Love Always Wins Pt. 05 Ch. 19-25

Gwynn's face betrayed a fascinating juxtaposition of frustration and amusement. "Stef, this is serious! Will you be my roommate?"

"Ordinarily, my answer would be yes. However, you have coupled this with the cruel and unusual line which tells me that there is at least one devil in the details, right?"

"Uh, yeah. We sleep together platonically."

I raised my eyebrows. "Platonically, ay? Now who's adding to the doodoo depth?" I grinned at the mixed emotions flashing across Gwynn's face. "Excuse me, but I think I need a wee bit more detail. I can see ways how this could work and ways how it wouldn't work."

Now Gwynn was exhibiting a bit of a blush and I began to wonder if I was the one being cruel and unusual. "Stef, the idea is that we sleep together but have no sex."

"Gwynn, you are getting as nervous as the proverbial cat on a hot tin roof. I get no fun from making you dance through a mental minefield. Let me take the ball for now.

"We sleep in the same bed, right?"

"Yes!"

"Is it all right for us to touch in our sleep?"

"Uh, yes."

"Is it all right for us to cuddle or snuggle up against one another?"

"Oh yes!"

"Okay, that is about as far as we have already gone and I can be perfectly comfortable with that as long as you promise that you won't tease Little Stefan unless you have already decided that you are ready to slay one or more of your dragons." Gwynn gave me a puzzled look. "Normally I have the little fart on a short rein. However, given the right stimulation, he is capable of committing high treason and getting away with it!" Gwynn gave me a wry smile at that line.

"Suppose we make a rule that we do not go beyond cuddling unless you initiate it and verbally confirm how far you are willing to go. I realize that puts a damper on the potential for romantic uncertainty and the emotional thrill that it can induce, BUT is that a rule you can live with comfortably?"

Gwynn bounced into my lap and gave me a reasonably serious kiss on the lips! When we came up for air she said, "God yes! Do you read scrambled brains? That's exactly where I wanted to go, but my mind was so tied up in knots that it was feeling like there was no way to get there with you!"

"Your burst of exuberance has reminded me that there is another facet to this arrangement. Would I be correct in guessing that hugging and kissing while we are up and about is permissible?"

"Oh yes!"

"That implies that the boundary not to be crossed without your explicit consent is petting and lap dancing, right?"

"Ohhh, right."

"Good! Now could you indulge an old man's whim and give me another one of those magnificent kisses before we go back to our desserts?"

Gwynn giggled and came down on my lips like a falcon diving on its prey. It was such a long and deep kiss that I'm amazed that neither one of us suffocated before we broke contact!

As Gwynn broke the kiss, she seemed rather crestfallen. "Hey there beautiful, how come so droopy all of a sudden?"

"Oh Stef, I am so fucked up! My heart is ready to jump your bones with all the abandon of a herd of fornicating rabbits, and my head has a four-alarm fire of alarm bells going off! What the fuck am I going to do?"

"Um, for starters we need to cool things off a whole lot. You probably have noticed that that lovely kiss got Little Stefan to thinking rowdy thoughts and now your reference to fornicating rabbits has gotten him locked and loaded. I suggest that you sneak back to your dessert before he blows a hole in my pants and your butt!"

Gwynn gave me a sad smile and got up out of my lap. After that, I think that it's fair to say that, for both of us, our desserts were rather bittersweet.

We managed to settle down and had a pretty normal time for the rest of the evening. Around bedtime things got a little awkward. "Stef, tomorrow is a seven to seven shift for me, I'd better be getting to bed."

"Okay, when do you need to get up and what do you want for breakfast?"

"I, uh, had planned to get up at about five and have breakfast at the cafeteria. Why?"

"I need to set the alarm and I need to know if there is anything I can fix for your breakfast."

"Stef, you don't have to do that. I'm the one who has to get up and go to work."

"What? Roommates aren't supposed to provide support to each other?"

Gwynn sat down with kind of a dazed look on her face. "Oh fuck! You have to be kidding! But you're serious aren't you?"

"Serious as a heart attack!"

Gwynn sat still as stone for what seemed like forever but couldn't have been more than a few seconds. The only thing that moved was her lower lip that quivered like it had a life of its own. Suddenly, a tear blossomed in one eye and ran down her cheek.

I moved beside her and put my arm around her. "I'm sorry! What did I do wrong?"

Gwynn locked eyes with me for a few eternities. A puzzled pout played around her lips and tears ran down her face in a torrent! Suddenly there was fire in the eyes and then came the explosion!

"YOU FUCKING BASTARD! I hope you rot in hell forever for what you did to me Mr. Randy Fucking Smithson!" Gwynn buried her face in my chest and broke into deep, wrenching sobs! I put my arms around her and held her until she had cried herself out.

Finally a red-eyed owl raised her head above my arms and gave me a sad look. "Fuck! Stefan, how much fucking baggage am I dragging around with me? How much fucking baggage have I buried in my heart and covered over with concrete? How in the hell are you managing to crack that shell and let the poison out?"

I gave her a sad smile. "I dunno. All I do know is that I care about you. Hell! I think I'm well on my way to being in love with you! That's about the best answer I can give you." Liar, liar, pants on fire! Ain't it the shits to love someone and not be able to tell them because if something went wrong in the relationship that just might be the blow that brings the whole house of cards down around their ears!

"Well, I KNOW that I love YOU, Stefan. And the fucking shit of it is that there is a moat full of fire-breathing dragons between me and what I love!"

"One step at a time, beautiful. One step at a time. Let's take a hint from Chairman Mao—the longest march starts with a single step."

Gwynn giggled nervously. "This must be serious! You're even using Chinese chairmen against me!"

"Well, returning to the original question; is there anything you want for breakfast tomorrow?"

"I, um... A travel cup of your Tibetan coffee sounds real good." she said pensively.

"Okay, and do you want the toilet or the sink first tonight?"

"I, ah... I need to take a step. I need to make a dragon uncomfortable. Let's get out of our clothes first!"

"Oh!" My eyebrows shot up in surprise! "Okay, how do you want to do it?"

Gwynn closed her eyes, took a deep breath and said, "Would you please take yours off first?"

"All the way?"

"No. Just down to whatever you are comfortable sleeping in."

"Uh, that's a bit of a trick question. I normally sleep in the raw. I've been sleeping in my undershorts since you have been here in order to avoid some sort of a modesty failure."

Gwynn stiffened in surprise and clenched her hands into fists. "Oh Jeez! Uh, just to your undershorts then."

I locked my eyes with Gwynn's and proceeded to take my clothes off. I made no effort to make it slow or sexy. I just took my clothes off in the same manner as I did every other night. When I was down to my boxers, I proceeded to hang my erstwhile garments up.

Gwynn's shoes and socks came off without hesitation. The buttons on her blouse came undone slower and slower as she proceeded down the front. Finally, she took a deep breath and let the fabric slide off her shoulders. She needed another deep breath before she could undo the button on her jeans. After a pause, the zipper came down and the pants were slid off of her long and shapely legs with several hesitations before she stepped out of them.

It seemed that now came a moment of truth. Gwynn touched her bra cups and began muttering under her breath. She looked down at her breasts while her hands hovered uncertainly around her chest. Finally, she looked me straight in the eye and said, "Dammit, I already did this last night!" Her hands moved to the clasp on the bra and a moment later it slid into the pile of fabric at her feet. She stood up uncertainly.

"My God! You are beautiful!" came out of my mouth hoarse and unbidden.

A flash of surprise on Gwynn's face was followed by a million-dollar smile. "You really think so?"

I laughed. "No, I absolutely, positively know so!" I looked down and sighed. "And so does he!"

"He? Wh..." And then she saw the tent in my boxers. She giggled nervously and continued, "Oh! Oh my! Did I do that?"

"Yes! Gwynn my dear, you are guilty as charged."

Gwynn gave me a fake pout. "You mean I can't even get a plea bargain?'

I smiled and shook my head. "Well then, how about a bribe?" Suiting words to action, she stepped up to me and gave me a delicious kiss and a truly awesome skin-to-skin hug! I really felt like I might pass out! Actually, that might have been a real concern since Little Stefan was working to achieve a truly epic degree of tumescence as the hug and kiss progressed!

It took no small amount of willpower to break out of our clinch. We were both rather breathless when we came up for air, but Gwynn managed to speak first. "My God! This could get dangerous! Maybe we should just concentrate on getting ready for bed."

"Yes m'am!"

Gwynn got to bed a few minutes behind me and immediately snuggled up next to me. She gave me a kiss and then said, "Stefan Menzel, I have a confession to make. I. Love. You!"

Hey shithead, tell the truth this time! "Hmm, what a coincidence. Gwendolyn Mendoza. I. Love. You. Too!" I will fucking die if anything screws this up!

We dissolved into hugs, giggles, and chuckles which somehow gave way to sleep.

Chapter XXIII

Over the following weeks we settled into a comfortable routine. We started using Gwynn's trailer as something of a combination storage unit and walk-in closet so that items we needed frequently were close at hand in my trailer and items that only got occasional use were stored in her trailer.

I did all of the cooking on Gwynn's work days and most of the cooking on her days off. I was already following most of the healthy diet patterns that Gwynn's water damaged library proposed. This saved her the need to constantly refer to all the books and gave her the opportunity to understudy my cooking on her days off. Most of the time, when Gwynn took over the cooking, it was usually on days when we both agreed that a food fun fling was in order.

There was one minor fly in the ointment that I managed to work around. I am a cuddle and snuggle man but Little Stefan, by nature, is a find 'em and fuck 'em personality which caused me quite a bit of discomfort when I was around Gwynn. After all, she only had to be visible on the horizon and he had an excuse to rise to the occasion! The work-around that I finally managed to settle into was to enlist five friends and jerk off about an hour before Gwynn arrived home from work. It wasn't a perfect solution, but it did work well enough—at least until the day that Gwynn came home early!

That day I had just managed to get Little Stefan to rise when the door swung open without warning and Gwynn stepped in. "Surprise!" This was followed by a goggle-eyed pause on both our parts! "Stef, what the hell are you doing?" I was amazed at how fast Little Stefan wilted into travel mode!

It's damned hard to maintain your aplomb when you are bare-ass naked and surprised by a beautiful woman who is not also bare-ass naked, but I tried as best I could to make the best of a bad situation. "Just in case that was not a rhetorical question, I, uh, am jacking off in preparation for your arrival home."

"In preparation?" Realization hit Gwynn like a bolt of lightning! "Omigod! You do this every day?"

"Uh, almost. It helps me keep my cool around you."

"I suppose this is supposed to prevent, uh what's it called, oh, blue balls?"

I sat up on the bed and crossed my legs lotus-style in front of Gwynn. "I'm not an expert on the subject, but I have certainly had some discomfort in my life from being forced into delayed ejaculation. I don't believe that the full-blown condition that the name conjures up really exists. My take on using the dramatic name is that it is a gambit used by males to gain the sympathy of potential sexual partners who they are trying to seduce. In my case, I just find that it simply can be damned uncomfortable wearing a hard-on for extended periods of time."

"So, this is your preventive approach to minimizing the accumulation of uncomfortable levels of pressure over the course of an evening?"

"It's not perfect, but it is a whole lot better than nothing!"

By this time, the bright red blush of embarrassment had faded from Gwynn's face and had been replaced by what I would call a warm glow. She seemed pensive and distracted by turns. "Goodness, it seems kinda warm in here. Have you got the heat turned up?"

"No same as usual."

"Then what..." She paused and her eyes narrowed. "Stef, would you mind if I tried to kill another dragon?"

"I'd be pretty small if I told you no. What do you propose?"

Gwynn had removed her jacket when she came in and now began unbuttoning the front of her nurses uniform. As it slid to the floor, Little Stefan was rising almost as fast as the dress was falling. "Goodness, it doesn't look like I will have to work as hard as I was expecting."

The next to fall was the bra and Little Stefan was now easily as engorged as he had ever been. "It would work best if you sat on the edge of the bed, Stef." I complied and probably looked like I was hypnotized by Gwynn as she stood in front of me with nothing on but her white pantyhose and white nurse shoes.

Gwynn approached Little Stefan with almost a clinical air. She felt the shaft up from root to the head and then lightly licked the tip around the urethral opening. "Oho, already some precum. This guy seems happier to see me than you do!" She sucked the glans into her mouth and about all I could muster in response was a groan.

It was obvious that Gwynn was experienced in this particular skill as her hands worked my shaft up and down while her tongue swirled excitingly around and about the head. I. Did. Not. Last. Long! "Arrgh! Holy shit Gwynn! I'm cumming!"

I didn't know what to expect, so I was mildly surprised when Gwynn took every one of my spasming shots in her mouth and then pulled away with a light pop. She looked confused at first and then surprised. She swallowed my entire load and proceeded to lick Little Stefan clean!

"Holy bleep, Gwynn, it has been a long, long time since I had an orgasm that tried to turn myself inside out! That was great! Thank you very, very much!"

"I'm sorry I didn't deep throat you. Randy killed my gag reflex, so I could have done it." She sighed. "I suppose to be more fair I should say that he trained my gag reflex. Unfortunately, deep throating brings back too many nasty Randy memories. I hope you don't mind."

"Mind? Gwynn, if you had done any better you would have had to make a run to the hospital for a dose of smelling salts to bring me back to life! All I can do is give you my unconditional thanks! On a scale of one to ten for sexy hotness I have to rate you around one hundred!"

"Flattery, flattery, flattery." She grinned. "Why don't you be honest and just tell me that you want, no, make that need, a blow job every hour, on the hour, 24/7?"

"I reckon that thought puts Little Stefan into a state of bliss, but I happen to know that I'm human and that kind of a drill would put me six feet under sooner rather than later! Granted, the coroner might wonder why a withered old man who appeared to have been sucked dry would have gone out with a big risus sardonicus splashed across his face, but I'd still be dead.

"I wonder, at one point I thought you were going to spit the cum out, and then you surprised me and swallowed. What, if anything, was going on there?"

Gwynn gave me a mildly surprised look and replied, "Swallowing cum always seemed kind of gross to me. In Randy's case it actually seemed to taste bitter. Now I wonder if that was real or if it was just my subconscious trying to get me away from him. Of course, that may also be the reason that Randy was so determined to get me to deep throat him since that jizz is almost impossible to spit out without completely unloading your stomach. If it can be done, I never figured it out.

"On the other hand, I was definitely surprised that your cum tasted pretty good. It seemed a bit salty and went down really easily! I think that I'm looking forward to some more if you can keep the quality of the product up." Gwynn finished with a conspiratorial smile.

"Uh oh, it sounds like my little guy would be smart to find a place to run and hide." I said with a smile.

"Let him try." said Gwynn with a smile. "After all, I know that you would never let him run away far enough to keep me from having my bloodhounds chase him down."

I looked down at my crotch and said in a stage whisper, "Hear that? You'd better be good or..." I paused and rolled my eyes. "Yeah right! HE would more than likely be afraid you WOULDN'T catch him! Just keep your eyes open for signal flares and I'm sure you'd find him!

"Let me totally change the subject. Why don't you drop your shoes, get up off your knees so your stockings don't get any dirtier, and come up here for some kissing, cuddling and conversation?"

"Duh! Yeah, that sounds like an offer I can't refuse!" Gwynn proceeded to crawl up onto the bed and entangled herself with me.

After a little preliminary kissing and cuddling, I reopened the conversation. "By the way, how come you came home early today? For that matter, how come I didn't hear your truck come up? By now, I think I pretty much have its sound memorized."

"Were you surprised and embarrassed when I came in this evening?"

"Well, yeah!"

"If you multiply that by at least ten, that will give you an idea of the bullet you just managed to dodge."

"What do you mean?"

"You know that I took the truck in for a routine service this morning, right?" I nodded. "What you don't know is that I got a call from the shop around noon. One of the bearings is going out. Sam said that he could wiggle the wheel by hand after the truck was on the lift. He wasn't looking for anything; he just bumped his shoulder against the wheel and, as he put it, 'Holy shit! It wobbled like it was really loose!'

"So a new bearing assembly is on its way—probably from Phoenix. Sam said he couldn't imagine why I hadn't noticed it and then informed me that I would not be driving it until the new bearing was installed.

"I was going to give you a call and have you pick me up at the hospital, but today was a slow day and Allison offered to give me a ride when we got off early. Long story short, I invited Allison to come in and maybe even have dinner with us tonight. Fortunately for you... well, no, fortunately for both of us, she had some errands to run so she elected to take a rain check!"

"Hoo boy! That's a bit too close for comfort!

"What do you think her reaction would have been?"

"I don't really know her well enough yet to offer a good guess. However, she is quite attractive and I already know that I am NOT in a sharing mood! Even if we all managed to effectively bridge that particular gully, there is still the question about what kind of stories would be floating around the hospital about us!

"Crap! Now that I think about it, if we wanted to keep Allison quiet we'd probably have to pull her into a threesome which, I'm sure, your Little Stefan would be delighted with, but I would be about as unhappy with it as he would be happy!