That Friday (4 page)

His kisses, soft and tender, soon
reached her chest and he slid his hands over it, cupping a breast in each hand.
He gave each nipple a quick tweak before he pushed the teddy up and out of the
way. For a moment he gazed at her exposed breasts, admiring them. He had seen
them while they chatted on the computer, a number of times, but there was a
vast difference between that and seeing them in person.

They were just right in his
opinion, neither too big nor too small. They fit comfortably in his hands, just
the way he liked. He had never understood why men felt that breasts were only
good when they were big, to him smaller was better.

Returning to his kisses, his lips
moved to her excited breast, where he swirled his tongue around her, biting
gently, somehow knowing she would enjoy that. The moan that filled the room
told him he was right and he quickly moved on to the other side to give it the
same treatment.

She knew he'd been able to please
other women in the past, and had done so well, it was one of the reasons he had
been treated so badly, which was why he found it so hard to love, and to admit to
loving. She was the opposite; she had given of herself only to receive no
satisfaction, and she had loved often, thinking that she was loved in return,
only to realise that she had been used the entire time. She couldn't help but
think of his past lovers as he aroused her more fully than anyone else had, in
thinking of them she found herself filled with jealousy and anger.

Tess knew the cause of what she
was feeling; she was jealous that they had shared in his life, in whatever way
they had, and she was angry because all the women before her had hurt him.

Soon enough her jealousy and anger
disappeared, swept aside by a wave of pleasure that crashed down on her,
crushing her and tormenting her. She was, in that instant, grateful to his
previous lovers. They might not have appreciated him, or cared for him the way
he deserved to be, but through them he had learned how to satisfy a lover, and
as a result he was more than able to satisfy her.

When the wave passed and she was
able to think and move once more she reached for him, pulling him to her. Her
eyes closed as she kissed him; the kiss was long, deep and loving as she tried
to express everything she was feeling in that single kiss. She wanted to feel
nothing more than the closeness of his body, the weight of him on her, and the
heat of his skin against hers, the warmth of his touch and the softness of his
lips.

As much pleasure as he derived
from teasing her body, it was nothing compared to the feel of her lips on his.
He lost himself in her kiss, wanting nothing more than to stay like that; lips
locked together, arms around each other, holding one another close.

After what could have been no more
than a second or as long as a lifetime, neither of them was sure for time had
stopped while they kissed, they broke apart, gasping for air like drowning
swimmers who had finally fought their way to the surface.

Their passion abated, for the
moment at least, they settled on the bed, their bodies entwined. For the first
time in longer than either of them could remember they felt content.

Her head rested on his chest,
along with her hand, while her other hand was beneath her, tucked in tight
under her body, close by his. Her leg lay over his and though with anyone else
she'd have been uncomfortable, with him she wasn't. She was happy, she wasn't
frustrated not to be continuing, for the first time ever, and she broke into a
smile. So happy that a tear ran down her cheeks she buried her face in the
soft, dark hairs on his chest and hoped he wouldn't notice.

Though he knew she was trying to
hide it from him, Charlie didn't miss the tear. "Are you okay?" he
asked, reaching down to tenderly wipe the tear away and kiss the corner of her
eye. He didn't want to break the silence but he was concerned; his lack of familiarity
with her, for all their conversations, made him worry he had done something
wrong.

"I love you," she
whispered. "I married the wrong man."

He looked at her, perplexed.

She was so close to him she could
make out the look on his face, even
through
the
darkness. "It's never been this way with Jared. He's never been this way
with me. It's either been 'sex' or I've been in the position of his mother;
cleaning up after him and cooking for him. He's never cared for me, or
pleasured me because he can, he's never been happy to love me for me, hell,
he's never been happy to just love me. I'm unused to this. I don't know what to
make of it. It's beautiful; I love it. I love you."

"I love you too. I've loved
you for years," Charlie told her quietly, hardly daring to believe he had
admitted what he had kept hidden for so long.

Stunned, it was a few moments
before Dawn felt able to respond. "You never said anything."

"I was scared," Charlie
said, hating himself for the admission. "You were married, newly married
at that remember, you got married not long after I met you, and you had
Victoria. I didn't want to do or say anything to mess up what you had."

"You should have told me; I
loved you too, I do love you, I never stopped loving you. If I'd know how you
felt I would never have married him."

"I never knew. I thought you
were just being friendly and having fun when you flirted, I didn't know it
meant anything. It always hurt so much when I left you; I never wanted to leave
but I had to. That's why I cut off contact with you, I needed to; I needed to
protect myself. I was scared I was going to do or say something that would mess
up your marriage and I didn't want to do that." He held her close to him,
wanting the reassurance of her presence. He ran his fingers through her hair as
he whispered the words he had been too scared to say three years before when he
fell for her.

"I'm friendly to everyone and
call them all honey or sweetie; people say I'm flirty, I'm not, at least I
don't think so, but yes, I did flirt with you, outrageously. I only flirt with
people I really like," Tess told him. "I opened my home to you
because I wanted to help you curb your drinking, I knew you were unhappy with
it, and I opened my arms to you the moment you walked in the door that first time
because you looked so forlorn and unloved that I wanted to cheer you up.

"You didn't want that cuddle,
I could tell, but I held on until you held me back." Shyly, she sat up and
curled her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. "I
wound up opening my heart to you too, when you'd come over every Saturday to
write with me and we'd spend more time playing Scrabble or watching movies. I
just wanted to hold your hand; it was always so close to mine.

"I wanted to give you my
heart in a treasure chest and let you hide the key away somewhere, because the
entire time you were there my husband ignored me, and the best friend from
school he got in touch with. I was used to being ignored, he ignored me most of
the time, but I still don't understand why he ignored you when he went to the
effort of tracking you down on Facebook and inviting you over.

"You never ignored me, you
were there for me completely; all of your attention was on me, all the
time." She looked down at him, tears pricking at her eyes, threatening to
fall, and she tried in vain to blink them away. She was unsuccessful and the
tears fell to run down her cheeks; hurriedly she brushed them away with the
back of her hand but it didn't stop him sitting up and taking her in his arms.

"You saved me, honey, you
really did. Because of you I quit drinking, I lost weight, I got in shape and I
started to feel better of myself. Most of it was after I stopped seeing you,
but it was because of you, all of it.

"You say you wanted to hold
my hand, I wanted to hold yours. I wanted to take you in my arms, to hold you
close, to tell you how I felt, even though I didn't really know what it was I
felt. I couldn't though; I was too scared that you didn't feel the same and
that me saying something would ruin everything, between us, between you and
your husband, for you and Victoria. I wasn't prepared to take that chance. I
guess I'm just too shy.

"It's silly isn't it, I've
been attacked, I've been threatened with knives, I've had people threaten to
kill me, but the only time I'm really scared is when I have a chance to be with
the woman I love.

"None of that matters now
though; we are together, and I don't intend to ever let you go again, not
ever." He pulled back to kiss her, softly at first, reassuringly, but then
with more passion, wanting to crush his lips against hers and let her feel the
desire he had for her. He held back from doing as he wished though, afraid of
hurting her or scaring her away.

She could see in his eyes the
desire he felt, it was like a fire that lit up the darkness, and she laid back,
her hand on the back of his neck to pull him down onto her, forcing him to
crush her, making his kiss both hard and soft at the same time.

Encouraged, he nibbled gently at
her lower lip as his hand moved down to her waist, finding the hem of her
jumper-dress, which had slipped down when she sat up. Beneath its soft warmth
his hand found her breast, teasing her delicate pinkness until it was hard once
more. He attempted to do the same to the other, wanting to give her breasts
equal attention, but his hand got tangled in her dress.

Frustrated, as much as he was,
Tess sat up, wriggling to pull the hem out from under her, and in one quick
move she lifted the dress up and off, leaving her with just her teddy hiding
her breasts from his view. "Fucking thing!" she said, dropping the
dress on the floor at the side of the bed and arching her back to give him
easier access to her, both to kiss her breasts and to unhook the clasp to her
teddy.

He surprised her by lifting her up
and onto his lap; she instinctively moved to straddle him. Once he had unhooked
the clasp, he pulled the white silk and black lace teddy over her head, and
noticed how it matched the thong he'd been entertaining
himself
with earlier.

With her on his lap he was able to
stroke her back unhindered, his fingers running the length of her spine,
sending cool shivers of delight through her body. He did so while kissing her,
his tongue darting out to dance with her own.

He stopped kissing her and pulled
back to look into her eyes, at the same time he took hold of her hands and
gently took them from her breasts, where they'd gone almost instinctively when
he'd removed her teddy. Though he had seen her before he couldn't help admiring
her once her hands were no longer impeding his view; he had always thought she
was beautiful but the confidence she had in her new figure, now she had lost
weight, made her all the more so to his eyes.

Her nipples stood proud on her
breasts, screaming her arousal, and he bent, awkwardly, to take one in his
mouth, swirling his tongue around the soft skin and nibbling on it gently.

She arched her back even more,
encouraging him to take more of her into his mouth and he did, eagerly,
squeezing her with his hand as he pulled into his mouth as much of it as he
could. She moaned in disappointment when he withdrew from her but her moan
quickly became one of satisfied pleasure again as he moved his mouth to her
other breast, giving it equal attention.

"OH!" she gasped when he
nipped at her unexpectedly. Like the nibbling, it was not unpleasant, but it
did surprise her, she hadn't thought he would do something like that.

With his hand in the middle of her
back, pulling her to him, he kissed his way up between her breasts to her
throat, exposed to his lips as she
leanedher
head
back. Her eyes closed as she revelled in the exquisitely tortuous pleasure of
his touch but she couldn't help running her fingers through the hair that
coated his chest, caressing her way down until she reached his shorts.

She could feel the hardness of him
through his shorts and slipping her hand inside she took him in her grasp. It
was hard to tell by holding him how big he was, and even if she had been able
to make her body respond, she didn't think she could have brought herself to
look down, but she could tell he was well enough endowed to satisfy her.

Her grip first, but also gentle,
she began stroking him, bringing forth the first moan of pleasure she had heard
from his lips. It pleased her to know that she could make him respond to her
the way he had been able to make her respond to him., she wanted him to feel
what she was, to feel the pleasure he sent coursing through her body like a
wildfire through a heath.

He couldn't help it; he groaned
when she took hold of him, it had been so long since he'd been stroked by
anyone but himself. He tried to focus on the pleasure he wanted to give her but
it was so difficult, her hand ran up and down him teasingly, her thumb rubbing
the tip in a manner that made him groan again, the sound muffled as he buried
his face in her chest.

Determined that he wouldn't be
outdone in the matter of giving pleasure Charlie took his hand from her breast
and trailed it down her stomach. When he reached the waistband of her thong he
slid his fingers inside, not far, just enough to feel once again her
smoothness, and then ran his fingers along her waist and round her hip to her
buttocks, where he slipped his whole hand under the elastic her thong to
squeeze her,