They were both sleepy after drinking the glass of wine and eating a large amount of the baguette, brie, shaved ham and grapes. They both lay back against the tree trunk, empty wine glasses in hand. Their eyes started to close when James said, “Would you like to see the pond?”
Susan’s eyes fluttered open, and she said sleepily, “Sure,” and sat up.
James stood up, took her hand and pulled her up. “It’s down the path this way. Chad and I used to swim in it during the summers we stayed here.”
He led her by the hand down a narrow path bordered by ferns, to a small pond surrounded by large boulders. There were overgrown trees on each side. A small waterfall cascaded into the pond between two of the boulders, making the scene idyllic.
“I haven’t been here in ages,” he said gazing around.
“Is the water very cold?” she asked.
“Shouldn’t be this time of year. Go ahead and stick your toe in.”
She slipped off her sandals, set them down on the pebbles by the shore of the pond, and tentatively put one foot into the water. It was chilly, but not uncomfortably cold. On a warm day like this one, it wouldn’t even be too cold to swim in.
The pebbles beneath the water were smooth and somewhat slimy with algae. She stepped in with her other foot, but as she did so, she started to lose her balance and was just about to fall fully into the water, when James grabbed her arm and pulled her back. As she spun around, the front of her body thudded against his chest, and within a second, he had wrapped his arms tightly around her and crushed his mouth down on hers.
Her response to his kiss was immediate, all her pent up emotions from the previous night exploding into uncontrollable desire. She returned his kiss with a passion she didn’t even know she had, reaching both arms up to twine around his neck. Her hands moved up to the back of his head, and she ran her fingers frantically through his hair, scraping her fingernails on his scalp. He groaned as their kiss became intense and he shot his tongue into her mouth, teasing and probing.
He cupped one of her breasts in his hand, and she responded by thrusting her hips into his and rubbing against him. He moved his hands down to her bottom and pulled her even closer. She could feel his pulsing arousal against her stomach and the beginning wetness between her legs. A throbbing need began deep in her belly then slowly moved down to her most private parts, leaving her almost breathless with desire.
Her hormones were in a drunken stupor, while her aged and mature mind fled into the depths of the pond.
Their kiss became an erotic play of lips and tongues. Their hearts were beating wildly against each other. He covered her neck with kisses and small bites then took her earlobe between his teeth and tugged gently before swirling his tongue inside her ear, making her almost swoon.
She reached between them down to the front of his trousers and boldly squeezed the pulsating bulge that was begging for release. He reached a hand behind her head, grasping a handful of her hair and pulled her face towards his again, kissing her once more.
James was the first to draw back and look down at her, his lips parted, his eyes smoldering and dark with flickering amber highlights sparking within. They were both breathing heavily. Her lips felt swollen from his kisses. His eyes pinned onto hers. She knew the next move was up to her. He’d said so when they left for the picnic this morning.
But did she even have a choice? She knew there was no point in fighting against this; she wanted him to possess her, and it was far too late for either of them to call a halt to the inevitable. All rational thoughts fled from her head as he squeezed her bottom, pulling her back into him. She could feel his throbbing manhood, imagining how it would feel inside her, and the last of any rational thoughts flew from her brain.
“Take me back to the cottage and make love to me,” she whispered huskily.
There was no need for him to respond. She bent down and retrieved her sandals. He took her hand, and they raced back up the path, bypassing the blanket and the remnants of their picnic, then down the hill to the cottage. When they got inside, they wordlessly headed back to the bedroom, where James kicked the door shut behind them.
There wasn’t any slow, seductive removal of clothes. Both quickly and eagerly stripped down to nakedness, James on one side of the bed and Susan on the other. The only thing Susan still had on was her necklace. The ballerina shoes hung down between her bare breasts. Buttons jumped down off the bed then up onto the window sill, turning her head away. James and Susan met in the middle of the bed, both on their knees, and embraced with a need so powerful that it made them dizzy.
They kissed again, this time more slowly and sensuously, running their hands over each other’s skin, feeling, touching, exploring. He cupped both of her full breasts in his hands and rubbed his thumbs over her nipples. They instantly hardened. She reached down and grasped his erect shaft in one hand and gently tugged on it. He groaned, moving one of his hands down between her thighs, feeling her wet heat and expertly fingering the most sensitive part of her. She gasped, parting her thighs to give him better access.
“Oh my God!” Susan suddenly thought. “Am I a virgin or not? How can he even possibly think I am after I told him to make love to me, stripped down naked without a second thought, and now I’m doing this? What’s it feel like to be a virgin anyway? I don’t remember!”
She would have laughed in different circumstances, but this wasn’t the moment. Her mind was in a whirl, and she was throbbing for want of him inside her as he continued to stroke the nub of her desire, making her slicker and wetter. She begged him to stop, thinking she might explode right then and there.
Slowly, he removed his hand from between her thighs and laid her back on the pillows, his body held slightly above hers. His lips claimed hers again.
As he kissed her, instinct took over, and she spread her legs beneath him. He lowered one of his hands down between them and stroked her again. She scraped her fingernails down his back in eager anticipation and slightly lifted her hips. She was ready. He grasped his manhood and prepared to enter her, then suddenly stopped, looking full into her face.
“Are you sure this is what you want?” he asked softly.
“I’ve never wanted anything more,” she whispered as she raised her hips up to receive him.
To the surprise of them both, he met a barrier partway in and pulled back, amazement on his face.
“Are you really then...are you...have you never done this before?”
She thought for a moment, then shook her head. “No, I don’t believe I have.”
“I don’t want to hurt you. I’ve never encountered...that is to say...I’ve never experienced...”
Her only response was to frantically thrust her hips up to meet him again as she grasped his bottom and pulled him down into her in one swift movement. He moaned in pleasure as he broke through her barrier and her tight sheath enveloped him. He paused for a moment, looking down at her. Her eyes were closed. Slowly, he pulled partially out and slowly pushed in again. She opened her eyes, staring into his and reached up to cup his cheek in her hand, softly moaning as he repeated his thrust. She wrapped her arms around his neck and her legs around his back, urging him on.
But, he needed no urging as he began stroking back and forth inside her in a sensual rhythm. She flung her arms outwards, tilting her hips up to allow him to go deeper. He kissed and suckled her breasts as she clutched the hair on the nape of his neck. She met every one of his thrusts, feeling the spasms of her climax beginning deep inside her. She reached down between them to fondle his balls then screamed out his name as they both reached their peak. He collapsed on top of her, rolled them onto their sides and smothered her face with soft and feathery kisses.
She ran her fingers through his hair once more as they looked into each other’s eyes, their chests heaving from the exertion of their first encounter. As they began to caress each other again, James’s manhood sprung back to life, and they enjoyed each other again, this time more slowly. Then, sheer exhaustion overcame them both, and they fell asleep in each other’s arms.
They slept and made love several times more through the late afternoon and night. Buttons paid little attention from her perch on the window sill.
Susan’s hormones sighed contentedly.
It was 10:00 in the morning on the ship when Lynn woke up. Even that was early for her, but she felt as if something was nudging at her brain and telling her to wake up. She needed a Diet Coke, and there wasn’t any in the cabin. She sat up, thinking to get dressed when she saw her iPhone and thought she should check in on Susan. It was Sunday and would be mid-afternoon in England, around 3:00. When she turned it on, however, all she could see was a wooden door. She waited a minute then checked the volume to see if she could hear anything, but there was no sound. Then the phone picture changed to show a black and white cat sitting in a window. It was licking one of its paws. It looked just like Susan’s cat in the present named Checkers! What was Checkers doing back in the past and what could the door mean? It certainly wasn’t Susan’s hotel room door. Where was Susan? Where was James?
A sick feeling came into the pit of her stomach.
Birds were singing outside the window when Susan woke up, feeling languid and satiated from an afternoon and night of lovemaking. She looked over at James, still asleep, his long lashes sweeping over his cheeks, his hair tousled on the pillow. Quietly, she got out of bed and slipped a wrapper on that she’d found hanging on a hook on the back of the bedroom door. She tied the belt around her waist and silently padded out of the bedroom, closing the door softly behind her. Buttons silently followed, then pawed at the kitchen door to be let out.
“Oh look, Buttons,” she said as she opened the door. “Here comes the sun!”
Sunlight began streaming across the kitchen table and floor as she opened the refrigerator to see what might be in it to concoct for breakfast. Ah yes, eggs, more than a dozen or so, in a large, blue bowl, a dish of butter and a glass bottle of milk. Omelet or French toast? She looked in the cabinets for maple syrup, but couldn’t find any. Then she spied the strawberries. French toast with some confectioner’s sugar and strawberries. Perfect!
She found the French bread they’d bought yesterday in one of the bags from the shop, pulled it out and sliced half of the loaf. She then whipped a few eggs with milk and put some butter in a cast iron skillet that was sitting on the stove. She sliced some strawberries into another bowl. She thought of going into the bedroom and waking James up but then laughed to herself as she knew what the outcome of that would be. And, she was really hungry and figured he would be too. They hadn’t eaten anything since their picnic the previous afternoon. She decided just to wait for him to wake up on his own.
In the meantime, she found a coffeepot and made some coffee. While it was brewing, she opened the back door and stepped down onto a small porch then down a step into a garden bursting at the seams with a variety of vegetables and herbs…tomatoes, lettuce, cabbages, squash, peppers, eggplant, oregano, basil, mint, thyme, sage and more. She pinched a leaf off a basil plant and sniffed it. Fabulous! She heard the back door open behind her and turned around. James was standing on the porch, squinting his eyes against the sun with a hand shading his eyes. He’d pulled his trousers on, but was shirtless. He looked marvelous to her, his hair still unkempt.
They both smiled at each other at the same time, warm memories of the previous day and night still fresh in their minds.
“Morning, Luv,” he said, coming over and planting a kiss on her upturned mouth.
“Morning,” she said, wrapping her arms around his neck and looking up into his eyes. “I’ll have breakfast ready in a flash if you’re hungry. Coffee’s already made.”
“That’s what woke me up, you know, the smell of coffee. I’d love breakfast. What are you making?”
“French toast with strawberries.”
“Mmmmm…sounds wonderful.”
He released her from the embrace, and they went back into the kitchen where she lit the gas burner to melt the butter in the skillet. The kitchen door was left open, and Buttons came back in, rubbing her cheeks against Susan’s legs. James ignored her.
“So, I guess I’ll find out how good of a cook you are,” he said teasingly.
“I’m very good, you’ll find,” she responded, reaching down to scratch the cat’s head. “You seem to be good at a lot of things.”
“That’s because I am, but you’re the real talent here, you know. Go over to the piano and play me a tune while I make the French toast.”
“Yes, my lady, as you wish. And why don’t you put that darned cat outside? She shouldn’t be in the kitchen while you’re cooking, you know.”
“She can be wherever she wants to be, isn’t that right, Buttons?” she responded, pouring a small saucer of milk and setting it on the floor.
James glowered at them both but went into the other room. As she dipped the French bread into the egg mixture and placed it in the skillet, he sat down on the piano bench and randomly played bits and pieces of tunes. The French toast was soon done, and she added some salt to the remaining eggs and milk, then whipped them into scrambled eggs. They sat down at the kitchen table to eat.
“Wonderful,” he said, smiling over at her. “Best I’ve ever had.”
“Have you had French toast before then?” she asked.
“Never,” he said.
“Well, no wonder it’s the best then!”
As she was washing up the dishes, James went back to the piano and began picking out more tunes. As she raised her cup to take a sip of coffee, he began to play a tune that she knew so startling well that she gasped and dropped the cup on the floor. It was the beginning notes of “All My Kisses.” It had been her favorite song for fifty years. The fine porcelain cup shattered and coffee went flying all over.
“Oh no, no!” she yelled. “Look what I’ve done!”
James leaped up from the piano bench, running over to her as she dropped down to the floor on her knees and began to gather the pieces of the cup.
She was trying to hold back tears, but couldn’t quite do it. A large teardrop ran down her cheek, and she reached up with one hand to brush it away. James joined her on the floor, reaching to pick up other pieces of the broken cup.
“Hey now, what’s this?” he asked, as he saw her brush away the tear.
“Oh, I just feel so bad breaking the cup. It’s probably one of your Aunt’s best or most favorite or…”
“No, now stop…” He reached up to cup her face in one hand. “She won’t care…It doesn’t matter.”
“But, I was so clumsy, and…”
She thought, “Oh...this isn’t about the cup at all...it was hearing that song!”
“It’s not important. We can always get her a new one if you like.”
“And where would we get a new one?”
“Well, we could go into Little Dippington,” he said. “It’s just a way down the road, and they have quite a few shops there. Auntie goes there all the time for most of her stuff. A lot of her friends live there.”
She sat back on her heels, then stood up and put the broken cup pieces in the bin. “Okay, then, but first let me finish cleaning up this mess and wash the rest of the dishes. I’ll sweep up what I can and scrub the floor when we get back.”
“I’ll go get the broom, and I’ll help you with the floor later.”
“Are you kidding me? Men don’t know how to scrub floors properly. Just get the broom...and don’t you dare scare Buttons with it,” she added, seeing James looking at the cat menacingly from the corner of his eye.
After the floor was swept and the dishes put away, Susan went into the bathroom to wash her face and use the loo. When she was done, she looked into the mirror above the sink and stared silently at her reflection.
“What are you doing here?” she asked. “Oh! Why did you decide even to do this and come here?!”
Hearing the beginning notes of her favorite song, the one she had cried herself to sleep listening to every night for years on end when she was a young teen, stung her to the quick. She put her hands up to her cheeks and took a deep breath. She wondered if James was just beginning to compose the song or if he’d finished just the tune but not the words. Should she ask him about it? Should she help him with the words? No! No changing history! She’d just have to wait and see. She thought she might ask him to play it again...Her mind was swirling as she came out of the bathroom.
This was all becoming overwhelming to her. She didn’t even know if she wanted to be here. She’d been an out of control wanton the day before throwing herself at him and felt almost ashamed about it. Seeds of doubt were planting themselves in her mind. She wished again that Lynn was here. And, as an afterthought, she said, “He doesn’t even like cats!”