On a Day Like That

"And don't you feel comfortable and safe after...just before we came here?"

"Completely. But that...well, it's the next level up, isn't it?"

"Okay, that's fair," Peggy allowed. "At least one level up!"

"Just remember one thing, if we're going to be a couple," Chuck said.

"Yes?"

"Nothing wrong with being quiet, but you don't need to be quiet..." His voice dropped to a whisper. "In bed," he finished.

Peggy laughed so hard she worried about drawing attention to them, having already been surprised at her own boisterousness in the shower.

The meal went by most agreeably, but Peggy felt another kind of hunger building up steadily throughout. She remembered from college that Chuck had a sweet tooth, and was pleasantly surprised when he asked first if she wanted any dessert. "I'm fine, thanks," she said.

"Just the bill, please," Chuck said. "In fact..." He got his wallet out and handed the waiter his credit card.

"Sorry, if you wanted some chocolate cake or something," Peggy said.

"That's not the dessert I'm hungry for," he said.

"You naughty boy, you! And you were always so demure in public."

"We're the ones who burn the brightest underneath, I think," Chuck replied.

"Couldn't agree more!" Peggy was finding it harder by the minute to sit still.

Minutes later, as she hung onto his arm for the chilly but short walk home, she couldn't resist asking, "So, do you still hate Valentine's Day?"

"Are you kidding? This is just what I always wished for when I said I hated it!"

"I know what you mean," Peggy said. "If only we'd both just let Mark and Alex alone..."

"Then we probably wouldn't have ended up together now," Chuck pointed out.

"Worth every minute of eating our hearts out for them, then, isn't it?"

"Every last one!"

And there was no more talk of Mark or Alex once Peggy unlocked her door and ushered Chuck into her still-warm apartment. "No need for the electric heater, huh?" Mark asked, reaching for the light switch but then thinking better of it.

"I'm sure we can think of other ways to keep warm," Peggy said, shutting the door. She drew a book of matches out of the kitchen drawer and lit a scented candle she'd bought earlier that day. "Just got this in case you said yes," she said as the wick flickered to life and cast a warm glow throughout the room.

"In case I said yes!" Chuck repeated as he drew the curtains, with one last look at the frozen outdoors. "Of course I was going to say yes."

"Then get over here, will you?"

Peggy stood between the kitchen island and the bed, framed in the glow of the candle, her arms outstretched. Chuck walked into them without another word, and their lips met. Peggy welcomed the sensation of him lifting her skirt up ever so slowly, and reciprocated by pulling his shirt out of his pants. Every lonely night in that very room for the past seven months, every time she'd missed college, every time she'd pined in vain for Mark, none of that mattered anymore. It all melted away in the delicious sensation of his hands under her dress, on her breasts, undoing her bra before he even had the dress out of the way.

"Let's get this off you," she whispered, and she pulled his shirt up over his head rather than bothering to unbutton it. Chuck unbuttoned the top button and let her pull it up, along with his t-shirt. As soon as it was off, he returned the favor with her dress. Peggy swung off her bra, hoping he'd be able to guess her nipples were itching to be kissed.

He did, and she soon found herself toppling onto the bed with him kissing and nibbling her into a frenzy. "Oh, my...." She closed her eyes and gave in to the wonderful sensation, but her hands did find their way to his pants, which she soon had unbuttoned despite a little fumbling about in her joy. By the time she got them unzipped, his hand had found his way between her legs and he was rubbing her clit gently through her tights and panties. "Oooh!" She wiggled her hips in response. "Get my tights off!" she ordered. "I want you inside me."

Chuck paused and looked up at her with a playful smile? "When?" he asked, still rubbing the wet fabric in enticing circles.

"An hour ago!" She thrust her hips up and pushed her tights and panties down herself. At last, Chuck scrambled to his hands and knees at her feet and pulled them all the way off, and she spread her legs wide for him.

"I guess we're not so shy anymore, are we?" he whispered, rubbing her thighs playfully.

Peggy reached down and parted her vulva with both hands. "Does that answer your question?"

Chuck laughed and climbed gently onto her. They kissed again, and he felt her grasping him in one hand and guiding him inside her. As he felt her enveloping him all the way, she let out a satisfied grunt. "Been dying for that for hours!" she whispered.

He responded, not with words, but with a slow and reverent push in and out, gazing down at her in serene amazement as she moaned with joy. She rubbed his sides now and again but mostly lay back and exulted in the wonderful sensation. "Chuck, this is beautiful," she exhaled once. Nothing at all like that night in London, but she left that unsaid.

She wasn't aware of him picking up the pace. But she was aware once he had done so, as she realized she was close. She'd never said it out loud with the Hungarian and she'd never imagined she would say it with any partner, but this was Chuck. Now she said it, in a breathless squeal. "Gonna come!"

"Do it!" he encouraged, picking up the pace some more.

This time she was aware of it, and she felt set free to moan louder than ever as she felt the first telltale stirrings deep inside her. Back in her bed on the farm, that was when she'd always known she'd pushed herself too far and there was no going back. As she came with a yawp of joy, she couldn't imagine why she'd ever wanted to go back anyway.

Unlike the Hungarian, Chuck knew not to slow down. So she rode the crest of her orgasm for what felt at once like hours and no time at all. When it finally subsided, she was sure she saw stars on the ceiling.

She knew she saw Chuck grinning at her even as he continued his delicious flailing. "That was beautiful," he grunted.

"Now you!"

"Come with me this time?"

"Please!" Peggy had never come more than once before, but now that looked easy. She rocked her hips playfully as he went on, and in no time felt herself getting close again. "Now," she warned him as she once again felt the dam about to burst.

"Yes!" he said, and he tilted his head back and let out a loud moan of his own. Peggy felt him slow down, but not before she felt herself coming again.

He came to a stop at last, buried as deep inside her as he could reach, and Peggy grabbed at his buttocks to keep him there. "Oh, that's beautiful, Chuck," she sighed. "I've never seen a man come that hard."

"It's all thanks to you!" he said, helping himself to a triumphant kiss. He didn't budge down below, and Peggy welcomed the chance to cradle him within for a bit.

She wrapped her arms around him and closed her legs even more tightly around him. "How wonderfully trite, to think we fell in love on Valentine's Day, huh?"

"Oh, I was in love with you before today," he said.

"Since when?"

"I really don't know. Just, I always did admire you, you know."

"Same here, Chuck. Just don't ever tell me you hate Valentine's Day again."

"I won't."