Chapter 8

Time moved on as it was apt to do. I was awarded guardianship over Shiloh and she moved in. What meager inheritance her mother had amassed was awarded to her. Our physical wounds healed, but our emotional wounds still hurt.

We took one day at a time. It was all we could do. There were those nights where Shiloh would have nightmares that'd leave her crying and I'd spend the rest of the night holding her. Other times found me an emotional wreck over Kaitlyn and Shiloh would return the favor, holding me as I'd held her.

We were happy living together, but had fallen into a morose funk because of the guardianship issue. We could only hope and pray that when Shiloh turned 17 and she petitioned the court for emancipation from my guardianship that the judge would grant it. It was, by no means, a guaranteed thing. We kept in touch with Kaitlyn, phoning or IM'ing two or three times a week. That alone helped us get through more than a couple rough days.

Most nights found us in bed touching, caressing and exploring; sometimes it was just us spooning and talking. We never had intercourse or even oral sex, not that those thoughts didn't cross our minds. We each had our share of weak moments where we wanted to cross that line we'd both drawn in the sand. But we reminded each other of our promise to each other that we'd made soon after Kaitlyn left—to wait for Shiloh's seventeenth birthday where she became "legal". I'd avoid jail time and, hopefully, she'd be emancipated from me so we could get married. Plus we didn't want my ex having any ammunition against me regarding my custodial rights with my daughter. Still, it was a damned tough promise to keep, let me tell you.

Two months passed and Shiloh was back in school. Word had gotten around about what'd happened with Rudy and the kids weren't as rough on her as they had been in the past. Even teenagers have their limits, you know. She excelled in all her classes—she was in all the advanced placement classes she could sign up for. We'd talked about what she wanted to major in once she went to college and she had narrowed down her choices to law school, contracting, business management and, to my genuine surprise, mechanical engineering.

Law school was at the bottom of those four choices—she wasn't sure she could handle the emotional aspect of dealing with situations like she'd been through during her life. I mentioned that there was business law and she said she'd think about that. Business management, in her words, was a practical choice since it'd come in handy in virtually any career field. Contracting intrigued her for a reason she couldn't put a finger on. And mechanical engineering, guess who inspired her to that end? I joked with her and suggested she try double majoring in her top two choices. She smiled at me and said that she just might try that.

September passed by. Shiloh maintained her 4.0 GPA, even with the heavy course load at school. She took a week off from school the first week of October. We packed up the truck, loaded my Yamaha ATV and headed to the mountains for the annual Ashton family hunting trip.

I'd gotten lucky and drawn on both bucks and bulls—deer and elk, respectively. Up well before dawn, out on the mountain in warm camouflage drinking hot camp coffee and glassing the mountainsides for something with antlers. Back before lunch for a nap and or cards and then back up on the mountain a few hours before sunset. Return in the dark for dinner and bedtime—our days at hunting camp were hard work, yet enjoyable.

Shiloh was stunned by her first mountaintop sunrise. Can't say I blame her—I was the same way my first time up here. We shared a lengthy kiss under the rising sun. Shiloh turned and leaned back against me after we broke the kiss. She squealed when I leaned in and put my cold nose on her neck.

"Damn, baby, you're gonna turn me into a Popsicle if you keep doing that," she whined playfully.

"All the better for me to try and warm you back up," I chuckled. I pulled my gloves off and slipped them under her layers of clothing and down the front of her pants.

"Just what do you think you're doing, mister?" she lightly growled at me.

"Just warming my hands up. They be freezing!" I replied, humor coloring my reply.

"Don't you dare, Gary..." she retorted before squeaking as my cold fingers found the sought-after source of warmth. The squeak turned into a low moan as my fingertips lightly stroked her clit.

I kissed her neck as she arched her back to put more pressure on her little button. Teasingly, I let my hands follow her movement, keeping the pressure on her clit as light as ever. She groaned in frustration. I dipped my hand down lower and pressed my fingers into her mound and rubbed.

"Oh, yesssssssss," she exhaled, "Just like that, baby."

As I dipped a finger into her sex, Shiloh flung her gloves off and frantically fished behind her to find the fly of my pants. She fumbled with the zipper as I continued to saw my fingers in and out of her and over her clit. Her breathing had increased to short panting and sharp gasps. She finally managed to get my pants undone and the zipper down. She snaked her hands in and it was my turn to gasp as her cold fingers encircled my turgid erection.

As she stroked me, I increased the pressure on her clit that elicited a deep, guttural moan from her. She arched her neck as I licked, kissed and nipped at it. Shiloh turned her face to mine and our lips met feverishly. Our tongues dueled and danced. Her head finally snapped back.

"Oh, gawd, Gary!" Shiloh cried out as a powerful orgasm exploded throughout her body. She was shuddering and shaking, her knees threatening to give out.

As she was climaxing, Shiloh's stroking of my hard-on increased. As a second, slightly smaller orgasm washed over her, I gasped and grunted as I exploded in her hands, cum covering her delicate fingers. This triggered yet a third orgasm on Shiloh's part, her knees finally giving out from under her. I held her up as I gasped for air. One thing I'd found during our mutual exploration of each other's body: Shiloh could cum at the drop of a hat, and multiple times at that.

As we both regained some measure of regular breathing, my little walkabout radio crackled to life. "Uh, yeah, guys? You won't get any deer or elk that way." The laughter that followed over the radio was from Sam.

Shiloh's eyes grew to the size of dinner plates as shock and embarrassment took over. "Oh, my God, Gary, did he see us?" She spun around to see if she could find Sam.

I pressed the transmit button. "We wouldn't get deer or elk what way, Sam?"

"Why, by getting each other off," came the amused reply.

"Don't tell me you saw us?" I groaned, embarrassed myself.

"Nah, I just heard you." A short pause, then followed by, "Over the radio." Sam was trying his damnedest to hold his laughter in.

Shit! Now I was as embarrassed as Shiloh was. Shiloh must have accidentally pressed the transmit button as she leaned against me. I could already see the ribbing I'd be getting from Sam, courtesy of Mr. Murphy and his damned, stupid law.

"Sam..." I called over the radio.

"I know, I know. Not a word will be spread to anyone back at camp about this," he laughed. Oh, trust me, I noticed that he phrased it as "anyone back at camp". Thus, he nonverbally commented that yes, much ribbing was coming our way.

I looked at Shiloh and she had her face covered in her now-clean hands, body heaving in what looked like crying. I stepped over to her and wrapped my arms around her. Her sobs weren't sobs at all; they were her attempts to keep her fit of laughter in check. Losing, her musical laughter danced over the hillside.

"Oh, my, God. I'll never be able to look at Sam in the eyes again!" she snickered. "I mean, he's going to be my brother-in-law, for crying out loud, and he heard us getting each other off!"

I couldn't help but laugh with her. I hugged her tight and commented, "Well, he may not tell anyone back at camp about this, but he will damn sure give us a bad time about it."

"You think so?" Shiloh giggled.

"Oh, definitely. He can't pass up the chance. But you know what?"

"What?" she said.

"Well ... if he heard us, then there's a distinct possibility that anyone else up on the mountain tuned in on our channel heard us as well."

Another round of embarrassed laughter escaped from Shiloh as she realized the implication. She turned around and leaned her head against my chest as she hid her face again and started laughing. We laughed together for a few minutes before we regained our composure and reclaimed our dignity, what little was left of it. Well, we didn't see any deer or elk at all that morning. I like to think it was more out of bad luck than being frightened off by our vocal orgasms, but I'm probably wrong in that line of thinking.

When we finally got back to camp, the ribbing started. Oh, Sam was somewhat discreet about it. But what drew the largest bout of laughter from us three was when Sam commented that he thought he'd heard a weird mating call. He said he wasn't sure if it was a dying bull elk or the call of the elusive Sasquatch. Sam and I laughed until our sides hurt. Shiloh laughed so hard that she developed a bad case of the hiccups. The rest of the family simply looked at us and then each other with amused, yet confused, looks on their faces. Later, Shiloh swore unholy revenge upon Sam, especially for the Sasquatch part. This elicited more laughter on my part and an elbow in the ribs from Shiloh.

A couple of mornings found Shiloh going into one of the nearby, relatively speaking, towns for a "girls day shopping". The town was a popular celebrity destination and, therefore, had some very nice and very pricey shops and stores. On those days I gave Shiloh a wad of cash I'd pulled from the bank and told her to have fun. Preplanning, guys, will keep your woman a happy camper. Pun totally intended.

After a full week up at camp, we headed back to civilization. I must say, I do believe Shiloh will be returning next year. Camping and hunting, both events she'd never experienced before, were all that she talked about on the way home.

Halloween found us attending my family's annual Halloween neighborhood bash dressed as an old-fashioned German couple. Lederhosen included. I knew most everyone at the party and felt confident we wouldn't get too much grief over showing that we were a couple. Everyone said we made a cute couple. I couldn't agree more.

Two more weeks put us less than a week out from our respective birthdays—hers two days before mine. We planned our best-case/worst-case scenarios for her emancipation hearing. Best case: Shiloh was emancipated from the guardianship arrangement and we married the next day. Worst case: we continued as we were for another year until she turned eighteen and became a legal adult. Sam knew the judge hearing Shiloh's case pretty well and guessed that we'd have no problem with the hearing. Shiloh and I still worried, though.

The days were agonizingly slow to pass. Yet they did. Finally we reached the day before Shiloh's birthday. I'd taken time off work; we were close to wrapping up the project at the Micron plant and I could afford to take the day off. Shiloh signed out of school early and went shopping for an outfit for the date we'd planned for tonight; she'd been using Carol, my classic Shelby, for school transportation since the school year started. I went to town myself for a haircut and a new suit.

We both agreed to dress separately so we could surprise each other. I dressed in our bedroom and she dressed in Kaitlyn's. I was showered and dressed before she was done in the other bathroom, so I sat in the living room waiting.

The wait was well worth it. Shiloh came out in a knee-length sleeveless green dress that matched her glittering emerald eyes. Her wavy copper hair shined and bounced as she walked into the room in heels that matched her dress precisely. The silver earrings glinted in the living room light. To my surprise, she was wearing, as a necklace, my old military dog tags. She giggled when she told me she wanted people to know who "owned" her and her heart.

She stepped up to me, kissed me lightly and stepped back. She twirled and asked me what I thought. Her red hair, freckled face, emerald eyes, alabaster skin—she couldn't have packaged those goods any better if she'd tried. I told her so and her smile lit the room. We shared a quick kiss and then headed out the door.

We ate dinner at one of the best restaurants in the area before heading to take in a comedy act at a cozy little establishment. Afterwards we walked, Shiloh's arm wrapped around mine, to a little corner coffee shop for a late-night coffee. Our little celebration of the ending of one chapter in Shiloh's life and the beginning of another wound up back at our house. Yes, our house. I had stopped referring to it as my house long ago when she moved in with me.

As soon as we'd closed and locked the door, Shiloh took my hand and led me to our bedroom. I started unbuttoning my suit jacket but she stopped me.

"I want to do this, handsome," she murmured. "It's my birthday after all." Who was I to argue? She unbuttoned my jacket, slid it off my shoulders and hung it on a doorknob. She then unbuttoned my shirt, ran her nails down my chest—that caused a groan and a shiver from yours truly—and then took my shirt off. My shoes and socks soon matched my shirt on the floor. Then off came my suit pants.

Shiloh gave me a teasing kiss and then had me unzip her. I complied and slid her dress off her shoulders. My hand followed the path of the dress down her body, hands cupping her breasts, pulling her into my body. The dress pooled around her feet as I lightly kissed and nibbled her neck. She moaned softly and turned in my arms. She was wearing matching white sheer lace panties and bra and nothing was hidden by those two articles of clothing.

I kissed her, my tongue dancing and dueling with hers. She then started kissing her way down my body. She took one of my nipples in her mouth and tongued and nibbled it. I moaned and ran my fingers through her hair.

When she started kissing downwards from my chest and hooked her thumbs in my underwear, though, I stopped her. In the past we'd never let our playtime go beyond touching, caressing and kissing with at least underwear on both of us. Didn't want the temptation to do more. That had served us well until tonight. Shiloh's actions were indicating she wanted to do more. She was sixteen, though—her birthday wasn't until the next day. It was only then that she'd be legal, consent-wise.

"What?" she quietly asked as she looked up at me with those mesmerizing eyes of hers.

"You know what, baby," I replied. I was hard as steel because my little buddy instinctively knew what was about to happen and that excited him. It excited me too, but that whole legal technicality was a real mood-killer for me.

She stood. "That I'm still sixteen?"

"Uh, yeah?" I answered, wondering where she was going with this.

"For what? Another hour?" Shiloh whispered. "Gary, do you think that it's going to make that much of a difference, aside from the legal-speak, if we don't wait one more hour? Will I magically become wise and all-knowing in the next hour?" She laid her head on my chest and idly traced a circle around my left nipple. "No, that's not going to happen," she answered for me. "I'm not going to be wiser to the ways of the world by waiting one single, stinking hour longer. I've been waiting months for this and if I don't get you inside me soon, I'm going to just die!

"I want to do this, Gary. You're not forcing me to do anything I don't want to do. You never have. It was you, always you, that I was waiting for. You came along when I needed someone the most. You saved me—mentally, physically and emotionally. And I ... I'd like to think I did the same with you. So, I look at this as the closure of a long, bad stretch of my life, our lives, a kind of celebration if you will. I want it to close on the best possible note and to start the next phase of our lives experiencing the same kind of pleasure and happiness. Please!" The last was a whispered plea.

I want to say that I fended off her reasoning and held my resolve for one lousy hour. I'd be lying if I said I did. I couldn't argue with her logic, which she has in spades by the way.

"'Kay," I quietly said.

She slowly dropped to her knees, kissing her way down until she was kissing just above the tented point of my underwear. She looked up at me with anticipation etched in her smile. She absentmindedly licked her lips and pulled my underwear over my steel-hard dick and down to my feet. I stepped out of them and took a steadying breath—my heart was hammering relentlessly.

Shiloh looked up at me with hooded eyes. "I ... I've never done this before, you know. What do you want me to do?" she asked.

"Anything you want, Shi. I'm not going to force you to do something. Whatever you want to try," I replied, "just try it. I'll like anything you want to do. If I do something you don't like, just tell me to stop and I will. Okay?"

She nodded at me and took my dick tenderly in her hand. Her soft touch felt like electricity—joy, pleasure, torture all at the same time. She slowly stroked it up and down while she lightly massaged my balls with her other hand. Pre-cum was leaking from the tip of my dick and she played with it with a fingertip, spreading it over my purple head.

As she stroked more, more of the lubricant leaked out and she tentatively licked it up, testing its flavor and consistency. She smiled up at me as I stroked her hair and face before bobbing her head back down and engulfing my manhood with her warm mouth. I moaned as she swirled her tongue around the head of my dick. My knees became a little wobbly so I sank back onto the bed with Shiloh firmly affixed to my penis by her mouth.

She moaned and hummed, sending pleasurable vibrations up from my dick. She took me in as far as she could and withdrew, scraping her teeth lightly along the length of my dick. Soon I felt those familiar feelings radiating over my body.

"Shiloh, baby," I breathed through clenched teeth, "I'm about to cum..."

Her answer was a muffled "mmmm..." as she intensified her efforts. She bobbed her head, swirled her tongue, stroked with her hands. "Cum for me, baby," she purred before engulfing me again. She stroked her fingernails lightly along my scrotum and that set me off.

"Nnnnnn ... aahhhrrr ... yessssss ... Shshshshilohbaby ... cumminggggg!" I growled as liquid fire exploded from the center of my sexual being. Poor girl—I swear I damn near blew the back of her head off with the first squirt. She stroked my dick in time with each squirt, drawing as much of my cum into her mouth as she could before swallowing. She purred in satisfaction as the sixth and final squirt dwindled, my cum simply oozing out now.

She looked up at me, a mischievous glint in her eyes, and swallowed the last of my cum. She slowly stood. "That wasn't nowhere near as bad as I'd been led to believe, baby." I arched an eyebrow at her and she replied, "Most of the girls at school who've given blowjobs said that the guy's cum tasted nasty. I actually kind've liked it." A big grin.

I kissed her, tasting some of myself in her mouth, as I pulled her into the bed on top of me. She sat up, straddling my waist, unclasped the front of her bra and slid it off. Her nipples and quarter-sized areolae were pale pink, almost blending in with the surrounding skin. The nipples were hard little points about the size of a pencil eraser, just begging to be sucked on. I obliged them.

Shiloh held my head to her breasts, shuddering each time I tugged or nibbled on the soft skin. Her fingers dug into my scalp as I sucked on one nipple and pinched and rolled the other between my fingertips. Her breaths became shorter and quicker the more I played, tasted, sucked and teased. A guttural "yesssssssss!" hissed from her as she quivered in my arms in the throes of an orgasm.

She opened her eyes and kissed me softly. "That was ... God ... that was indescribable, babe! It still amazes me that I can get off from my titties alone," she grinned at me. "I never realized just how sensitive I am there before I met you." She shuddered again as a small secondary orgasm flitted through her.

"If you thought that was good, just wait, baby," I said with a knowing grin. "It gets better."

She just purred in my arms before rolling off me to shimmy out of her panties. I rolled on top of her and kissed her neck, causing her to giggle and wiggle and purr all at the same time. I lavished more kisses as I made my way down her body, momentarily distracted by her two little titties. I continued down and elicited another giggle from her when I kissed the junction of her hip and thigh—I'd discovered in our previous playtimes that she was fairly ticklish.

When I planted my first soft kiss on the lips of her pussy, she stiffened and froze. "Oh God, Gary!" she exclaimed. I continued my ministrations to many squeals of pleasure and three keening orgasms. The moment I sucked her little clit into my mouth caused an instant, as she described afterwards, mind-blowing, head-exploding orgasm.

She rolled me over on my back and straddled me again, trapping my stiff member between our bodies. She bent down until our faces were inches apart. Her silken red tresses framed her face as she bit her bottom lip between her teeth. She slowly rubbed herself back and forth along my length, shivering each time her clit rubbed against the bottom of my dick.

She finally raised her hips up slightly and I felt her grasp the base of my dick as she directed it to her slickly wet virgin pussy. "I love you and you alone, Gary Ashton," she whispered, looking directly into my eyes. And into my soul. She pushed back and I felt the head of my penis pop into her vaginal entrance and with some slight grimacing discomfort on her part, she became a woman. She pushed a second time and I felt her wet warmth draw me in further.

Shiloh had her eyes closed in concentration and I reveled in the bliss that was written across her face. That I could bring my girl such unbelievably wonderful sensations warmed my heart. A wiggle and a couple more thrusts and our pubic bones met.

"I'm yours, my handsome man," she purred to me.

"And I'm all yours as well, angel," I replied softly.

She glanced at the clock on my nightstand. "Mmmm ... just in time, baby. Five minutes 'til midnight," she grinned at me and then started rocking her hips.

She had me incredibly turned on already, so I knew I wouldn't last too long. She pulled me up into a sitting position and wrapped her arms around me. I met her thrusts with my own as we sought to consummate our love, our relationship. I was hers, she was mine and neither of us would have it any other way.

She dug her nails forcefully into my back as she explosively came on my dick, setting my own orgasm off. Her high-pitched wail filled our house as her pussy rippled around my dick, massaging the orgasm from me. I erupted deep into her warm depths, the head of my dick against her cervix. She latched onto my shoulder and bit, both pain and pleasure registering on my rapidly short-circuiting brain.

We held onto each other for dear life as we both came down from our orgasmic highs. She repeatedly shuddered as mini-orgasms rippled over her.

"God, baby, that was better than I'd ever even dreamed," she murmured into my shoulder.

"I'm glad," I replied. I looked at the clock. "And happy birthday, angel," I whispered before giving her a lovingly tender kiss—Shiloh had been officially legal now for twenty-some minutes.

After I'd softened and slid out of her with a wet plop, she got up and got a washcloth from the bathroom to clean us up. I was covered with both of our cum and the blood from her defloration. She cleaned us up and tossed the washcloth on the floor before snuggling up against me.

"I love you, Shiloh Graves," I whispered into her hair as she spooned against me.

She purred a soft, "I love you, too, Gary Ashton," before slowly drifting off to sleep. I held her until her breathing evened out before letting myself slip off to sleep as well.

I awoke the next morning to my Shiloh lavishing my morning hard-on with playful licks and butterfly kisses. As I rubbed the sleep from my eyes she grinned at me and chirped a happy, "Good morning, handsome!" to me. I just laid there relishing the eager playfulness this beautiful angel was displaying. If this was a dream, God, don't wake me, I thought to myself.

She suddenly stopped and hopped on top of me with a giggle and a playful kiss. "Mmmm, baby, I want to feel you in me again," she said, "but we don't have time. I think if we start, we'll miss our hearing." She rubbed her slick pussy against my morning wood.

I looked at the clock and saw that she was right—we had just over an hour until we needed to be at the courthouse. "You're such a tease, hun," I said with a grin and a kiss of my own.

"It's not a tease, babe, it's a promise," she said huskily. "And I keep my promises, always." The last was sealed with a passionate kiss.

We finally pried ourselves apart and rolled out of bed. At Shiloh's suggestion, we took a shared shower. Yes, we fooled around a few minutes, but with time being as short as it was, we didn't have time to really play. She made me promise that we'd take a much longer shower later when we had more time to play. This was said as she was shuddering from the two rapid-fire orgasms I'd given her, leaving her slightly weak-kneed.

We hopped out of the shower, dried, got dressed and out the door with just enough time to make it to the courthouse. We were met at the entrance to the courthouse by the same lawyer that'd helped Shiloh's mother and me with the legal paperwork designating me as Shiloh's guardian those many months prior.

Our lawyer thought we had no better than a fifty-fifty shot at Shiloh being emancipated from me. His reasoning was that the judge would want to know why Shiloh wanted the emancipation and, her answer being us getting married, the lawyer wasn't sure how the judge would view that little tidbit of information. Needless to say, we were nervous. Having the emancipation would generally make our lives much easier; not having it would just mean a continuation of what we were doing, all hidden behind closed doors.

We were finally called for our hearing. We walked into the courtroom and took our seats with our lawyer. Sam was sitting in the first row of the gallery behind us. He gave us his encouragement and told us not to worry—he was confident we'd get what we wanted. We rose when the judge, one Judge Bill Williams, entered the courtroom. He called the hearing to order and we started the proceedings.

Judge Williams asked all the appropriate preliminary questions and we both answered truthfully and honestly. Finally he cut to the chase. "Miss Graves," he asked, "let's get right down to the reason you're requesting emancipation from Mr. Ashton—in your own words, why are you requesting emancipation?"

She glanced at me nervously, but with eyes full of love, and replied, "Judge Williams, I want emancipation because I want and intend on marrying Mr. Ashton. And before you ask, yes, I've thought this out long and hard and no, he's not coerced me nor taken advantage of me. This is something I want and, honestly, need."

Judge Williams silently looked at her for a few moments. "I want to speak with each of you, separately, for a few minutes," he declared sternly. Shiloh and I looked at each other worriedly. "Miss Graves, you first, if you please." He led Shiloh back to his chambers.

I sat and exhaled in a whoosh. Sam clapped me on the shoulder and told me not to worry; this was fairly standard practice. I was worried, though. I could only imagine what Shiloh was being asked and what I'd wind up being grilled over. A lot hinged on what Shiloh told Judge Williams.

Ten minutes passed before they exited the judge's chamber, Shiloh puffy-eyed and clutching a damp tissue. Judge Williams called me back into his chambers and I felt like a condemned man taking that fateful last walk to the electric chair.

He told me to sit, so I did and looked around office. Typical judicial office—legal books, educational degrees framed on the walls, dark wood everything. All in all, not a bad looking office. He offered me a glass of water and I gladly accepted.

After a silent minute or two appraising me, Judge Williams simply asked, "Do you love Miss Graves, Mr. Ashton?"

I looked him dead in the eyes and answered, "With all my heart, your Honor. There isn't a day that goes by that I'm not grateful for her friendship, companionship and..." I paused a second. "And her love."

"And how did it happen, you falling in love with Miss Graves?"

I chuckled—probably not appropriate considering where I sat—and replied, "Honestly? It ambushed me and whacked me upside the head when I wasn't watching. Shiloh, Miss Graves that is, and I hit off a good friendship from day one when I moved into our neighborhood. Her home life wasn't good, Judge. Abused mother, abusive stepfather. He had hit her on numerous occasions. The last time, Shiloh all but got on her knees and begged for me to not go kick his sorry ass into the next week because she feared for her mother's safety. And she didn't want me to get sent to jail over her. I would've done it, even then, before I realized I had feelings for her. You just don't do that, hit women—it's just how I was raised. I called my brother, Deputy Ashton..."