Lip and Annie Ch. 07

Robert could hear movement from Annie's bed, and in a moment the bedside light turned on. Annie was in the process of getting out from her bed and had turned on the light so that she could see Robert's face. She wanted to watch him reply as she said, "What did you say? Are you serious?"

Robert was lying in bed on the side closest to Annie's bed, and he rolled onto his side and propped his head up with his left arm before saying, "I said I... think of you as much more than a friend."

There was obvious concern on his face as he continued, "I'm... taking a big chance here, but I don't think you'd say anything to intentionally hurt me, so here goes. I've never felt anything like this before, except maybe for my parents and sister."

"I... I... think I've fallen in love with you, Annie. I think of you all the time, now. Realizing that you're still suffering from what happened five years ago pains me to no end. I would do anything at all to help you get over that. I think talking about it with me might be the answer, but I don't know that for sure. If I thought Dr. Maier would be able to give me advice on the subject, I would phone her in an instant."

While he was talking Annie was paying rapt attention to his every word. Her face changed from sadness and tears to a broad smile in a matter of seconds, and as he spoke she quickly moved to his bed and sat on the edge of it beside him.

As the last word cleared his lips, she leaned forward and brought her lips to his. She leaned forward, and one of the tears she had shed rolled across her cheek and to her upper lip. Both of them could taste its salt as they broke their kiss.

"You have just made me so happy, Robert. I was so afraid my feelings for you weren't going to be returned. I was in love with a guy in my first year at university, but our feelings for each other didn't survive when he transferred to UCLA."

"Maybe we were too young, but I know my feelings for you now are every bit as strong as the ones I had then, in fact they seem much stronger. When I heard you and thought you only liked me as a female friend, I almost got sick to my stomach."

Annie leaned forward to kiss Robert again, and this time he brought his arms around her and held her to him. They shared a lengthy kiss this time, and when it ended Annie said, "I'm going to join you in your bed, at least for a while. I want you to hold me while I decide whether I can tell you what you've wanted to hear about my secrets."

She quickly moved around the bed and slipped under the covers. She was obviously not over thinking what she was doing, as she moved immediately to his side. While she walked around the bed he had moved onto his right side, and as she moved up to where he lay he took her in his arms.

There were tears of happiness in both their eyes as they each realized that on one of life's big uncertainties they were in apparent total agreement.

"Just hold me, Robert. Let's enjoy this moment together. In fact, let's make it a lot of moments. I want to lay here with you for a while and not think about the past. One other question has been answered, though. I would love to go to Las Vegas with you, even if I have to take a leave of absence instead of taking vacation time. Please make your reservations and plans to include me, okay?"

Robert hadn't had the opportunity or desire to interrupt Annie as she spoke. Having been given the opening, he now eagerly said, "I will start making plans with you tomorrow. Maybe we can get a flight from Duluth or Minneapolis with good connections and a good price. I'll take a look at the hotel availabilities tomorrow."

"They are still running qualification tournaments, so there will still be quite a few rooms still available. If we can save a bit on flights and rooms we'll have more to spend on shows and entertainment. I want this trip to be a really good memory for both of us."

Annie snuggled up against him, and they both shifted so that she could rest her head on his shoulder while he held her in his arms. Their proximity had its expected effect on him, and he carefully moved his hips away from her so that she wouldn't notice. They lay there for the next five minutes in quiet contentment, neither of them speaking as they found it quite sufficient to simply enjoy being together.

Eventually Annie rolled onto her side to face him and they were soon enjoying a long kiss together. While Robert was trying to keep his erection from pressing up against her, Annie was moving herself closer and closer to him, until finally he knew she could feel it. She immediately backed off, but he soon noticed that she moved forward again, maintaining contact with him for several seconds before backing off again.

She kept this up for the next several minutes while they kissed, until finally she was able to maintain contact for longer than the time she spent moving away from him.

Eventually she broke the kiss and said, "I'm sorry, Robert. I'm not being very fair, am I? I can feel you against me, and I know I have to be able to accept things like that for us to have any kind of normal relationship at all. I'm just not ready for anything much more than that right now."

Robert leaned forward and kissed her gently for a couple of seconds before moving back and saying, "I understand, Annie. I have to admit you're making it hard on me." He laughed and added, "I didn't mean to have that come out quite that way. There was no pun intended."

Annie joined him in laughing at his juvenile joke and said, "I think that's one thing I really like about you. You have a sense of humor that is similar to my father's. He'd make that kind of joke to my mother."

Robert laughed before answering, "I already made the acquaintance of your father's sense of humor, and he almost gave me a heart attack. The very first thing he said to me was to say that he was happy to meet the man who was going to spent three nights in a hotel room with his daughter." He laughed again before adding, "I swear he had me convinced he was really upset by it."

After sharing some more laughter and giggling, the two of them went back to kissing. Annie made a point of not coming into contact with Robert's erection, and after a pleasant interlude of kisses combined with gentle stroking of Annie's cheek, Robert eventually began moving his hand down until he was able to take her breast in his hand. His gentle squeezing through the covering of her pajama top had its expected result, and her hard nipple was soon making its presence known.

After playing with it through the fabric for a couple of minutes, Robert moved his hand back up to her cheek and said, "I guess I'm not being very fair either. I'm enjoying this too much, and I really don't want it to end. I guess I have to end it though, or I don't know where things may lead. I'm not sure that you're ready for that, or are you?"

Annie snuggled up against him and said, "You're giving me feelings I haven't had in years. You're right though, I don't know myself whether I'm ready for more or not."

They lay like that together for quite some time, neither one of them wanting to lose their close connection and yet neither one of them wanted to push the envelope any further for fear of the possible consequences. Finally Annie broke the quiet period they were enjoying.

"We have accomplished something else, Robert. I'm going to try and tell you some of the things that I've been holding back for so long. I think I want you to shut off the light so that you can't see me while I'm speaking, and I can't see your reactions to my words." As soon as she said that, Robert leaned over and shut off the light, pitching the room into complete darkness.

They lay there quietly for another couple of minutes before Annie finally began. "There were a lot of things that happened in that van during the time I was held there. I told you that he raped me... repeatedly, but it wasn't all... vaginally."

"Sometimes he would handcuff me... face down... he would put a couple of old pillows under my hips... then he would... then he did.... things to me." Annie continued with her story, and the more she spoke the more easily the words flowed.

She began to describe in great detail some of the things that were done, and how she had been degraded and abused. She snuggled up to Robert's chest while she spoke, and he held her tightly with both arms to give her an increased sense of security and safety.

He could feel her tears landing on his chest as she spoke, and for most of the time that she recited her litany of depraved treatment, his own tears flowed gently down his cheeks.

She gave him a complete, sequential and detailed description of everything that went on from the time she was grabbed on the street until her miracle escape over 48 hours later. She said that there would always be the possibility that some of her memories had been repressed too deeply, and according to Dr. Maier they might never resurface.

She said she didn't think there was anything that she hadn't eventually recalled, and she spilled the details out in a steady torrent.

Neither of them kept track of the time it took, but eventually she finally was able to say, "And that's my whole story. I've told you everything, even the things I tried my best to never think about."

"I know that it wasn't that long ago that I wouldn't have been able to even contemplate telling anyone this, but you have been such a help to me in getting to the place where I am now."

Robert continued to hold her, unwilling to say anything until he got his emotions in check.

Annie continued, "I feel like a great weight has been lifted off of my back. Thank you so much for being such a good listener, and such a patient man."

It was time now for Robert to speak, and he soon joined in with, "I know it took an awful lot of courage for you to tell me all of this, but I really think you're going to be able to look back on this as the day you started a whole new life. I know that's the way I feel. The physical part of our relationship can wait until the time is right. I'm sure we'll both know when that time arrives."

The two of them lay there in each others arms for long enough that they both fell into a contented sleep. Annie was happy to be free of some of her demons and comfortable knowing that Robert felt about her in the same way that she felt about him. Robert was now secure in the knowledge that there was likely nothing that he didn't now know about her terrifying ordeal.

That meant it should be easier for him to know which subjects and actions would potentially bother Annie the most. He knew he would be able to approach certain things with some confidence about how they might interact with her memories and experiences. He too felt a great deal of relief with the knowledge that he and Annie had similar understandings of their relationship.

Over the course of the night they moved around, as people are known to do in their sleep, until finally at almost 9 a.m. Robert awoke on his side with Annie in front of him and pressed back against his body. They were spooned together totally with his left arm over her and his hand resting comfortably inside her pajama top and holding her right breast.

When he realized his morning wood was pressed firmly against the cleft of her ass, he slowly tried to back away from her before Annie awoke.

"Don't move, Robert. Let's just lay here like this for a while." Annie moved one of her hands to trap his left hand on her breast, and wiggled back a little to restore their firm connection.

To be continued