Rainy Day Rubdown: Tom's Story

Tom sat silently for a moment. He looked at Gina. Lifting his right hand, still holding hers, he brushed it across her cheek. "No."

With that simple word Gina's face crumpled and she began to sob.

"Gina," Tom took her chin in his hand. "I don't know that the hurt you have caused me is beyond repair. Perhaps it is not. I have never stopped loving you, at least a little. But," he placed a finger over her lips, "Love is not enough. Trust. I don't think I could ever trust you again. What happens the next time you're overcome with 'infatuation'? I couldn't stand it. What wedding vows could you make that wouldn't choke us both when you said them?"

Gina continued to sob. Then she straightened up and calmed herself. Even through her tears she smiled as Tom pulled out a handkerchief and began dabbing her face.

"Tom, I understand that. I can hardly believe you even went as far as to talk to me today, to let me back in the house." She swiped away the tears and her eyes filled with determination. "I understand it but I won't accept it. I will earn your forgiveness. I will earn your trust again. How I don't know. But I will." She leaned over, kissed his cheek and stood up. "Don't you forget, Thomas O'Bannion, I can twice as stubborn as you can."

"I know," he whispered after the door had closed behind her.

For weeks Gina kept coming. She got together with Donna and took her old lawyer to the cleaners. Facing disbarment he was more than eager to cooperate. She was able to recover a great deal of the money he had charged her. Gina took care to insure the bulk of the money went back to Tom. Each time She came to the house, she told him again she was sorry. She cooked and cleaned and mended and ran errands. She made up for the missed times with their children.

The stumbling block in their reconciliation was Tom. No matter how hard, he tried he could not let go of his bitterness. He rarely gave Gina a kind word. He saw the disappointment and sadness in her, and he thought "She deserves it." She refused to give up but it was taking its toll on her.

A couple days after one visit Tom heard a knock on the door one Sunday. He thought nothing more could surprise him but he was wrong. When he opened the door Cindy was standing there. She flinched at his very look, quailing as though she thought he was going to strike her. Realizing he must look ominous, Tom made a determined effort to soften his features.

"Tom," she faltered. "Tom." She stopped and burst into tears.

His reaction was automatic. He took her arm and guided her inside to a chair. He rushed for a box of tissues. Squatting beside the chair he pressed one into her hand. "Shhhhhhhhhhhhh," he quieted her, as though she was one of his daughters. "It's okay. Let it out."

Her tears having run their course, Cindy blew her nose and took a deep breath. "I need to talk to you. It won't be easy, so please hear me out before you interrupt or question me."

Tom moved to his chair and sat down. "Okay, Cindy. I'll try. I won't promise not to get angry or upset, but I promise to let you have your say."

"Thank you," Cindy paused and collected her thoughts. "First. Oh God, Tom, I'm so sorry I came between you and Gina. I admit I was wildly attracted to her and set out to seduce her. It happened and I was enthralled. Perhaps she was too. Not because it was better, but because it was different. It was new and exciting and romantic. We should have stopped there but we didn't. We let it become a full blown affair. As happens with all affairs that keep going on, we were discovered."

"We were discovered," she repeated, "In, of course, the worst possible situation imaginable. Things were said that should never have been even thought. But I, we, Gina and I, had convinced ourselves that we were in love. And being in love made what we were doing right, not wrong. So I helped her leave you in a fit of righteous indignation. Then we moved in together."

Cindy swallowed. "The morning I met you was after the first night Gina and I spent together, I wanted you to be jerk. I wanted you to be a terrible husband, a rotten father and a poor excuse for a human being. I wanted to be able to hate you because it would make me feel less guilty. I DID feel guilty Tom, but I pushed it aside. Then Gina and I were together and it was magical, we thought."

"Then we were together, in that apartment and there was no magic at all. I don't know if she has been able to tell you this, but the time you discovered us was the last time we made love. She was paralyzed with guilt and with grief. We tried. She couldn't stop crying whenever I touched her. I think, if she could have summoned the courage, she would have come back then. But she couldn't make herself."

"Now she wants to come home, and it IS her home. You know it. I'm going to be married and promise to spend the rest of my life with someone. I think of your face that awful day and somehow see Liam's face twisted with that same hurt. So, to make peace with myself I need to try to help two people who's lives I helped rip into shreds." She turned to him and pleaded, "Tom, you have to believe me. I am not an evil person. I just didn't realize that actions had consequences."

"No Cindy," Tom said. "You're not evil. I never thought you were. Unrealistic, perhaps. As you said, not aware that the things we do have effects on other people." He settled back in his chair. "So what do you propose to do to make things better?" he added curiously.

Cindy took a deep breath and faced him. "I want you to fuck me.

Tom all but bolted upright. "Cindy, are you crazy? What the hell is that suppose to accomplish?"

"Perhaps it would make things equal. Then perhaps you could forgive Gina because you would be more even."

Tom shook his head violently. "Cindy, you're engaged now. This would be cheating on Liam, regardless of motives. What will you do if he finds out one day?"

"I have to pray he won't."

"Cindy, you know that he will. If you've learned anything from this, its that these things always come out, and people who think they don't are fools. No Cindy, I won't. Two wrongs do not make a right."

"Thank you God," breathed Cindy.

"What do you mean?"

"That I was hoping you'd say that." Cindy spoke candidly to the sweet, unhappy man she had hurt so badly. "Gina did a wrong, a terrible wrong. She is so sorry, she has repented of that wrong. She has done her best to make amends, to atone for her wrong. Now you, Tom O'Bannion, need to do your part and meet her with the forgiveness that your church preaches and you claim to believe in. Stop making her suffer just because you suffered so much. Put your pride up on the shelf. Please don't become that jerk I wanted to dislike so much. You and Gina were made for each other."

With that she turned to the door and grasped the handle to pull it open.

"Cindy?" She hesitated but didn't move. "Thank you." She looked at him, her eyes filled with unshed tears. She nodded and was gone.

For hours Tom sat in his chair thinking things over. Was she right? Had he become a man clinging to self-righteous pride? Full of his own "rightness", unable to give forgiveness to the one person who had always meant the world to him?

The door opened and Gina walked in. For the first time since she had started coming back she didn't knock. She walked straight to him, dropping her pocketbook on the floor and throwing her keys on the hall table. Without a single word she slid sideways into his lap. Her arms went around his neck as her legs hung off the side of the chair. She lifted her face to him and kissed him.

Tom's arms tightened around her. Back in his arms where she belonged. His mouth opened to her and he drew her tongue in. It wiggled, warm and wet against his own tongue. One of his hands settled on her stomach and moved up her ribcage to brush over her breasts. She stiffened at his touch. Even through her clothing he could feel her nipple respond.

His heart was beating wildly. She was back, she was his. Her kisses fired him as they had the very first time he had kissed. He could feel her own heart thudding, her breast transmitting the vibration through his fingers. He drove his tongue back inside her mouth, exploring her as though he never had before.

Tom kept one arm around her back. He put the other one under her thighs and in one heave he stood up with her in his arms. Kicking items out of his way, he turned toward the bedroom.

Gina's eyes widened and for the first time tonight she spoke. "Oh God, Tom. Oh my darling Tom. YES!"

For no reason other than he could Tom kicked the bedroom door closed behind them. He carried Gina to the bed and carefully laid her on it. He looked down at her, her hair spread across the pillow. She wiggled on the bed, pushing her slacks down, pulling her top off. He shed his own clothes and joined her. He lay beside her and pulled her onto his arms again.

Tom's cock throbbed in its hardness. He felt the passion flooding him but at the same time he felt something else. He felt angry. He felt a desire to punish her, to hurt her body as she had once hurt his spirit. He trembled, his body becoming rigid.

Gina apparently immediately realized his feelings. "Tom," she whispered, with all the understanding in the world in that one word. Her hand touched his cheek and she swallowed. "If you need to; than do it. Take me and use me and, if it helps, punish me."

Her acceptance startled him. But she had always known him better than he knew himself. As he saw her forcing herself to be still, to take whatever he would give, the anger disappeared. He knelt between her legs, slipped his arms around her back and pulled her up against him again. He showered kisses over her face, then slowly worked his way over her chin to her throat and neck.

Gina arched backwards as Tom's tongue swirled down her chest and over her breasts. He took his time, seeking every bit of her soft globes before finally settling onto her stiff nipples. He darted back and forth, flicking one than the other. He gently sucked one into his mouth, his tongue rolling it about. He released it and blew over the wet tip, seeing it crinkle even harder.

"Tom, yes honey, oh lord," moaned Gina. As his lips took her other breast her head tipped back, her eyes closed. He realized she was surrendering herself completely to him. He stretched on top of her and parted her legs. His cock brushed against her open sex and she trembled. In one long push he entered her, burying himself completely.

"Aaaahhhhh," burst from Tom. His hips rocked against her, the head of his cock already reaching her spot at the bottom of each lunge. She used the leverage body against the bed to bounce wildly to him. He captured one nipple again and kept his lips closed over it. He pulled her breast back and forth, shaking his head. He felt his cock swell, matching the clamping of her internal muscles on him. She met his thrust and screamed wildly as they locked together and his cum poured deep into her pussy.

They fell to the bed, still together. Tom was astounded to find that he was still hard. He crushed Gina under him. She bent her knees, planted her feet wide on the bed and thrust up to meet him. Now it was just raging passion. Tom's hips rose and fell in a blur, slamming his cock into Gina. She met each stroke, bucking against him. Her fingers raked his back. Faster and faster they met each other's need until their mutual orgasms claimed them and they fell helplessly to the bed. The only effort Tom was able to make was to pull Gina to him as they fell asleep.

When Tom woke the next morning he was alone in bed. For a moment he thought he had dreamed yesterday until he heard Gina singing from the direction of the kitchen. He checked the clock. Good, he had plenty of time. He pulled on a pair of jeans and headed for the sound of her voice.

"Good morning," Gina smiled, kissed him quickly and handed him a cup of coffee. "Sleepyhead, I thought you wouldn't wake up until I was gone." At Tom's questioning look, she added, "I start a new job today. Donna offered me a position in her office and will train me as a para-legal. She says I made so many mistakes before dealing with an attorney, I should know them all now."

Tom sipped his coffee. Just the way he always liked it. He asked something that had occurred to him the previous night. "Gina, did Cindy and you talk lately?"

"I called her a few days ago. I was feeling so discouraged, feeling like I would never be able to make things right with you. She listened to me vent. Then suddenly yesterday afternoon, she called me back and told me to come to you, right then. She told me not to waste time talking but to walk in here and just show you still mean the world to me."

"Anyway, if I don't hurry I'll be late. Where are my keys? Oops, I remember." She scooped them off the hall table where she had left them the previous evening. She kissed Tom, carefully this time. "Tom, I know that last night doesn't mean that everything is suddenly alright. I still have long way to go before you can even begin to think of trusting me. All I hope is that this is a beginning." She touched his face and then she was gone.

After Gina left Tom sat and thought. This was all moving too fast. He didn't know how to handle what he was feeling. Last night had been wonderful, incredible even. Not just the sex, it seemed as though the last year had been one long nightmare and he had awoken. But he knew it had not been a bad dream, it had been real. He could not shake the possibility that if it had happened once it could happen again.

He decided to go for a run. He used to run almost daily, but over the last year he had quit that, as he had so much else. It was high time he started again, he decided. He donned his shorts and running shoes and set out down the road.

Automatically he followed the route that Gina had driven, the same one they had always taken to work back when they were married. He reached the end of the street they lived on, turned onto the highway for a few hundred yards and then veered off onto the dirt road they used as a shortcut to town.

Tom's thoughts continued to spin around in his mind. Images flashed in and out as his heart rate increased and his breathing became labored. He saw Gina though all the years of their marriage. He saw the terrible day when he discovered the affair and she left him. He saw himself hardening his heart so he couldn't be hurt again. He saw Gina coming back, and saw his resolve cracking. He ran faster, gasping harder as he did. The pain in his side increased, matched by the pain in his heart. He knew he still loved her. He knew that if he let her back in his life and she betrayed him again it would kill him. His speed increased to that of a sprinter. He was desperately trying to run from his thoughts, from his memories, from his fear.

The pain exploded throughout his body, radiating from his chest. He fell to his hands and knees and then collapsed completely on the ground. It really was like an elephant sitting on his chest, he realized. He thought he saw a bright light calling him, and then he saw nothing at all.

That was where Gina found him as she returned to pick up the pocketbook she had left. She slid the car to a halt and leaped from it, screaming his name. She reached back into the car, retrieved her cell phone from the armrest and called 911. After giving her location and receiving an assurance help was on the way she dropped the phone. Falling to her knees beside Tom she pulled his upper body into her lap. She could her his shallow gasps for air and looked at his face gray with the pain. Heedless of the dust and dirt she knelt in, she called his name and pleaded with him.

"Tom, TOM, TOMMMMMMM," she cried, tears cutting streaks down her face. "No, oh GOD, please, please don't take him. Tom, come back to me. I promise I'm home forever. I'll never go away again." She rocked back and forth, weeping wildly as she tried to make him hear. "Tom, damn you, don't do this to me. I'm so sorry. PLEASE Tom, for God's sake don't leave me."

Her tears cascaded down, falling onto his face. Suddenly she felt the hand she was holding squeeze hers. She gasped and bent over him as his eyes fluttered open and she heard him whisper through the pain.

"Nag, nag, NAG. Are you going to do this for the next 50 years?"

(THE END)

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(Just a reminder. The story doesn't end here. "The End" does NOT mean "And they lived happily ever after". But I think they have a chance. To all of you who have written me before, about this series and my other stories, Thank You. I appreciate it so much. Lots of hugs and kisses to my "bestest friend" Marian for her unfailing support, encouragement and her ability to sweetly tell me when my writing needs major work. Love you. To my friends TabooTeller, Troubador who have listened to me and offered suggestions as I wrote this, and to Andrew who helped me revise it, BIG hugs. Thanks y'all.)