Push Me Ch. 03

I held Moira's hand in the cab (safety first). The cab driver, a pleasant, motherly woman in her early 50s, saw, and smiled at me via the rear view mirror. Moira was lost in recollection as soon as we pulled away from the curb, so I sat quietly, enjoying the look of delight on her face.

Back at the hotel, we returned to Moira's room to drop off the packet she had from the dance school. Once we were there, I took her hands, led her to the loveseat and explained the rest of the day.

"OK, I thought some relaxation and pampering might be in order." She eyed me curiously. "So, in just a few minutes, you and I are going to the hotel spa for massages."

"Ooooh." Her eyes sparkled.

"After that, much to my chagrin, we will part ways for a short time. You have an extended date with the spa and salon, while I have a few things to take care of. If you want, they'll also be doing your hair and makeup tonight, and will even help you get dressed, if you need it."

She was taken aback. "Craig, I don't know what to say."

"The only thing you need to say is 'Let's go.' Although I won't turn down a kiss." I informed her. She kissed me and ran her hand down to my groin.

"You are soooo getting lucky tonight," she whispered into my ear. I swallowed, hard. I knew that was the whole point of all this, but hearing her say it like that, it finally sunk in, like a large rock sinks into the sand when dropped from a great height -- there was penetration, a dull thud, and a hissing rain of brain matter falling back to the earth. I was almost concussed by it.

I rallied, grabbed the back of her neck, and kissed her hungrily. She pressed herself against my rapidly hardening cock and we both gasped. She attacked my mouth with her tongue, and I clutched her ass with my other hand. We dry humped slowly for a minute or three before we both came back to our senses at the same time, gasping for breath. The feel of her breath on my skin almost made me dive right back in, but the one still-sensible part of my brain must have kicked the adjacent insanely aroused bit, and I managed to control myself.

We untangled ourselves and stood up from the couch. Then, we divested ourselves of everything but clothing and room keys, and headed to the spa. Robes and changing rooms were provided, wherein we donned robes before proceeding to a couples massage room. "I have to tell you something," I whispered to her. "I'm a massage virgin." She began giggling hysterically, and wrapped her arms around my waist.

We both enjoyed the massages immensely, periodic moans of relaxation coming from both tables. I think I even fell asleep at some point.

Sadly, once they were done, we had to split up. "Enjoy the rest of your afternoon," I told her, holding her hands. "We should be meeting back up around seven." I leaned down and kissed her quickly, knowing she was naked under that robe, and contemplating more, but I suspected a public grope-fest would be frowned upon.

"I'll miss you," she said.

"I'll miss you, too, but, think of the great reveal." I smiled. So did she, and we parted with one last quick kiss.

Moira would be busy for hours, but I had several items on my task list. While she was wrapped up in the spa, I made my way to the salon. I had my head shaved and my beard trimmed and, on a spur of the moment decision, colored. The "daughter" comment from the cabbie was still bugging me. I didn't want any kind of a repeat incident. Tonight was about Moira, not our apparent age difference. I also got a manicure, a first for me - again, not out of vanity. I've heard it said that the condition of a man's fingers shows his concern for his lover. Makes sense to me.

Finished with the salon, I returned to my room to see if my deliveries had arrived. I checked the fridge, saw that everything was in order there, and then took care of the flowers. After that, I still had about an hour to kill, so I sat and relaxed, contemplating what had happened and what was yet to come. I was confident in my preparations, but this was a new thing for me as well. I wanted everything to be perfect tonight for Moira. When the time neared seven, I got into my tux and shoes.

At 7 PM exactly, I called Moira's room.

"Hello?"

"Hi there."

"Hi."

"All set?"

"Gimme five minutes."

"OK. I'll see you then."

At 7:05PM I knocked on Moira's door. An angel opened it.

Her dress was ivory silk, pale and creamy. One shoulder was bare in a toga style, and the dress displayed a perfectly enticing amount of cleavage. Her hair was piled elegantly on top of her head in a mass of intertwined curls. The dressed molded to her, caressed her flawless hips and butt and fell straight to her feet. It was slit to the knee on one side, and I caught a peek of familiar white and gold shoes.

I like to talk. I consider myself pretty good with words, and I enjoy telling a woman how and why I think she is beautiful. I'm a professional technical writer, and accuracy of the written and spoken word is my lifeblood; nonetheless, I was speechless. My jaw dropped. I went deaf and numb, and all I could do was stare. That was all for the better. The silence said everything that needed to be said. My angel floated to me and kissed me gently.

"Don't mess up my make-up...yet," she warned me. I shivered. She noticed my beard and patted my cheek. "What happened here?"

"I couldn't stand the idea of people thinking you were here with some old man," I told her. She looked at me confused.

"I never thought of you as old at all," she told me. I relayed the cab driver incident, and well as salesclerk Nikki's initial confusion. She gave me a sad, confused look. "How could people think like that?"

"Because you're too beautiful for the likes of me," I told her.

"I don't know if I'm OK with that answer or not." Her reaction was just one more reason she was my angel. She saw something in me others didn't. Her faith and love gave me a strength and confidence I didn't know I had.

"Well, I'm not saying I agree. I know what a tasty hunk of man meat I am, but the general ignorant populace ranks you way out of my league." I grinned. She hugged me tightly.

"Is that a box in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?" She giggled. It was a box. Shit, the box! One look at her, and I had completely forgotten about it.

"Both?" I replied, tentatively. She laughed. "Turn around," I directed her. She spun, and I took a moment to enjoy the view from behind, pulling out the box and removing the contents entirely without looking at what I was doing. The dress she had picked was perfect for this - both what was in the box, and the blatant ass-watching in which I was engaged.

I slipped a delicate gold chain around her neck and fastened the clasp. She looked down and gasped. A blood-red, teardrop ruby rested against her heart. "It's beautiful," she whispered.

"It had to be worthy of you," I told her. She spun to face me, her eyes filling with tears. "No no no, make-up, remember?" I reminded her. She gave a sputtering laugh as I pulled a tissue from my pocket and handed it to her. Tragedy averted, she kissed me again. I took her hand, and we headed to the ballroom.

The dinner was organized into tables of eight. Several women stopped Moira and complimented her dress, or her shoes. She blushed and thanked them, and I stood just a bit taller every time. I got several impressed looks from some of the men, a few from women, and even a very predatory look from a woman who looked to be ten years older than me as we sought our table. The places were numbered, and we found our table after exploring the floor for a few moments.

"I'm too excited to sit down," Moira informed me when we arrived at our table, which was still empty. We were a little early, but I wanted to show off Moira as much as possible.

"Then I think we should get a drink," I told her.

"Good idea," she agreed. I escorted her to the bar. The bartender was around Moira's age, and he looked like he was going to throw out a flirty comment as we walked up to the bar -- he had a subdued but insolent grin on his face. Then he looked at me. He was closer to Moira's size than mine, and, as he realized she was with me, his grin disintegrated into a placid, generic expression of servility. He filled our drinks with the minimum necessary amount of interaction. Moira smiled at him, and I put a decent tip in the jar.

"Poor guy," she said once we were out of earshot of the bar. "You kinda scared him."

"I was my usual, charming self," I told her. As far as I was concerned, I hadn't needed to do anything. Before we were even engaged in conversation, he had flipped to an obsequious demeanor. Had he not done so, or at least, had he been overt in ogling or flirted excessively with Moira, I might have asserted my presence more, but I never felt the need to be anything other than my usual dealing-with-people self.

"You were your usual, kinda terrifying self," she replied. I was startled at how her thought paralleled mine, but made me see if from a different side. I frowned, and my steps faltered, thinking about the morning when I had almost completely lost control of my desire for her, and only her flinch of fear had snapped me out of it. My face betrayed my thoughts, and Moira read them clearly. "Oh, sweetie, I didn't mean it like that." She reached up and put a hand on my cheek. I held it there and closed my eyes. "You don't scare me. I know what a teddy bear you are, but no one in their right mind would mess with you for no reason. It's not just your size. You're... intense, I guess. You gave him the same look you gave the sushi menu."

I had always considered myself focused and analytical. I could mentally disassemble complex structures and concepts without much conscious effort, but I had never considered what that looked like from the outside. I knew it was just how I processed things to understand them. Apparently, my predilections for mentally dismantling things was almost palpable to people when I was trying to do the same to them.

"I'm glad you're not scared of me. I couldn't live with myself if you always saw me that way when you looked at me. I never want to see that look of fear on your face again." The last bit of that conversation had taken place a few steps from our table, and I knew the couple now seated there had witnessed part of our exchange, even if they had not heard what was said. The guy looked around the room, embarrassed, but the woman gave us a warm, knowing smile as we approached the table.

"You two are the cutest couple," she gushed when we arrived. Moira blushed.

"Thank you, but any cuteness is all thanks to her." I replied, looking at Moira. She smiled up at me. I gestured to Moira. "Hi, this is Moira, and I'm Craig." She took Moira's hand, and then mine.

"I'm Beth, and this is Mike." She put her hand on her, judging from the rings, husband's shoulder, and he jumped. His attempt to avoid embarrassing eye contact had left him totally oblivious to what was happening at the table.

"Huh? Oh, hi, Mike Watson." He stood, offering his hand to me, and then Moira. He froze for a second, eyes going wide, finally actually seeing Moira. Beth elbowed him in the ribs when she saw he had zoned out again.

"She's taken, and so are you," she harassed him playfully. His eyes got even wider, and I found myself looking for water in case his collar caught fire, which seemed a distinct possibility, judging from the color of his face. Beth patted his shoulder comfortingly, and then asked him to go get them some drinks. He seemed grateful for the escape, and fled to the bar.

"He's a little out of his element tonight. He's not big on large social scenes with people he doesn't know, but he's very generous, and this was his idea, so I'm really proud of him." Beth explained. We exchanged background information, and I got a familiar appraising look when Beth found out Moira was still a student. Even with the beard all one color, she knew I was appreciably older than Moira. She was glad to hear I was a tech nerd, though. Mike designed computer hardware for luxury cars, and she hoped I would be able to draw him out some, since we had a common background.

"You have to tell me where you got those shoes," Beth said to Moira.

"Sorry, the woman who told me about the place made me promise not to tell anyone about it," Moira replied.

"Really?"

"Yeah. The woman working at the store told me the same thing."

"How strange."

"It's a local thing, I guess. I love your bracelet." Beth was wearing a thick, diamond tennis bracelet made of alternating black and champagne diamonds.

"Thank you. We met at Georgia Tech, and these are the school colors. Mike gave it to me for our 20th anniversary. "

"Congratulations," Moira and I said together.

"Thank you," she said. Her face went wistfully slack for a moment. Mike returned with their drinks, and she stood and kissed him. He was definitely uncomfortable for a second, obviously not a PDA guy, but I could tell he adored his wife, and he was doing everything he could to ensure she enjoyed her evening. I turned to smile at Moira, and she was already smiling at me. Well, when in Rome.... I leaned over and kissed her.

Mike seemed to relax a little at this point. As our conversation flowed, a few more people arrived at our table. Then the one thing I was really hoping to avoid happened. It was a good-natured question, but the answers ranged from rather awkward to potentially emotionally devastating.

"So, Moira, how did this big lug end up here tonight with you?" Moira stiffened, and clutched my hand. Her face froze, and Beth knew she'd stepped into something. "I'm sorry," she said quickly. "I understand if you don't want to talk about it with a complete stranger. It's not really my business."

"It's nothing like that, not really." She looked at me, and I squeezed her hand in support."My... my brother died when he was very young. He spent half a year in the childrens' ward of a hospital. It was so sad there. I support anything that brings some joy to kids like that."

I saw Beth tearing up, and I was doing the same. Mike handed her a handkerchief and put a hand on her shoulder. She leaned toward him and dabbed her face. Moira squeezed my hand, favoring me with a brave smile, and in that moment I was so proud of her strength I almost teared up again.

"Thank you, for sharing that with me," Beth said eventually. "Knowing that, and sitting here with you, it makes this evening that much more special." She reached out and squeezed Moira's other hand for a second, and then rested her head on her husband's shoulder.

The rest of the dinner, and the charity auction afterward, went by quickly, until Moira put her hand on my thigh and began working it slowly upward. I flinched slightly when she caressed a spot on my inner thigh about an inch below where my balls were resting. Beth noticed and put on a sly, knowing smile. Then Mike slammed both his hands down on the table, making plates, silverware and glasses rattle, and froze. Beth's smile just got wider, and she winked at Moira. Mike began to sweat. Beth teased him for a moment before she pushed back from the table and asked Moira to join her in a trip to the powder room. Mike was still a little shaken, so I offered to refill drinks for the four of us while the girls were gone. He nodded distractedly.

When I returned with the drinks, Moira and Beth had already returned, and Mike's eyes were wide. Beth was whispering into his ear, and he was swallowing roughly and repeatedly. I looked from Mike and Beth to Moira, who gave me a knowing smile, held out a hand, and said, "Dance with me?"

People half-filled a parquet dance floor in the center of the room. I took her hand and led her there, noticing she had her other hand balled into a fist. When we got to the dance floor, she slid behind me and circled me before ending up back in front of me. I felt a tug at my pocket as she went past. I stuck my hand in, and my fingers found soft lace. I rolled it between my fingers for a second before I dawned on me what it was.

She wrapped her arms around my neck, swaying slowly with me, and then stretched her mouth up to my ear. "Mike has a pocketful, too. Apparently, he and Beth are pretty wild with some of their friends, and she's the wildest. She offered me a ...trade." She pulled back, and I quirked an eyebrow at her, knowing she hadn't said yes. "Are you intrigued?" she asked me.

"She seems like a nice woman, and I never would have guessed at the wild side, considering the way Mike freaked out a little earlier, but no way would I trade you for anyone," I told her.

"Damn right you wouldn't," she replied emphatically. She leaned in again to whisper to me. "I turned her down, but I told her she could pretend she was fucking my ... tasty hunk of man meat. She'd do it in a heartbeat. The underwear thing was her idea."

"Well, I'm glad you weren't ready to be done with me and cast me off," I replied. Her face went very serious.

"I don't think I ever will be," she said. She looked surprised and a little concerned that she'd said it.

"Good, because I don't think you'll ever be able to get rid of me." I kissed her, and then held her against me as we danced. She rested her head on my chest with a content sigh.

I'm not much of a dancer, but I loved every second I spent with Moira on that dance floor. I admit, I enjoyed showing her off, but I got the must pleasure from the waves of joy cascading off Moira. Every step made her smile. I let her dance around me, holding her when she wanted to be close, moving with her when she spun away. Eventually, my mild-mannered exhibitionism hit a peak as I noticed a space had cleared around us and as many people were watching us as dancing. Moira laughed when I dipped her, and the crowd "oohh"d as I kissed her. When I pulled her back up, she was panting as her eyes drilled into me.

"We need to get out of here," she said.

We made our way back to our table and said goodnight to Beth and Mike. Hugs went all around, and Mike shook my hand. "I have to thank you, but I can't tell you why," he said quietly.

"Don't worry, I know what's in your pocket, and you're welcome, although you should probably be thanking Moira."

"Heh, yeah," he replied.

"Do me a favor, though," I said, tugging up one corner of my mouth. "Make her say she loves your 'tasty hunk of man mean.' Trust me. It'll be worth it." He blushed, but nodded.

"Don't you hurt her," Beth told me as I hugged her.

"Never," I said.

She locked eyes with me for a second. "No, no I don't think you ever would," she said, smiling slightly.

Beth and Moira hugged like old friends, and with a last, "Goodnight," Moira and I left the ballroom. My heart started pounding as soon as the elevators were in sight. I could feel Moira trembling slightly on my arm. An open elevator was waiting, and, mercifully, no one else got on before I could get the door closed. As soon as they shut, I hit the button for our floor, and then wrapped my arms around Moira, holding her tight against me. We both took shuddering, deep breaths. I turned her face up to mine, and saw contentment and excitement. I kissed her forehead softly. When the doors opened onto our floor, I escorted her to my room.

I opened the door, and held it aside for her to enter first. I had deliberately left off all the lights. She took a couple quick steps into the room before flipping the light switch. When the lights snapped on, she gasped. Ten dozen white roses sat in vases scattered around the room. Another dozen had been split into six pairs of two; those couples lay intertwined throughout the room as well, including one pair on the bed. The last dozen had been reduced to petals, also strewn around the room and on the bed, except for the pile I'd strategically placed just inside the door. I sneaked in behind her, picked up that pile and waited, letting her take in what she was seeing. She turned to me, those gorgeous almond eyes as wide as I have ever seen them, totally speechless. I sprinkled the petals over her head.