Return to Anzio

When the war was over, he'd found that one special woman, hadn't he? She was the light of his life and his best friend as well as his wife. Was it right or even possible that he could feel the same way about Renita? She wasn't a pretty young girl anymore. She was a sultry, black-haired beauty of a woman who would excite any man.

Was it possible she felt the same way about him? Mike couldn't tell. Renita had been a perfect lady since he'd walked up to the farmhouse that day. She'd seemed happy to see him that day and was always willing to talk about anything, but she'd never given him a hint that she was doing more than showing a friend the sights of Rome.

It was three days before his flight back to Detroit that Mike found out the answer to all his questions, and even then it was an accident more than anything else.

During the day, Renita always dressed in pants, a blouse and flat shoes. That was pretty unusual in Rome because most women her age wore dresses, but it didn't bother Mike. Renita was a unique woman in his estimation and she could wear whatever she liked. The coat she wore against the winter cold effectively hid her figure. For dinner though, she always changed into a dress, stockings and heels.

That night, Renita had to park her car across the cobblestone street in front of the restaurant. They finished eating, and then walked across the street to her car. Midway, Renita's right heel slipped between the cobblestones and threw her off balance. She instinctively grabbed for the thing nearest to her and that nearest thing was Mike. He caught her in his arms.

Mike thought Renita would just pull her heel out of the gap and start walking again, but she didn't. She did get back on both her feet, but she didn't pull away from his embrace. It felt to Mike like she actually moved a little closer. When she looked up she smiled, but there was more there than just a smile.

"Mike, thank you for catching me. If you hadn't, you'd have been picking me up off the street."

When she didn't pull away, Mike said, "Should I let you go now?"

Renita put her arms around his neck then.

"Not unless you want to. I like how this feels, and I haven't felt this way in a long, long time."

Mike didn't say anything. He just leaned down enough that he could kiss Renita. When he pulled away, Renita put her cheek on his chest.

"You wanted to know how older Italian lovers act. I guess this is how."

Mike wasn't sure if Renita had been joking until he walked her to her hotel room that night. She stopped and unlocked the door like she had in the past, but then turned back and put her arms around Mike's neck again.

"If we were Italian lovers and we had a private place, we would make love together tonight. My hotel room is private. Maybe we should find out if an American man and an Italian woman make love the same way.

The way Renita kissed him after that told Mike that Renita felt the same way he did. When she broke the kiss, he smiled.

"If that was an invitation, I'm accepting."

Renita closed and locked the door behind them, took off her coat, and then slipped off her heels and turned her back to Mike.

"A young couple would probably undress each other. I don't think I want to wait that long. Would you work my zipper?"

As Mike pulled down the zipper he drank in the soft skin of Renita's shoulders, then the contrast between the black bra band and her slightly olive skin, and finally the waistband of her black lace panties where it rested just above her hips. Renita turned around then, reached down and grabbed the hem of her dress, pulled it over her head and then laid it in a chair.

Mike had shed his coat and was unbuttoning his shirt when Renita slipped the bra straps from her shoulders and turned the bra around. In the process, her breasts slipped from the cups and then swayed gently as she undid the hooks and tossed the bra on top of her dress. The only articles of clothing she was still wearing were her black lace panties and her black stockings and black, lace garter belt.

She waited until Mike was standing there in his underwear before she hooked her thumbs in the waistband of her panties and then pulled them down.

It the sight of Renita's full breasts and wide hips hadn't already stiffened his cock, the sight of the thick thatch of black hair on her mound would have. Mike quickly took off his underwear and then walked the two steps to Renita and put his arms around her.

"You're beautiful, you know. You were beautiful when I first saw you all those years ago, but now you're more than I ever imagined."

Renita slipped her arms around Mike's neck and smiled.

"I think you should have your eyes checked, but if you really think that, why don't you show me how an American man makes love to an Italian woman?"

Later, when Renita lay beside him on the bed with her arm over his chest and her breasts pressed into his side, Mike would realize they hadn't just had sex. Sex was just satisfying the basic desire all men and women have. This was more. He hadn't made love to Renita either. They had made love together, each trying to give pleasure to the other. What had actually happened was two people becoming one.

It had begun about like Mike had expected. Renita pulled the blanket and sheet down to the foot of the bed and then lay down on her back in the middle. When she did, her breasts formed soft mounds on her chest and a little on each side. Mike sat down facing Renita and stroked his hand up Renita's arm to her shoulder and then from her shoulder down to her left breast.

Renita smiled as Mike gently stroked the soft mound, then caught her breath when his fingertip brushed her nipple. As Mike ran a fingertip around the darker skin of Renita's nipple bed, she closed her eyes and her mouth formed the shape of a circle. She slowly exhaled as her nipple bed tightened into little ridges and then caught her breath again when Mile stroked up the side of her stiffening nipple.

Mike had expected something like that. He hadn't expected to feel Renita's soft right hand slipping down his side, then over his belly, and finally to his stiff cock. Renita smiled when her fingers closed around his shaft.

She didn't start jacking his cock. Instead, she just lightly stroked his length with her fingertips. When she felt the rim of his cock head, she lightly stroked up and over the tip, then around to the underside. Mike felt a tingle race from his cock when she stroked that place.

Renita rolled onto her side then and Mike felt more tingles as she kissed and nibbled at his neck, then his cheek. He was prepared for Renita's lips meeting his. He wasn't prepared for her soft little tongue slipping between his lips and then inside his mouth. The sensation of her tongue touching his made Mike's hips raise a little.

Mike quickly discovered that Renita wasn't just going to lay there and let him make love to her. Everything he did resulted in Renita doing something that kept making him more and more aroused. When he kissed her nipple, Renita put her thigh over his legs and the next thing he felt was hair rubbing his thigh. When he felt down Renita's back and then over the curve of her hip, she stroked his cock a few times. When his fingertips touched her hair-fringed lips, Renita moaned and then locked her mouth to his.

She moaned into his mouth when she found his tongue with hers, and she pushed back on his fingertips. When those fingertips parted her puffy lips, Renita sighed and stroked his cock a little harder.

Mike slipped on finger inside Renita then. She was pretty slippery inside, so he slipped the finger out and then down over he inner lips. Renita moaned as his finger came out, moaned again as his fingertip traced the path from her entrance to her clit, and gasped when he found the swollen little button.

After a little massaging from Renita's clit to her entrance, then back inside her, then back up to her clit, Renita was starting to rock herself up and down over his fingers. Mike figured she was ready and had started to roll to his side when Renita gently pushed him back down.

She straddled him then and felt between them for his cock. Mike watched Renita raise up, position his cock head at her entrance, and then begin slowly moving up and down. With every movement down, his cock slipped inside Renita a little more. She moaned a little with every stroke she made until she was sitting on Mike's thighs with his cock inside her as far as it would go.

Mike was a little thankful that he was fifty-one instead of twenty. When he was twenty, the sight of Renita sinking down over his cock while her breasts hung just inches from his face would have had him cumming. Now, age had given him a little less sensitivity and a lot more control.

When Renita began riding him, Mike noticed something other than the sensations racing from his cock and the heavy breasts swaying over his face. Renita didn't just keep pumping up and down over his cock. She'd do that for a while, then lean down and kiss him, or lean down and brush his mouth with one of her breasts. Mike would kiss her back or wrap his lips around her nipple. Renita would either sigh or shudder, and then begin riding him again.

It wasn't until he was having to hold back that he realized what Renita was doing. She was exciting herself on his cock and by kissing him and by feeling his lips on her nipples. She was also keeping him just on the edge of losing control. If he started to push up into Renita's stroke, she'd stop until he'd eased back down a little. What she was doing was making sure they both reached the peak at about the same time.

It was working too. Mike couldn't stop himself from thrusting up as Renita sank down over his cock. What she was doing was too erotic and arousing for him to control that. He kept getting closer and closer before she stopped so Mike knew she was experiencing the same thing. When Renita began to take little panting breaths, Mike knew she was nearly there. When she moaned loudly and then rocked her hips at the end of the stroke, Mike was holding on by a thread and Renita didn't stop. Instead, she started stroking faster, then faster still, and her breaths were gasps when she breathed in and long moans when she breathed out.

Mike lost control when Renita made a little cry and her thighs began to shake. He grabbed her hips and thrust up as the first surge raced up his cock. Renita raised up halfway, then cried out again as she pushed herself down over Mike's spurting cock. Mike was spurting a third time when Renita's hips began to shake and her strokes were so short and so fast that Mike could only hang on to her hips.

Renita was still shaking when she lay down on top of Mike and nestled her face against his shoulder. It was several minutes before Renita said anything. Mike felt her heart pounding against his chest and felt her rapid breaths on his neck. He didn't say anything either. Besides the pounding of his own heart and the fact that he was breathing fast too, he was overcome by what had just happened. All he could do was hold Renita in his arms.

When Renita did say something, all she said was, "Mike, that was...I don't know what to say".

Mike stroked her back.

"I know what you mean, Renita. I don't know what to say either, but I know what you mean."

Mike kept his hotel room for the next two days, but he spent both nights with Renita. Both nights were different in that they made love in different ways, but both were the same in that their lovemaking ended with a blinding fall into the abyss of passion taken to the breaking point and then exploding into something neither would have been able to describe.

Mike had come back to Anzio to see what had changed. What he'd found is that Anzio, Cisterna, and Rome had all changed. He'd also found out that he'd changed. After Julia had passed away, Mike figured on spending the rest of his life alone. Now, after finding Renita again, he realized he didn't want to be alone. He wanted to be with Renita. It was the day before his flight that he realized that feeling had been growing every day. It wasn't the sex either. It was just being with Renita, seeing her smile when she showed him something or hearing her laugh when he made some stupid comment.

It was at dinner that night when he asked her.

"Renita, I have to go back home tomorrow, but I don't want this to end like the last time. I can't just say goodbye and get on the plane knowing I'll never see you again. Come with me."

Renita stopped her fork on its way to her mouth.

"To America? You want me to come to America and live with you? I can't do that for a lot of reasons. I can't leave my mother alone and I'd be lost in America."

Mike nodded.

"I know it's asking a lot, but I can't just let you go. I'm not talking about you moving to Detroit with me forever, at least not at first, and I'm not trying to push you into anything. I just want you to come see how it would be if we were...if we lived together. Your mother has your two brothers to help her while you're gone, and you'll have me, so you wouldn't be lost."

That night, after both had gasped out the release of their passions, Renita curled up beside Mike and stroked his chest.

"If I came to America to live with you, what would your son and daughter think? Wouldn't they think you're replacing their mother with me?"

Mike stroked Renita's arm.

"Maybe, at first, but they've both been telling me for years that I should find another wife. I think they'd accept you after they got to know you."

"What if they don't?"

Mike kissed Renita on the forehead.

"If they don't, they'll just have to get used to you being with me, that is, if you decide to stay. I won't ask you to promise me anything. All I'll say is I can't imagine living without you."

When Renita took Mike to the airport the next morning, she wouldn't commit to coming to the US, but she promised him she'd think about it. The last words Mike said to Renita were halting because he was choking up. He kissed her, then stroked her cheek and said, "Renita, I really need you". Mike was walking down the ramp to board the plane, so he didn't see Renita take a tissue from her purse, dab at her eyes, and then make the walk back to where she'd left her car.

}{

Mike got back to Detroit at a little after seven that night and walked into his house an hour later with a burger and fries from Burger King. What struck him immediately was how quiet the house was. What struck him next was that he was lonely for the first time in years. He'd gotten accustomed to walking around with Renita and talking with her. He missed her voice and he missed her just being there. After wolfing down the burger and fries with a beer, he went to bed. Falling asleep took a while even though he was tired from the flight.

At eight AM the next morning, Sunday, he called the number of the farmhouse in Italy, and he felt a wave of relief when Renita answered. He'd gotten this idea in his head that maybe she wouldn't want to talk to him, but there was her voice.

Mike told Renita that he'd gotten home with no problems and also that he missed her. She laughed and said it had only been a day. That made Mike wonder if he'd read too much into the days they'd spent together. He kept the rest of their half-hour phone call to just what she'd done that day and what they were going to do the rest of the week.

After that half-hour Renita said he was paying too much money just to talk with her. That statement again made him wonder. He said the money didn't matter but that he'd like to call her again sometime. He was waiting for Renita to say no. Instead, what he heard was Renita's tearful voice saying, "Mike, I'd like that. I've missed you too".

They talked every day for the rest of the week after that. Mike would set his alarm to wake up at five AM and he'd call Renita at six. She'd be in the house having lunch about then. They'd talk for between twenty minutes and half an hour before saying goodbye. It was at the end of their phone call that Friday that Mike heard what he'd been hoping to hear. He said he'd call her on Saturday and Sunday too, and then mustered his courage and said, "Renita, I think I love you".

The line was quiet for a few seconds before Renita spoke again. When she did, Mike could hear her sniffing.

"Mike, I think I love you too. Do you still want me to come to America?"

It took a month for Renita's tourist visa to be approved and another week for her to arrange the flight to Detroit after Mike wired her the money for the plane ticket. Renita had never flown anywhere before, so the last day before she left, he walked her through what to expect during the flight and at US Customs when she landed in New York City. Her plane was supposed to land in Detroit at 3:13 PM, and Mike was waiting at the exit from Customs at Detroit Metro at 2:30.

Mike had offered to pay for a business class flight because he knew Renita hadn't flown before. He could picture her sitting in coach in the middle seat between two huge men who probably didn't smell very nice. When he told Renita the price, she adamantly refused.

That meant Mike had to wait until first class and business class de-planed and then wait some more because Renita's seat was in the middle of coach. After the stream of passengers coming out of customs dwindled to just a few at a time, Mike was wondering if Renita had missed the connection in New York City. Then he thought, no, she'd have called me if that had happened.

He was having those thoughts when Renita walked out of the customs area and into the airport, saw him, and then started almost running toward him. Mike met her half way, and they spent the next minute just holding each other and kissing.

When Renita eased away, she had tears in her eyes.

"Mike, I've missed you more than I could ever tell you."

Mike grinned.

"I know the feeling. Let's get your bags and then get you home...well, to my home. After that we'll decide where to have dinner."

Mike had taken a week of vacation so he'd be there as Renita caught up with the time change. The first day, they didn't do much except go out to eat. The next two days, Renita had mostly recovered from jet-lag, and told Mike it was costing too much for them to eat out all the time. That afternoon, Mike took her to a grocery store. That night, they ate the first of the meals Renita was to fix. After that meal, Renita told Mike she was going to tidy up the kitchen and for him to go relax.

When she came out of the kitchen, Mike was on the couch watching TV. Renita sat down beside him and then smiled.

"Remember when you asked me how Italian lovers would act? I think we figured that out, didn't we? Right now, I'd like to act like lovers again."

It was that Saturday that Renita said she wanted to meet Mike's son and daughter. He'd told them about Renita, but he hadn't told them she was coming for a visit. It was with some hesitation he called them both and asked them to come to dinner on Sunday. He didn't tell them why. He just said he wanted them to meet a friend of his.

The dinner had gone better than Mike expected. The conversation was a little reserved, but his kids and their spouses seemed to get along with Renita. Mike took that as a sign of their acceptance of her if not approval.

The next day, Mike went back to work and left Renita alone in his house. He told her to keep the doors locked and to call him if she had any questions or had any problems. He didn't get a call from Renita, but he did get calls from both Sherry, his daughter and Tony, his son.

Tony didn't have much to say about Renita. All he said was she seemed like a nice woman and that if Mike decided she was the one, he wouldn't stand in the way. That's about what Mike had expected. He saw a lot of himself in Tony. Tony was not the type of man to get emotional about anything, and he believed that other people's business was no business of his.