Cleaning Up Her Heart

The next morning, Nicki slept in, having not gone to sleep until after 3:00. By the time she crawled out of bed, it was 10:00. Someone was knocking on her door and she stumbled out to get them to quit making so much noise. She opened the door a crack and saw that it was Gabriel. "Oh, hi!", she said warmly, "Come on in."

Nicki turned away from the door and started toward to the kitchen, sure that Gabriel could find his own way in. Gabriel's sudden hiss of breath caused her to look up and then, following his eye, to look down.

"Oh, God! Not again!" Nicki was wearing a red teddy with see through lace over her breasts. She had put it on last night during her battle to believe herself to be sexy. Of course, last night it had made perfect sense, but in the light of day, it seemed a little ridiculous.

Gabriel slammed the door and hurled himself down the hall. He grabbed her, pinning her to the wall, "Woman! Do you always answer the door dressed in some shocking way?"

Deciding to go with the situation, Nicki batted her eyes and said, coyly, "Only when I'm hoping to be manhandled by some big strong brute."

The next few moments were filled with sounds of passion. Gabriel kissed her roughly as his hands caressed her breasts through the lace. Nicki's own hands were busy unbuttoning his shirt and trying to feel the hairs on his chest. Gabriel put his knee in between Nicki's legs and she moaned into his mouth as she felt the lacy material of the teddy grind into the moist area between her thighs.

Time seemed to stand still as their hands raced over each other's bodies as though they had been separated for years, instead of hours. Finally, Gabriel came up for air, "Well, good morning!", he whispered, as he tilted his head to nibble her ear.

"It is good as long as you are here," Nicki whispered back.

Gabriel groaned, "I want to always be here."

Nicki tried to keep her heart from soaring - he still hadn't said that he loved her.

When Gabriel felt the effort she was making to control her feelings, he stepped back. "What's wrong?" he asked suspiciously.

Nicki looked at him with guilt in her eyes, but said, "What? I don't know what you are talking about."

Gabriel narrowed his eyes, "You are a bad liar Nicki Marsh. I can feel the warmth go out of your body when you are fighting some demon in your mind. You lose your passion. Now tell me what you were just thinking."

Nicki's shoulders sagged. She really didn't have the strength to fight him, especially when he was right. "I wanted to not read too much into what you said," she said quietly.

"Into what I said? What did I say? That I wanted to be here always? What is there to read into that? I want to be here always. What more can you make of that?"

"I want to make a lot out of it! I want to make the next fifty years, picket fences, and babies with their daddy's eyes. I want to make Mandy that sibling that she was talking about. I want to make wallpaper and joint checking accounts out of it! That's what I want! I want it all!" Nicki practically screamed at him.

Gabriel stood there with a stunned expression on his face. "Well, what did you think I was talking about? That's what I want too. That's what I meant."

Now it was Nicki's turn to look stunned. "You. . . you. . . you do?" she stammered.

Gabriel laughed and shook his head, amazed at her incomprehension. "Yes, Nicki, I want it all too. You sexy little vixen you - I want you. I love you. I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I just can't figure out why you would want me. I'm old and angry and used. You're young and attractive and have it all!"

Nicki's eyes were wide with shock, "How could you think that? I think you are the sexiest man I have ever met! I love you - please don't say those awful things about yourself - you are so perfect to me."

Gabriel smiled at the sincerity radiating out of Nicki's eyes. "When I hear you say it, I think I could come to believe it was true. I love you," Gabriel reiterated. And for the next few minutes, words weren't needed as Nicki and Gabriel let their actions express their love.

Finally, Nicki realized that something was missing. She fought to clear the cobwebs in her mind and finally pieced together that it was someBODY that was missing. She suddenly remembered who. "Where is Mandy?" she asked in alarm.

"You think the strangest things when I'm kissing you woman! She's at the mall, remember? She wanted to go shopping?"

"Oh, yeah! I remember. So, does that mean we have the whole day to ourselves?"

"No, I promised Mandy that we would meet her at the food court at 1:30 for a late lunch. Is that long enough?"

"I will never have long enough with you," Nicki said as she nuzzled Gabriel's chest.

"Can I show you something?" Nicki asked Gabriel.

"Baby, if it's anything like what you have already shown me, I can't wait!"

"No, silly. I want to show you my bedroom."

"ALRIGHT!"

"Not for that! I just want you to see where I really let my hair down and get to be myself," Nicki replied to his wolfish grin.

Gabriel said, "Sure, lead the way."

As they wound up the steps, Gabriel admired the red, lacy clad behind in front of him. He would have to remember to buy her a few more of these teddy things. She looked good enough to eat in it and he was a starving man!

Gabriel hadn't given too much thought as to what he was expecting in Nicki's bedroom, but a box of sex toys sitting on a Victorian quilt was not it! Nicki was full of surprises! "Woman, you are too much!" he said as he picked up one particularly interesting article.

"Men! All you can manage to see in this incredibly cool room is the sex objects!"

Gabriel looked at her with lust in his eyes, "No, I only see one sex object in this room and, if I could, I would never take my eyes off of her!"

Nicki's face turned red, but she enjoyed the statement, nonetheless. Maybe, just maybe, she could pretend to be that sexy, desirable woman for a little bit longer - maybe for the rest of her life.

Nicki looked over at the man standing at the end of her bed. She saw picket fences, fair haired babies and years of wild, passionate sex staring back at her. Here was her equal, her lover, the one she would never get enough of. As she peeled off her teddy, from the shoulders down, she watched him gaze at her with a heady mixture of desire and love in his eyes.

"What are you doing?" Gabriel asked in a heated whisper.

Nicki smiled seductively. "Well, Gabriel, you know that I clean showers in the nude. Now that I know that you want me, really want me, I think it's about time I show you what else I do in the nude!"

Gabriel groaned - he knew he was one lucky man!

The End