Burning Down the House

"I understand," I said. "I feel the same way about Tobi. As long as I have her, she comes first. I can't tell you how important she is to me. She's all that kept me sane the last 18 months."

She placed her tiny little hand on my arm. "I know," she said. "She tells Sabs and me everything. I'm so sorry, Ollie."

"Yeah, life's a bitch, sometimes." We both kind of sighed. We looked up and saw two pairs of approving and loving eyes on us. They were in whispered conversation, sitting in camp chairs under the shade of the awning.

"I love your daughter," I told her. "It seems like she's almost mine, all the time she spends with us."

"She loves you, too," she said. "She told me the other day that you're like the father she never had." When I looked at her, those huge brown eyes had become liquid, and a tear fell down one little brown cheek.

I brushed it away with the back of one finger. "She's a great girl," I said. "I think her mom is a very special lady to have raised a girl like that. She's a very brave one, too, doing that by herself."

She smiled with those brimming eyes, stood, kissed my cheek and went to join the girls.

We had a great weekend, and when she was pulling out to leave our house, I walked over and tapped on her window. "Jules, would you think about going out with me next Friday?" I asked.

Sabs squealed with delight, and Jules smiled that flashing smile. "What time?"

"Six?" I asked. "We'll have dinner and do something afterward, okay? Oh, can Tobi stay with Sabs while we're gone?"

"Sounds great, and of course." She kissed my cheek and they were gone.

Tobi was waiting for me in the entry. "Well?" she asked. "Did you ask her out? Did you kiss her?"

I hugged her and smacked her bottom. "Yes, I did, and none of your business."

She squealed, the same sound Sabs had made. "I knew it! She's perfect for you, Dad. I love her sooo much, and Sabs is like my sister."

I shrugged. "What happens, happens, Tobi. You can't force that. Stop playing match-maker."

She snuggled her face into my chest. "I know, Dad, but you were never going to do anything but just love me if I didn't do something. Not that I don't like being the only woman in your life."

I laughed. "Well, you're always going to have a place in my heart no one else can touch. You're my baby, and that's never going to change." She purred and snuggled me for a minute, then went off to do Tobi things.

Our first date went well. I took her to play racquetball. She was new to the sport, but she'd played tennis, and the stroke mechanics were much the same. Once she got used to the rules and hitting off the walls, she was good. Being a natural athlete sure didn't hurt. She was as fast as lightning, and she could change directions much quicker than I could. That was where being tiny played to her advantage.

We were cooling down at a table outside the courts after we finished, drinking and resting. She grabbed her phone.

"Let's Snap the kids," she said. We posed with our rackets and goggles and she took a Snap. They answered right away, and we had a good memory. We both showered and I took her out to eat. It was very good Italian, and we made pigs of ourselves.

We were finishing our wine, Jules sitting beside me in the booth and we just leaned back, talking quietly and relaxing. It felt natural for me to put my arm around her, so I did. She scooted over against me and smiled up at me. I thought again how cute she was, and I realized she was always going to be cute. This was something that wasn't going to change as she aged.

She leaned over to me when we pulled up at her house and looked up at me, expectantly. I could tell she wanted me to kiss her, so I did. I wanted to kiss her, even more than she probably wanted to be kissed. It was a long one, and a delicious one. Her lips were plush and soft, and she tasted like wine and cherry ChapStick.

As we drew apart, I noticed the drapes move. "I think we have an audience," I mentioned.

She giggled, sounding very much like her daughter, or maybe her daughter sounded like her. "I'm not surprised. You know they're trying to hook us up, right?"

"Do you mind?" I asked.

She blushed. "No, I like everything I know about you, Ollie."

"Me too," I said. "We better go in there before they tear down the drapes."

We went out every Friday for four months. We were getting closer and closer, and I wanted to move our relationship along. I didn't want to push her, but some of our sessions were getting pretty steamy at the end. I also discovered that I liked having her for a friend almost as much as I liked having her for a girlfriend. We talked on the phone, constantly, she would Snap or text me funny little things or just a few words, several times a day, and I did the same.

I would see something, or hear something, and know that Jules would get a laugh out of it, so I needed to share it with her. We were becoming very intimate, and I knew everything about her life, as she did mine.

We started having dinner together, all of us, every Tuesday, and we would just hang out, play games, and I was almost as in love with Sabs as I was her mother. They were very alike, and if you knew one, you knew the other, almost as well. There were subtle and major differences, but they were both completely charming, and the differences just emphasized the similarities.

Life was great, and the only cloud was the continued presence of Rachael. She was still part of Tobi's life, so, perforce, of mine. I wanted nothing to do with her, and the sight of her irritated me. She never failed to try to talk to me, every time she came to pick up Tobi, or I dropped her off at her grandparents. She was still living with them. She'd lost her job, along with Jerry, at the clinic, and she was working at another private one across town.

If she irritated me too much, I'd ask her if she'd heard from him. That quickly put a damper on her attempts. "How long is it going to take for you to forgive me?" she asked on one such occasion.

"Forgive you? For what?" I asked. "As far as I know, you don't believe you did anything wrong. Not one time have I heard, "I'm sorry, Oliver. I was wrong. I'm sorry I tried to make Tobi believe you were a liar; I'm sorry I tried to take her away from you, tried to rape you in the divorce," and worst of all, I've not once heard "I'm sorry I cheated and fucked that dirt-bag behind your back."

I didn't hear it then, either. She could take no responsibility for her actions. I didn't really know what forgiving her would entail. I was reconciled and at peace. I didn't forget, but I sure wasn't going to waste a minute being bitter about it. People have the right to do dumb shit. They have the right to divorce you, dump you, end their friendships with you and you just accept it and move on. People do shitty things every day.

In the heat of the moment, I wanted to punish both the cheaters, but I quickly got beyond that. Their punishment was being who they were. They had to live with themselves. I fully intended to live with myself, and that meant putting the lying and cheating behind me and living my best life.

Rachael was an unhappy woman, and I sincerely wished any bad luck in the world on dear old Jerry, but it wouldn't come at my hand. Let God, or the universe, punish them. I was out of that game. She became even more unhappy when she discovered that I was dating Jules.

I had dropped Tobi off at her grandparents for the night, and she came out to the car and stopped me. "I hear you're dating one of Tobi's friend's mother," she said.

I just looked at her.

"Is it true?" she asked.

"That's my business," I said.

"The hell it is," she snapped. "I'm your wife; I have a right to know."

"You have shit for rights," I told her. "You aren't my wife. You found your soul-mate, and it wasn't me, remember? Then this thing called a divorce happened. My business is no longer yours, and yours is none of mine. Fuck off, Rachael. Don't stick your nose in mine again."

I was steaming when I left. Damn, the bitch just wouldn't leave it alone. I told Tobi what had happened. She was just as pissed off as I had been. That ended my dropping her off at her grandparents or Rachael picking her up at our house. Bob or Cindy, the grandparents, came to our house and got her from then on. That took away a major source of stress in my life.

On our seven-month anniversary of the trip to the lake, I took Jules out. We went to a nice restaurant and out to a club. She didn't drink much, just a beer now and again, or one drink. She had two that night. I raised an eyebrow when she ordered the second.

She laughed. "Yeah, I'm wild and crazy tonight, huh?"

"You're perfect, just like you always are," I said.

"Do you really think so, Ollie?" She cocked her head sideways in that way she had. "Because I think you're pretty perfect, too. If I'm so perfect, why haven't you invited me to spend the night?"

I must have looked pretty startled, because she laughed. "Have you not even thought about it?"

I found my presence of mind. "Um... yeah, Jules. I've thought about little else since that first day on the boat when I saw you in that bikini. When we started dating, I realized you were something different, something special, and I didn't want to pressure you or scare you off."

"You won't scare me off," she said. "I told the girls not to wait up."

"Really? Well, what are we doing here?" I asked. "Oh, my God, Jules, let's get out of this place. Do you want to spend the night with me?"

She blushed as she took my hand and allowed me to pull her to her feet. "More than anything else in the world, right now."

She practically melted herself into me as we made our way out, and she leaned over with her head on my shoulder and holding my arm all the way home. I let her out when we pulled into the garage, and she was pressed up against my side all the way to the bedroom.

I turned her around at the foot of the bed and kissed her. It was one of the most incredible kisses I'd ever had, and it went on and on. When we stopped to breathe, she looked up at me and I drowned in the warm brown pools of her eyes. She put her arms around my neck and looked in my eyes. "Make love to me, Oliver," she said. "I'm kind of afraid."

"Don't be," I told her. "I love you, Julie Barnes. You know that, right?"

"I thought you did," she murmured. "I needed to hear it. I love you, too, Oliver."

I pulled her into my arms and slid the zipper of the little blue dress down. I did it slowly, brushing the backs of my fingers down her back, and she shivered as I felt goose-bumps rise. When I reached the little declivity at the small of her back, just above her butt, I stopped and stroked her there. She shivered again. Her skin was like satin, and I reached up and slid the dress off her shoulders, down over her breasts and over the swell of her hips. She wasn't wearing a bra. She didn't need one.

Her breasts weren't large, but they were perfectly shaped and fit her form. Large breasts would have looked weird on her. They looked considerably larger than they were, because of her size and the way they stood firm and proud. Her nipples were already erect, little beautiful brown bullets on small brown circles. She was golden-tan all over, and I could tell she tanned topless.

I turned her around and sat on the bed, holding her at arm's length so I could look at her. I had been right; she was perfection in miniature. She had on little blue lacy panties and she was an adorable erotic doll. I pulled her to me and pressed my cheek into the firmness of her belly, cupping that fantastic ass in my hands. God, that was a sensation I'd been dreaming about. It was round, firm and smooth, as I ran my hands inside her panties. She giggled and flexed it under my hands, soft steel under my fingers.

I stood and stripped, almost tearing the buttons off my shirt in an effort to get my skin against hers. When I was down to briefs, I picked her up like a baby. I'd have bet she didn't weigh a hundred pounds. I carried her around beside the bed with her arms around my neck and placed her gently on the bed. I climbed on and we entwined ourselves in passion.

My hand in her panties found a soft little tuft of curls, moisture and heat, bringing a gasp from her, and I had to see. I eased those panties off and she was gloriously bare in my bed. She looked like an erotic angel, her light hair spread out over the pillow like a halo. I moved to get a better look and a taste, but she grabbed me. "Later, Oliver," she said. "I'm ready, and I'm burning up. It's been so long for me. I need you inside me now."

She got no argument from me. I discarded the briefs and she gasped, reaching down to grasp my cock in her hot little hands. "My God, Ollie. Go slow, baby; I've never had anything like that."

I moved over her, careful to keep my weight from crushing her. "How many have you had?" I whispered in her ear.

"Three," she murmured. "Never anything like that."

I moved forward, finding all that heat and wetness, and pressed into her. She was very slippery, and I penetrated her easily with the head of my cock. She gasped and stiffened. "Wait, wait," she squeaked.

I froze, and felt her begin to relax. I just moved around where I was, and she relaxed more and more. I moved forward, thrusting deeper, and she stiffened again. It must have taken five minutes before our bodies met, and it took another five for her to become comfortable with a slow thrusting.

"God, Ollie, I feel stuffed!" she groaned. "Damn, you've got a big dick!"

I smiled, inwardly, I knew I was no porn star, but this tiny little thing was proportionally sized, everywhere. She was very tight and had she not been very well lubricated, it would have been difficult. We moved together, and she made a little husky moan at every thrust.

We went faster and she became louder. Her whole body went in motion and I found myself in the fuck of a century. She was so active, so athletic, and she put everything she had into making love, as she did everything else in life.

I knew I wasn't going to last long in this living sex doll, and it was a good thing she was on hair-trigger. Just as I couldn't hold back any longer, I felt the tension in her body build to a peak and explode. She gave a hoarse little squeal and bridged up into me, crying out her passion as I exploded with her, pouring what felt like my soul into her. We rocked and moved together, finally slowing and coming to rest. I stayed over her, supporting some of my upper-body weight on my elbows, and we kissed for what seemed like hours, murmuring our love.

I never went soft. She had contractions around me, milking me with the aftershocks of her climax, and when I caught my breath, we began the dance of passion again.

We fell asleep in each other's arms, and twice during the night we made love again, once when I initiated it and once when she did.

I woke the next morning lying on my back with an angel sprawled half over me, her hair covering us and her cheek pillowed in the hollow of my shoulder. I just watched her sleep, playing idly with her hair until she opened her eyes. She snuggled in and moaned.

"I belong here, Ollie."

"I know," I said. "Would you like to wake up here every morning?"

She opened her eyes and looked at me. "You mean... like live together?"

"No, sweetheart. Well, yes, but I mean will you marry me, Julie Barnes?"

She brought her little left hand up between our faces and wiggled her fingers. "Un-oh," she said. "Something seems to be missing."

"Hold that thought," I said. I started to get out of bed.

"I'll hold the thought," she said, "but I can't hold something else. I need to pee so bad!"

I laughed and swatted her butt, making her squeal. "Go, then meet me back here."

She scampered off, a little naked sprite, and I went down to my office, stopping to use the facilities myself. I got what I'd come for out of my safe, and when I got back, she was a little ball under the covers.

I climbed in and took that left hand again. I looked in her eyes and saw only love there. "Julie, will you marry me?" I slipped the ring on her finger. It was too big, and we'd have to resize it, but it would do, for now.

She held it up and looked at it. "It's beautiful," she said. "It looks old. Where did you get it? When did you get it?"

"Remember I told you I was going to an auction?" I said. "It was about a month ago."

"Yes, I remember. They were auctioning off an estate, right?"

"Yep. What I didn't tell you was I saw this ring in the catalog, and I went with the intention of buying it and asking you to marry me. It was made in England about 1810, for the Duchess of Avon. It has a long history. Do you like it?"

"I love it," she said. "It's the most beautiful ring I've ever seen."

"Are you going to answer my question?" I asked.

"What... Oh! Yes, Oliver. Yes, I'll marry you! Oh my God, yes!"

I laughed and squeezed my fiancée in my arms.

"We need to Snap the girls," she said.