, she pulled out her list of places to go. We managed to get a half-dozen cameras that would suit our needs. We got four cameras that were disguised as universal chargers and two more that were tiny enough to be missed. We also got a supply of snacks and drinks we wanted for around the room. We could get the same from room service, but we could buy a flat of soda for the same price room service charged for a can. While we had money, old habits die hard, and we still focused on the cost.

We got a dedicated receiver that would download the video from the cameras, so we wouldn’t have to switch memory cards or make sure the laptop was running to get a signal. That night, we did a full costume rehearsal and the cameras worked perfectly. Mel wasn’t satisfied with just setting them up though. She wanted to make love while they recorded.

“This is going to be for us,” she declared, slowly undoing my tie and slipping it from around my neck. “I want to be able to watch the two of us make love over and over again.”

I could see the excitement in her eyes and despite my misgivings, her passion roused my passion. I let her undress me and she took her time, running her hands over my body lovingly as she pulled first the shirt off my shoulders and continued with each new piece of skin she exposed. I smiled at her and let her have her fun, moving to help her strip me nude. I was getting used to having people look at me and I figured I was going to get plenty of that this week, between here and DC.

When she was done with her work, I turned my attention to her and unzipped her dress, letting it fall from her shoulders. That’s when I got my next surprise. She was nude under the dress. She’d been walking around with me all day without underwear of any kind. That made me smile and she grinned at me brazenly, laying back with her legs spread to show me how turned on she was.

I slid to my knees and pushed her knees back and apart. Her thighs were wet with her secretions and I licked and nibbled at them, savoring the hint of her womanhood as I moved closer to her center. I let my tongue tease her, swiping up and down the outside of her pussy where her thigh met her sex. She was groaning and mewling, her hands busy gently pinching and pulling on her nipples.

I licked up and down her slit, noticing how red and swollen she was. I held her steady with my hands on her ass as I plunged my tongue into her and groaned myself, loving how responsive she was.

“Oh, yeah!” she breathed excitedly. “Fuck me with your tongue!”

She trembled and when I looked up, she was mauling her nipples more passionately. She was rocking her head from side to side as I swirled my tongue around her channel before I turned to pay attention to her clit.

“OOOOH!”

She groaned and reached down with both hands, holding onto my head as I ate her through her first orgasm. She squealed and growled in delight as I pulled two more out of her in rapid succession. When my jaw ached too much to continue, I stood up and put my cock at her entrance, waiting for her to come down from her last climax. She looked at me with lust-filled eyes and nodded for me to start.

I slid the tip into her and watched with a smile as her eyes rolled back in her head. Today she wanted to be owned, and I was getting the sense that this was her preferred method of making love. She loved the primal feeling of being dominated, not in a bondage sense, but more a feeling of being so desired that it was an inevitable She liked that feeling. To me, there was no resisting her body.

We started slowly, but before long, we were slamming together almost violently. She shrieked through her next orgasm and I opened up the throttle, pounding her harder and faster, knowing that she loved it when I fucked her through her orgasms. She was a babbling, incoherent mess by the time I pulled out of her, but she whimpered with disappointment at the loss of my cock. She looked up at me with pleading eyes and I smiled in response.

I took one of her legs and turned her over onto her stomach before pulling her up to her knees by her hips. She got the idea and lowered her head to the mattress, sticking her ass out at me. I held my cock steady and pushed into her again, able to thrust deeply into her in this position. She groaned as she felt me push into her again, and I took hold of her hips, guiding her movements as I pulled her onto each thrust of my own hips.

We moved together, loving every second of this. On impulse, I raised my hand and spanked her right ass-cheek, causing her to scream in shock. She looked over her shoulder at me and mewled in unashamed lust.

“Play with yourself,” I told her. “Play with your pussy so I can feel your fingers.”

She nodded and reached between her thighs to masturbate herself while we fucked. I spanked her again, alternating sides as I took her. When her orgasm started, I spanked her hard which seemed to intensify her climax. She was still on the height of it when I took hold of both her hips and power-fucked her, my hips slapping against her ass loudly as I slammed into her hard and fast, her screams drowning out the sound of our bodies slapping together.

My balls were bouncing off her fingers as she kept frigging her clit like she was chasing another one and I knew that I was too close to hold back. I howled my own release and pulled her back onto my cock as I blasted my seed deep inside her.

When it was over, I pushed her flat onto the bed, moving to cover her body gently with my own, keeping my elbows under me so that I wouldn’t crush her. We drifted together in mutual bliss. I covered her shoulders and back and neck with kisses as we rested. When she was recovered enough to speak, she looked at me over her shoulder and told me she loved me.

“How did you know that would turn me on?” she asked, amazed.

“I love you too,” I told her before answering her question. “I didn’t really know that it would, but I took a chance. It seemed like a stroke of genius in the moment.”

“I wouldn’t want you to get too carried away with it, but it set me off like you wouldn’t believe!” she groaned and squeezed her thighs together, putting a little more pressure on my member, which was still buried inside her.

I kissed her neck again and licked her earlobe, making her shiver.

“Shower or round two?” I asked playfully, flexing my hips to move inside her a little.

She squeaked and whimpered.

“Shower!” she decided. “I want to be able to walk tomorrow when we meet May and Glen.”

I chuckled and helped her up, cupping a hand under her pussy before I pulled out, knowing that she was going to leak before we could get to the bathroom. I walked her into the bathroom with our mingled cum pooling into my cupped palm as she giggled and got the shower ready for us. She was about to step in when I stopped her with my other arm around her waist. She looked at me questioningly and I told her to bend over for me for a minute.

She looked curious but did as I asked. I had a great view of her ass, the cheeks starting to turn bright red from the spanking. I took the handful of cum and smeared it liberally over her starfish, slipping a finger into her there, slicked by our cum. She gasped in surprise at the feel of my finger wiggling into her ass and looked at me with an unreadable expression.

“Round two?” she asked with some nervousness.

“Not yet,” I told her gently. “I just want us to get used to this.”

She nodded and started rocking back and forth on my finger, telling me that she didn’t hate it. I added a second finger and she shuddered and had a small orgasm from that alone. It felt far different from fingering her pussy. It was tighter at the opening, but seemed looser on the inside, with the muscle all concentrated at the ring, rather than along the length of the passage. I thought it was something that could be enjoyable, but I wasn’t sure it would ever replace her pussy or her mouth as my preference. I fingered her to a second orgasm that way, managing to slip a third finger into her when she looked over at me.

“Do it!” she gasped. “I want you! Fuck my ass!”

I don’t need to be told twice, so I pushed my cock back into her pussy for a few strokes to make sure it was covered in cum while I fingered her ass and then I put the tip at her back door, two fingers still holding her open as I pushed the tip into her.

“Tell me to stop if it’s uncomfortable,” I told her softly and she nodded, biting her lip. “Are you ready?”

Instead of answering, she pushed back, impaling herself on my cock and gasping at the feel as it slid smoothly into her. I gasped a heartbeat later, feeling her ass swallow my cock eagerly. I let my fingers slip out of her and her sphincter closed around me tightly. As much as we’d both just cum, this was something new and exciting that we were trying for the first time. I was in Heaven and I could tell from the trembling and the noises she was making that she was cumming every few strokes.

I reached around to play with her nipples while she placed one hand on the wall to steady herself and the other on her clit, swiping over it madly. We were gasping and panting, turned on beyond belief and I knew that she was going to milk me dry. Round three would not occur for at least a couple of days. Suddenly, she squealed and tensed up and it was like a vice had clamped down on my cock, pushing me over the edge to cum with her. I grunted and spilled my load deep inside her, pumping raggedly as my orgasm thundered through me. In the aftermath, I clutched her to me possessively.

“I love you, Melody!” I told her ardently.

“I love you too,” she said. “You took my virginity,” she said softly. “You have all of me!”

She sounded happy about that.

“I’m going to keep you forever too,” I agreed, squeezing her against me gently.

We disengaged and got in the shower, I made sure that her body was completely washed, pampering her and worshiping every inch of her. She returned the favor, lovingly soaping and scrubbing my body, her fingers teasing my ass in response to my invasion of hers. We reveled in the endless supply of hot water that hotels offer and showered long past the point that we’d have fled from cold water at home. After that, we turned in, looking forward to tomorrow with May.

Christmas Eve ... If the day of the Christmas party had been the worst day of my life, this night made up for it. We slept in and I treated Mel to her very first nude yoga demonstration. She masturbated lazily while I demonstrated pose after pose and then suggested that she might want to start taking Belinda’s yoga class when we got back, just to protect me from the predatory advances of the women in the class.

We had an early lunch in the hotel restaurant and then got ready for our afternoon with May. I had no doubt that Glen would mutter something that could pass for civil and then hide in the den, watching movies about World War Two and Vietnam. That was fine with me. We were just finishing up lunch when May called to let us know that Beth had left for Roger’s parents’ place and wasn’t expected back before 10. We got in the SUV and Mel was nervous.

“Relax,” I told her. “May already loves you and Glen already hates me.”

She laughed at that and I drove out to their house in the suburbs. The traffic was extremely heavy as it was Christmas Eve. Last minute panic-shoppers and provision-runs had a lot of people on the road, and that didn’t even count the number of people that were traveling today. We got to the house without any problems and I parked the SUV at the curb rather than block Glen in, in case he decided to make a tactical retreat.

I got out and waited for her, taking her hand in mine comfortingly. I’d dressed in something tight and light, knowing that we were going to be spending a lot of time in the kitchen today. I had a sweater for the return trip tonight, but I really wanted to show off a little once we were inside. I led her to the door and rang the bell. A moment later, May threw it open.

“What do you think you’re doing ringing the bell,” she scolded me and threw her arms around me with a huge grin. “It’s so good to see you,” she told me, “You look like you’ve lost some weight. Are you eating okay?”

I laughed at that.

“I’m eating fine, May,” I assured her and took her hands from around my neck gently. “May, I want you to meet Melody. She’s my life.”

I turned to introduce the two of them.

“Mel, this is May.”

May looked at Mel in surprise, taking in her beauty.

“My word, Child! You are an angel!”

She wrapped her up in a hug and squeezed her tight.

“Thank God for you!” she exclaimed. “I worried myself sick about this boy. Since you came along, he’s a lot better.”

She stood back and grinned at us before she remembered herself.

“Come on in. I was just cleaning up from lunch. Have you two eaten? I can feed you before we get started.”

She led us inside, assuring us that it would be no trouble.

“We ate at the hotel,” I told her. “Let’s just talk a bit and then jump in,” I suggested.

I took off my sweater, making May gape.

“Oh my God!” she said with a shocked grin. “You look...” she trailed off, coming to touch my shoulders and smile at me proudly. “I’m so proud of you! You look like you’re in the best shape of your life.”

“I am,” I told her and made my pecs bounce a couple of times for fun. “I could never do that before,” I joked.

She reached out and touched one tentatively and I made it jump as soon as her fingers rested on it, making all of us laugh.

May felt the hardness of the muscle gently before withdrawing her hands.

“Come on, kids. Glen is watching TV. Let’s go make the introductions.”

She slid back the door and the sound of a war movie flowed into the hall. He’d kept the sound down to normal this year.

“Hello, Glen,” I said lightly. “Merry Christmas.”

He paused his movie long enough to be polite and say hello. He stood up and turned toward us, stopping to gape at me.

“Good Lord!” he blurted out. “Did you run out and enlist?” he asked, clearly shocked by the change in me.

I shook my head, enjoying the reaction.

“After Beth left, I took a few days to get drunk and feel sorry for myself and then I joined a gym. I spend a lot of time there. If I hadn’t, I probably wouldn’t have met Melody,” I said and introduced them.

Poor Glen was already off-balance from the change in me. Introducing him to Mel in that condition was like delivering an artillery strike to a trailer park after a tornado. Mel was merciless. He didn’t stand a chance.

“Colonel Calder,” she gushed, turning her megawatt smile on him. “I’m so glad to finally meet you!”

She came up to him and put her arms around him like they were old friends, kissing him on the cheek when they parted.

“Merry Christmas and thank you for having us over the holidays!”

He stammered that it was nothing at all, to call him Glen, and that we were welcome in his home. May and I exchanged bemused glances, knowing that Mel had just wrapped Glen around her little finger with her sparkling eyes, dazzling smile and enthusiasm. Well, that earned him another grin and hug and then she stepped back to cling to my arm sweetly. He was completely charmed by her. It was the most amazing thing imaginable. The four of us sat down for a few minutes, the movie forgotten as we got acquainted. It was the most pleasant conversation I’d ever had with Glen.

“So, how did you two meet?” he asked, his eyes traveling between us, unsure where to look.

“Your daughter introduced us actually,” Mel said delicately. “I’m not certain that she really remembers, but it was at last Christmas’s office party.”

“You worked with Beth?” he said, intrigued.

“Not exactly,” she said. “Beth was, um, employed by my late husband,” she admitted.

That made Glen blink. “Your husband was...”

She nodded. “Stan Weaver,” she finished. “After everything came to light, I joined a support group for people whose spouses cheated on them. One of the women at Rand’s gym is a member. When she met him, she invited him to join. Imagine his surprise when he first laid eyes on me and figured out who I was,” she giggled enchantingly, and I smiled at her.

“I fainted,” I supplied helpfully.

“You’d just run yourself into exhaustion when we showed up at your door,” she defended me.

“You joined a support group?” he asked me, arching an eyebrow.

I nodded.

“Most people I knew didn’t understand. They thought that I was out of line or that I should be able to shrug it off, but it’s harder to shake something like that than I’d have believed. It helps to have friends that have been through the same experience.”

“Ten years ago, I would have called you a pussy for it, but we’ve organized a couple of those groups for vets. Not the same, I know, but I’ve seen the value in those groups over the last few years.”

“Thanks,” I said. “The people in that group have become like family to both of us. We look out for each other, whether it’s talking us out of our own heads, or if we need help with moving furniture.”

“Well, whether it’s the group or your young lady, you seem to have landed on your feet from last summer,” he said, sounding like he approved of how things had turned out.

“Thanks, Glen,” I said sincerely. “It means a lot to hear you say that.”

I was starting to see some of the changes that May, and Beth had both told me about. He gave me a slightly embarrassed smile.

“I owe you an apology,” he said. “Actually, I owe you several, and a couple of thanks of your own. You and May have both pointed out to me that I’ve treated you pretty poorly over the years. She reminded me that her father wasn’t charitable to me. He was a scientist and thought his daughter should be with someone better than a lowly soldier. She pointed out to me that I’d done the same thing to you. I’m sorry for that. You pointed out to me that I didn’t always treat May the way she deserved, too. I thank you for that. She deserves better than Colonel Calder. That’s why I’m retiring next year. They’re reducing the size and function of the base here anyway. I can just slip out the back door instead of taking a transfer.”

He shrugged uncomfortably.

“May’s also been very frank in telling me that my criticism probably had some influence on Beth’s attitude toward you at the end. That was never my intention. She used small words, so they’d fit into my thick skull, but she made it clear that little girls love their father and look for his approval. When I refused to give it, May said it probably helped her justify pulling back from her marriage.”

“I don’t think you should take that onto your shoulders,” I said gently. “Just like me, you wanted the best for Beth. That’s part of why we went ahead with the divorce. It was clear that I wasn’t what was best for her anymore. I don’t blame anyone. I don’t blame Beth for how she felt, and I don’t blame myself. Until I found out about the affair, she never told me that she’d felt anything but love for me. I don’t even blame Stan Weaver. By the time he came along, the foundation on our marriage had already crumbled.

I certainly don’t blame you. It was just an unfortunate outcome for all of us. Beth sounds like she’s a lot happier with Roger and I know Melody and I are much happier together than we ever were before we met. So maybe this all turned out for the best. It was painful, but maybe we’ve all come through it to better places.”

I paused and gathered my thoughts, remembering that conversation.

“I want to tell you I’m sorry too,” I said to Glen. “I said a lot of angry things the last time we talked. I told you that you weren’t my father-in-law any more. I shouldn’t have said that. It was mean and spiteful and I’m sorry. I still want very much for us to be family, especially now that a lot of the hurt has dissipated.”

He smiled and thanked me.

“I want that too,” he said sincerely.

It boggled the mind. This ranked right up there with the last conversation I’d had with Stan. We talked a little more about less heavy topics and then May declared that we needed to start baking. Glen never intruded in May’s domain, so he returned to his movie while the three of us bonded over May’s coveted recipe box with its multitude of file cards that each contained a secret of her kitchen.

“So, your apple pie is cinnamon and nutmeg?”

I asked, reading over the recipe as we were making a full batch of them for tomorrow.

“That’s awesome. I never suspected.”

We carried on through the afternoon and through suppertime, pausing the baking for something light to eat. After dinner, I brought in Glen’s gift from the SUV and set it carefully out of the way. Beth’s and May’s were in Mel’s purse. He looked at the rather large box that housed the sand table and the slightly bulkier package that contained the rest of his gift, curious as to whose gift that was.

“Went a little overboard shopping for May, didn’t you?” he asked without any of the hostility of other years.

“Actually, this is your gift from the two of us,” I told him. “Mel’s got the rest of the gifts with her.”