Chapter 20

I had just finished my morning bathroom rounds and was padding back into the bedroom clad only in my boxers when I saw my princess leaning over making the bed. The fact that she was clad only in a pair of the lacy nothings that I loved so much had all the blood that normally lived between my ears taking up residence further south.

"EEP!" was her response when I fell to my knees behind her and slowly ran my tongue over one of her beautifully exposed cheeks.

"Tommy! We're going to be late for school if you don't cut that out!" she said as she pushed her perfect derriere back into me. 'How come it's always my fault? With temptation like that put in front of me, is it really fair to expect me to take all the blame?' I wondered as I slid a hand between her knees and started north until my fingers encountered a warm, damp spot that told me I'd reached my destination.

I ran my hands further up and slid them into the waistband of her panties.

Panties—what a plebeian name for such an amazing piece of feminine apparel, and is it kosher to call it a waistband when, in this case at least, it resided so far south of that particular portion of the female anatomy?

As I slid them off I heard a low growl that I knew well as a warning that I'd better not plan on stopping any time soon. As soon as I had the article of apparel in question down to her knees Beth stepped away from me and, with a quick kick, was suddenly and gloriously naked.

My boxers soon joined the pile on the floor and my lovely lady bent over the bed again and pushed herself back against me.

Neither of us were great "doggie-style" fans, but that morning it just worked. When I reached around to cradle her breasts she reached between her legs to lead me home.

As I eased into her she cupped the boys. "We're not going to hurt each other, are we?" I could hear her grin as her grasp turned into a soft caress.

As we moved together I remembered a conversation a bunch of guys had back in junior high. One of the guys had asked if there were different kinds of sex and Jake Smithers, one of the few guys who'd actually had any experience—or so he bragged—insisted that all sex was the same. "Fucking, making love, the old in-and-out, call it anything you want, it's all the same," he insisted.

He was wrong.

Oh, sure, sometimes sex was just—just?!—scratching a mutual itch, but other times, like today, it was a joyful celebration of togetherness.

Beth's extra caresses had me exploding after only a few thrusts. We collapsed on the bed, still attached, until I recovered enough to finish what I had started, leaving both of us breathless.

After lying on the bed for a few minutes trying to recover my lady jumped up. "Tommy, move it or you'll miss your first class!" she said as she searched for where her panties had landed.

I just rolled over, grinned, and said one word... "Saturday."

Beth dead-stopped, thought about it for a second, tossed her underwear over her shoulder, jumped back into bed and snuggled up next to me.

A ringing phone woke us an hour later and had me scrambling around trying to spot my phone. I finally found it on the nightstand, right where I'd left it.

"Er ... hello?" Wake up, Tommy!

I saw Beth roll out of bed and pad toward the bathroom.

"Who was that, Tommy?" she asked as she walked back into the room, running a towel through her damp hair.

"That was Cliff Fletcher. He said he and his wife, Claire, would like me to do a portrait for them. I told him I'd call him back."

"Why the call back? Is there a problem?"

"Yeah. They're Sally Fletcher's parents."

"Sally Fletcher? Oh! Is that the little girl whose portrait you did when you first started? The one who was dying?" I just nodded as I thought back to the night I'd met the bright six-year-old who wasn't expected to see her next birthday.

"Yeah, he asked it I could do another portrait. I said I would, but the more I think about it I don't know if I could get through it. I mean Sally was such a bright, happy little girl and doing a portrait of just her parents, well, I just don't know..." I ran down. I didn't like the idea of turning down a client, especially a return one, but I wasn't sure I could handle this.

"Do you want me to come with you?" Beth asked as she hugged me tightly. "Would that help?"

"Oh, please. I'd love to have you there with me."

"Sure," she said as she started to rub my back. "When do you want to schedule it?"

"A week from today, if they're free," I answered.

"Tommy, can I ask you for a favor?"

I'd answered my phone and I could tell from the way Cindy asked she wasn't sure what my answer would be.

"Sure, Cindy, you can always ask," I kidded my friend.

"Tommy! Really, could you watch John for us tonight? It would only be for a couple of hours. Could you?"

"Sure. Beth and I don't have anything planned. What time?"

"About seven? Greg and I would like some alone time to go out for a nice dinner."

"Okay, we'll see you then."

"Oh, thank you!"

"Who was that, and what did you volunteer for now?"

Beth had walked in and given me one of her patented Tommy made another promise that I'm going to have to help him keep looks.

"That was Cindy. Greg wants to take her out for dinner and asked if we could watch John for them."

"Tonight? Well, have fun," my lady replied. "I'm going to be busy tonight, remember?"

OH SHIT! Had I forgotten something? Then I heard the giggle.

"Oh, Tommy! You should see the look on your face! I'm not going anyplace, it's just so much fun to watch you panic!"

Speaking of panic ... my princess had obviously forgotten that I know all her ticklish spots.

We spent the afternoon cleaning up the place—at least as much as it required. Beth had inherited the "clean" gene from her mother and enough of her habits had rubbed off on me that keeping the place clean was more of an ongoing thing, not a panicked reaction when company was due.

About five we decided to take a break and grab some food.

"So what elegant place are you taking me dining tonight?" Beth asked.

"I could take you out for a fancy meal at Mack and Don's Steak House," I kidded her.

Neither of us had retained the usual adolescent acceptance that provender from the home of the golden arches actually constituted food, so her mock gagging was all my suggestion earned—or deserved.

"How about Japanese?" she countered.

"Sounds good!"

A quick shower and we were out the door.

We had just gotten home when Beth started kidding me about leaving me alone to take care of John.

"The Varsity is doing a Japanese film festival and they're running Rashômon tonight. And I thought after that meal it would be an appropriate way for me to spend the evening."

"Oh, we're back to leaving me to fend for myself, eh? I don't think so."

And the wrestling match was on.

"Hey! Are you guys decent?"

"Um, yeah. Come on in." I'd been so busy finding all Beth's special spots again and I hadn't even heard a knock or the bell.

Note to self: Make sure to lock the door before attacking my lady. Greg and Cindy knew us well enough that walking into each other's place wasn't that unusual.

"We're not interrupting anything, are we? I heard the giggling and thought maybe..."

I looked up and saw the matching grins on Greg and Cindy's faces. John? He was snuggled up to Cindy's chest. Obviously busy with dinner. Lucky guy.

"Ah, no. I was just explaining to Beth that she shouldn't scare me."

"And you do that physically?" Greg said with a grin.

"Only in extreme cases," I replied as I gave my lady the evil eye, hoping she wouldn't volunteer the reason for my panic. I didn't want to spoil our friends' special night out by making them feel guilty about asking us to watch John.

By that time the tot in question was done with dinner and seemed to require some maintenance.

"Come on Cindy, we can change him on our bed," Beth volunteered. As they walked into the other room I found myself releasing the breath I hadn't realized I was holding. I was relieved I wasn't the one to have to deal with a full diaper.

Eventually the two girls came back to the living room with John in my lady's arms. After Cindy checked once more to make sure we had the number for the restaurant, they left for their special night out.

Beth and I looked at each other and all I could do was shrug—now what?

"Tommy, relax," she told me after a bit. "I'll just hold him until he falls asleep, just go do whatever you want."

Manfully ignoring the urge to tell her what I really wanted to do, I sat down at my computer to finish up a project I'd started the day before.

An hour or so later I decided a break was in order and had just turned off my machine when I heard a yelp from Beth. I got to the living room to see John with one chubby little hand pulling down the neck of my lady's blouse and a look on his face I could swear was disappointment as he looked inside.

I tried—I really did—to keep a straight face, but a strangled chuckle escaped my lips. I knew how sensitive Beth was about her perceived lack of cleavage and had done everything I could to convince her she didn't need any more to look great, but her expression told me I might have to start over.

I settled down next to her on the couch. Now what? Having John sitting on her lap pretty much killed any idea I might have had about starting to rebuild her confidence in her looks.

Beth reached for the remote and found a movie neither of us remembered seeing.

By the time our friends were back it was pretty obvious why neither of us remembered the movie. Bad, just plain BAD. The movie ended just as our doorbell rang. I got up and found our friends back from their night of revelry.

"So, Greg, are you going to get lucky tonight?" I kidded my friend as I answered the door.

"No, I am," Cindy replied.

"What? I mean, but..."

Cindy grinned at my confusion. "Tommy, tonight was on me, so I'm the one who'll get lucky."

I gave my best friend a funny look. Normally Greg was pretty particular when it came to paying for things like that.

"Well... ," he admitted with a little blush, "Cindy said she was paying tonight because she's made more than I have lately. I mean, working for my dad usually keeps me pretty busy, but this winter there wasn't much to keep us going, so Cindy made more working at the drug store..."

Nothing like putting your best friend in an embarrassing spot, is there?

"Well, whoever paid, did you enjoy yourselves?" Beth came to my rescue while she gave me the look she reserves for when I REALLY put my foot in it.

"Oh, it was GREAT! I'd almost forgotten what a nice, fancy dinner in a quiet restaurant was like. Thank you so much for watching John for us!"

"No problem," Beth replied.

After our friends went upstairs Beth snuggled up next to me on the couch.

"Tommy, how many kids do you think we should have?"

"Um ... ah ... I haven't really thought about it," I stammered. I figured we had another year of school to get through, so any decision about kids could wait. Apparently, I was wrong ... again. "Why? Are you changing your mind about waiting?"

"No, it's just that watching John tonight kind of got me thinking. I mean, do you want a big family, or a little one?"

"Well, since both of us are from small families and we turned out so well..."

"Tommy! I'm serious. I know it's not a decision we need to make right now, but I was just curious."

"Beth, I don't know, really. I mean, I've always assumed we'd have kids, but never considered how many. Maybe start with one and go from there?"

"You're scared of the idea of a big family, aren't you?"

Damn, she's reading my mind again!

"No, not scared so much as, oh, I guess you could say undecided. I mean, I'd like to at least get settled after we graduate before we start having a flock of kids. I want to make sure we can support them before we have them. Look at some of the kids we knew back in high school. Their families couldn't afford to let them do anything. Don't you think we should get settled before we start a family?"

Beth sat there for what seemed to be a long time before she answered.

"I guess you're right. There was just something about taking care of John that triggered something..." she ran down, got up and wandered toward the bedroom.

With a sigh, I walked into my room, fired up my computer and finished up the project I'd been working on earlier. I had pretty much convinced myself our conversation hadn't spooked me when a pair of warm breasts snuggled up around my ears.