Dancing In the Rain

He sighed a little too himself. He'd never told this story to anyone before, not even his siblings. "The patrol leader brought him to see me a few days later, the guy who had stuck me. They'd repaired his jaw, and he was wired up good and proper, but through an interpreter and a lot of paper we talked. About three years later me and Chris, the patrol leader, paid to have dental implants for him. His wife, I recall, cried the whole time.. He kept saying, "Happy tears Jimmy. Happy tears." Virtually the only English I ever heard him say."

He fell silent, and then realized that the music had stopped, and so had they, and Emma was still looking up into his face, earnest concern warring with genuine interest.

"That was very good of you both," she said.

He shrugged, "We were both soldiers, but he hadn't wanted to be there. He was a conscript, I was a volunteer. They had been told we didn't take prisoners and everyone of them would be killed. So fight, and fight well. Bloody silly really."

He took in a deep breath. Her eyes were, were a mix, some confusion, interest, mixed with a subtle amount of something else. Pride? He fought to regain his balance on the dance floor and realized that they were still holding one another, and his eyes now left hers, and traveled down to her blouse, and the very obvious pink bra beneath, and without thinking he said, "That's nice."

Her eyes traveled to where he was looking., and with a sharp intake of breath she pulled away, her hands he noted still caressing his scar as they left his back. The blouse had partially opened when she was tight to his chest. The pink bra was on display!

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Emily found herself with flushed cheeks. One moment he had been intimate, unguarded, and then he had said that! She wanted to run and hide, and still he was looking at her, totally bewildered, but then he saw his face clear of confusion.

"You know. your dancing has improved a hell of a lot, and so, if I may say so," he stopped and smiled, "well i am going to say so, whether you like it or not. so has your dress sense. Whatever you think your going to achieve, I'm pretty sure your going to manage it just fine. You have become much more confidant, and able, and frankly, I've rarely had such an apt pupil."

Emily stood with the flush of her cheeks still rising, trying hard to find some inner balance. Inside of her, in her mind she was screaming. He had seen her bra, he had seen the secret that no one else should see. But, he had liked it! Her mind was racing. He liked how she looked. Jimmy never complemented unless he meant it. He also didn't berate the way Paul did. But, he had liked it. God how much of her inadequate bust had he seen, but hadn't she meant for him to see it. She would never wear this for Paul. Never. and deep down inside she realized she had wanted someone to see it, the only person who ever might see it. and he was standing apart five feet away appraising her and whilst part of her mind was screaming to run, runaway very fast. Paul. Security. He had liked it, and he had called her an apt pupil. Damnit! She was here to learn how to dance for Paul. It was all for Paul. The drive through the rain, the twice weekly, sometimes three times a week visits, all for Paul. but not the lingerie, or the short skirt or heels. Ballet flats for Paul because he was so short, but, but the graceful creatures that danced with Paul were often taller than him, so why did he insist on her not wearing heels? because she had been awkward in them, or because he liked to dominate her, tell her what to do, whilst he did exactly what he wanted to do. and would he be faithful after the marriage and she had had children? Across from her Jimmy stood leaning against the half wall where the kitchen must have been at some point, where he kept the sound system. In many ways Paul was much more open than Jimmy. Jimmy, with his big hands and scar. Jimmy quietly confidant, easy, controlled had allowed her into his past. A past that was painful, and in that glimpse she had seen.....something, something else that had made her realize just how much more she wanted to know about this big man. Then, he spoke again.

"I have a question for you. Have you tried to dance with, erm, sorry forgotten his name, but with your fiance since we began your lessons?"

"Well," she began. "No. I wanted it to be a surprise for him. At the wedding, you know>"

"Have you tried dancing with anyone, even in fun, with girlfriends, anyone?"

" Well, no," she said. "Is it important?" she asked.

His eyes seemed to take on a faraway look. "My brother and I were invited to a dance club one night. I think my brother danced with every girl in the building, but he kept coming back to this one girl. I danced with most of them myself, including the girl he kept going back too, but then to me it was a way to meet girls. I didn't realize that my brother had other plans. Anyway, by the end of the night, he was only dancing with her. He said, he knew she was the right partner for him. Somehow they just fitted one another. All of the others were fine, but she, was perfect for him."

For a moment he was lost in the reverie. " The thing I am trying to say is, you are used to me and how I move, your fiance will move slightly differently. The steps will be the same, but there will be a subtle differences. i would recommend you try out your dancing skills on a few people. OK?"

Emma was totally lost now. His eyes, as he had recalled another story, had gently misted over for a moment. another intimate moment. A look behind the mask of Jimmy. he hadn't been talking about whether or not she needed to practice with someone else, well, he had said that after, but he was remembering his brother, how he had returned to this one woman, and they were perfect together. Was he intimating that they were perfect together? Oh shit, part of her brain was on fire. Part of her was wailing about Paul. She had bought clothes which he would never have approved of. Worn shoes he would never have approved, and now the more she thought about it, this surprise present was looking all the more like a huge mistake. God, she had driven in the face of a rain storm and flooding to be here tonight. What the hell did that say about her, because Jimmy the Dance Instructor was starting to look to her more like a man. more like the man she had dreamed growing up. not the manipulative and betraying Paul, but strong, controlled, internally sensitive.

She made her decision. She turned slowly to the door, and began the longest walk of her life towards the entryway and her dripping coat. Her life was going to be with Paul! Her life would be to bear his children and she believed, hoped, that his infidelities would stop. Her brain was in control. she would not listen to the wailing in her heart that said she was wrong. That Jimmy was the better match, the perfect fit, that the way he danced was the way he would treat her. That he would treat her better than Paul ever would. She had made a life for herself, she didn't need Paul, not really, not any more. She needed a man to respect her for who she was, not what she might become for someone else. Her partner, not a servant. And so, as her heart raged in her chest, beating fast and hard, her brain forced her legs in those, what did Paul call them, "impossible heels", wearing her "ridiculous" underwear, to move to the porch and her coat, and outside to her car. And so she turned.

Which was when, without warning, the lights went out, the French doors burst open, and a wall of water came crashing through the studio.

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Jimmy never saw the water burst his doors open. He heard it, and reacted. Emma had started to turn away from him, but that didn't matter. He covered the ground to her even before the first wave hit, and scooped up her body into his arms, and without effort powered her over his head. She never resisted, so she either understood what he was doing, or she was in shock. didn't matter which. With effort against the surging water, he got to the half wall, he knew where it was even in the dark, although some light was glimmering through the now open doors of the house. which gave some protection, and then steered himself along it, his chest being battered by the incoming water, until he made it to the relative quiet of the stairway, and with a little effort stepped upwards and out of the inrush. He made the corner of the stairway, the water still rising as he did so and felt the pull on his legs and chest ease as he finally escaped the inrush of the water. Above his head he began to feel Emma begin to struggle against his hands. she was saying something, but his ears were full of water, at a guess he figured it was, "Put me down!". As soon as the water was around thigh height on his legs, he boosted her up a few more steps, well away from the water, and carefully put her back on her feet, and began chivvying her up the last few steps to his apartment, over the drowned dance studio.

On the landing there were a few lights still on, but these were candles that Jimmy had lit earlier in the evening in a couple of alcoves. He ran into the kitchen and found the big bag of tealights his mother had pressed on him for emergencies, and began lighting them dropping one off at any suitable spots. and came back to Emma shivering at the top of the landing. Even though he had had her out of the water, she was soaked from the spray. Her white blouse now plastered to her body clearly outlining the pink bra beneath and a pair of small, pert nipples. She was still saying something, and Jimmy shook his head, left and right to clear the water out of his ears, before the knowing pop as air returned to his eardrums and sound returned. The stairway sounded like a river in spate with the air rushing past them as the water found new ways to exit the house below. He heard another window go, and turned to see that the water did not seem to be climbing up the stairs, which was a miracle. He'd heard the engineers discussing how much water was being held back. Whatever had caused this was likely to be far enough away to not drown the house. Thank God!

Emma had fallen silent, but she was cold and shivering. Jimmy stole another look at those hard nipples under the wet blouse, and her skirt hugging her thighs and then, he took her elbow and firmly propelled to his bedroom. He pulled open the wardrobe, and remembered that his washing was in the machine. Sigh. Downstairs. Right. There was an old green shirt, his from the RM, and in the drawer he found several pairs of shorts. He retrieved a pair of shorts from the drawer and found an old ratty tee shirt, hiding at the back. As he turned her eyes were silently looking at him.

"Take my shirt, and a pair of shorts and strip off all that wet clothing. We can hang it over the banister rail in the hallway. I have some blankets up here, and I'll see about making us something hot to drink." He gave her a slight nod. Decisions made, action to be taken. He left her in his bedroom, firmly shutting the door behind him. he grabbed a couple of the blankets on the way past, and went into the kitchen. He looked at the bag of tealights, not really sure how long they would burn, and decided to only light a couple more. without the candles in the alcove that Emma was now using the kitchen was pretty damn dark. He looked into the cupboards. His stores were good he decided mostly dehydrated food stuffs. Questions, would the water still be working or would it be turned off, and would the gas stove work? He could light it from one of the candles. He tried a tap. No water, but the gas made a satisfying hiss, and Jimmy jammed a couple of cans of tomato soup into a saucepan, heating it as fast as possible. He also as he worked his way around realized that they had milk and cereal a plenty. Hurray, and he also found surprisingly, a 24pk of water. Well, Alright!

From the hallway he heard Emma. she worked out there for a moment and then her feet slapped away on his floor, coming back a few moments later with the candles. She put them back in the alcove without a word. In the flickering light, in his old shirt, he couldn't see the shorts underneath, she looked, well she looked totally gorgeous. Her hair was matted, her make-up had run, but Jimmy had never seen anyone look so perfect.Imperfectly perfect? She did not look cowed by the experience, nor resigned either. He passed her a blanket.

"Take the sofa, and curl up under the blanket, I'll bring you a mug of soup."

He watched as she quietly obeyed, curling her legs under her, and then he was there again. handing her some paper towels, and a bag to throw them into. When she was done drying her face, he handed her the mug of soup, and retreated again to the kitchen to retrieve his own mug, and dump off the wet towel bag. He picked up his own towel.

In the tiny sitting room where the sofa was, he stood, trying hard not to loom over her drinking the hot soup, instead pressing his back against the wall, and the blanket draped over his own shoulders. He tried to see out the windows but all there was was the sound of the water in the studio below, and the total darkness outside. He could feel his own body shaking. He wasn't scared, but realized that with all the windows gone and his own drenching, he was likely to be just plain cold. He hugged the blanket a little tighter to himself, but he could see that Emily had drunk her soup and was quite obviously shaking under her blanket. Reaction or cold? Shit!

"Cold," he asked?

From above the edge of the blanket he saw the slight bob, of her head. He moved forward and said quietly. "Keep your blanket wrapped around you, I'll sit next to you, and put my blanket around you and me. OK?"

He heard a muffled, "k", and moved, sitting beside her, and then wrapping his own blanket and himself around her. He tucked his own legs under him. For a moment he considered asking her if she wanted to get under the covers of his own bed, but couldn't think of a really good way to ask her, without it sounding a little,......off. Her eyes were on him, and he really wanted to know what she was thinking. He assayed a question

"Feeling warmer?" he asked

"Some." There was a pause and then she said, "Bet you've never done this before."

"Shared body heat, well not for a flood no, but the last time I did it was in an incredibly small hut, with five other Marines, and it was snowing outside. No idea of the temperature. That was bad enough, but we had had beans for our dinner, so the atmosphere wasn't just cold, it was downright poisonous."

From under her blanket he heard a quiet chuckle, and then her eyes appeared again over the edge of the blanket. "I was thinking that we'd have been better off under the bed clothes."

"I was thinking the same thing actually. Just wasn't sure how to raise the idea. We can take the blankets, I suppose, wrap ourselves up in them and lay under the covers."

Instead of answering him she said, "I was leaving," silence for a moment then, "and I'm not sure why. Everything you said is true. It's supposed to have been about my fiance, but I liked coming here, to you. Dancing here, with you, and your story about your brother, how he always went back to the one girl." she paused for a moment and then plunged on, "What happened to her? The girl?"

Oh, Kevin married her. Don't think there was ever any doubt really. My sister, now, well she married a man with two left feet, they got divorced last year. So maybe Kevin had it right."

Jimmy was silent. he distractedly noticed that her shivering had lessened, and he was holding her. Remembering. and then, her head came up over the edge of the blanket. She looked him full in the face, and leaned in and kissed him, hard!

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Emily wasn't really sure what had come over her. The turn, the walk towards her coat and the car. On any other night that would have been IT! She would have walked away and not come back, but standing in his bedroom, peeling off wet clothes, and putting on this ridiculously huge shirt, cuffs rolled back to allow her hands to be exposed. Sliding into a pair of boxer shorts, that were way too loose loose on her, so she'd had to hold them up as she had walked from the bedroom. Hanging clothes, and retrieving the tealights to sit on this extremely small love seat, wrapped up in his cologne. Everything, even the blankets smelled of Jimmy. She had wondered how Paul might react to this situation. She rather thought he'd have lost his head, but not Jimmy. Jimmy was dependable, and reliable, and she felt that somewhere inside him was the man that the military had made. Hiding behind his eyes, the man who did not talk about what he had seen, and perhaps, what he had done. Paul who talked a lot and said very little, Jimmy who said little, but could be counted upon to say enough.

Under her blankets she had remembered the first time that Paul had made love to her. The first time she had let him touch her intimately. He had spent two minutes laying on top of her, and then rolled off. That had been it. No words had passed. For her it had been the first time. The pain and confusion. Was this how it was supposed to be? And since then he was brusque, taking her when he felt like it, and once he had rolled away, his snoring was almost immediate, leaving her with his semen inside her. He had caught her one night masturbating in bed after he had taken her, and she had listened to a lecture on how his cock should have been enough for her, and that only sluts and whores masturbated. Since then she had taken her pleasure back to the shower, where she had before Paul had been her partner.

And her brain had won downstairs, but the water had come, and Jimmy, big, solid Jimmy had his arms around her, and her body was clamoring for more. All men couldn't possibly be like Paul, and why should she allow herself to be shorted in life just for money. To be truly loved. and would Paul stay faithful, had she begun like that believing all his shit, all his lies, would make it true. Or would she at some point in time grow tired of him, or he of her, and throw out. Everything gone, replaced by the knowledge that he was a faithless bastard, begging him for money for children that were his, and using every trick to deny her. Or would he take them too, and close her out?

And what was Jimmy hiding behind that mask he wore? Would the control of his reserve break? No, he would never allow himself to take another man's woman, not unless, she made it very clear that she wanted him. And wanted him right now.

So, she kissed him without restraint. She felt the initial hard lips, on her own, but she was not going to be denied, so she struggled with the blankets, the one around them both, and not stopping kissing him as she tore at it. Cold forgotten. She wanted and needed him right now. Jimmy sat, in stunned silence, under her assault.. He didn't do anything, but finally her arms threw off her enveloping blanket and encircled him, pulling him tighter to her. She pushed hard into him, her mouth opening his and her tongue moving into his mouth. She felt him move away, and then, he had his own arms moving around her body, and his tongue caressing and stroking hers, in his mouth, moving it inside hers. They sat there in a semi-cocoon, just kissing, the clothing and the blankets making ti impossible to move.