Just an Old-Fashioned Romance

-----

Carol pulled up in front of Jake's house and sat in the car a long time trying to steady herself. She got out of the car and walked slowly to the door, then turned around and walked back to the car again. She had the car door open when she changed her mind and started for the house again. Looking like she was expecting to be tortured, she put out a shaking hand and rang the doorbell.

"What do you want, Carol?"

"Can I come in, Jake? I really want to talk to you."

"I'm working. And, I'm not much interested in anything you have to say. Go. Get on with your life. Be happy. I'm just someone you used to know."

"Jake, please! I'm not here to fight, I'm here to apologize. Please!"

Apologize? Carol? As far as Jake knew, she'd never apologized to anyone for anything in her life. With her money and looks she didn't have to. This conversation was very strange and maybe a little suspicious.

Warily Jake drawled, "Err..., no problem. Apology accepted. I'll see you later, okay?"

"Please, let me come in and talk. Don't make me beg out in the street, Jake."

Jake had loved and protected her for too many years not to respond to the pleading note in her voice. 'God, I'm a fool,' he thought as he stepped aside to let her in.

"Jake, I..."

"Stop! Take off your clothes."

"Why?..."

"I need to know if you're wearing a transmitter. Your attitude for the last twenty years has been--you don't apologize, you don't have to. The most likely explanation for the sudden change is you're acting as bait for your father's attack lawyers. So, either take off your clothes and submit to a body search or I'm throwing you out. You have three seconds. One. Two..."

"All right! All right. I'll do it. Whatever you say."

"As you take each item off, hand it to me, starting with your purse."

Since Carol was only wearing a halter top, shorts, a thong, and sandals, it didn't take long.

"Jewelry too?"

"Everything. I see you're still shaved."

Carol blushed a little and looked down. "Yea, I decided I like it."

"Turn around and face the wall. Back up a little. Now lean forward and put your hands on the wall. Spread your legs. More. More. All right, I'm going to sit on the bench behind you and examine your things. If I find nothing alarming, I'll examine your body. After that, we'll go in another room and talk. If I find anything that could conceivably be a transmitter or a recorder, or you move before I give you permission, I'll throw you out. Do I make myself clear?"

In a small voice, "Yes, Jake."

"Good. Now keep quiet so I can concentrate on what I'm doing. The more you distract me, the longer this process will take."

'God,' she thought, 'I couldn't be more exposed if I was on national television.'

Still, the fact that Jake was sitting directly behind her and only three feet away had her clit standing on end and her juices running down her legs. Knowing he could see anything he wanted and do anything he wanted and she couldn't stop him had her as hot as she had ever been in her life.

Seeing Carol leaning against the wall, spread out and vulnerable, and obviously turned on by it, Jake couldn't help thinking, 'More than anything else in life, I want to sink into her and fuck her until we drop. Control yourself, Jake! Nothing would be more stupid than to jump into this before you know what's going on.' Under his breath he repeated the mantra, "She could be bait. She could be bait." continuously, and it helped him keep his mind on protecting himself.

After Jake had carefully examined everything about her clothing, jewelry, and purse; he crossed the hall and opened a door a foot from where Carol was so awkwardly placed.

"What are you doing, Jake?"

"I'm locking your clothes in this closet. I'll give them back when you're ready to leave, but while you're here, they stay in the closet."

Suiting action to words he pressed the locking button on the inside knob of the closet door and closed it. He twisted the outside handle and pulled on the door to make sure she understood that she was not getting her clothes back until he gave them to her.

"Now, hold still and I'll try to make the body search as painless as possible."

"Could you hurry up, Jake? I'm starting to cramp up."

Jake ducked under her arm and stood facing her with his back against the wall. He started with her hair, admiring its fiery sheen in spite of himself. Next he lightly traced her face, over her eyes, behind her ears, the back of her neck, rubbing it for a second or two, then sliding his fingers forward over her throat and Carol tilted her head back to give him better access.

"I'm sorry to have to tell you this, Carol, but at the moment I'm not in a position to care. I have enough respect for your father to know if he's behind what you're doing, I'm in deep shit. At the moment, most of my attention is focused on staying alive. I'm trying to treat you as gently as I can, but your comfort isn't a priority right now."

"You can't be thinking Daddy would have you killed! Or, I'd be part of something like that!"

"No, of course not. Killing would be far too humane. The best revenge would be to destroy everything I care about, and leave me to live the rest of my life in the ashes. If he can get something on me that he can turn into a law suit, life as I know it is over."

"I don't suppose it would help if I said coming here today was my own idea, and all I want to do is talk?"

"Not a bit. Sorry, but if everything I value is on the line, I need a little more than your word for it. And, I do remember you threatening me with an orange jump suit not too long ago. Open up."

Carol opened her mouth and when Jake put his index finger in she closed her lips around it and started sucking.

'Two can play this game,' Jake thought to himself, and started gently pumping in and out of her mouth like he did during the massage. When she moaned around his finger, he turned his hand over and stroked the roof of her mouth.

Carol had an orgasm almost at once and her knees came very close to buckling under her. "God, Jake. If you start that again, you'll drive me crazy."

"Again? So, you were awake."

"Yea, I woke up in the bathtub. At first I was too wiped out to move. After a while, what you were doing felt so good... I was afraid we'd start fighting again if I woke up, so I stayed passed out."

Jake ran his fingers lightly down her arms, across her sensitive arm pits, and down her sides as far as he could reach. Carol let out another moan and Jake ducked back out from her encircling arms, walked directly behind her and pressed his denim covered erection against her completely exposed sex.

With her legs spread as wide as they were, the fact that Carol was three inches taller than Jake meant she was exactly the right height for him to enter her. The thought that he might do just that sent a little frission of excitement through her.

Jake reached as far up her arms as he could. He trailed slow gentle fingers down her arms and sides all the way to her hips causing her body to tremble and her breath to go shallow. After repeating this journey a few more times, he transferred his attention to her back and sides. Then around to her front, tracing the outsides of her breasts, underneath, circling up on their inner slopes, his palms just brushing her nipples in passing, over their tops, and start the circuit again and again and again.

Carol was amazed at how much she was enjoying Jake's hands on her body. Having to hold herself completely open while he did whatever he wanted had her so hot she could hardly stand it. It wasn't that Jake was touching her any where that hadn't been fondled by a hundred other men, but when Jake did it she felt things she'd never known before. It was like being a virgin all over again.

When his hands started sliding down her stomach to her mons, she pulled her two remaining brain cells together and asked, "Uuuuh! J-just wh-what are y-you l-looking for, J-Jake?"

Without hesitating or slowing his teasing he replied, "Sub-dermal implant: a micro-transmitter injected under the skin. If done properly, it's almost invisible. The best way to find one is by touch. It feels like a hard knot of muscle."

Carol couldn't tell if he was serious or just feeding her a line. Fortunately for her sanity, she was far too horny to care. If he was actually looking for some kind of secret agent hardware or if he was just looking for an excuse to feel her up, it didn't matter as long as he kept doing it.

"Aaaahh! Y-you'll l-let m-me know i-if you f-find one, w-won't you?"

Jake chuckled, "You'll be the first to know."

"G-good."

Jake dropped to his knees so he could feel up Carol's wonderful legs, easily the best feature of an already stunning woman. Of course, this move put him at eye level or, more accurately, at lips and tongue level, with her hopelessly aroused sex. A girl can hope, can't she?

Jake's hands were stroking up her legs toward the two holes they both knew he'd been saving for last. And, of course, teasing bastard that he was, he took his own sweet time getting there. When he finally, finally! reached his destination, she was ready to explode.

Unfortunately, all the painful stuff that had been going on between them lately inspired Jake to unnatural heights of fiendishness. By using the fluids running down her inner thighs, he succeeded in lubing her anal opening without actually touching her labia. He continued his teasing, watching Carol's reactions very carefully. When he was sure she could take no more, he plunged his fingers into both holes at once.

Carol's orgasm exploded inside her. She was past nuclear. She was an exploding sun giving birth to a new galaxy in some distant region of space. The light blinded her, washed over and through her, wiped out all existence but itself.

When the light faded at last and Carol could focus again, she found herself lying on the couch in Jake's living room without the slightest idea how she got there. As her other senses came back on line, she noticed Jake kneeling by the couch, massaging the spasms out of her legs. When he saw she was awake he lifted a container from the coffee table and placed the straw against her lips.

"Here, drink this. We need to get some fluids back into you."

The drink was cool and pleasant with a slight citrus flavor so light it was almost unnoticeable.

"What is it?"

"A sports drink. I use it when I'm running. It'll help with the cramps."

"So, did you find it?"

"Find what?

"The transmitter under my skin?"

"Not this time."

"Bastard."

"Got that right. So, we've established you don't have a transmitter secreted about your person, what did you want to talk about?"

"Well, I came over to apologize for the way I acted last month, but I may have just changed my mind."

"And...?"

"What do you mean -- and? There is no -- and."

"There has to be. You didn't go through all that out in the hallway just to say, sorry. You said that at the door over half an hour ago, and I told you, apology accepted. You fulfilled your social duty and were free to retreat with honor intact. Not to mention the fact that I was being as discouraging as I could be without slamming the door in your face. You had to expect something like what happened, a display of hostility and suspicion at any rate. Why'd you put yourself through all that?"

Carol sat up on her end of the couch, pressed her legs together and folded her hands in her lap. She couldn't do anything about being naked, but she was obviously pulling together all the confidence and dignity she could manage. She took a couple deep breaths to steady herself.

"Well, because I was hoping something like that would happen. I figured I'd enjoy the hell out of it, and I was right!"

Confidence seemingly deserting her, she looked back down at her hands.

"Let me get this straight. Are you telling me you came here looking for that? That you had a good time just now?"

"God, yes! I had a good time just now, and I had a good time on the blanket, and I had a good time on the bench. Three completely different scenes, and each one the best sex of my life!"

She hesitated for a moment and looked down at her hands again. Her voice dropped from a normal conversation level to a quiet murmur.

"So I came by to ask you to do anything you want with me except send me away."

"Are you telling me you want me to be your Dom?"

"Something like that, yea. Look, we had two hours on the bench, counting the massage maybe an hour and a half on the blanket, and half an hour in a drafty hallway. Less than four hours with you and I enjoyed them a hundred times more than the rest of my life put together! I know you love me, and I know you've always taken care of me. So, I came here to say I'm sorry for the way I acted last month, and I'm sorry for the way I've treated you. I want to be with you and I'll do absolutely anything to prove it."

Jake had to give himself a moment to take it all in. "'Could this be real?' he thought to himself. Although he was still suspicious, Jake had some reason to believe it was possible. For one thing, he hadn't found a trace of anything alarming in her clothes, jewelry, or purse; nor on the house security monitors he checked while she was on the couch. For another, Carol couldn't have faked her arousal at standing spread wide open for half an hour, naked and vulnerable, while he did whatever he pleased. Plus, Jake had known her all his life and could usually tell when she was lying. She seemed embarrassed, frightened, excited yes; lying no.

"Stand up. Come over here and stand directly in front of me."

"Sure, Jake."

She approached until she was almost touching his shoes.

"Closer."

Carol placed her feet outside his, and continued forward until her legs touched the couch. She stopped with her lovely body directly over his lap, and just stood there with her legs open and her arms at her sides, looking into his eyes and waiting for his next command.

"Place your hands behind your head."

She complied eagerly, a dazzling smile lighting up her face.

"Spread your legs wider."

Grinning widely, Carol spread her legs as wide as she could and still stand up.

"Look straight ahead and hold your pose no matter what happens."

Jake started lightly tracing his fingers around and around her clit. Carol trembled and moaned, but she did her best to obey his commands.

"I admit, I love giving you orgasms. You're easily the most responsive woman I can imagine."

"I'm responsive to you, Jake. The things you do make me crazy. I've never felt anything like it."

"Well, I'd like nothing better than to have you in my clutches, but there's a couple things holding me back. One is, I'm not convinced your father isn't behind what you're doing. Another is, I'm not into drive-by fucks. I've loved you too much for too long for us to be fuck buddies or casual lovers. You haven't had a relationship that's lasted more than three months in the last five years. If you're not planning on being around at least a year to see if we can make it work, I'm not interested."

Jake's fingers were working their magic. They traced around and around her labia while he talked as if it were just an idle habit like doodling: something he wasn't even thinking about.

Carol had never had to just stand there and take it before. In the past, as soon as one of her sex partners discovered she liked to be submissive, he put her to work servicing him. Now, she was having orgasms imposed on her, constantly and almost casually, as if cumming for Jake was her role in life. And the light touches kept circling around and around her most sensitive spot, each circuit cranking her arousal up another notch.

"I-I want to b-be with you for the rest of m-my life, J-Jake."

"Are you saying that because you mean it, or because I'm about to give you another orgasm?"

Carol was having trouble standing up straight and her knees were buckling. Her hips seemed to have taken on a life of their own.

"Aaaah. I'm say-saying it because I m-mean it, Jake."

Her stomach muscles were tensing up and she couldn't hold still. Her body was twisting in an agony of arousal.

"If you mean it, you're going to have to show me."

"H-How can I d-do that-that, Jake?"

Jake made her wait for his answer. He made the circles faster and tighter, and watched the muscles tensing in her stomach and the flush growing on her chest and neck.

"Well, you can start by cumming for me. Now!"

On his word, Jake slapped her clit with his open palm.

"Aaaaaahhh!" Carol screamed and collapsed, twitching and quivering, on Jake's lap.

"D-Damn it, Jake! W-What are you d-doing to me? I've nev-never been like this bef-f-fore."

"If we're going to have the relationship you asked for, you'll do this every day. Whatever I want. Whenever I want. No argument. No hesitation. If you ever say no, you'll be punished."

Carol had thrown her arms around Jake's neck to hold herself up while she twitched and shuddered out her orgasm. With her head still pressed into his shoulder, she gasped, "A-are y-you serious?"

"Absolutely."

"D-Deal."

Jake grinned, but his voice was serious.

"Just a second, sweetheart. We haven't addressed my issues yet, and quite frankly, I need time to think about it. You've had over thirty days to get used to the idea and I've had less than thirty minutes. Come by at nine, Saturday morning, and we'll talk some more. I should have figured out what works for me, and you can decide then if you're still interested."

Jake continued, "I do have a couple things I want you to do before Saturday, though. Get ahold of your doctor and make an appointment for a full STD screen. The last couple years you've been far too reckless with unprotected sex. Call Vinni at the health club and have him put you on a fitness program. You've been letting yourself go to hell lately. Oh! And that reminds me, start looking for a job. Maybe volunteer work. Something you care about that takes at least twenty hours a week. You've been an adolescent party girl long enough. If that list doesn't scare you off, I'll let you know on Saturday what else I'm going to put you through. Any questions?"

"Do I get my clothes back?"

Jake lifted Carol off his lap and headed for the closet door.

"You might as well get used to it. Until I'm convinced you're not acting as bait for your father's goons, we'll be going through the search routine every time you come over."

"In that case, it's a date!"

Carol dressed, gave Jake a passionate kiss, and scooted out the door looking a hundred times more cheerful than when she arrived.

-----

"What's the matter, Baby, can't sleep? Come back to bed and let me make it better."

Charlie slid back in bed and Karen snuggled up beside him.

"I'm worried about Ed, Hon. He just hasn't been the same since Eric left. It's been over a year and I was hoping he'd start coming out of his funk, but I don't think he is. He's always depressed and a couple times I'm sure he was suicidal. He scares me. And I've got that trade show coming up. Between getting the booth ready, staffing the show, and following up the leads; I'll be tied up all month."

"Is there anything I can do? Do you want me to try to keep an eye on him or what?"

"Yea. Actually, I was thinking a little more than that. How would you feel about us moving in with him? He's always looking for roommates, and we can tell him we want to give up our apartments so we can save up a down payment on a house. What do you think?"

"Are you asking me to live with you?"

"Well, yea! I mean, hell, we live together now. This would just make it real or official or something. Are you okay with that?"

"Yes! Oh, hell yes! But what about Ed? Will he be okay with it? And what about the sex? Are we going to stick to our room, or wait until he's out of the house, or make him watch, or what?"