A Fool No More

"Such a pretty hand. It would be a shame for it to be lonely. Brooke, would you like to stay over with me and celebrate Christmas here?"

She was in my arms then, kissing me, and, before I realized it, she was peeling my shirt off. Once it cleared my head and she tossed it, she nodded, indicating for me to follow suit with hers. I did and then unclasped her bra, allowing her twins to spring forth in absolute beauty.

They were full and pert but not too large, with pretty areolas about the size of silver dollars capped with perfect, erect nipples that looked to be yearning to be kissed. Her breasts felt wonderful in my hands as I cupped them, squeezing them lightly and caressing them, wondering why I'd resisted doing this to this point.

I kissed around her fullness, little brushes with my tongue over her satiny softness, circling her nipple, and then kissing and barely nipping the side and below as Brooke moaned. My tongue went around and around her nipple again before my lips moved that last little way and I gently sucked the nipple into my mouth, my tongue flicking it lightly as I nursed on it.

Brooke moaned and whispered, "More. A little harder. Mmmm."

I responded at once and her pleasant little moan that followed encouraged me onward. One then the other, both needing attention, I sucked a little more of her breast into my mouth and then drew back to let it spring back, creating a delightful little boobie quake.

"Little softer than that but don't stop," she gasped. "Stay with it...mmmm."

Focusing on her right nipple, I continued to tease it while rubbing and tweaking the left. Her continued moaning pleased me, making me wonder if what I'd once heard, that some women could orgasm from breast play alone, was true. I'd tried many times with Jeanie but she'd never quite gotten there from nipple action alone, though we both had a great deal of fun trying.

Brooke rolled her head back then, thrusting her boobie toward me and I continued on, kissing, circling, suckling, and doing my best to take her over the top. Her little moans, so soft, almost silent, continued as I tried to give it to her and she tried to achieve it.

"So close but...mmm..."

She was losing it then despite my efforts but I wanted to give it to her so badly, I violated our rule, slipping my hand down the front of her jeans and cupping her mons over what I suspected were cotton panties.

"Yes!" she wailed, pushing her mound up against my hand. She spread her legs wide as I started to rub her clit, my breast play continuing all the while. Brooke's hand grasped my wrist, holding me in place in her pants to keep me from stopping as she bit her bottom lip. I think she added, "Jared, please don't stop!" but it came out as an unintelligible moan, which in itself was enough to keep me going.

It took longer than I suspected considering how close she'd been. Maybe the change had been too drastic or perhaps the mechanics of the two stimulations were too different? And maybe it was just that her pants were too tight over my hand. I didn't know but she was clearly enjoying the combined play and definitely wanted it, so I continued on, doing my best to give her what she obviously needed.

She moaned again and again, calling my name several times, urging me on, before she finally arched up once more. As she did, she issued a loud groan and then collapsed back on the couch and clamped her thighs around my hand. Her panties were damp under my fingers.

"God, Jared, I needed that and it was...wonderful," she gasped. When she could focus again, she looked up at me and added, "No more silly rules, okay. You can do that any time you want."

I smiled, looking forward to the time when we might be able to do a whole lot more.

***

I grew to like her more each day, wondering all the while whether our relationship was real, if we might have something that could last, or if it was just a passing fancy on one or both of our parts. I was relieved when Brooke seemed to feel the same way with me, and continued to push our boundaries.

During our next session a couple of nights later, she led me to the bedroom. With our tops off but our pants still in place, pushed me back on the bed, and climbed aboard to let me fondle her wonderful tits while she gave me a lap dance to die for. Recalling some of our phone sex sessions, I figured she really liked that...and so did I.

I loved seeing her grind herself against me, her hips circling, her breasts quivering in my hands. It was the first lap dance I'd ever experienced for more than a few seconds. With my ex having made a habit of most foreplay beyond kissing and hugging being just enough to turn us on a little bit and then almost immediately moving on to the main event, I relished Brooke's every move and her every facial expression, so focused, so intent on taking me over the edge.

"Brooke, I'm getting close. You'd better stop," I blurted, but she grinned, shaking her head.

"We're not stopping at close tonight, Jared. Come for me. Do it. I want to see your face as it happens."

She leaned down and kissed me then, her tongue going in my mouth, sliding in and out of my pursed lips and then drew back as I got closer. The pressure in my balls was unbearable as she continued her grind against my hardness and then it happened.

"Oh, God!" I groaned as I came, spasm after spasm filling my boxer briefs.

Brooke was smiling as she climbed off and lay down beside me, wrapping herself partly over me. Her hand was on top of my pants and belly then, rubbing me lightly.

"Uh, Jared, looks we kind of had a...a jailbreak down here," she said with a giggle as she wiped a little more, rubbing some of it through the short hair that covered my lower torso. Lying against me, her right breast resting against my chest and her right leg wrapped over mine, she brought her finger up to show me a little dollop of my spunk. With deliberate dramatism, she licked that little glob off of it, swirling her tongue around the tip and licking suggestively a couple of times before adding, "Mmm. Not bad. I think I could get used to that."

"Oh, you flirt," I replied, pulling her up a little and kissing her. That continued for a while before my hand found her crotch and started to rub her through her jeans.

"Jared, I think you should probably go clean up before we do any more. I'll be right here waiting for you."

"Don't worry. I'll be back to give you your turn in a minute or two."

Brooke was there in the same spot on her back when I returned wearing fresh underwear and clean sweatpants. Hands laced behind her head, her natural breasts looking perfect; they lay off to each side rather than being piled up in a ball like silicone or saline-filled jobbies, but there still enough there to point up, standing proud and beautiful with her nipples barely plumped above puffy areolas. Brook smiled at me, a beautiful vision on the bed before me, but she grinned even more when she saw me notice that her jeans were unbuttoned and the fly unzipped.

"You can take them off me...if you'd like," she whispered.

"Oh, I'd most definitely like that," I replied, my grin matching her own. Kisses and gentle suckling plumped her nipples to raspberries before I removed her pants, with Brooke arching up to help get them off. I rubbed her mound for a bit as I continued kissing her nips, but it wasn't long before my desire became too much. Seeing her nude except for her panties, I wanted her so I moved down between her legs, pushed them up, and started to kiss her thighs and her mound.

Brooke's breathing was labored, not knowing where I was going with it, but I didn't make her wait too long before I kissed her clit through her panties. The gusset was wet from her desire, and my kisses soon made them wetter. Brooke moaned as I continued kissing and sucking her spot, but she gasped when I pushed the cloth to the side and plunged my tongue into her slit.

"Oh, Jared," she cried as I slid my tongue up and down through her, but when I switched back to her clit, this time without the panties, she moaned again, long and loud this time, "Ohhhh, Jared!" and she kept moaning until I gave her what she needed. We were both smiling afterward, and she stayed the night with me for the first time. She went back to their apartment early the next morning in order to be there before Brianna awoke and so she could get to school before her students started to arrive.

***

As Christmas neared, Brooke and I both debated where our relationship was going in the long term even as we had little doubt where it was going in the near future.

With Brianna having almost caught Brooke the morning she snuck into their apartment, Brooke decided that she couldn't stay over again until Christmas while Brianna and Phil were on their cruise.

"She heard me that first night on the phone and she's seen enough to know we're close but not how close. Since we don't even know the answer to that..." she laughed, but I understood. Therefore, I gave it a lot of thought over the next few weeks, all-the-while wondering if the major complication, our age difference, could really work between us or if it would all fall apart as so many budding relationships do before we ever had to worry about that part.

To my surprise and pleasure, we continued to grow closer and I made my choice. I put up a tree and some decorations, did my Christmas shopping, and donated a couple of nice toys to the Tots campaign for children in need at the mall. As much in the Christmas spirit as I'd been in years, I met Ashley a couple of nights before her trip to celebrate our Christmas.

We had dinner, swapped presents, and enjoyed a couple of hours together as father and daughter. It wasn't long before she picked up on my attitude.

"Daddy, you've been smiling a lot recently, more than I've seen in ages. Is it Christmas spirit? Or something else?"

Until things were worked out between us, Brooke and I weren't ready to share details, but I nodded. "I've started seeing someone...but, well, it's complicated and we don't know if it's going anywhere."

She looked quite serious as she whispered, "Is it a guy?"

"What?" I exclaimed, shocked at her suggestion.

Ashley started laughing. "You said it was complicated. I couldn't think of anything more complicated for you than that."

I laughed, too. "No, not a guy, but there's a lot to work out between us before we'll know if it's going to work. We're going to spend some time together at Christmas and see how things go. I'm hoping I'll be able to tell you more shortly afterward."

A few days before Christmas, I drove my Malibu over and picked up Ashley and Tiggress. We dropped the kitten at my place before going to her friend Sue's apartment and then on to the airport. Ash and I hugged, kissed cheeks, and gave each other one last round of Christmas wishes before they rushed into the terminal.

I really hoped that I'd have more news for her after they came home.

***

Brianna and Phil left on the 23rd, so Brooke and Freidrick moved in with me for a few days that evening. The tomcat, who was fixed, and the kitten seemed to get along fairly well; Freidrick climbed up on his cat tree and ignored the little female furball most of the time.

It was cool but not cold that evening, so I took Brooke out on the front porch and showed her my new swing for two, which replaced the old one that had probably been installed when the house was new. We sat down on the swing and rocked gently until Brooke asked if I had a blanket. I hurried back with one and tucked it in around us. My arm went around her and she snuggled against me.

There were the typical noises of the suburbs, of course, but the only sound between the two of us was slow and gentle rocking of the swing, the chain rubbing against the hook in the soffit above. After that period of relative silence, Brooke looked around at me and said, "Well, we're here, Jared, together at last. But where are we really? Do you know?"

"I know I care about you, Brooke. I like you a lot, too, but I still don't know where we're going--we've only been seeing each other for a couple of months but we've gotten really close in that time and now I want us to keep going to find out. I want us to be together, just you and me, to give what we have a chance so we can see if it's real and if it can work in the long term."

"Just you and me?"

"Yeah, exclusive. Boyfriend and girlfriend, or whatever kids call it these days."

She chuckled. 'You're older than me, Jared McClelland, but not that much older. Boyfriend and girlfriend is still a thing, so no more worries about our age, okay?"

"Deal." I took a breath and steeled myself. "So, Brooke Woodsen, will you do me the honor of being my girlfriend? Will you be in a relationship with me, an exclusive relationship, where we can give ourselves time to see where we're going from here?"

She was grinning at me as I finished. "You could have stopped at 'being your girlfriend.' I knew what you meant," she added with a giggle. "But yes, I'd be glad to be your girl if you'll be my guy, too, just the two of us. I like you so much, Jared, and, like you said, I want us to see where this goes."

She reached up and kissed me and I was happy, the thrill of being in a relationship with her giving me peace and hope that had been missing from my life for so long. I'd loved Jeanie and put up with so much over the years, but she'd crossed the line and thrown it all away. Now, I was glad, finding that I was caring for, maybe even loving, another woman, possibly the true love of my life.

We were both smiling when we broke our kiss, so Brooke moved around to face me, straddling my lap, and then started kissing me again. That made me happy, too, so I kissed her back and wrapped the blanket around us during our next break before we went back at it once more.

***

Not ready to be recognized as a couple by any who might know us, Brooke and I went to the Christmas Eve service at a church a few miles away, sitting together toward the back. We sang "Oh Holy Night" at the end of the service and then everyone moved forward, pew by pew, to light a little candle and exit the sanctuary in silence.

I'd been a little nervous about us being discovered, possibly by someone from the plant where I worked, by a teacher from Brooke's school, or even by some random person one of us knew from no telling where, but it didn't happen. The pastor, a man probably in his late 50s or early 60s, welcomed us without saying anything about our relative ages after we stepped outside the building. Two couples even came over to us and welcomed us to their church; they wished us a Merry Christmas and invited us to come again.

The main thing was that there was no frowning and no condemnation of our choice to try to be together, so Brooke gripped my arm with both of hers and pulled me a little closer as we made our way to my Malibu. She seemed happy; I heard her humming "Oh Holy Night" as I drove us home.

We had Brooke's Christmas stew--a beef stew that had been simmering in the crock pot all day, complete with some extra parsley and halved cherry tomatoes--when we got home after baking my homemade yeast rolls that had been on their second rise since right before we left for the service. We shared Christmas tales of years past as we ate, but Brooke seemed quiet.

"What's wrong, sweetheart?"

"That's the one thing that's really different between us because of our ages. You have a lot more memories of years past than I do," she said, looking a bit melancholy at the thought.

"That's probably not a big deal, Brooke. You'll remember your memories, I'll remember mine and forget others, and we'll make new ones together, with each other, and someday, with our kids."

"Kids? If we marry someday, Jared, do you want to have kids?"

"With you, yes," I said before realizing that she might not want kids. "If you want to, I mean. When Ashley was little, I always wanted at least one or maybe two more, but it wasn't to be."

"Why not?"

"Ashley was a couple of weeks early and the doctor suggested that, ahem, her mother shouldn't have any more kids; it might be dangerous for her, the baby, or possibly both. Therefore, Jeanie had her tubes tied as soon as the doctor told her it was safe and we could never have any more." I gave her hand a little squeeze. "What about you? Do you want kids?"

She nodded, her face serene as she recalled her youth and told me about having a sister and brother and some of the times they had together. "You love them sometimes and hate them with a passion at others, but siblings are part of who you are. I'm not all that close to Bryce now, but he's my brother and I still love him. And Brianna and I--"

"Two peas in a pod?" I said with a little smirk.

She grinned and nodded, holding up crossed fingers, showing how close they were. "I'd like at least the opportunity for that for my kids. Someday."

***

With Brooke wearing a short nightie and me wearing just my boxer briefs, we slept together in my bed on Christmas Eve, but it was a tame affair with only a little kissing and snuggling together before we said goodnight and she drifted off to sweet dreams. On Christmas morning, I woke at about my usual time, fed the cats, and fixed breakfast.

"Brrr, it's chilly this morning but something smells good," said Brooke as she came into the kitchen dressed in a long flannel gown. Her light brown hair was back in a ponytail but a number of strands were loose and doing their own thing. She still looked sleepy--a yawn interrupted her before she could say more--and she wore no makeup, but Brooke was absolutely beautiful in my eyes. I swept her into my arms for a hug and discovered that she was wearing the gown and only the gown as she pressed herself against me.

"Good morning, gorgeous. And merry Christmas."

There was more than a little skepticism in her eyes at my comment, but she broke a tiny smile and leaned up for a kiss anyway. "Merry Christmas to you, too, Jared." She glanced at pans on the stove and then took a sniff. "Are you making...cinnamon rolls, too?"

"Yep, homemade, with yeast and everything, like I used to do when Ashley was younger. I made the dough when you were on the call with your parents yesterday, and got up for a little while after you fell asleep last night to make the rolls so it would be a surprise. The first batch is in the oven and I was about to cut the second roll into slices for baking. You want the honors?"

She did that while I lit the gas fireplace in the living room and made the cream cheese topping. We shared the first batch with the rest of our breakfast a little later while sitting in my little living room in front of our Christmas tree. It really was ours in my mind because she'd helped me pick it out on the lot a few nights before and then helped decorate it the next evening.

"Want another one?" I asked. "More eggs? Bacon? Cheese grits?"

"Are you deliberately trying to fatten me up?" she asked with a laugh. Cupping her boobs and pushing up so the nipples were straining delightfully against the flannel, she added, "Aren't these big enough for you?"

I kissed a nipple through the fabric and smiled. "They're perfect and so are you...but I don't want you to be hungry on Christmas."

"I'm good, thanks. Let's clean up and I'll give you your first present?"

"First?"

"Yeah, the other one comes later."

"Ah, I got you two presents, too, but they go together so I wrapped them as a set."

Minutes later with Christmas music playing on my iPod through the speakers Ashley had given me for Christmas, we swapped presents in front of the fireplace and the Christmas tree, the little flames and the lights blinking and reflecting off some of the shiny metallic ornaments.

I gave Brooke one first, a smallish box that she examined side by side, every single one, making me glad I'd paid to have it professionally wrapped at the store, and then held it up by her ear and gave it a shake. When it didn't make any noise, she opened it and cried out in surprise when she saw the green emerald necklace and matching earrings inside.