A Road Trip Fantasy Pt. 05

Jen worked her magic underwater for fifteen seconds before popping up for a breath. She wiped the water and bubbles from her face. "It's going to take a while this way." She nodded her head to the corner shelf of the tub. "Maybe you should get up there."

Reluctance to leave the warmth of the water could not compete with Jennifer's offer. I sat on the cold marble edge of the tub, leaning back into the corner made by the wall and shower with my legs still enjoying the warmth of the tub.

Jen knelt before me. She splashed some warm water across my groin to wash away the biggest of the bubbles still clinging to my pubic hair. Then she wrapped her fingers around the shaft of my penis and took the head and rest of the shaft into her mouth. She worked me, bobbing up and down, running her tongue around my glans, taking her mouth off me to run her tongue up and down the length of penis before taking me back into her mouth again.

Time faded away. The jets continued to rumble. My breath came deeper and faster. The sounds of Jen's efforts echoed back at me. A pressure began to build at the base of my penis.

Instead of letting her continue, I took Jen's face in my hands and lifted her away from my penis. I leaned down and kissed her, allowing my tongue to run over her teeth and into her mouth. Still kissing, she backed up, and I slipped into the water with her.

We lost ourselves in a blur of hands, and arms and legs, and mouths spinning about one another in a flurry. We were wide awake, alive, and hungry for each other.

With all the water involved, I always felt that sex in a bathtub ought to be much easier than it is in practice. All the water ought to be lubricant, but it just gets in the way. In the end, I entered Jen while she perched in the corner I had just relinquished. We stared into each other's eyes as I thrusted into her. She egged me on with those fiery eyes and her squeals of pleasure as my penis probed just the right spot. Despite the hard cold stone of the marble, within minutes, she came hard, crying out as the orgasm overtook her, and I followed before her body even began to descend from its peak. Afterward, we slipped back under the cooling water together. She leaned back in my arms as we had before, but this time with less stiffness between us. I held her, and we kissed, and may have even dozed.

Sated and relaxed, we dragged ourselves from the tub and dried off. I found plush white robes and slippers for us, both embroidered with little emblems of the hotel. Jen combed out her hair and decided that Rebecca might be on her lunch break.

Rebecca's broad grin popped up on FaceTime within seconds. I leaned over Jen's shoulder where Rebecca's could see me but Jen could not. I had a finger held up to my lips. Rebecca had a broad excited grin on her face but did a double take when she saw me.

I said my hellos, and then sat back on settee with a book while the sisters talked. Jen toured her around the suite and out onto the balcony to show off the view. They talked for about fifteen minutes before Rebecca had to get back to work. Jen then switched over to calling her mom to repeat the tour. Chris and her dad were driving straight through and were expected late that evening and so would have to take the tour on video later.

While Jen and her mom chatted, the text tone on my phone went off. It was from Rebecca: When?!?!?!

Tomorrow night, I sent back and then deleted the conversation. To my knowledge, Jen did not usually snoop on my phone but I did not want any slips between now and tomorrow night.

*****

The next morning, we woke just after sunrise. Keeping busy all the day before and getting to bed not too long after getting off the phone with Jen's family had reset our clocks to Italian time. We chose a small cafe for breakfast where Jen got her morning coffee and I a warm cup of tea. We split some brioche, biscotti, and sliced cheese as we walked back over to the Piazza San Marco.

We spent the morning touring the Basilica di San Marco, a magnificent Byzantine cathedral composed of a mishmash of styles and artifacts from all over the world that managed to blend together as one beautiful structure. We wandered the wide aisles to goggle at the gold mosaics on the ceilings and walls with the wide open cathedral dome towering above us. We explored the hidden nooks and crannies off the naves and around the upper floors and domes all with their adornments brought back to Venice as spoils of the crusades.

After the heavy history of the morning, we took a lunchtime break back at our hotel. We ate in the rooftop restaurant with its panoramic view of the lagoon, island and Grand Canal. The warmth of the sun mixed with a light breeze to create the perfect weather. The sunlight gleamed off of Jennifer's blond hair in golden rays. In my mind, the sunlight could not compete with the warmth and brightness of her smile. She leaned back in her chair and ran her hands through her hair, utterly relaxed. School was over, her new job was still a good week away, and she had nothing in the world to worry her. I smiled to myself as I realized that I felt the same way, relaxed and at peace. If only we could stay here forever.

In the afternoon, we dove back into history to tour the Palazzo Ducale. We recognized some of the same visitors from our visit to the cathedral in the morning. Again, the splendor and opulence amazed me with the detailed mosaics and frescos, paintings, gold, and rich lush colors. On the way from the courtrooms to the prisons, we saw the Bridge of Sighs as history claimed it ought to be seen. Most important of all though, we saw it all together, oohed and ahed together, and joked together.

By late afternoon, we returned to our suite. "When's our dinner reservations?" Jen flopped down on the bed arms spread wide.

I lay down next to her and stroked her cheek. "Six-thirty. I looked it up on the map. We can walk there in fifteen minutes or so."

Jen looked and the ceiling and I could see her calculating in her head. "Fancy you said?"

"Reasonably. I brought a sports coat and shirt. Rebecca said she packed you a couple of dresses. I thought it would be fun to have a romantic night out."

Jen looked back at me. "Yeah, it will, but all of this has been pretty romantic."

"Every minute I'm with you is for me." I leaned down and kissed her.

"Set the alarm for thirty minutes. I want a little rest before we have to get ready."

I did as Jen bid and laid down next to her and closed my eyes.

As is its habit, the alarm went off too soon. Maybe I had not really adjust to the time change yet or maybe it was just napping, but I felt groggy on awakening.

If Jen felt the same way, she did not show it. Her eyes popped open before mine. "Time to get ready, sleepyhead." She kissed me and rolled off the bed to go get changed. Jen did not debate long with her two options and chose a knee length red dress that clung to curves of her toned body. The sight just made me want to peel it back off of her. While I changed and then opened my book back up, she adjusted her hair and make up, and then we were ready to go.

The shadows of the buildings stretched out in the setting sun and a light cool breeze was picking up. We walked across the cobblestone streets of the city and over bridges with our arms around each other's waists. Under the concierge's direction, I had selected an intimate little restaurant not far from the Rialto Bridge.

We shared a candlelit table to one side of the restaurant. Light conversation percolated around us while the music of a string quartet played in the background. We split appetizers and two entrees and held hands across the table. While I gazed into her deep brown eyes, she ran her foot up and down my leg under the table.

I checked my phone and let us linger for a while longer at our table, but then it was time for our next appointment.

"So where to next?" Jen asked me. We were walking along the banks of the Grand Canal moving away from our hotel. The night was brisk now, and Jen pulled her black leather jacket tight about her.

"Well, it wouldn't be a trip to Venice without a gondola ride." About half a block ahead of us, a stairway lead down to a landing and one of the many gondola stops in the city.

Jen's smile was bright and her eyes twinkled. "I wondered when we were going to take one." I felt like there was something prescient behind those eyes, but that may have been more in my own mind than hers.

Our gondolier, Ovidio, was a powerfully built man in his fifties by my judgement. He was the owner of this small fleet of gondolas inherited and grown from his father and grandfather's time. His middle son was a lean young man in his twenties who someday would take over the family business. I had scheduled this romantic little jaunt for two complete with a bottle of Prosecco and some chocolate desserts, and it turned out Ovidio himself would be captaining our ride.

He offered Jennifer his arm as she stepped down into the boat and then me a hand. Then he produced a grey woolen blank to throw across our laps, presented us with the uncorked bottle and the tray of sweets, and pushed off from shore.

The lights shimmered off the waters and the buildings were looming dark shadows as we began moving down the narrow canals of the city. Above them, the night sky was grey with clouds and an intermittent splash of moonlight and twinkling of the stars. The water made gentle sloshing noises against the hull, and Ovidio's baritone voice echoed from the walls around us.

Jen took in a deep breath and sighed as she snuggled into me. "I wish this trip would never end. I can't believe school is over, and I'm supposed to be back in San Diego, but here I am with you in Venice."

"I wish it wouldn't end either. Cheers?"

"Cheers." We tapped glasses and sipped our wine.

I shifted in my seat so I could look Jen in the eyes. Her expression was amused at first, but became more serious when she saw mine. "Jen, I want you to know that this past year with you has been magical." I reached out to brush her hair back and stroke her cheek. "I've never been so happy with anyone before. You're this bright ray of sunshine in my life that makes everything better. When we're together, I feel complete and whole in a way that I never thought possible, and when we're apart, I feel like I'm missing the best part of me."

Jen wanted to say something, but she bit her lower lip and remained silent.

One of my hands held hers but my other one fished into the inner pocket of my jacket. I slipped off the little cushioned seat and knelt with one knee on the deck of the boat. The hand in my jacket came out holding the little felt box I had kept hidden all this time.

Tears brimmed in her eyes and a shaky smile fought its way across her lips. Her fingers clamped onto my hand like the slamming of a door.

I snapped open the box to reveal the treasure within. "Jennifer Lee, will you do me the honor of letting me be your husband."

"Oh, Aaron." Mesmerized, she covered her mouth with one hand and squeezed me even harder with the other. "It's beautiful."

"Well?"

Jen shook herself free of the hypnosis. "Oh, my gosh, of course I'll marry you, Aaron." She leaned forward to throw her arms around me. Her body quivered against me, and she took great gasping breaths in my ear. "I love you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Of course, I'll marry you."

We kissed somehow hot and passionate and gentle and warm all at the same time. Her hands gripped my face to hold my lips to hers, and my arms held her body to mine.

Somewhere during all of this, Ovidio had stopped his singing. Now with my proposal accepted, he let out a yell that must have been announcing our engagement to the world. "Congratulazioni ai nuoui fidanzati!" As I pulled myself back onto the seat next to Jen, applause and echoes of that same call came from passerby on the street.

In the dark of the night, I know I was blushing, and I think Jen may have been too, but all that mattered in the world right then was the two of us. I plucked the channel set, round, diamond ring from the box and slipped it on her left fourth finger where it fit snuggly in place. I watched her turn her hand back and forth, the stone catching the light from the houses and street lamps.

"I've never seen anything more beautiful," she whispered. Then she looked up at me and grinned. "Except for you."

Back at the dock, Ovidio's son took pictures of Jen and I, our heads together, our bodies forming a shallow vee, and her left hand on my chest with the sparkling of her ring against the dark of my sports coat. Then we posed with Ovidio behind us for our phones and his instant camera. Inside his stand, he pinned the photo up next to multiple other photos of himself with happy, newly engaged couples. Apparently, I was not alone in proposing on late night gondola rides, and that was why Ovidio still insisted on taking out young foreign couples when he felt more than just romance might be afoot.

We strolled back along the canals in the general direction of our hotel but our only destination at that point was to just be together. Jen kept bouncing back and forth between beaming at me and playing with the ring on her finger, turning and tipping it to catch the light. She spread her fingers and held out her hand in front of us to admire it. "So who else knows?" She brought both hands back to grab mine again.

I had kept the secret close, and my confidants had done a good job of keeping mum. "Javi and Niki helped me whittle down the options at first. Once I was down to the last two or three, Rebecca helped pick the final one. She said you tried on her ring and it fit, and so we used her for the sizing."

"It's perfect. I thought she was acting strange, especially when I called her last night."

"She texted me afterward wanting to know when I was going to pop the question." We walked a little farther holding hands. "So how long have you known?"

Jen rolled her eyes skyward in thought. "Well, I didn't really know. I mean, we've only been dating for a year or so, and it's all been long distance." She sighed. "But when you whisked me off on a fancy vacation to this romantic city." She shrugged and let the sentence drift off. "It would have been totally fine if you didn't propose, but I would have been a little disappointed." She laughed. "I don't know how you would have topped this."

"I might have been able to come up with something."

"No." Jen shook her head at me and her eyes were serious. "Nothing could be more perfect than this."

I kissed those lush full lips. "Thank you. I'm glad I did it."

We meandered on, moving away from and then back toward the Grand Canal.

"So my parents don't know?"

"Not unless Rebecca slipped up."

"I guess I better call them then." We stopped outside a closed store front, and Jen leaned against the wall as she dug out her phone. I listened in on the half conversation. "Hello, Mom, it's Jen." "Yeah, everything is fantastic." "Get Dad on the phone." "Just get both of you on the phone. I'll wait." "Hi, Dad. I wanted to tell you both right away. Aaron just asked me to marry him." This time I could hear excited voices on the other end. "Of course I said yes." Jen laughed. "Yes, I am sooo happy." "I'll have Aaron send you the photo we took." She nodded at me, and I pulled out my phone to text the picture of us in the gondola. "Wait 'til you see the ring, Mom. I'll send you a picture." "Yes, it is bigger than Rebecca's." She laughed again. "I haven't talked to her yet, but apparently she helped pick it out." "I know I can't believe she didn't tell me either." "Yeah, he's here." Jen extended the phone. "They want to talk to you."

I took her proffered phone. "Hello"

"Oh, Aaron it's so exciting, we are so pleased." Julie's voice drowned out Marvin's, "Congratulations."

"Thank you. I'm pretty excited myself."

"You've been such a big support to Jen all the time she was away. She's lucky to have you in her life," Julie said.

I reached out to stroke Jen's cheek as we talked. "She's the most wonderful person I know. I'm the lucky one."

Marvin cackled this time. "Lucky she didn't say 'no,' huh?"

"Marvin!" Julie said shocked.

"That would have made the rest of the trip a bit awkward." I laughed along with her father, After the initial tension when we first met, Marvin Lee seemed like a good man, and we got along pretty well. Jen was giving me a questioning look but from the sly smile on those lips I thought she had got the gist of the conversation.

Julie took back over for her husband. "Well, I knew that if you ever asked, Jennifer would say yes. I could tell how much she loved you from the first time she told us about you."

"Not nearly as much as I love her," I said into Jennifer's eyes.

"That's the right answer, boy. You'll make a good husband if you keep that up."

"Marvin, you are so impossible. You're going to scare him away if you keep that up."

"Too late for that it sounds like."

"Just ignore him, Aaron."

"I will Mrs. Lee," I assured her.

"No, no, no, we've talked about this before. You can call me Julie. Better yet, you can call us Mom and Dad now."

"You can still call me Mr. Lee," Marvin grumbled companionably under Julie's words.

"All right, Mom and Mr. Lee. I'll give you back to Jennifer."

"Congratulations," they both said together.

"Thank you."

Jen chatted with her parents for a few more seconds before hanging up.

For the next fifteen minutes or so, we stood there together in the little halo of light shed by a nearby streetlight and passed our phones back and forth. Jen called Rebecca next and chided her sister for not letting her know what I was planning. After that she gushed about how romantic my proposal had been and how beautiful the ring was and how perfect it fit.

Then we called my parents, a little more stodgy and midwestern than Jennifer's. I could tell they were pleased and happy for both of us, just less effusive than Jen's family. I promised Jen that was fine. I did not mention they had been even more reserved though still happy when I proposed to Catherine.

Javi and Niki were next. Javi was busy with eleven month old Alejandro who was terrorizing the house, and so Niki answered the phone. The two women talked with Jen expressing her thanks for helping me choose the ring. When Javi got on, he lapsed into such rapid fire Spanish that I had trouble keeping up, but he was my best and one of my oldest friends, and so it went with the territory. When I sketched out the details of the actual proposal, he said I had done a pretty good job, but if I had asked him first, it would have been even more romantic and perfect. In the romance department, Javier had high standards and so "pretty good" was actually quite a compliment. I ignored the rest.

Jen was tapping away on her phone when I hung up with Javi and Niki. "So I texted the picture from the gondola to Emily and Theresa and some of the other girls from the office. We'll see how long it takes them to notice the ring." We had started our stroll back toward the hotel. "Give me your hand." Jen laid her hand on the back of mine and took a picture. "And that is for Stacey, Sam and Marissa." She tapped away again. "They are going to be so jealous." She flashed me a smile. "I just hope it doesn't break Sam's heart."

I laughed and hugged Jen close. "She never had a chance against you. Is she the Italian one or the Black one?"

Jen elbowed me. "She's blond, and you know it."

"Oh, her, I hadn't really noticed." That was a lie, and Jen knew it, but it was a lie that pleased her, and so she let it slide.

*****

The staff at our hotel was very adept or perhaps all hotel staff make sure they know who is staying in the higher end suites of their hotel. When Jen and I walked through the front doors, the concierge came out from behind his desk to greet us with a little bow. "Signore e Signora Stevens, congratulazioni. In honor of your engagement, the hotel would like to offer you a complimentary bottle of champagne."