Lucky Man Pt. 01

I honestly think that luck does go in cycles. I believe that if you just stick in there, when it all seems to conspire against you, that what goes around comes around. With that thought I had comforted myself. For every spin of the wheel there are winners and losers, for every pointless roundabout there is a monumental swing. I may not have been able to ride Bob and Carol's consummate carousel ride last night, but Ruthie's "white knuckle ride" more than made up for it.

Good luck or bad luck, life and happiness is a lottery, a game of chance, only the House or the Bookie wins every time, gambling is rigged that way. Life is what you make it, dealing with what chances and opportunities fall your way. Make the most of the times you come out on top and grit your teeth when you are down, because even long losing streaks must end on an upturn, because after all the bad cards are used up, the winning ones will eventually emerge from the stack.

Another thought came to me as I basked in my current good fortune. Gamble only with what you are prepared to lose. Down to your last tenner? Then you better fold it up, tuck it somewhere safe and walk away from the table. It makes just as good sense to quit when you are behind as it is said to be when you are ahead. Right now I was on win, win, win, and could afford to chance my arm, take a small risk, and cheerfully throw in my hand if the stakes got too high. Ruth's heart was the pot at the end of that rainbow. She was there for me to win, but it didn't have to be this hand, or the next, if I played the options with my eyes wide open and was still in the game with chips enough to play, the jackpot could be not just mine, but ours to share.

I kissed her head again, breathing in her heavenly scent. I knew that we were both very sweaty, with our exertions, the warm sun of the day and the heat of bodies which couldn't be separated by a fag paper along our length. Her body smelled delightful, though, hay and apple blossom, tangy fruit and spice, a combination that any Parisian perfumery would give their eyeteeth for. My own sickly scent I didn't want to dwell on, my early morning semi-warm shower at my grubby digs, using the ancient hard and hairy house-shared carbolic, which only grudgingly surrendered its reluctant scummy lather, was almost certainly a perfunctory toilet compared to the hot lavender soak that had infused my companion's sweet skin with velvet soft aromatic loveliness.

I decided to take a chance, knowing that the usual gateway to my heaven was closed to me. Ruth had already shyly giggled that her period was so heavy today that she had all her No Through Road and No Men At Work signs up. She was not only lovely, she was funny, too. Who could risk losing such an irresistible combination? Particularly me, whose experience of girls so far had been of the kind that tended to take umbrage at any perceived inference to their imagined imperfections, who had no sense of humour or even the ability to have fun. While I accepted that girls were more delicate than boys, being regarded by their partner as deserving of protection and succour was far more rewarding than those females who regarded themselves as too precious for comfort. Ruth was funny and fun, which made her stand out from the rest of the crowd of women within my sphere of experience.

I continued to kiss the top of her head and she relaxed comfortably against me. I licked and moistened my fingers and sent them off to travel down her back, under the thin, readily-yielding waistband of her delicate panties and worked my fingers along her admittedly sweat-dampened crease between her convex buttocks.

The hands and fingers of someone who shovels sand and mixes mortar, as well as stacks and carries bricks for a living every day for four years, gets a lot rougher than someone who goes to school and then college or works in an office. The skin on my fingertips was pretty hard and rough and Ruth's skin surface about her posterior was particularly soft and silky smooth.

The moistened tip of my finger reached the puckered entrance, or should that be exit? of her anus. She hadn't stirred her relaxed body at this juncture, but when my hot lubricated fingertip persisted in stroking her wrinkled sphincter, Ruth lifted her head from my chest and looked me enquiringly in the eye. Without saying anything she held my gaze while I continued my tentative fingertip exploration of her hidden 'arsets'. She frowned slightly, when my fingertip pressed a little more firmly against the solid resistance of her tensioned arse muscle.

"Do you trust me?" I enquired, holding her cool blue eyes with mine.

"Do I have any reason not to?" she countered, looking back at me fearlessly.

"None whatsoever," I said, with a slightly smug smile, I was enjoying this exchange as I had enjoyed every experience so far with this delightful creature.

"I have no wish to impose on you or hurt you in any way as I have already said, but I do want to give you as much as, or even more pleasure than you've given me, and this may mean trying to push the boundaries a little. I don't want to go too far or make you uncomfortable."

She nodded.

"If you don't like anything we do together," I continued, "you can stop me with a single word. I desire to explore every delectable inch of you, not all or nothing here and now but over time as we get to know one another and build confidence and trust in our relationship. At the same time I want you to know that you can be in control whenever you want. What you say goes. So, here and now, do you trust me?"

"Yes, Mark, I do, more so than anyone I've ever known but I'm not sure if I want any penetration at all around where you are exploring right now. I'm not ruling it out completely in the future but I am sore today and more than a little out of my comfort zone, OK?"

"OK." I withdrew my finger from her panties, detouring to squeeze each butt cheek on the way out, to which she smiled.

We both sighed, and she tucked her lovely head back into my chest, laying there relaxing, almost snoozing, for another half an hour or so.

"I could stay like this forever," I whispered, reluctant to rudely break the tender comfortable silence we were enjoying.

"Mmmm," Ruth breathed in agreement.

"Want to come out with me and do this again?" I felt compelled to ask, quietly.

"Mmmm," Ruth breathed again, this time propping herself up on one of her slim elbows to look down on me. "This has been the nicest day I have had for a long time. You show a lady a good time, Mark."

I opened one eye, just a crack to look at her. Last night she had looked attractive enough, in full war paint at the night club, and later I thought she looked quite sweet in the softer glow of moonlight. Today though, she wore little or no make-up, and quite frankly she really didn't need any. Her skin was soft and nicely tanned from her recently holiday, her face smooth and blemish free, so no need for foundation creams or powders. Her cheeks were slightly flushed from a combination of the sun, her exertions during our walking and lovemaking, so no rouge was called for either. Her eyebrows, cleansed of heightened black pencil, were naturally arched and a soft light brown colour and fortunately were quite full not plucked almost out of existence, as seen in so many girls. Her eyelashes were also fair and they softly curtained her clear blue eyes, her lids didn't need that artificial coloration which had diverted attention from those lovely eyes the previous night. Ruth was an English rose and was very naturally beautiful. Well, I was convinced so.

"I would like to see you again tomorrow." Again, I spoke softly, apprehensive in case of rejection.

"Me too," she paused, chewing her bottom lip, a gesture that I was becoming used to and continually charmed by, "I don't go back to College until October, so I'm pretty well free until then, so any time you like you can see me. As often as you like, if you want to."

"I want to, yes, I want to." I reached up with my other hand to the back of her head and pulled her down to kiss her long and deep. "I think you know that I really do like you and I want to see you as much as I can," I said when we broke off our kiss.

She smiled, looking at the tenting in my slacks, which no longer embarrassed me as much as before in Ruth's company, I was beginning to regard it as a natural compliment to her charms on my part.

"I think I get the idea," she paused, "I suppose we should sort out when exactly we are going to sort that thing out and go all the way. I don't see any other way to make it go down ... maybe tomorrow or the next day or so. We seem to have avoided saying anything about it all day, but I haven't forgotten that I sort of promised myself to you last night."

Again, she bit her lower lip and coyly looked at me out of the corners of her eyes.

"Well," I said, after taking a deep breath and calming down my racing heartbeat, "I know we haven't spoken about it but I have been thinking of how best to approach the subject all day."

"I thought you might have." She smiled prettily.

"I've been thinking perhaps that I am not sure if it is a good idea for us to go ahead and make love tomorrow or the next day or so."

Ruth sprang up onto her elbow again and we were level eyeball to eyeball. "You having a change of heart then, mister?" She chewed her lip uncertainly again.

"Strangely enough I have had a change of heart today," I said slowly.

Her smile had momentarily drained from her face. I squeezed her to me and kissed her gently on the lips, maintaining eye contact. I moved my lips away so I could focus on her better and continued.

"I want to see more of you, every single day if I can, and really get to know you before we make love for that first special time. If we have a change of heart and decide that this relationship is not for us in the meantime, then so be it. I can be philosophical even about this. If we do decide to go all the way and make love I want our first time to be something memorable that we will recall and share, perhaps forever. How about we set that special date to fall on your birthday in a few weeks' time?"

Her smile lit up her glorious face again and we held each other tight for what seemed several minutes, kissing each other's neck and head without saying any words at all. When we finally looked in each other's eyes, she had tears in them and I confess that mine were a touch on the shiny side too.

"Is it a date, then darling?" I asked.

"Yes, it is a date, we'll have that special time and a whole series of dates before and after I hope. You are a special man and I already feel more comfortable around you than anyone I've ever known."

"I was thinking about phoning into work tomorrow and taking the whole week off, I've got some holiday time coming, and I can't think of anything better I want to do with it than spend some quality time with you. What do you think?"

"That's a great idea," she said, "so, what time are you picking me up tomorrow, then?"

"What time do you get up?" We laughed.

Soon the sun dropped down behind the trees and, without the sunshine, the shadow covering the clearing in our quarter began to cool slightly, although elsewhere the late afternoon was still bright and warm. We decided to move, packed up and took everything back to the cars. She let me have the unopened bottle of wine, and the leftover fruit, she thought we could share it another evening. So I locked them in my boot. The pub was still shut for the afternoon, so we had time to wander back through the woods hand in hand for a couple of hours enjoying the delightful sunny weather, but my heart would have been light as a balloon even if it had been pouring with rain.

We had a couple of long cooling drinks in the pub garden when we got back and enjoyed sharing the glorious fiery sunset together. Then we held onto each other tightly, and kissed each other goodbye, arranging to meet early in the morning.

Chapter 3. First time

We had a great week, actually, after I called into work and got the time I wanted off. We walked around Virginia Water, took in the zoo, visited a fun fair on another day, and we took a trip to the coast, taking Ruthie's lovely open-top car. During that week I got rid of my beat up old car and I dipped into my post office savings book to buy a more reliable saloon car only about eight years old, the newest car I had owned until then.

Before picking Ruth up on Tuesday, our fourth date together, I had been busy making various arrangements, which involved dipping even deeper into my shallow savings. It was almost 11 o'clock before I collected her from her parents' large and intimidating house. She was waiting for me and ran out to my shameful car, so I didn't have to go in. She looked very pretty in a printed yellow cotton frock and carrying a wide-brimmed straw hat as defence against the run of fine weather we were enjoying. She had sensible shoes and white socks, ideal for our planned walk along the grand canal. No picnic with us today, we were planning to have a pub lunch.

"I thought you weren't coming," Ruth said as she perched her handbag and hat upon her lap and snapped on her seat belt. She didn't sound that happy.

I grinned and leaned over and our lips met in a quick kiss.

"Good morning, sweetheart" I said cheerily, too happy to be deflected by her current petulance. "I did say I had a couple of things to do this morning and wasn't sure how long it would take. I thought I made good time, considering."

As I put the old car in gear and released my handbrake, I saw the curtains twitch in one of the windows. I couldn't help myself, I was so full of bonhomie that I gave the hidden onlooker a cheery wave. The curtains twitched more violently as they closed.

"My mother's dropped a few hints that she wants to meet you." Ruth's voice was quiet and I imagined she was back to chewing her lower lip.

"Just set the date, Ruth," I said cheerfully as I steered the car around their gravel drive and down to the road. "I feel like I can take on the world this morning."

My wide grin was infectious and I glanced quickly at her face while checking for traffic each way before joining the traffic in a sizeable gap, she was back to her usual smiling and relaxed self again.

"So," she ventured, "What have you been doing this morning that couldn't wait and with me excluded from being with you while you did whatever you were doing?"

"It's a surprise, well, two surprises really."

"Tell!" she goaded.

"Shan't!" I was enjoying myself.

"Why not?" she pouted.

"Cos then it wouldn't be a surprise... Two surprises."

"Oh!" Ruth was both momentarily deflated, yet curious as to what I had been doing.

I cast my mind back a day, reflecting on the pleasures of a blossoming relationship. I had collected her early in the morning on Monday and we had spent all day and evening together. Today hadn't quite happened as she expected and she had probably been on tenter hooks since nine o'clock, anxiously looking for my old Hillman on the drive.

Ruth was occupied with her own thoughts, remaining quiet for a while as I carried on driving towards the canal. As the spell of silence grew, so did the grin on my face. Unconsciously I began to hum a popular tune that had been spinning around my head all morning. I could feel Ruth looking at me while I was smiling away but I knew what was coming. The soft blow from her tiny fist on my upper arm was expected and didn't disappoint, and barely affected my grip on the steering wheel at all. It did make me laugh out loud though and Ruth joined me with her delightful giggle, accompanied by another couple of pillow-soft left jabs.

"Are you keeping secrets from me already?" she said, with a degree of attitude creeping into her voice.

"I am going to have to tell you about one surprise soon anyway, as you will need to collect some appropriate footwear this afternoon." I took the opportunity of a straight piece of dual carriageway to glance at Ruth's face, she was pretty as a picture. "And the second surprise is sort of connected to the first, so I guess I'll have to tell you about that one too."

"In your own good time, then ... sweetheart," she pouted, with some petulance.

"I shall pick my moments, then," I said, testing her resolve. I couldn't take my eye off the road but I speculated that she might be biting her tongue as well as chewing her lip. She remained quiet for a while, steeling herself, refusing to rise to my bait. We silently sat until I had parked the car, locked it up and we began our walk along the tow path next to the canal, holding hands. We had exchanged smiles and another kiss as we stood together before setting off, but not a word had been exchanged for a while.

For a girl, she was remarkably patient and I was impressed. I was the one itching to tell her how I had begun to order and programme the map of our lives together but I wanted the satisfaction of having her draw it out of me. She was made of stronger stuff than any girl I had known up to now; I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised, she was so superior to any other girl I knew. We were five or ten minutes into our walk along the canal before I gave in and brought it up. There were a few people sharing the tow path at first but now we hit a stretch without houseboats or fellow strollers within hearing distance.

"This afternoon at four we are starting old-time dancing classes, so we need to drop into your house by three at the latest to get a change of footwear, I've already got my only pair of court shoes in the boot of the car."

"Old-time dancing?" she grinned, "I thought you were only into disco!"

"Hardly," I smiled back, squeezing her hand which I was happily accustomed to hold at every opportunity, "You've seen me dance at the disco, I need the dark to hide my lack of moves! I don't even have a medallion and a chest wig! A couple of reasons why old-time dancing lessons. One, we are both pretty athletic and light on our feet so don't see any reason why with a little coaching we shouldn't find it an enjoyable exercise."

I paused while she thought about it.

Ruth chipped in then with, "I suppose the second reason is so you could put your arms around me for another hour a day without making up an excuse." She smiled and tightened the grip on my hand.

"Well, that does seem a bonus, but the second reason has something to do with your birthday."

I suddenly lost confidence and was wondering how I was going to tell her what I had arranged without taking more liberties than I already had. I paused while my mind ran through a rehearsal of what I wanted to say without making it sound like I was being controlling. However, whichever way I tried to put it to myself I was making a big assumption as to whether she would go along with my idea or not.

Before I had worked out what to say Ruth chipped in again. "Come on mister, spit it out, I think by now you can pretty well get away with saying anything to me, I can always give you a thump if I feel you've gone too far this time!"

She clenched her free fist and waved in menacingly under my nose. I caught it and kissed it. She relaxed her balled fist and I turned it over and put my lips to the warm palm of her hand.

With my confidence boosted I faced Ruth, holding both her hands and began, "It is to do with the arrangements I'm afraid I have already made for us on your birthday. It's just that I have only known you for three days and I fear I may have crossed a line."

"I think that even after three days we are comfortable enough to find out exactly where that line is and whether we can cross it. We've already agreed to make love on my birthday, so I assume you have made arrangements as an alternative to the back of your car or a blanket in a field?"