Chapter 9

The big, comfortable bed looked good to Jon and Tanisha as they came in the door well before dawn. They immediately stripped off their clothes and put the mattress to good use -- just sleeping this time, although it got some more-active use later in the morning after they woke up. It had been several days, a long dry spell for them, one of the longest they'd ever had, so that made it even more fun and exciting than usual, though just straight making love, with no roles or fancy stuff.

Neither of them was anxious to get up and get moving; both were perfectly willing to just lie in bed and enjoy the warm afterglow. It had been a long week and it was good to have it behind them; now they could just touch and caress and tease, enjoying the wonder they shared in each other. As was often the case at such times, Jon had a hand on the more reachable of Tanisha's bare breasts, massaging it lightly, kneading it a little, twiddling her large, dark nipple. "You sure enjoy that, don't you?" she almost purred.

"About as much as you do," he replied in a voice not much louder than a whisper, not the least that her ear was only a couple inches away, and until a minute or two before, his tongue had been gently tickling her ear lobe. She loved that, and he loved it too, not the least for seeing and feeling the nearly involuntary squirms and moans of delight that resulted from doing it to her.

"You know I do," she whispered back. "Oh, God, Jon, it feels so good, it's almost better than ever. I don't know why it is, Jon, but today it feels like you could bring me off just by playing with them, nothing more."

"Want me to try?" he smirked, not that he hadn't spent a good share of his time since they'd woken up playing with those wonderful things, round and dark and firm and yet so soft and incredibly sensitive.

"Would I have said it if I didn't?" she teased.

"Tanisha, you're insatiable," he snickered. This was an old, old joke with them, one that reached clear back to the first night they'd spent together -- but one that still had plenty of meaning and power between the two of them.

"Yes, I am," she grinned. "But you taught me to be."

Without words, just from knowing each other so well, they squirmed around into a position where she lay partly on her back against him, so he could reach a breast with each hand, but still reach an earlobe with his tongue. If she twisted around enough he could also reach her mouth, and she went to that effort. Once again that morning, their lips met and their tongues entwined, as his fingers went to work on her breasts and nipples. And yes, she was turned on by these activities this morning, not that this was an infrequent occurrence with them. She squirmed and giggled and moaned at the sometimes gentle, sometimes powerful touch of his hands, her body nearly totally out of control. Her breathing became labored, her breaths coming shorter and shallower; Jon knew from his long experience with her that she was getting close. He threw his free leg around one of hers, just to increase the skin to skin contact, and all of a sudden she was there, her body giving off a series of short jerks and moans, making him happy that he could once again bring her such pleasure.

"That was ... incredible," she panted afterward, pulling herself back together. "God, I love that! Jon, you turn me on so much..."

"You turn me on too, babe," he whispered. "Want to try it again?"

There was silence for a moment. "Maybe we'd better give it a little break," she said finally. "God, I really love it! I wish you could do it to me all day, but they're actually a little bit sore. Maybe we'd better not overdo it. Would you like me to do something to you?"

"I'd love it," he smiled. "However, I really hate to say this, but maybe we'd better knock it off, or else we're going to lie here in bed all day and never make it up to Flag."

"Yeah," she sighed, reality crashing down around her, "That's not all we have to do, either. We really should call Stan at home and let him know what's up with Jennlynn."

"True," he said, "And we probably ought to call Mom and let her know we're coming. If the whole damn crew has gone off skiing some place or something like that it would be a wasted trip. Besides, we don't know that Crystal and Preach are back yet."

"They ought to be back," she replied. "They were supposed to get off that boat a week ago, so they've had plenty of time to drive back."

"Yeah, but something could have come up. They could have gotten roped into doing another presentation at some church or something. I didn't even call up and let Mom know we were going to be gone. Everything happened so fast it never crossed my mind."

"Mine either. At least we thought to call Ben and Joy. Maybe we ought to call over and see if we can set up something with them, maybe tomorrow night, maybe the first of the week."

"Not a bad idea," he agreed as he cupped her breasts in his hands, not wanting to let go of her. "It's late enough now that if we go up north today we'll probably wind up spending the night with Mom and Al, so maybe we'd better get that tacked down first."

"Yeah, you're right," she said, lying back down against him, just glorying in the mutual joy of being held. A couple minutes went by before she added, "Jon?"

"Yeah?"

"You're going to have to let go of me if we're going to get up."

"Suppose I don't want to let go of you?"

"Fine with me," she said. "But I'm just a little curious about how this is going to go up in Flag."

"Yeah, me too," he agreed, reluctantly removing his hands from her breasts. "Shit, I guess all good things have to come to an end."

"Maybe it's just as well," she sighed, no more enthusiastic than he was about his hands coming off of her body. "We really ought to take a break. I really hate to say it, but I'd like to knock off the titty play for a little while, anyway."

"Still sore?"

"Yeah, a little," she said, sitting up. "You've been using them pretty hard. Don't get me wrong, I love it and I'd love to have more, but there's no point in overdoing it. I think we'd better get a shower and get dressed."

Back when they'd first signed the lease on their townhouse they hadn't really taken a good look at the place, but one of the things they had looked at was the shower. It was a separate shower stall, not a tub, which showed how cheap the place was, but it was adequately sized, had good water pressure and a big water heater, all of which had been a major selling point. At that time they'd been together for two years and had rarely lived in a place with a decent shower. Even though they both dearly loved showering together they'd rarely had a chance to do it before then, but now they almost always did, unless they were in a big hurry to go someplace. They'd learned that actually having sex in the shower could get at best awkward, but that didn't stop them from enjoying many other sensual pleasures that could be derived from the contact of wet, soapy skin. Jon especially found the sight of the wet soap bubbles on her black skin was fascinating, a sight that the finest painter could not have managed, and while they had to be getting moving today, they were in no hurry about it.

Eventually they knew they had things to do, so they got out of the shower and dried each other thoroughly and sensually. After he helped her dry her hair, as he often did, they headed to the bedroom to get dressed. The two of them always dressed pretty casually for the office, usually slacks and white shirts, but they dressed even more casually for the time off, especially when they knew they were going to Flagstaff, where everybody in the family dressed Western casual all the time. Without discussion they agreed that jeans and sweat shirts seemed to be about the right thing for today. Jon pulled out some underwear and a T-shirt, and turned, as he often did, to watch without comment the wonderful sight of his wife getting dressed.

As she normally did, Tanisha fastened her bra in front of her, spun it around and put her arms through the shoulder straps. "Damn," she commented. "I guess you really did play with them a little too much. Even this bra seems uncomfortable."

"Yeah," Jon said after looking for a moment with a critical eye, "Looks a little snug to me."

"It shouldn't be," she sighed. "This is one of my good ones, I know it. Maybe it's just that I'm a little more sore than I thought."

"Could be," Jon shrugged, not worrying about it as he got up and headed to the closet for a pair of clean jeans. "I'm thinking maybe a flannel shirt instead of a sweat shirt in case it gets warmer."

"It may get warmer here but it won't up in Flagstaff," Tanisha pointed out. "It's still winter up there."

"Yeah, I suppose you're right," he agreed, pulling on the jeans. "Doesn't matter, I guess. We need to pack to stay overnight, so I can throw in a lighter shirt just on general principles."

It took them a while longer than usual to get around, since they were just getting home from several days away. They consolidated things from two small suitcases into one, threw in some spare clothes, and headed downstairs. "It's late enough that we might as well eat here before we leave," she said. "I can make something while you call Stan and your mother. Soup and sandwiches all right?"

"Fine with me," he said, pulling out his cell phone and punching the auto-dial button for his mother in Flagstaff.

The phone only rang a couple times before his mother picked it up and announced, "Canyon Tours."

"Mom," he said. "I didn't think I called the office."

"You didn't," she said. "We have the office line switched over to home. I'm just making lunch."

"Same here," he replied. "Are Crystal and Preach back yet?"

"Yes, they blew in Thursday night, all sunburned and happy," his mother replied. "Most of all, they're just glad to be back."

"I imagine," Jon said. "That church stuff has to get old in a hurry." Jon knew all about that. While Preach was still a minister, he was on an extended and possibly permanent leave from his position as an associate pastor of Glen Hill Road Baptist Church in Chattanooga, Tennessee. However, through much of December and January he and Crystal had been making a tour of churches, mostly in the Southeast, talking about the Grand Canyon and their adventures there, both physical and spiritual. Along with that, they'd spent a good deal of effort at spreading the good word at church groups and outdoor shows about taking a trip with Canyon Tours down the Grand Canyon. The problem, Jon and Tanisha had long agreed, was that Crystal and Preach had taken off on the trip the morning after their wedding, and that meant their honeymoon had mostly been spent traipsing from one church to another. Only after the first of the month had they spent two weeks on a sailboat in the Bahamas for their "official" honeymoon. A hell of a honeymoon, Jon had often thought until he realized that his and Tanisha's honeymoon had mostly consisted of watching a couple shows in Las Vegas before getting back on the road.