No Promises Only Loving Company

'Thank you. I feel that way too.' She looked ahead and then turned in her seat but Simon spoke out, suddenly, expressing his reasons for ending a period of unwelcome solitude.

'I didn't want to look for an excuse anymore, to say no, to stay in and not be in society...away from people and keeping to some set of rules about things that have happened to me and how people expect people like us, in our situations to behave.' Kathryn detected the slightest sigh as he spoke. 'I came to the right decision and I'm trying to move on, step by step.'

She found herself agreeing. 'I'm doing that too!'

They laughed and looked awkwardly at each other.

'Kathryn?'

'Yes...?' Her way of answering would let him know that she was of the same mind as he was.

Simon stroked the bare skin of her arm with the back of his fingers, a feather-light touch offered before he rested his hand on the edge of her seat. She took hold of it, almost too eagerly, seeing the gesture as Simon's wish to reach out to her, a continuation of the hints that he had given during the evening, of his attraction to her. She could no longer resist these flirtatious gestures. He did not move except to turn off the engine and the lights of the car.

She lifted his hand onto her thigh, applying the gentlest pressure to her skin. She trembled from the sensation, the jolt of acceptance, and the sense of longing aroused. She wanted this man to be with her.

'Kathryn,' he repeated softly, 'what a clumsy fool I am.' His free hand touched her face. 'Only I...I don't want to leave you.'

'No,' she said slowly, her voice tender, 'and I understand the feeling. Loneliness is no stranger to me. I've known of it too.'

'And that is a mystery, although I understand the reasons only too clearly.'

'We can do this, Simon.'

I want to do this for you, Simon, and with you just for myself, she kept from saying. I want to be taken to bed, she thought, and on taking his hand and pressing it to the bare skin of her thigh. I'm conceding to an impulse, satisfying a need with a very attractive man and I'm living for the moment. Circumstances can quickly change people and I'm no exception.

Simon kissed her, first in recognition that he sought a respite from his own loneliness, then in a lingering sensuous press of his mouth. She responded by parting her lips before holding his head gently in a light touch, inviting his deeper kisses.

'May I?' he asked even though her responses had shown that impetuous intimacy would be a welcome end to their evening.

'Sh!' Kathryn tugged on his hand as a signal to follow her from the car.

They walked slowly to the front door, the smallest space still between them, but Simon was urged on by Kathryn's backward glances, his gaze fixed on her shapely figure clothed in a tight-fitting dress that reminded him of a similar evening long ago with his late wife.

His fingers stroked Kathryn's neck as he waited for the door to be opened, but she only conceded to a deeper embrace once inside the house. She met his kisses and clenched his questing hands as he offered teasing caresses. Simon surprised her with his straightforward confession as he embraced her to him, his fingers pressing gently, enticingly, where he wished to be.

'I need to feel your lovely, warm skin on me, Kathryn. I need more from you...so much more.'

'I know the feeling too, Simon, but...but it's been some time!' She yearned for that consoling heat too and accepted the simplicity of a confession that had seduced her response. 'Stay with me, Simon will you but...but take it slow?'

'I understand and it's something that I've wondered about too, after being so long with my late wife. So, we help each other find the way.' He met her stilled look. 'I've not been someone to rush into any relationship but you brought me to a new place as I wanted it to be when I met you. I wasn't the perfect guest for the Lingards. I ignored everyone else, or so it now seems. Was it so very obvious?'

'Only to me, and we can both plead guilty.'

It felt so very natural that she laughed out her reply, their words a spontaneous confession to their need for each other. She attempted to break free of his embrace.

'Wait? I've wanted to hold you, like this, all evening,' he whispered. His hands were on her as she leaned back against him, one brushing over her breasts the other pressing slowly against her mound, the press of fingers ragingly intentional and suggestive. 'Wait, just for a moment longer while I hold you?'

'No, let me go...please, Simon...let me go.'

His attentive touches throughout dinner had provoked her impatience to know of him. She had even confessed to her willingness to live for the moment and now she couldn't wait to be naked and in his arms; to share the heat and feel his skin on hers and then to be wrecked by an impetuous night of sex with a man she scarcely knew, but a man in need of fleshy solace just as much as she was.

'Soon, there's no rush.'

'Oh, I don't know,' she sighed as Simon held her tightly against him; the first flush of desire was all too evident. 'Take me to bed.'

'And stop all this talk?' she saw him smile.

'Yes, it goes something like that.'

Only, the man softly kissed and caressed her until she felt compelled to succumb to Simon's tantalising restraint. How conventional he made their impulsive behaviour now seem, but she had no wish to succumb to prolonged and teasing foreplay! She pulled on his hand and finally led him up the graceful curve of the carpeted stairs, breaking free at last from his embrace when they reached her softly lit bedroom.

'Simon...help!' Trembling fingers now failed her; fumbling attempts to undo the clasp of her dress making her turn to him. 'Help me, even with this?'

She felt unable to control her longing, to press her skin to him and abandon any restraint. Smiling nervously, she watched Simon casually throw his jacket over a chair and unfasten some buttons to his shirt, then his cufflinks. He calmly held his hands out to her and she clasped and raised them to her lips as she gazed at his toned body.

'Soon,' he now kissed tantalizingly.

'Yes...soon.' Simon's consideration for her, in spite of the hook of longing, reassured her. She wanted to have sex and needed it, but she also wanted to prolong these moments of acceptance that another man would now take her body.

'Let me,' he said now.

Kathryn met his unfaltering gaze as she brushed her trembling hands over his bare chest while a few deft movements unfastened the top of her dress. Kathryn felt his warm breath on her throat, then on the swell of her breasts as he pushed them together; bent to offer sucking caresses of his lips to them.

'Let me do this also,' he coaxed as his fingers moved deliberately and unhurriedly to complete his undressing of her. 'Let me...do this, now,' he murmured as his kisses continued and she did nothing to prevent the tantalising progress of his kisses down over her body until he nuzzled kisses to her cleft, his hands tugging down her panties and she was exposed to his gaze. He knelt before her as his tongue moved slowly down over her skin, pricking into her, at last, with a tantalizing firmness that made her gasp. She took little sideways steps until he could fully claim her slicked heat. She was wet and his fingers glided over her for an instant only. 'Am I rushing you?'

'No...no, Simon, oh no!' she yelped, 'Simon!' She tugged at his hair, encouraged every delight from his fingertip touches upon her, the certainty now of all that she had so readily conceded to.

'Let me kiss you...here.'

'Go on...go on,' she sighed, holding him there as his tongue lingered over the spot where she sought all of his provocative ministrations. She squirmed as he removed the silken skein of fabric that concealed her desired secret from him.

'Simon? We need...' Kathryn faltered, 'we need to take care of things.'

'Soon,' she was told.

'No, Simon...please? We need to do that now.'

'You're safe...with me,' Simon said needlessly but relented. He rose and followed her, slowing Kathryn's progress as she moved towards a bedside cabinet in shuffling lingering steps, holding and kissing her until she had found her own reassurance. Covering his trembling flesh would be another act of foreplay and bonding for this singular moment between them.

'It's my turn now.' Kathryn clutched his hands, preventing Simon from stripping off and choosing to do so for herself. How wonderful to see again a naked man's body, how his penis arced out from his belly and how it trembled in response to every clamp of her searching and caressing hands, her insistent caresses in tune with her racing thoughts. A new man was in her arms, surrendered to her touches, a man she might not see again after moments of reckless, but ragingly necessary comfort, had been shared. 'It's my turn to do this...for you.'

She kissed and caressed the skin of his bared chest before she put her hands on him seeking to lap over his inflamed flesh with moistened lips and tongue before they dealt with mundane essentials.

'Not that!' he said in a low voice, his fingers in her hair and pulling her from him, 'not yet.'

She rose to meet his deeper kisses and clung to him as he carried her to the bed. A shiver of fear and intense anticipation overcame her as erect flesh pressed insistently against her belly, then slipped over her pussy's lips, the bloated domed tip pressing against her opening. Shivering with longing and in anticipation, she drew him closer with clasping hands and lambent touches of her thighs to his waist. He fumbled for the condom and covered his length, met her gaze, and smiled.

'I've done what you asked of me, so far.'

'Slowly...gently, Simon. But take me...take us where we both need to be.'

'Soon, I promise.' He renewed his soft exploratory licks and kisses against her skin. 'I'll take care of you.'

'Enough...I've waited long enough, Simon!'

Her lover heeded the call. Slowly, his thrusting and stroking fingers open her; his claims increasing in speed and intensity until the tempo of his frenzied ministrations make her shudder in pleasure that had been denied to her for so long. She kisses him frantically and becomes lost in her passion.

The teasing, arousing touches stopped and his possession of her began, his hands pushing up her legs and he entered her accepting body in long, deepening, strokes. They writhe on her bed, a tangle of arms and legs, their breaths hot on each other's skins. She claws his back as a tsunami of rousing emotions rises inside her as she clamps her muscles on that wonderful plunging staff of flesh. The sensations the man brings to her body are intense and overwhelming; she gasps out to him in encouragement and bucks her hips to meet his thrusts, clamps her vaginal muscles on that plumbing length of flesh and she wrenches on it. She remembered how it went and her practiced ways of old take over. She wants Simon. She also wants to make good the loss and frustration that she, a young woman, still feels. She needs sex and Simon's the man to give it to her. Intertwining her legs around his thighs she urged him on. The bloated tip of his penis caresses her pussy's walls and finds her. They languish in their pleasure but she feels on fire, every nerve jangling as he resumes pounding into her.

'You'll break me!' she cries out as her fingers clamp and press his skin. She feels pain and is dismayed that she shares his hunger to live for the moment.

They cannot stop.

They are drawn and moulded together in their pursuit of release. They have become star-crossed, impetuous, lovers stealing moments where they can and revelling in each other's bodies.

Simon was silent and now gave her no consideration.

His rousing taking of her released an uninhibited response as she exhorted him to wilder moves. She convulsed, pushing up against him, under the supple twisting movement of his hips. She is carried on a rising tide of passion, but she cannot escape from the source of her exulting comfort.

'So close to me!' Simon called out to her on fiery breaths of pleasure as she clung to him, her cries a reaction to the deepening reflex movements she induced in him by her touch and wrecking ways of claiming his body, his penis most of all. He feels a tightening in his belly, in his sac as the pressure to climax builds. 'Kathryn!'

'Simon! You've found me!' she screeched and then pressed her lips to his throat to stifle a rush of squeals, but his vigour did not diminish and she stared at him, smiling at his control but the press of his mouth to hers silenced further talk, until...

His fervent kisses deepened. Simon's lips sought her breasts and they tugged on their hard nipples. She was brought to the edge again, by a combination of pain and abject pleasure. How long could he wait? She was gasping for breath and hung onto him, Simon's movements so unpredictable and pleasurable that she pummelled his back with lightly clenched fists, begging him to fill her, to let go, and to wait no longer.

'Now?' she cried out. 'Please, Simon, now! Fill me with it...with what you need to let go of...take me with you!'

She needed completion and he had kept her waiting, kept groaning in his efforts to contain the moment until she shouted entreaties, the contractions of her muscles and legs upon him never ceasing. The wondering look of her eyes that she had succumbed and so quickly, finally extorted the surging, tingling rushes of his orgasm within her and that she craved.

'Say 'when',' he uttered in a teasing groan.

'Love me...now!' She called out, instead, clasping him to her in a clammy embrace as with faltering breaths she conceded to the warming glow that this man had bestowed upon her as she climaxed. 'When...when...oh when,' she gasped.

Kisses teased her throat, then upon her closed eyes before he lingered at her breasts. 'You've made it wonderful for me, Kathryn...wonderful...thank you...thank you...thank you.'

'Yes...wonderful.' She hadn't felt so alive and responded to each kiss that he gave. Simon moved. 'Not yet! Don't go...stay with me...stay there by me. I can't let you go...not yet,' Kathryn purred in pleasure and yet she was dismayed that he moved from her.

But he slowly withdrew and induced a shiver at the residual caress on the edge of her. He stumbled away and went to the en-suite bathroom.

'Don't go!' she urged with clasping hands of restraint upon him when Simon returned, his prick swaying and no longer covered by the condom.. 'Stay! Stay with me...stay with me, Simon, please?'

Simon breathed out slowly. 'No...I...I can't stay.'

He felt callous, uncommonly selfish now in his treatment of her and moved to sit on the edge of the large bed, the covers disarranged by their rolling and twisting travels over them. Kathryn had offered a compassionate, cloying haven for him and he now repaid her with an offhand gruffness that betrayed his guilt. The choke of regret came to his throat.

'Please, don't go?' she asked once more. Simon brought himself to look at her body, pale against his darker skin.

'I must...I've been selfish, more than I thought possible.' He spread his fingers over Kathryn's belly pressing gently. 'You loved wonderfully.'

'Yes, I want you there again, so please stay by me?'

He heard the break in her voice as Kathryn detained him.

'Kathryn, I...I can't do more, not now.'

'Why? Don't feel guilty for this, for what we've done. We needed to get together and to be close and find some comfort. It's been wonderful and I don't want you to leave...not just yet.' ' She held back from expressing a sudden flash of anger at being rejected so summarily. Instead, she held his hand against her skin. 'Can't you tell me?'

It had been wonderful but Simon sat in silence and Kathryn knew. Simon had gone from her, without a word of explanation, though behind the feeling of shock that she felt at the abrupt change in the man who had found her, she, reluctantly, understood.

'Don't feel guilty,' she said again.

'I do, though, for being selfish. I wanted the sex...I needed it, in fact, and now we'll go our separate ways again. No promises, we make no promises, selfish as that may sound.'

'No, we make no promises,' she repeated as if to be convinced of the truth that lay in what he had just said. She had wondered about it, how to deal with her need for sex and the comfort of being taken from sharing that and no more. It was, perhaps, still too soon to enter into any lasting relationship. That desire had yet to be fully thought through. The sex with Simon, impetuous and wonderful, was but a first step on that journey.

The need for sex, the comforting touch of a lover's body had been found. Moments of particular comfort, no-strings sex, had been seduced from each other, just as they had spoken of in generalities, over dinner. The deed was done, exquisitely pleasurable and intense. She felt loved out, completely and satisfyingly. The demons in her, the reluctance to admit that this was all that she had wanted from him, had been spoken of and might never plague her again.

'I was selfish too, Simon, and believe there's nothing wrong in what we have done together. I don't feel used at all. We each wanted to be with someone and to have sex and to rediscover how it felt, moments ago. How it had been found with the man I lost and what your late wife will have brought to you. I told myself I'd make no promises...'

'And that means no next time?'

She nodded. It was all that she had read about of situations such as this and the people involved; what drove them to discover fleeting, but necessary, comfort and a reliving of how it could be between a man and woman.

She watched as he went to the bathroom, heard the vitality of his stream, and touched herself in recall of what had been rapturously shared with him. It had been a passionate and enduring moment; she felt sore from him but the manner of his seemingly harsh lovemaking had only excited her more.

'Is that it?' she said as he prepared to go. Her tone provoked no visible reaction. He remained silent and looked at her, the sheets drawn over the nakedness that had helped him to forget; the touch of warm flesh had brought an intense, painful, and sensational response. Desire still possessed him, but he would not concede to her pleas for him to stay.

'I know how it looks, 'he said meeting her accusing stare at last. 'I'm being selfish and uncaring.' He sat down at the edge of the bed. 'But that's not the reason...'

Kathryn stretched out a hand and he kissed the palm, holding her hand to his face.

'Come back to me, Simon...lie down beside me again, please?' she whispered looking at the strong profile of his face, the long nose and smooth chin. The uncertainty of what he had embarked upon had returned to his eyes.

'Thank you,' was all he said. It seemed to serve as an apology for his behaviour towards her now.

'I did something very different tonight, being with you like this. One-night stands aren't in my life, Simon...they never were and they won't be, not even with you and what you bring.' She held out a hand to him for a brief touch. 'Do you understand what you've made me do tonight?'

'Yes,' he whispered in acknowledgment of her honesty. 'And I am on new ground.'

She felt the emptiness of lost moments with him and hoped that it was not the only time he would be so emphatically joined to her. Simon turned to look at her but Kathryn now lay with the covers drawn tightly around her slender body and with her face hidden from view.

You don't deserve this, Kathryn, he thought before stepping towards the bedroom door, his jacket draped over one arm.

'Promise me you won't forget, Simon, every loving moment!' she called out to him.

He was provoked into returning to their bed and he bent to kiss her in farewell.