the darkness.
James traced her face with his palm,
let his hand trail down her arm, clasp her hand and
lead her into the house.
Closing the door behind
them, James directed Alex to the living room, while
he let the dogs out into the yard.
"Can I get you something to drink," his voice
erupted from the kitchen.
Alex jumped briefly at
the noise.
"No thanks," she declined.
James re-entered the room, deciding against a beer
and left it in the kitchen.
He stood briefly, outlined
by the kitchen light, staring at her there in his living
room as she watched the stars and moon play in the
sky above.
Alex could see the dogs playing in the yard, chasing
the fireflies.
She had caught his motions out of the
corner of her eye and watched his reflection in the
darkness of the window as he approached
her.
Alex took deep breaths to calm the rush of
raw emotions that threatened to consume her.
Halfway across the room, James stopped again in
his tracks purposefully making her unreachable.
"Tell me what you're feeling, James," asked Alex still
with her back to him.
"You mean, why aren't I honest with you?"
"Why aren't you honest with yourself?
"Alex, don't you know that every time I look at you I
see my second chance at a future.
A future filled
with children and commitments and all the things
I've long denied that I needed.
I look at you and I
see somebody that can make me feel alive
again.
I'm astounded by your beauty and
strength.
And every time you look at me it feels as
if you're staring into my soul.
Don't you know how
hard it was to let you go last week? If I took one kiss
from you, one caress I would be lost forever.
I
could never let you go to another man," James
declared.
Sighing, he took the final steps he
needed to embrace her shoulders with his hands.
Alex trembled at the touch.
The urge to turn to
him was too strong.
A part of her wanted to run
from the pure physical power and sexuality that
was consuming them but another part realized that
she was desperately in love with James and would
stay with him forever if he asked.
"James," she whispered finally, "I feel what you're
feeling.
I know I've felt it since the day we
met.
When we danced together, I wanted nothing
more than for you to ask me to go home with
you.
I wanted to feel your lips touch mine, to feel
you inside me. "
"Alex, are you sure these are things you want from
me?"
Alex spun quickly around and was face to face with
him finally.
She had expected him to triumph at
her statement, not question it.
James had let go of her shoulders when she turned
and now gripped her arms to prevent her from
leaving him.
He felt her confusion, he too was
confused.
She talked about sex and he talked
about love.
"What," she asked incredulously.
"Are you sure these are the things you want from
me," he repeated, "Alex, you're a beautiful woman
and a man would have to be nuts to turn you
down.
But, I want to know whether you just want
sex, like with Grayson, or the love I can give you. "
Alex had worked her arm free and the hand lashed
out against his face.
"How dare you," she hissed,
"how dare you judge my needs separate from your
own?
You who goes around sleeping with women
like it's his God given right."
James caressed the offended cheek and watched as
her temper unleashed.
"Damn you! I came here because I love you and
wanted you to know and you humiliate me.
You
treat me as if I'm some slut going from man to man
while you fuck Francine in your office.
Damn you,"
Alex shouted, turned and grabbed her purse before
attempting to flee the room.
James took three long strides and cut Alex off
halfway across the room.
Grabbing her arm and
jerking her against his chest, James looked down
into her angry and flushed face.
"Let go of me,"
she demanded trying to twist away from him.
"No," James said evenly, "I cannot and will not let
you go, Alex.
You're right, I shouldn't have judged
you.
My sins are far greater than yours.
But it
was like a knife to my heart to find out you had
slept with Grayson.
At night when I closed my
eyes, I would see his hands on you and hear you
breathing heavily with him inside you, making love
to you, feeling what I should have been
feeling.
He knows what it's like to feel how soft
your skin is.
He knows how sweet your lips
are.
He knows what it's like to have you hold him
inside you and scream his name."
"No, James, he doesn't. "
"What," James questioned, letting go of her
arms. James sighed and shook his head at his
foolishness.
The fact that she was here with him
alone in his house, should have been enough for
him.
But he questioned it and her.
"Never once did I utter his name.
It was you I
begged for to give me my release.
It was your
name on my lips, James.
Yes, Grayson may know
all those other things, but he doesn’t know what it's
like to hear me speak his name in passion. “
James looked into her eyes and saw the truth of her
words.
She had indeed had sex with Grayson, but
she had imagined it was him.
Alex saw the pain retreat from his face and be
replaced by embarrassment.
She knew that that
would be the final point to get through to him.
Alex let her hands move to James' chest and rest
there as they continued to stare into each other’s
eyes.
"James, I do love you.
There is nothing I wouldn't
do for you at this moment.
But until it is over
between you and Francine, we can't take this any
further.
I want you more than anything, but I
won't play second fiddle. "
"Alex, I love you too and you don't need to play
second fiddle to anybody.
I told Francine that it
was over this afternoon. "
Alex looked up into James' face and
smiled.
Noting that the fight seemed to have left
Alex, James leaned down and tenderly placed his
lips on hers.
James moved a hand along her back,
caressing it and then bringing to rest on her hip as
the other hand brushed against her face and
interweaved itself into her red hair.
Alex leaned
heavily against James, dizzy from the kiss and
protested mildly as he began to withdraw his lips
from hers.
"Your kisses are so sweet, Alex," whispered James
against her cheek as his mouth sought to recapture
hers.
Blazing a trail from her lips to her neck, Alex
caught her breath as James let go of her and led her
to the couch.
Lowering themselves onto the couch and James
gently laid himself atop her.
Capturing her lips
once more, James trailed his free hand across her
chest, feeling her nipple awaken at the
attention.
Caressing the enlivened bud, James
freed Alex's lips and traced lingering kisses on her
throat, following the column back to her lips.
Alex was losing control of her emotions.
She
wound her fingers into James' hair as he moved
from her lips again to capture her breast in his
mouth.
Soaking the cloth, James nipped the
nipple with his teeth, while his hands grabbed at
the shirt, trying to remove the impediment.
Alex, sensing his frustration, sat up abruptly, and
removed the shirt freeing her breasts.
James
inhaled sharply at the sight of her flawless skin and
pert breasts unrestrained by a bra.
"Alex, you're beautiful," James sighed taking a
breast in his hand and brushing his thumb against
the heightened nipple.
Alex trembled at the
intimate touch and allowed James to lay her back
on the couch.
Running her hands over his back, James kissed Alex
again and lowered his head to taste her skin.
His
lips and mouth forged hot path of kisses making
Alex moan in ecstasy.
James reached Alex's navel
and stopped at the top of her jeans.
Briefly
looking up in askance and seeing no hesitation
coming from her, he undid the button and zipper
exposing more of her.
Alex gasped as she felt James' mouth laying feather
light kisses on her abdomen.
She had felt the rush
of cool air as her jeans were undone, but hadn't
expected the kisses.
His hands explored her waist
as he continued the assault with his mouth.
Alex wriggled underneath him as his hand brushed
against a ticklish spot and giggled.
James stopped
and looked up suddenly.
"Sorry, that tickled," she laughed.
"Oh it did," said James beginning to tickle her.
"Stop, I give up, stop," she begged wiggling out
from underneath him and onto the floor.
James sat there at watched as the giggling subsided
and the passion returned to her eyes.
Alex moved
onto her knees and knelt in front of James.
He
watched as she moved her hands onto his legs
slowly moving them up his thighs.
Alex positioned herself between James' legs, her
breasts still bare, as she moved her hands towards
his crotch.
Alex gently shoved James back down
into her previous position and straddled his waist
while placing teasing kisses on his lips. Sitting back
up, Alex unbuttoned his shirt and threaded her
fingers through the mat of hair on his chest.
Alex
bent over and took one of his nipples in her mouth
and teased it with her teeth.
James inhaled sharply at the sensation of her mouth
on his chest.
He reached underneath her form and
caressed a nipple as she continued to pelt him with
kisses.
"Alex, stop," James pleaded.
"What," she asked sitting up suddenly.
James sat up and Alex, sensing his discomfort, stood
up off of him.
“Are you sure," James asked.
"Most definitely," Alex answered.
Their hands were a flurry of motion that raced to
undress each other.
James' shirt was quickly
discarded and soon their jeans were lying in a
crumpled heap beside the couch.
James' hands roamed her back, side and finally
eased up to capture her breasts.
He fondled the
responsive nipple that had hardened again under
his touch.
James' had known that her skin was
milky white but the silkiness sent rushes to his loins.
Alex stroked his smooth back and reveled in the
scratching of his hairy chest.
She inhaled sharply
to feel calloused hand had moved between her
breasts and was again brushing a thumb against the
nipple.
They moved silently to the couch and he
eased her silently into the cushions once more.
James glanced up into her eyes seeking reassurance
as his left hand slid down her belly.
Alex gave no
protest and only arched her back pushing her hips
to his probing fingers.
James reached across Alex's
underwear and stroked her inner thigh feeling the
heat that was generated there.
Feeling his probing fingers at the apex of her thighs,
Alex arched her back, seeking the release she
desired.
James stopped his search and began to
trail hot kisses across her belly, to her breasts and
finally her mouth.
As James embraced Alex and
kissed her, she could feel the hard bulge that had
increased as their passions had.
"James," she whispered as he moved from her
mouth to her throat, "can I return the favor.“
James was not so much surprised as he was
delighted that she sought to please him as
well.
He skillfully moved her to situate himself on
the bottom.
Alex straddled his hips and placed soft kisses on his
cheeks above his beard.
She moved her hands to
the soft fur that covered his chest.
Alex stroked
his nipple with the soft palms of her hands and
lowered her head to taste his sweet flesh.
James had watched while she explored his
body.
He threaded his fingers into her vivid red
hair and played with the strands as they
surrendered their bodies to the love they
shared.
Alex moved her hips, still clothed in her
underpants against his rigid member.
She skillfully
moved his hands lower towards his abdomen, while
placing kisses where her hands had been.
"If I do something wrong tell me," she said.
"You couldn't do anything wrong," he reassured her
as she returned to ministrations.
Alex slid her hands and hips further down so that
her hands were resting on the edge of his
underpants.
Cautiously, Alex reached inside and
loosed the primal being housed there.
James inhaled, smelling her perfume and their
passion, as she rubbed her hands over the pulsating
member.
Together, they shrugged off their
underwear and laid naked on the couch entwined in
each other.
"Alex, I want this done right," he whispered to her,
"I don't want to take you here on the couch like
high school kids.
I want you so bad right now I
could burst.
But here is not right. "
Alex giggled softly knowing that the evidence of his
passion throbbed against her right thigh trying to
gain access to a warm place.
"Let's move upstairs," he said, standing and handing
her his shirt to prevent her from being chilled. Alex
took the shirt gratefully and let him lead her in a
semi-nude parade through the house.
James led Alexandra by the hand back down the
entrance way to the stairs.
He paused to lock the
front door and kiss her lips.
Alex was shocked by the bareness of the
house.
The bedroom was efficient almost
lonely.
The mattresses seemed brand new as
Alexandra laid herself down and watched James
move around the room, dimming the lights and
putting a soft station on the radio.
"You look like Cheshire cat.
Do I please you,"
James asked as he noticed the smile on Alex's face.
"Yes, you do," she replied honestly, "I like the
affect, but the mattress is a little stiff."
A frown creased his face, "I don't sleep here.
The
bed is too large for just one.
I wanted the king
size, I got it and now it's too large. "
"Did you, I'm sorry, did you buy it for Jean?"
"Yes, I thought the house and bed would make her
happy.
I was wrong. "
"I'm sorry.
I shouldn't have asked. "
"It's okay," he said crawling in between the flannel
sheets, "Can I ask you about Grayson?"
"It was spontaneous.
I didn't expect it.
And it
could have been prevented with a cold shower."
"Did you enjoy it?"
"Not really.
I couldn't stop thinking of you," she