CHARLIE

Charlie sat at her make-up mirror, musing over the stories Grandpa Driscoll had told her about Crispen O'Driscoll, the first of the family to move from Ireland during the great potato famine. He had settled in the small town of Baconsburg, Ohio and found a job as an assistant to the town smithy. Later, a few years before the railroad came and the town was renamed Courtland, Crispen had been able to take over the shop and now was the blacksmith for a wide area around the town.

After Crispen settled in he started writing to the fair lass Kinsella and to his great pleasure she was receptive to his hints of coming to America to be his wife. Six months later she arrived and the long love affair between Crispen and Maire was the talk of that part of Ohio.

Through the years the Driscolls, losing the O somewhere around the emerging twentieth century, were known for three things: their athleticism, the carroty red hair and a surfeit of freckles. Charlie, along with her younger sister had inherited all three traits. Her mom was named after the fair maiden Maire and she had intended to pass this name down to her youngest. Due to a mix-up in the records, Maire became Marie, and as her husband told her, "'Tis a fair name for such a lovely girl." And her name was left Marie.

Thinking of her upcoming date with Jim, she knew she had to tell Jim that night what had happened in Germany with Major Tomlinson. It wasn't rape but it sure as hell wasn't from his trying. She could see her green eyes flashing in the mirror and she knew she had to get her anger under control before Jim arrived.

She was twenty minutes early and wondered if Jim would think her too anxious if he knew she had been ready so early. With a wry smile she wondered with some awe how quickly she had fallen for him. It had been six months since the Cupid killer was caught and she and Jim had been dating regularly. Sometimes she had to nudge him a little ... a typical cop, he would get wrapped up in a case and not call her for a week or so.

But she knew something that Jim himself didn't know — he loved her as much as she loved him. No, he didn't exactly wear his heart on his sleeve but it was in his eyes, his gentle touches and certainly in his kisses. Memories of their increasingly lusty petting brought a tinge of sweat to her upper lip and a redness on her cheeks not from rouge.

That's why she had to tell him about the damn Major. She couldn't give herself to him until he knew all about her ... well, almost all. There were things she just couldn't tell him. Looking in the mirror of her compact she saw the glow on her face that came from even thinking about consummating her relationship with Jim brought to her. And she was ready to make love with him. Men, and especially men who were cops, could be so damn dense sometimes.

As she heard his car drive up she mused on what it would be like to live with him. Hopefully there would be marriage and at some point kids. She liked being a detective but she would drop it in a minute for a child, maybe a red-haired imp to replace her sister. This time she would get the name right, Maire.

Jim picked her up, attentive, as always, in the little things, like opening the door, that she cherished so much. Working as a cop she had to suppress her femininity and on her off time wanted to be treated like a lady.

They were back at Cote Sud, which had become their favorite restaurant.

"It's nice to see you, Charlie. I have to say that black dress makes those green eyes of yours shine. I was thinking, while I was driving over, how much I missed you."

She hit his arm, "Jim, we were at the courthouse all morning for Murphy's sentencing. You couldn't possibly have missed me in that short of time."

He smugly smiled, "Well, I did!" He took a sip of his wine and continued, "Damn, I'm glad he copped a plea bargain. I'm always afraid some dickhead on the jury will let him off."

"Gee, Jim, you don't have any hard feelings against jurors, do you?"

Looking abashed, he responded, "No, not really. It's just that sometimes we work so hard to catch someone and it really grates on me when they walk away.

"Anyway, it's a shame that we couldn't get him for the first Cupid murder. I guess that will go to the cold case file. We just don't have anything to go on."

They looked up as the waiter delivered their dinner and the conversation turned to more intimate things.

As Jim was driving her home, she asked him, "I need to talk to you about something. Can you stay for a while?"

When they got to her small home, Charlie went to her bedroom to slip into something 'more comfortable, ' then fixed a drink for them.

"Jim, we haven't really talked about where we want this relationship to go. I think it's time we sat down and had that discussion, but not tonight."

"Charlie, I..."

"No, I need to tell you something. I've pulled away from you a couple of times when you wanted to become more intimate and I know that it has hurt and even confused you. A relationship is hard enough without me sending you mixed signals. I don't like doing that ... I don't want to do that.

"When I was stationed in Germany, I was involved in a sexual harassment case. It was eventually dismissed for lack of evidence — CID said it was just a situation of 'he said, she said'. The key part was there were two other women that came forward but they said it was too late for their cases.

"This is what led to me leaving the Army. I was just fed up with the bureaucratic bullshit.

"I'd had several dates with Gary Tomlinson, a Major in the Division Public Affairs Office. I'd fixed him dinner in my apartment and afterwards we sat down to talk, both of us on the sofa. We were having a glass of German wine. He put his arm around me and drew me in for a kiss. I was okay with that but I wasn't ready — and didn't want — anything more. I tried to jerk away from him but he was too strong for me.

"He started ripping at my clothes — he tore off my blouse and bra and slapped me, hard, when I tried to push him away. He was trying to get my skirt off and I was able to grab the bottle and hit him hard on the back of his head.

"He fell to the floor, almost unconscious. What I should have done was call the MPs at once. What I did was drag his sorry ass out my front door — I was always fairly strong — and locked the door. I sat there frozen in fear for a long time but I never heard anything. The next day I went to my commanding officer and filed a complaint.

"Since then I have this fear of intimacy. As soon as a man tries to touch me in an intimate place I freeze up. Jim, I care a lot about you and I want us to move our relationship to a new level. I want to do that now." My face blushed scarlet as I added, "Jim, you don't know the dreams I've had about us!"

Jim reached over and touched her face, "I didn't know, Charlie. I knew there was something, but I thought I'd just go slow. I've had the same kind of dreams." He put his strong arms around her and held her close. Charlie relaxed into his arms, closing her eyes against the wetness struggling to make a tear.

Charlie was wearing satin pajamas of a color to match the deep emerald of her eyes, with a matching robe. Jim held her tight, moving his hands up and down her back, feeling her relax. A few minutes later he felt a change in her breathing, a slowing and deepening. He pulled his head back and saw that she was asleep. He carefully disengaged and putting his arms under her, gently picked her up and carried her to her bed.

Carefully laying her down he turned up the covers on the other side of the bed, pulled untied the bow on the robe and moved over and lay her on the sheets. Reaching over to cover her, he felt her small hand on his shirt and looked down to see her eyes half open, a smokiness deepening the emerald color to the dark green of the deep ocean. He looked in her eyes, mesmerized, then she pulled him to her, placing his hand on her swell of her breast and kissing him with a deep need.

After a long moment she pushed back at him and, eyes locked together, she undid the buttons to the top of her pjs. Her need now urgent, she pulled his head down, his lips locking on her erect nipples. Both of them were beyond stopping now as they helped each other off with their clothes. The lovely sight before him awed Jim: Charlie in all her loveliness, her trimmed bush as red as her hair, the freckles scattered enticingly over her abdomen, her eyes half closed — the lust showing.

"Jim, I need you. Please, now, take me."

He whispered, "I love you, Charlie," and he rose up slightly and gently, slowly entering her. Scant minutes later her back arched and she shook with the power of her reaction to his caring love."

Suddenly sobbing, she pulled him down close. Her body was shaking with a different kind of passion from that of minutes previous.