Adam's Journey Pt. 37

We climbed into my Jeep, and before pulling out of the lot I asked if she wanted to drop her truck at the repair shop. She pointed out that "Mac's" was only a block from the cafe, and she would take it there when she got back. I proceeded to pull out and head south, noticing a very nice, light, new feminine scent as I did so.

I glanced over at her. "Did you put on perfume or cologne or something? It's very nice."

She blushed slightly. "Just a little. I've been serving food all morning, I didn't want to go out smelling like bacon."

"Well, whatever this is it's very sexy, but if you're trying to catch a man you really can't go wrong with bacon scent either!"

She laughed. "I'm not trying to inspire them to eat me, I'm trying to make..."

I gave her a wry sideways look just as it dawned on her what she'd said! Her hand flew to her mouth and her face bloomed crimson as I laughed, and she turned her face to the window muttering "Oh my God!", plainly embarrassed.

Still laughing, I managed to choke out "Oh, Tiff, that's classic! But lady, I'm afraid whether you wear Oscar Mayer or Oscar de la Renta, us guys will still be inspired to do that. And that's a good thing!"

Tiffany, now laughing along with me, said "It's actually Ralph Lauren, and Pops buys Hormel bacon." She paused. "God, I can't believe I said that! You tricked me into it!"

I had to defend my innocence! "No way! I'm not half clever enough to think of that in advance, that was entirely your own doing. It's not at all an unpleasant thought, though."

She blushed again. "Oh, stop, will you? You're embarrassing me! Is this what three straight days with you will be like?"

"Probably not the entire time, but hopefully a good bit of it. I love the sound of your laugh, I can't help but laugh along with you. It's nice."

We had reached the southern outskirts of town, and, remembering something, I watched for the sign on the far side of the road. Spotting the back of the small billboard I made a u-turn and pulled onto the shoulder, facing it. It had a stylized painting of a slender woman with long, flowing, dark auburn hair, on horseback, the horse's hooves kicking up small dust clouds, and the words "Home of Tiffany Ritter, Rodeo Queen, State Champion," and a series of years below it, six in all. The last couple of years and the Ritter part looked more recently painted than the rest.

Seeing what I had done, she muttered "Oh great, as if I wasn't already embarrassed enough!"

"What do you mean, I think it's great! The town is obviously very proud of you, and Pops even told me to be sure to watch for the signs. It's a nice likeness too."

She smiled through her embarrassment. "Sure! You should see the one at the north end, it's very dramatic, with the horse bucking and all. I think it's all pretty silly."

I made another u-turn and headed south again, pushing up to highway speed. "I like the signs. It's a nice tribute, you worked very hard for it, and no town can go wrong with a picture of a beautiful woman where you drive in."

She looked away, but not before I saw her frown. "Yeah, the painter did a nice job making it look better than real life, didn't he? I know I'm not beautiful like that."

Incredulous, I looked over at her. "You're joking, right? Look Tiff, I won't blow any smoke at you, I promise, and you may not be make-up model pretty, but you are most definitely beautiful. Trust me, I've been staring at you for the last several hours!

She just huffed, still looking away.

"Oh c'mon Tiffany! You have this incredible, fascinating face, beautiful eyes, gorgeous hair, lips just begging to be kissed, and this amazing, sexy body that's been putting bad thoughts in my head all morning. Again, trust me, you are very, very easy to look at."

She turned and looked at me, her hand going to her face and index finger tracing her nose. "Even with my crooked nose and my scars? Did you know that my front teeth are capped, from being broken?" Her eyes were deep, green pools.

"It doesn't show. You look gorgeous and sexy, and your nose just gives your face a certain unique strength, it's character. You're, uh, what's the word? Captivating! You're captivating, and beautiful." Inside, I hurt for her, and wanted badly to hurt her abusive husband. Badly.

She smiled softly. "You're good. You must get a lot of women, huh?"

I laughed. "Uh, no, not really. I've always had to work pretty hard for that, plus there's really only been one that I actually wanted for the last couple of years, and now that's kind of in limbo. You know though, just lately things have changed a little. Something like you being here, with me, would never have happened to me before. Never."

She looked at me for several seconds before speaking. "Adam, you said you'd be very disappointed if I chose not to join you on Wednesday. Would you also be disappointed if I showed up but stayed in a separate bedroom?"

I glanced at her, then looked back at the road. "You'd know I was lying if I said no, but it would be a whole lot better than having you not come at all."

She looked thoughtful for a moment. "You know my story now Adam, and you promised to tell me yours. Why don't you do that while we drive, I'd like to know more about you.

So I did. I stumbled a little bit over where to start, but once started it flowed. It poured out of me. She was a good listener, and easy to talk to. I told her everything, pretty much what I've told you here in this story thus far, plus more about my early life, and my divorce from Lisa, and all about Kristi, but also about Izzy, things that even Kristi doesn't know!

I don't know why I was able to open up to her, or why I did so, except that she had been so open and shared her horribly painful story with me. There was nothing in my life that could compare to what she'd been through, and I felt that to be less than fully honest with her would be breaking a trust, so I told her everything I could in a torrent of words that lasted a full hour.

It was a near-monologue, interrupted only rarely by a question from Tiffany, and the miles went by quickly. I was almost hoarse by the time I pulled into the parking lot at the marina. Fortunately, I was also just about out of words to say.

I pulled into an open parking space and turned off the engine, and we just sat for a moment, looking at each other, before she spoke. "Wow Adam, that's quite a story. I sure can't claim that I don't know anything about you anymore!"

I laughed, a little self-conscious about how I'd rambled on. "I'm sorry, Tiff, I really don't know why I told you all that. Sorry if I bored you half to death."

"Oh, no, it was interesting! I can't believe we're here already, that seemed very quick. Where are you meeting your friends?"

I smacked my head with the heel of my hand. "Oh shit! I was supposed to call them when we got close, they were going to anchor out a little ways and wait for me before they came in. I totally forgot." I grabbed my phone and quickly called Kori.

"Hi K, I'm here. I forgot to call." I paused, listening. "Uh-huh, OK, I'll walk down to the dock and watch for you. Sorry about that."

I clicked off and turned back to Tiffany. "They're going to be here in about ten or fifteen minutes. Do you have time to walk down to the dock with me? I'd love to introduce you."

"Sure, I have time." We got out and I grabbed my two bags from the back of the Jeep, then tossed her my keys.

"Here you go, treat the old girl gently. My house keys are on there too, so if you have any reason to be in Denver in the next few days, feel free to stay at my place. Of course, you'd surprise the hell out of Kristi if you showed up."

She laughed. "I don't think I'll be in Denver. I seem to only get there in January, for the National Western Stock Show and Rodeo. It's always so damn cold there then, good thing it's all indoors and heated. Except for the livestock barns. Brrrr!"

Now it was my turn to laugh. "Yeah, we always seem to get our coldest weather right at Stock Show time. So you go to that, huh? I attend almost every year, just for fun. Cheyenne Frontier Days in July, too."

She raised her eyebrows. "Really? I also ride in the Frontier Days Rodeo! Small world, maybe we've passed each other in the halls or on the grounds and never even known it."

"Nope, we haven't. There's no way in hell that I wouldn't have noticed you - and I'd have remembered you if I saw you, believe me."

She chuckled, shaking her head. "You're so full of bullshit. But it's nice bullshit, don't get me wrong. I think Kristi found herself a pretty good guy, and that she's crazy to take such a chance on screwing it all up."

"Yeah, well, I guess we'll see, won't we?" We were walking down toward the marina and docks as we talked. It was hot that day, very hot, but any sweat that formed evaporated almost instantly in the dry, desert air. As we got closer to the shore the air cooled slightly, and I could smell the moisture and feel the increase in humidity from the lake. It felt good and it perked me up slightly, despite the fact that I was now at about twenty six hours without any sleep. I yawned.

Tiffany smiled. "Tired? Do you want to know what else I think?"

"Sure."

"I think you were having such a good time with Kristi, and you were so compatible, that you let your guard down and just expected it to be a smooth road forever. Relationships aren't like that, ever, and now that you've hit that inevitable bump in the road you don't know what to do."

I stared at her for a second. "Humph! Pretty big bump, don't you think? Major pothole even!"

She shrugged. "It's a big bump, yeah, but there are bigger ones."

Of course there are. Like getting the shit beat out of you by the abusive bastard you're married to. I felt a little ashamed of my petulance now, remembering what she'd been through. My girlfriend had had sex with another man. One time, that I was aware of. Nobody was even seriously injured. Big fucking deal! Tiffany had been beaten up. Regularly. I felt like an ass, and told her so.

"Tiff, I'm sorry, I wasn't thinking. My problems kind of pale beside what you've gone through."

She looked at me, seemingly surprised. "I wasn't talking about me Adam, I meant you! You've been divorced, right? That must have included some pretty big bumps in the road."

I laughed. "Oh that! No, not really. To stay with your highway metaphor, that was more like a two year long washboard, constant rattling, it just got so annoying we had to turn off and go our separate ways. I took it hard afterwards, because I felt like we failed and should have tried harder, but the truth is, it was time."

This seemed like a good moment to ask her a question that had been nagging at me. "How come you're not divorced Tiff? Or haven't gotten an annulment or whatever? I assume the Ritter name, on the sign, is your maiden name? It looked like fresh paint."

"It is, I took it back. I'll never use any part of his name again." She laughed softly. "Do you want to know the real reason I've never tried to have the marriage ended?"

"Sure, but I'm just curious. You don't have to tell me if you don't want to."

She seemed a little embarrassed, turning away from me. I realized she was laughing. "It's because every time I have sex with another man, I know I'm cheating on him. On my husband. Every time I have a nice hard cock in me, or an orgasm with another man, he becomes more of an impotent little useless cuckold, a worthless emasculated wimp, a meaningless speck in my past, even if he doesn't know it yet. I intend to see to it that he does, some day."

She had actually shocked me! "Wow! That's totally insane Tiff, but I like it! Is there anything I can do to help you with that?"

She laughed. "Boy, you never quit, do you? You're awful! Actually, I take pictures, during sex, really graphic pictures of what I like to do with other men, and how much I'm enjoying it, more than I ever did with him. I especially like when the men are larger than him, like most are, and I have a big envelope of photos that I plan to see that he gets someday. Someday soon. Would you object to having your picture taken with me, while we were screwing? I could add you to my album."

I laughed at her. "You are delightfully kinky! Who'd of thunk it? Actually, I think shooting up from between my feet is my most photogenic angle, so I'd be happy to aid your little quest. Just in the spirit of being helpful, of course, I'll make the sacrifice." She smiled again, shaking her head.

We paused near the lakeshore, off to one side of the dock. I could see a large boat headed in, looking roughly the size of an aircraft carrier, and assumed it was probably Ronnie. Tiffany kicked off her shoes and sat down on a rock, dangling her feet in the water. Very pretty, delicate feet, and I could imagine holding them up, near my face, as I looked down into her deep green eyes and thrust into her, perhaps nibbling her sensitive arches or sucking on her delicate toes just a little as I brought her to orgasm. With a shadowy photographer in the background, and the occasional flash of his strobe.

Odd, I don't usually have much of a foot thing, but her feet were truly beautiful, and these thoughts were starting to turn me on a little bit. And I found myself wanting desperately to touch her, but was aware I could scare her off if I pushed too far, too fast. "Tiff, do you like having your toes sucked?"

She looked up quickly, startled. "What?"

"You heard me." I was too embarrassed to repeat it!

She raised one foot out of the water, looking at it speculatively. "I really don't know. Should we find out?" She leaned back slightly and extended her leg to me, pointing her toes. I put one hand under her heel, the other under the back of her knee, and raised her foot to my lips. I kissed her toes, and the top of her foot, and the middle of her arch, lightly and softly.

Her foot was cool from the lake water, and a little wet still, and I ran my tongue up the underside of her foot, from heel to toes, and she twitched and moaned softly, her toes curling under. "Mmmm, that tickles! Nicely though, don't stop."

I ran my tongue over her smaller toes, then nibbled them gently, which earned a soft "Ohhh!" For the first time, I noticed her nipples jutting out, hard and proud under her shirt, and her back arched slightly as I watched, thrusting them forward more prominently. I let the hand under her knee wander up the back of her thigh, closer to her nice little tush, and continued to lavish attention on her pale foot.

Her body shook with an involuntary spasm. "Mmmm, oh god Adam, stop, please stop!" She pulled her foot back from me, shivering with her intense sensations. "God, I had no idea! I am totally wet Adam, just from that!" She drew a shaky breath. "Damn! I think you were about to get me off, right here in front of God and everybody."

I laughed, and quickly touched the hard bulge in my pants. "I guess we have our answer. And I liked it too, so I learned something about myself in the process!"

She laughed then. "Well, I'll definitely want to try that some more! I think you just guaranteed that I'll be back on Wednesday. Pretty sneaky of you, starting way down there and planning to work your way up; that's a new approach."

I snapped my fingers, feigning frustration. "Damn, you're onto my plan already! Oh well. Hey, it looks like the boat is getting close. Should we walk out and meet them?"

"Of course." She picked up her shoes and, carrying them, we walked out the dock toward the approaching boat. I occasionally would let her get slightly ahead of me, so that I could enjoy the rear view. Lecherous, yes, but it was lovely, just absolutely lovely.