House Guest

"I found this little bakery that had these monstrous brownies, so I got two and picked up a pint of ice cream. Brownie sundaes for dessert!" She grinned her nose scrunching up in delight. It was infectious and I soon felt myself grinning too. She went off to her room where I heard her rustling through more shopping bags before going out into the yard.

I worked a little longer, finishing off a few calls and checking in on my email one last time. It was about four so I decided I was done for the day. If it was as nice as Jess had said I thought I might break out the grill and whip up dinner. I went into the kitchen and took out the chicken and started it marinating. I went to the sink to clean up and looked out the window into the yard and my heart nearly stopped. Jess lay there in the sunlight naked, her skin gleaming gold, a small pair of shades covered her eyes. My eyes roamed over her body, her arms slightly away from her body, turned palms down led up to her squared shoulders. Her breasts were perfect, the nipples stood up hard and pink. Her stomach was a flat valley, her long legs parted slightly showing even more of her. Her skin was smooth and shone like silk. Something changed and I came to my senses. I felt a sudden rush of guilt peeping at her like this. I looked again to see what changed, and it took a moment to notice that she was smiling. She knew I was watching. How I wasn't sure with those little tanning shades on, but she knew. She took the little shades off and I moved out of the center of the window, but kept my eye on her. She took her bottle of lotion and poured some into her hands and raised her leg high in the air, and rubbed it into the back of her leg all the way from heel to hip, she did the same to the other.

"Hey Pete, could you do me a favor?" She yelled from the yard. She knew I would hear her, because she knew I was watching. To say anything was admission, and I was torn as to whether or not I should respond.

I took a deep breath and called out the window. "What's that?" I tried to sound nonchalant and rinsed my hands again in the sink.

"Could you come out here and put some lotion on my back please."

My heart started beating against my ribs like a hammer. Was she serious? My pulse raced as I looked at her, she was sitting up now and was rubbing lotion down the backs of her arms. I'd like nothing more than to make sure the sun only kissed that body but never burned it. After a moment she looked up and put her hand over her eyes to get a better look in the window at me.

"Uh, sure." I said. She had rolled onto her stomach by the time I stood next to her. She leaned on her elbows and looked up at me.

"Thanks." She handed me the bottle. "I have this little sponge on a stick to reach back there, when I'm at home, but I didn't think to bring it." She laid down, and swept her hair to the side, her palms facing up. I looked at her laying there naked and after a moment she cleared her throat to break me out of my trance. "Do I need to push your chin up again?"

"Sorry, no." I said laughing. I squirted a healthy dose of lotion making a design down her back.

"There we go." She said. I ran my hands through the lotion and began at her shoulders working my way down to the small of her back. She sighed. "That feels good, you have nice hands."

"All that typing." I mumbled, my throat getting dry as the rest of me broke out in a sweat. I stopped at her lower back, but wanting to continue down her heart shaped ass.

"Keep going, I don't want my ass to look like a giant strawberry." When I didn't move, she took the bottle of lotion and reached back squirting a few lines back and forth over her rear. "Come on, before it starts to burn." She was grinning at me.

"In for a penny." I said and began massaging the lotion in, her muscles tightened and I noticed I was digging into the flesh with my fingers, not just spreading the lotion. She moaned and lifted her hips ever so slightly. I stopped, realizing what I was doing, and without a second thought gave her a smack on those beautiful cheeks. "You are incorrigible." I said.

Jess busted out laughing at that. "I was curious how far you'd go." I looked around for a towel to wipe my hands on and she saw me from the corner of her eye.

"Here." She said rolling up onto her side, giving me a full frontal view of her from only inches away. My eyes swept slowly over her body eventually getting back to her face. The expression there was a mix of amusement and, was that desire?

"Towel?" She said lifting the edge of the towel she was laying on.

"Oh yea." I said as I reached down to wipe my hands. "I'm going to go make us some dinner."

"I'll be inside in a few minutes to hit the shower." She smiled and rolled back onto the towel before my hands were clear. Her breast brushed the back of my hand as I pulled it away.

I walked slowly, and uncomfortably back towards the house. I stopped to look over my shoulder, she was tapping away on her phone. Her skin glistened, legs splayed and I just sighed again as my heart rate began to slow down. I washed up and got back to making dinner. A little while later Jess walked back into the house naked, the towel over her arm. She gave me a wink and walked down the hallway to her room. The shower started soon after, and by the sound of it, she didn't bother closing the door again.

I sighed. It's not that I had any objection to a beautiful girl walking around naked. What red-blooded guy would? It was just that it was distracting in so many ways. I found myself staring off into space, day dreaming of what it would be like... well to do what I just did. Among other things.

"What's for dinner?"

I nearly jumped out of my skin. I didn't hear the shower stop or her walk up behind me as I stared out the window in a trance. I took a deep breath.

I turned and saw her little smile, and noted she'd put something on finally. Her Buckeyes t-shirt, and it appeared as though nothing else. "Grilled chicken salad. Is that okay?" I asked. She nodded her smile widening.

"Need a hand with anything?"

"Well you could finish cutting up this pepper, and if you want one of the avocados you can slice that up too. I'll get the grill started."

I walked back into the kitchen to the sight of Jess bent over at the waist pawing through the vegetable drawer. She was wearing something else under the shirt, and the black panties with the silver lace edge caused me to stop, the screen door hit me hard in the back. She looked over her shoulder at the noise. A lock of hair covered one eye and her smile widened knowing that I was caught staring.

"Could I ask a small favor Jess?"

"Sure."

"Would you do me the honor of wearing pants for dinner, so I don't injure myself." I said laughing. She laughed as well.

"Sorry. I have the habit of relaxing a little too much. I'll wear clothes around the house if it's bothering you."

"I wouldn't say it's a bother." I added quickly. "It's just that I'd like to keep from walking into things, letting doors hit me in the back of the head and well..."

Her eyes went up as she stood up, the t-shirt falling to cover the view of those panties, but not making her ass look any less inviting as she turned to face me with an avocado in her hand. She stepped over to the cutting board and set it down and turned to face me leaning back on the counter.

"Okay," she said. "On one condition. You finish that statement." She said with an evil grin.

I looked at her intently for a moment, formulating my reply. I decided to go for brutal honesty and see how it went. "Well I'd like my clothes to fit normally. Since you've gotten here my jeans don't exactly feel as comfortable as they used to, and quite honestly, you're firing up way to many middle-aged male fantasies of sexy young coeds."

Her mouth quirked in an impish grin. "Should I be worried?"

"Not in the least." I said. "It's just that I prefer that my heart rate only go up during exercise and scary movies, not at the thought of the bathroom door being wide open while you're in the shower." I chuckled.

"I'm flattered that I make your pulse race. Though I'm not sure that's going to stop by putting on a pair of jeans." She said with a wink as she padded down the hallway to her room, emerging a few minutes later in said jeans. She put a foot on one of the kitchen chairs and rolled up the cuff, then the other before turning to the counter to cut up her avocado. "Better?" Her voice coy and innocent. She had tied the hem of her t-shirt at her waist, leaving a wide band of tanned waist tapering to her hips. Her jeans were snug across her bottom, accentuating the heart shape.

"Not really." I said staring. "I see your point about the jeans." I went back onto the patio to check the grill. I thought I heard a laugh as the door closed behind me. A few minutes later she stepped out with the bowl of chicken and tongs. She looked at me and noticed my wet hair.

"What did you do?"

"The nearest thing to a cold shower I could get away with. I soaked my head with the garden hose." I said laughing.

I opened the lid of the grill and began laying out dinner. She stood there with her hands in her back pockets, her chest jutting out slightly as she watched. I could tell that her mind was elsewhere.

"Penny?" I said.

"Huh?" She bit her lip nervously.

"Penny for your thoughts." I said. "It's only fair, you made me finish mine."

She blushed deeply, her mouth dropped open. "Uh I'll go put the salads together and bring you a plate for those." She turned and disappeared into the kitchen. I wondered at her reaction as I turned the chicken, to get the nice grill marks. She came back with a plate and set it on the table next to me.

"You're right, it's only fair." She said biting her lip again. She crossed one leg in front of the other, her heel lifted off the patio, her leg swaying on the point of her toe. "I was picturing a photo shoot, a voyeur's view. Sort of like a day in the life, peeks of panties, maybe wearing a guys shirt. The view is always from his eye level. I pictured it in both black and white, and muted tone, like blue for the jeans or white coming from early morning window light." She crossed her arms under her breasts and swung her hair back over her shoulder before lifting her chin at the grill. I broke my reverie of picturing her doing that very shoot, and me photographing it in time to flip the chicken.

"So what's the shoot you're doing tomorrow?" I asked.

"Lingerie, swimsuit that sort of thing. He didn't give me a lot of specifics but asked if I had anything that I already had that I'd like shots in to bring it along." She said.

I cleared my throat. "Do you get a lot of that kind of work?"

"Yea, and plenty of offers to get naked." She chuckled. "Your buddy Jimmy has done some nudes of me."

I laughed. "I hardly think you're the first, knowing him."

"No, far from that! If you saw his studio you'd think Hugh Hefner was his boss."

"He did always have a thing for the ladies, even back in college."

"You didn't?" There was that coy, innocent tone again.

"Well let's put it this way, they tended to look through me unless they needed help with their math homework." I smiled baring my teeth. "The braces are gone now, and the glasses have been replaced with contacts. Unfortunately all too late to become a chick magnet like Jimmy."

"I don't know about that." She said examining me more closely.

"Well that was all coupled with being an awkward, shy, first time away from home, pasty white, computer geek. So it wasn't very likely."

"The ugly duckling becomes a swan." She murmured.

"Hmm?" Though I'd heard it clearly enough, my ego wanted a repeat anyway. She just smiled as I turned

"You have a nice way with breasts." She said as she nodded at the grill with a grin. "Perfect grill marks."

We had dinner, and talked about nothing in particular. Jess insisted on cleaning up since I did the cooking. I watched her move, and turn as I twirled my beer bottle on the table. The image of her bent over looking into the fridge only wearing panties came back to mind, this time I envisioned it in black and white, and thought that it would make a lovely image.

"What do you think?" She asked.

"Huh?" I asked.

She laughed. "You blush when I'm naked, you blush when I'm dressed. I guess you weren't kidding about being shy. I asked if you wanted to wait a bit before I make the brownie sundaes. I'm stuffed."

I nodded. "We can wait a bit."

"So what do you do for fun on a Friday night around here?"

I chuckled. "Not much more than this."

She winced. "You're only forty, yet you live like you're eighty."

I smiled. "Jimmy lied about his age. We're forty-four, I'm older by two months."

"Still hardly ready for the rest home." She shook her head. "That would have put you at my age literally the year I was born." She held up a finger and went to her room coming back with her phone. She tapped away at the screen for a moment as I downed the last of my beer. "No wonder, look at the music you guys had to listen to back then." She laughed.

"In our defense, we didn't listen to it then, we listened to old stuff." I said laughing.

"Oh my... Boyz II Men, Kriss Kross, Madonna."

"No, no." I said. "We were living in an American rock revival, you know, Springsteen, Mellencamp, Seger."

"That's more like it." She tapped a little more and Seger came flowing out of the little speaker. I stood and walked out of the room. "I'll stop, sorry." I didn't respond but found the disc and popped it in and began playing it over a proper speaker system. I gave the volume a tweak before I walked back to the kitchen. The grin on her face was infectious. I began lip syncing to the song and Jess giggled. To my surprise she joined in finishing the song with me.

"I love this music." She said as she began to dance.

I leaned against the door jamb and watched her, with her eyes closed, her hips began sway slowly her arms joining in. The song changed and she looked up with a blush. The next song made her do it again, this time she put a little more motion into it.

"This should be my theme song." She said over the song, 'Her Strut'. She started strutting around the kitchen table, her hands on her hips, bumping to the music.

I laughed. "Well I don't know if those are the kinds of moves you'll want for a bridal show."

"Why not? A bride can be a bad ass and still be beautiful!"

I couldn't deny her logic.

"I'm glad you didn't say this was your theme song." I laughed as 'Horizontal Bop' began playing. She just gave me a side long look and smiled.

Jess pushed me into the living room bopping down the hallway and started scanning the discs in the rack. "Wow, CD's are so old school." She said smiling, trying to get a rise out of me.

"Well something had to come before Internet downloads. Before Edison, you only had live music to listen to. It's too bad, I think that led to a decline in the number of musicians." I added wistfully.

She found another disc and slid it out giving me a smirk. I laughed. "I don't know how that got in there." I held my hands up. She popped the disc out and swapped it for Seger.

"Don't bullshit me, you probably had this to get some girl out of her panties. Slow dance hits of the 80's." She eyed me up and down.

"There was a girl, she wanted to learn how to slow dance, and I knew how." I shrugged. Jess' eyebrow went up, just the one. She looked around slowly before picking up the end of the coffee table and sliding it against the sofa, completing the motion she turned to me and pointed at my shoes flicking her finger away indicating she wanted them gone. She'd made a neat little square of hardwood for a dance floor. It was my turn to lift an eyebrow at her. Her smile softened and she beckoned me with a single finger. She began swaying slowly to the music, her eyes never leaving mine.

The light of dusk glowed in her eyes as her gaze burned into me. There was fire there, not a flaming inferno, but a smoldering heat and I felt my resistance melt quickly as I kicked off my shoes. I didn't remember walking up to her and suddenly she was in my arms. She wasn't just warm to the touch, she was radiant. I felt like I could fall into those dark eyes and keep falling, never finding the bottom.

She rubbed my shoulder and whispered. "Relax." I pulled her to me, closing the gap between us. She let out a little sigh as she laid her cheek on my chest. "That's more like it." I could feel the laughter bubble up from her chest. Her body felt so good against me, the warmth, the softness and the underlying strength. I let out a little chuckle myself. She leaned her head back looking up at me. "What?"

"I was just thinking that so many guys are missing out by not learning to dance."

She agreed before resting her head again. The heat of her breath burning through my shirt causing my heart to beat quicker.

"You know, it's too bad. I think more guys would get what they're looking for if they met girls half way."

"What are they looking for?" I asked innocently. I got a snort in reply. Another song played out, and she was in no hurry to stop dancing. I felt a slight tremor flow through her chest and felt a wet spot on my shoulder. I didn't ask, I just held her close. Before long she let out a deep sigh, I felt her hand leave my shoulder and wipe her eyes. She cleared her throat before leaning back to look up at me.

"I don't know about you, but I'm ready for some ice cream." She said, her smile conveyed more hurt than happiness. I smiled and nodded. My hand slid reluctantly from her waist. "Want to find us a movie to watch or something? I'll be right back." She turned walking quickly to the kitchen, her hand went up to her eyes as she walked through the doorway. I took a deep breath, turned the music off, and set the furniture right again.

She returned a little while later with two bowls laden with ice cream and broken brownies. She had a bit of an embarrassed expression as she handed me one and then curled her legs under her sitting next to me on the couch. She let out a moan of pleasure as she licked her spoon clean. We sat in companionable silence as we ate our sundaes and watched the movie. It was pretty light fair so it didn't bother me when she leaned over and took the remote and hit pause. She took my bowl and padded off to the kitchen. She came back with two glasses of water, handing one to me.

"Thanks." She said softly.

"For what?" I asked curious if she wanted to talk about it.

"Not asking."

"Was it recent?"

She smiled. "Not much gets past you does it?" She lifted her head looking up at the ceiling. "April first, I thought it was an April Fool's joke. The joke was on me. I was just somebody for him to be seen with, to accompany him where ever he went. Eye candy for his buddies." The tears welled up again. "And to keep the bed warm and occupied."

"Too bad for him that he'll never know just what he lost." I said softly and brushed the tear off her cheek. "Some guys see a diamond as a rock, some see it for the precious stone that it is. Don't settle for somebody who treats you like a rock." She smiled a little smile before curling up against me, and pulling my arm over her shoulder before hitting play on the movie again.

I lost myself in my head for a while. She was right, it had been a while. I was thirty four when my marriage blew up. It was partly my fault. I worked crazy hours, traveled a lot, when I got home to a guy leaving our condo. I was more than stunned. I remember the day it happened. I let him go, watching him skip down to the parking lot and hop into a car and drive off. I walked in with my bag and set it down. Cheryl called out. "Coming back for more," and proceeded to giggle as she walked out of the bedroom with the bed sheet wrapped loosely around her. She stopped in her tracks, and a war of emotions panned across her face, shock, horror, even fear. She stepped back a few steps, unsure of what I would do. I wasn't sure either. I turned and took my bag and my keys and walked away. I started over. No, that's not true, it had been ten years and I hadn't really started over. I'd been out a few times, but I'd never really let myself get pulled into a relationship with anybody since. I didn't have to ask, Jess. I could feel the heartbreak as if it was my own.