Another Springtime Ch. 09

With a knowing smirk intended let me know she knew very well that she had made her point and was correct, my daughter just glanced at me, and continued wiping.

Girls! Women! They are an unfathomable joy to man even as they present him with continual challenges to be his very best.

Magnificent!

Wednesday morning brought on a special event in the hour after breakfast, which I have to relate. It came up spontaneously, without any plan or forethought, but harkened back to our visit to the Maryhill Gallery months before. We had used Rodin's sculpture as subject material a number of times for discussions, particularly "The Kiss" since it evoked such feeling… in both of us, as it turned out.

She was working lightly on my shoulders as I was at the computer desk and asked me, somewhat offhandedly it seemed at the moment, if I ever thought about "that sculpture" – which euphemism she had used before in our discussions. That triggered my understanding of her feelings at the moment and I took her hand from my shoulder gently and held it in mine and turned to her. She had been thinking about it, I could see, and there was love and passion in her eyes.

"Yes," I responded gently, "I think of it quite often. It is a beautiful emotion, love… is it not?"

She responded with the sweetest little nod of her head.

"I would," the idea took shape quickly in my imagination, "like to kiss my sweetheart, my wife like that, and hold her in my arms." I wasn't sure how she would respond but ventured just the same. "Christine, go into our bedroom, and then return… as the girl in the sculpture… wanting to give herself to her husband and return his kiss." I motioned with my hand gently toward the doorway to our bedroom and she turned, hesitantly at first, and went.

She looked back at me from the doorway, then dropped her eyes shyly and disappeared.

Banking on our relationship and understanding of each other, I turned off all the lights, the computer monitor, the telephone, everything that could intrude, let the translucent living room curtains be the only source of muted light on an overcast day outside, placed a sturdy, armless dining room chair in the middle of the room, and shed every stitch of clothing. Then I sat down and waited for her.

Implicit in my direction to her was that I would invite and welcome her into my arms as my wife and the lady of my heart's delight. I am afraid I have to admit to being not quite up to the standards of manly and muscled physique as portrayed by the artist in the sculpture. Christine, on the other hand, fit the artist's image splendidly. She doubtless would have caused Rodín to think of her as the very epitome of feminine beauty he had sought to portray. She was as delightfully feminine and delicate and lady-like as I had ever imagined her. The degree to which inner and outer beauty coalesced in her being was striking, each complementing the other. She was not so very innocent now after our honeymoon, but shy and trusting and stepped toward me in dainty, toe-first steps reaching forward to my beckoning, outstretched hand.

She was completely nude, gloriously so, erect and poised and confident in her place with me, her long hair loose and tossed wildly about and adding immensely to her beauty. She tilted her head slightly like she sometimes did when she was with me. I had come to think of that subtle gesture as an unconscious expression of her trust and confidence in me.

All her physical attributes, however, and they were quite striking and delightfully feminine and I enjoyed seeing her so, were as nothing once our eyes met and I sensed the depth of her very soul moving toward me. Her eyes engaged mine with an intensity that was intoxicating… engaged mine with a yearning, a desire, an adoration that was for me and me alone. As she moved forward to me she was telling me with those expressive brown eyes of hers that she loved me, was devoted to me, was pleased to give me the gift of herself, that she was mine and wanted my kiss and to return it with love unbounded… all our discussions earlier about love and trust and devotion shown in those eyes… and as she entered my embrace it was as if her very being merged somehow with mine and we became one.

And we kissed.