* * *
There were still a few stragglers collapsed on chairs with the last of the booze in their hands. The caterers were cleaning up, a gentle reminder to the stragglers to leave, which they were choosing to ignore. My father was one of them.
I went inside to the kitchen and opened the refrigerator door. Through all the excitement and upset, I had neglected to eat. Lilly had seen me come in and followed me. “I just peeked in on Natalie, and she’s still out cold. I thought I’d go on home and come back in the morning for her, if that’s OK?”
I turned away from the refrigerator. “I thought we decided you would stay the night?” I’d found a tray of chicken wings and had a couple in my hand. “No?”
“I’m not sure, Bolt. I think we’ve caused enough trouble for you today. I looked outside a minute ago and saw you still have some guests, including your father. He didn’t seem anxious to have me hanging around, and maybe he’s right.”
“To hell with him! This is my house, not his. This is my life, not his. You’re my girl, not his. Get the message?”
She rolled her eyes and sighed. “You don’t have to get all testy with me. I’m trying to be considerate. I thought you might be tired after such a long day. You might be better if you could just go in your room and crash and not have to worry about entertaining me.”
My answer was to take her by the hand, toss the chicken wings on the counter, and pull her down the hallway toward my room. The sun had already set through my west-facing windows, with only a glow remaining to warn of the impending darkness. “I want you to stay. The others, forget about them. They’ll go away as soon as it gets dark. They can barely see to walk as it is. In fact, I’ve already locked the doors. Did you get something to eat?”
She nodded. “Yes, there was food everywhere I looked. I don’t think Natalie will be wanting anything for a while, but you looked hungry in the kitchen. Why don’t I go and fix you a plate?”
“Why don’t you go and fix us both the plate and bring it back here?”
Lilly smiled, in that way women do when they’re called upon to look after their man. It’s a sort of sly, proprietary smile that reassures them they are needed. I needed her sure, but I wanted her more.
I took advantage of the kitchen expedition to grab a shower. I threw on some lounging pants and a T-shirt and was waiting when Lilly returned with a tray holding small bowls, salad plates, and forks. “I just brought a little of everything, if that’s OK?”
“That’s more than OK. Anyway, you’re here, and that’s what counts. Come on and sit down here by me,” I patted the bed when she set the tray between us. I flipped on the remote, and we watched a little of the local news as they circulated from party to party, closing out Derby day for the year. “I think our party went pretty well, don’t you?”
“For the most part, until things went wrong with my sister.”
I took her hand. “You know, Lilly. Natalie is a grown woman, and she’s going to have to accept responsibility for herself. What happened to your parents is not your fault. You don’t have to make up for her loss. You share the very same one.”
“I know what you say is valid. I also know that it’s easy to see things when it’s not happening to you.”
“I get that. I have my own little problem down there in the lawn right now. But the important thing is, you and I have a responsibility to each other now. I want us to move forward in this relationship, to get to know one another better and to learn to trust each other.” I emphasized that last because I sensed that she needed it. She was nodding, so I was right.
We sat companionably and finished eating. I looked out the window and saw that the cars were all gone. The party was officially over. I looked over my shoulder at Lilly. She had pulled her hairbrush from her purse and was drawing its thick bristles through her long hair. I walked over behind her, took the brush from her hand, and started running it through her long, smooth locks. There is something very sensual about brushing a woman’s hair. It is their true source of beauty, their pride, and a sensual reminder of their youth in good health. I wanted to feel that soft hair fanned out over my chest, and I wanted to feel her straddling my thighs. I pulled at her hips until she was sitting between my parted knees, her head falling backward as I drew the brush downward. I nuzzled her cheek, kissing that soft spot beneath her earlobe. She shivered in response, and I reached inside the neck of her dress to feel her erect nipple. Women’s nipples were a direct corollary to a man’s penis, and the man who understood that was a master in his bedroom.
She expelled her breath in a long slow, sensual sound—one of longing and feminine submission. I reached to the top of her back and lowered the long zipper, releasing the dress from her form and allowing it to slither to the floor. To my immense surprise, she wore nothing beneath it. “I didn’t know,” I whispered into her ear.
“I didn’t know how to tell you,” she answered.
“I know now.” My hands slid over her shoulders, her back leaning against my chest. I paused only long enough to whip my T-shirt off, and then we were skin against skin. I smoothed the palms of my hands over her skin slowly until each hand held one of her breasts. I massaged them, running my fingertips over her nipples, and her hips involuntarily moved forward, her legs parting in desire. I chuckled inwardly and enjoyed controlling the beautiful body that lay between my knees.
Lilly firmly pushed my hands to the side as she rolled onto her tummy, kicking her heeled shoes off to land on her dress. Her fingertips slid inside the waistband of my lounge pants, and she lowered the front enough that my rigid penis broke free, only inches from her face. Her hands moved to my hips, and with fingertips locked inside the elastic, she pulled at the waistband until the pants were down around my knees. I moved to remove them entirely, but she stopped me.
“Don’t. I like that you’re a little trapped. It makes you more vulnerable and lets me do what I want to do.” She was a vixen, and I was about to experience her. She ran her fingers of the inside of my thighs, pausing at intervals to press into my flesh, exposing my penis all the way to its base. She rose only slightly onto her knees, enough to give her momentum to move closer to her goal. Her mouth opened, and her tongue flicked out against the tip of my erection. Her fingers smoothed down my length, encircling it by lacing themselves together in a custom-fitted sleeve. Her hands slid back and forth, each stroke pressing against my balls with enough pressure to make my penis leap forward. As it did, her mouth opened, accepting it with a questing tongue that mapped the geography of my pulsing veins and ridges. My head fell backward as I luxuriated in her care, wanting it never to stop. She was tender yet forceful. She was all woman, and she was mine.
She brought me to that level of insanity just before the explosion, and out of self-preservation I pushed her gently by the shoulders until she lay on the mattress, her legs spread wide as she touched herself. It was an invitation I could not refuse. I rolled to my knees between her thighs and leaned forward, penetrating her slowly and gradually until I could enter no further. The soft lips of her labia cradled my balls in the way that men and women are supposed to be joined together. I couldn’t stop my hips from starting their rocking motion—they had a mind of their own.
Lilly’s arms splayed out above her head, lifting her hair and allowing it to cascade over her fingers as her head rolled from side to side in delicious abandonment. While the male animal was all about strength and penetration, the female was about allowing the sensuality to shoot through her entire body. Her breasts reached out toward my face, and I paused just long enough to pull each nipple into my mouth, sucking at it as I slowly withdrew. I heard a sound from her throat that told me she had surrendered. I grasped the firm but tender flesh of her hips and lifted her against me until her back was arched and her face buried sideways in her pillow. She was breathing rapidly, her chest heaving as she was overcome with sensations. That was what a man wanted to see. He wanted a visual reassurance that he was dominating his woman. I lifted her hips again and began driving into her, a steady and primal rhythm. She rose to meet me, and together we elevated the temple that drove our orgasms to their peaks. I knew she’d reached hers, the walls of her moist tunnel pulsing against my own hard rod. I allowed myself to release then, feeling her as I closed my eyes and reveled in my own sensations.
We rolled as one onto our sides, still locked together as the pulsing retreated. She leaned her forehead toward me and nuzzled my chest. I kissed the top of her head and wrapped my legs around her lower torso. I pulled her head so that she lay on my shoulder, dragging blankets up to cover us both. It began to rain outside. We seemed fated to make love in the rain. It suited us both to sleep. I felt complete.