Cherry Girl (Blackstone Affair) (9 page)

God, I loved her. 
“I always sort of sensed that from you, Cherry.  Just made me love you more though.”

She wasn’t done.  “B
ut then I probably shouldn’t hate them, because if they hadn’t been so awful we might never have met you.  Ian wouldn’t have befriended you and dragged you home to us.”  She leaned up to find my lips for a kiss.

I clung to her as if she were a lifeline. 
“Your family probably saved my life,” I whispered, holding her face close.

"How did we do that?"  I could see tears in her eyes and knew it hurt her to hear all this horrible shit.  I hoped it was the last time I ever had to speak of it with her.  Elaina was only
part of the good things that had happened in my life.  She was the light to all that darkness.  I was relieved to now know how that all the sorry sad rest of my past just didn’t matter to me anymore.

“By wanting me.  You al
ways wanted me, Cherry, and I don’t know why you did, but I
do
know that it was the thing that saved me.  You and your family saved me.”

She nodded and let out a sob.  “Always did…and always will.”  Her hand started moving, rubbing
over the place where my heart beat and the blood was pumped, showing me the truth behind her lovely words.

“
But, I don’t want you to dwell on it.  Please, for me, don’t think about it anymore because it’s over and just doesn’t matter.  I survived because of you, and more importantly, I have you now.  You’re mine.”  I smiled.  “That’s all I care about.”  I kissed her for a long time.

I
held onto my Cherry Girl.  I held her up against my heart, in that little rowboat on the idyllic lake, at the splendid English estate that felt like something out of a Dickens’ novel, and knew pretty much what complete happiness felt like for the first time in my adult life.

All the sad shit and the fucked up past was well behind
us, where it belonged.  I figured we only had good in our future to look forward to together.

No words could d
o justice to what I’d just shared with Elaina in such a very special place.  It was that meaningful to me.  I certainly couldn’t find the right words to express what it meant to me to know that she’d always loved me and wanted me…just because she did.  No other reason, than that the path of her heart led her to me.  A miracle.  I couldn’t rationalize it and I wouldn’t even attempt to figure out why things played out the way that they did with us.

I made a decision to just believe in fate right then and there.  Done. 
I wouldn’t question the how’s or the why’s of it anymore, but simply accept the gift of fate I’d been given with my Elaina.

I’d
hold the memory of this beautiful time together with her, keeping it safe inside me where I could revisit whenever I needed to so I could make it through the next ten months of being apart.

A
nd that time was coming far, far too soon.

11

T
he enormous bathtub had a view
to rival the best scenic vistas on any travel documentary, but I wasn’t looking or caring about it.  No, my attention was elsewhere.  And my view was much more spectacular.

Elaina naked was
breathtaking.  Elaina, naked and wet in the bath with me, even more so.  Elaina, naked, wet and sucking on my cock, was probably going to render me blind in the next minute or two.  If I wasn’t dead by then.

She worked me over good, drawing the length deep and pulling back with a little twist of her
hand on each stroke.  I held her long hair back from her face and let her take me to heaven.

“Oh fuck, fuck, fuck…that’s it—I’m going
off!”

I tried to pull away but she wouldn’t
let go and the wet warmth of her mouth felt too good against the bare flesh of my cock.  I couldn’t stop the force of the spunk that exploded from me, and worried about choking her, but I was too far gone to do much of anything about it.  My state of control over myself had come and gone.  I’d come hard.

She took it all down her throat while I shuddered and pulsed, feeling like I shouldn’t do that to her, but it felt too fuckin’ good to stop.  I was a slave to her love and very happy to
my lot in life.

“God, girl, you’re gonna kill me,” I panted
through the after rush of my orgasm.

She released me
from her lips and grinned like the devil, wiping the corner of her mouth with a finger.

I groaned from the sheer pornographic
lust she instilled in me.  In a very good way of course, but still… “Yeah, I’m dyin’ for sure.”

“Nope.  No killing you off, C
aptain.  No dying allowed, either.”  Her hand still gripping ’round my cock, she stroked me slowly, still managing to keep me hard, which was not really an issue ever with her.  I wanted Elaina all the time, and she was so generous with me; I just took and took some more.  If she wanted me, I was ready to serve which was just another reason to be careful with the extra protection.  With all the spunk going off from all the sex, it would just be a matter of time until I knocked her up.  I couldn’t let that happen.

“I love you so much it scares me,” I whispered.  “Come here, beautiful
girl.”  I pulled her up my body to lie on my chest, her breasts pressing against me, her cheek just below my shoulder.  I trailed fingers through her hair and just held her.  How in the hell was I going to survive ten months without her?  I really couldn’t bear to think about it at that point. 

This was one fact I did understand.
  Denial worked pretty well for me at times.

“I’ve loved you for so long a time it makes me afraid this is all a dream,” she said.  “I’m so afraid of lo
sing all of this with you, Neil.”

“No.  You’re not losing me
.  I’m here right now, and when I’m gone away I’ll still be with you every day inside here,” I said, placing a hand over her heart, “until we’re together again, and I can have my hands on you.”

She snuggled closer and held me a little tighter.

“Do you believe me?” I asked carefully.

I felt her nod into my shoulder but she stayed quiet.

“What’s wrong?  Just afraid?”

“Yeah.”

Something was on her mind I could tell.

“Are you going to tell me what’s bothering you, Cherry, because I need to know.”

She traced her fingertip over one of my nipples, making a shiver roll through me, and sending my cock on the fast track to recovery.

“It’s nothing…I’m just selfish with you.  I want you all to myself and I never want to share you with anybody.”  She looked up at me.  “
I want it all.  You need to know that I won’t share you, Neil.  I can’t do it and I won’t.”  Her voice was harder than usual and the meaning behind the tone worried me a little.

“What do you mean?  Share me with…other girls?”  I shook my head.  “There’s nobody but you.  Elaina?  What is all this about?”

She shook her head again.

I gripped her a little tighter.  “Tell me, darlin’, what has you worried about me?”

She swallowed and looked down.  “Well, you’re—you are always so careful with us when we have sex.  Always so careful about the condoms…and you don’t need to be that way.  I’ve told you I’m on the pill and it bothers me that you—that you don’t want to be all the way close with me…like you’re afraid to make the commitment, or—or s-something with me.”

Silence.

I learned a valuable lesson in that moment.  Never, ever,
ever
, assume you know what a woman is thinking in her head.  That way leads to utter confusion and disaster.  Elaina had read me all sorts of ways of wrong.

“Oh, Cherry, you want to kno
w why I am so careful about wrapping up every time?”

“Yes.”  She nodded with a sad look in her beautiful blue eyes.

“It’s not because I’m thinking of who next I might bang, because there’s nobody.  I’m only thinking of you.”  I kissed the top of her head.  “Of how much I love you.”  Another kiss.  “Of how precious you are, and how determined I am to make our life perfect together.”  I lifted her face up.  “There’s nobody else I’m committed to, Cherry.  Only you.  I’m not going to fuck it up by getting you pregnant before I go off to war.  That would hurt
you
.  No unplanned babies for us.  I won’t do that to you, and I won’t do it to an innocent child.  I was one of those babies and I absolutely won’t do it to one of mine.  What if something happened to me over there and I couldn’t come home to you?  If you were left alone to raise a child without me.  You’re too young for all that and it’s irresponsible of me to risk that.  I will never risk
you
, Elaina.  I love you too much.”

Her face cupped in my hands, she nodded
up at me.  “But I would want anything that came from you, from us loving each other.  No baby of yours could ever be unwanted by me, Neil.  Surely you know that.”

God, she was amazing.  “I do now.”  I smiled at her.  “
And some day we will make a few together, and they will be so beautiful with you for a mum.”

“With you for a dad,” she said with a gorgeous smile.

“Feeling better now that we’ve planned out our future together?” I asked.

“Yes.”  She shifted in the water and brought her lips down to kiss my chest right over my heart.

The gesture did something to me.  Elaina was my switch.  Or more so, she was the person who operated my switch.  She controlled me, and I was perfectly happy with that arrangement.

As her lips trailed over my chest and even lower for parts desperate to feel her touch
again, I was lost.  Lost and desperate to find my way back inside her.  Driven to claim her body more times than I needed to, but she felt so good, I couldn’t stop myself from doing it.

S
o, that’s what I did for the rest of the morning…focused on my girl and making her come so many times, she just had to forget about the worries and fears that bothered her.  She had me to carry that burden for her.  I’d make sure my Cherry Girl never had to worry about anything.  I’d always be there for her, loving her and taking care of her.

I fully intended to.  My motives were sound
, but my naiveté completely shrouded the twisting paths of fate and how it can rear up and take everything away from you in an instant.  One should never underestimate what fate has in store for you.  It has a way of gaining the upper hand and can hold onto that power for a long, long time.

I
was
that naive.

****

“Hold still, this is a great shot of you.”  Taking pictures of Elaina was becoming my new favorite pastime.  She was a magnificent subject anyway. The particular shot of her, under a flowering tree loaded with pale pink blossoms, was so perfect for her.  We thought it was some kind of ornamental cherry tree from how the flowers looked.  My Cherry Girl under a cherry tree.  Cliché yes, but spectacular all the same and I fully intended to have some prints made that I could frame.

“The blossoms are everywhere.  It’s almost like snow.
”  She spun around with her arms out.

I took photo after photo while she indulged me, so grateful I’d have this beautiful mem
ory of us there together on the last day before we had to head back home.

“
So what do you want to do on our last day, beautiful girl?”

She made a face at me and circled around the tree trunk.  “Oh, I haven’t told you my news yet.”

I lowered my camera.  “What news?”

She peeked around the tree at me.  “The news about how I’m not going back to London at all.  I’ll be staying here under this cherry tree
, and taking boat rides on Lake Leticia every day, and watching the dragonflies flitting over the water.”

I made my way over to her.  “Really.”

She moved around to the other side of the tree. “Yes, really.  I thought you should be aware of it since you’re going to be living here with me.”  Her expression was deadpan.

I
started to reach for her but she moved again, switching to the other side of the tree trunk.  My sweetheart liked a bit of fun and games at times.  “You want me to stay here with you under this cherry tree, Cherry?” I asked slowly, my eyes tracking, picking my opportunity to lunge for her.

She nodded and shifted again to the other side, keeping me at a distance, her eyes tracking me
, just as much and I was her.  “You have to stay here with me, Neil.”

“I do, e
h?  Because you love me so much?”  I inched closer.

Her expression betrayed her because she could
n’t help the devilish gleam that appeared in her eyes when she shook her head.  “No, I need someone to row the boat!”

I sprinted for her and she took off shrieking, both of us laughing when I got my hands on her
, and pulled us down into the soft grass.

I trapped
her beneath me and tickled first, getting lots of playful groping in between the kisses and general horseplay.  She got some good digs in too, and damn if she discovered I was ticklish as hell in the ribs.

“Now
, be a good girl and let me kiss you,” I warned, pinning her hands down to the grass so she couldn’t get at me with more tickling.

Her eyes flared and she tilted her head to the side a bit, her hair strewn out around the grass with a few blossoms already fallen down to land all around us.

She got that softness in her expression I adored, and in the way her body melted into mine.  She let me soak her up, and kiss her until we were both breathless, and wishing that time would just stop altogether.

****

We made out cloud shapes from the grassy bank with the cherry tree blossoms still floating down.  By that time, we were covered in them, but it was futile to brush them away as more just kept falling.  Neither of us seemed to mind and the blooms had just the barest light scent so they weren’t overpowering at all.

“
I see a leaping frog at two o’clock just there.”  I pointed.  “See how his back legs are out and the webbed feet—”

“Oh look, Neil, don’t move!”

I froze.  We both stared at my outstretched finger where one of those glowing blue dragonflies had chosen to land.  I brought my hand closer very slowly, and miraculously it stayed on my finger.

“It’s so pretty.  Just look at the
colours of blue,” she said softly, as we both studied the insect.  Seemingly unperturbed by our presence, the dragonfly extended its wings and lifted its legs to take a step or two.

“Amazing that the
colour is from nature isn’t it?”

“It really is.  Like a sky blue cr
ossed with a metallic blue.  I love it so much.”

“You said that sky blue is your favorite
colour.” I felt the vibration of movement and then the dragonfly was off my finger and flying away.

“Oh, there he goes,”
she said, “and yeah, sky blue is my favorite.”  If I wasn’t mistaken I’d say there was some sadness to her comment.

“Why do you love the
colour of sky blue so much?”

“It’s the
colour of the sky when it’s beautiful on a sunny day.”

I nodded and looked back up at the sky, searching for more shapes.

“September 11 was a sunny day,” she said very softly.

I understood my girl so well.  She had reasons for most of the things she did, and this was a very good example of that.

“The colour of the sky reminds you of your dad.”

She snuggled into my side.  “Yeah.  It’s so pretty and soft looking.  I like to think of him up there in the clouds of heaven or something.  It was the last place I know where he was alive and it was such a beautiful day…” her voice trailed off.