Season of Joy

Joy's aunt Henrietta glanced at her and did a double take, "Are you alright, dear? You're all flushed and keep moaning."

"It just feels wonderful, ...being here....together." Joy replied but looked at Gere in a way that told him she intended the double entendres.

Joy glanced at Gere's lap to see what she was feeling. Gere's growing cock stretched along his leg as she rubbed his thigh. She didn't want to be blatant, but she hoped to touch it 'by accident'. He had to grab her hand to keep from having to walk from the table with a stiff hard-on or worse, an embarrassing wet spot.

She smiled sheepishly at him as he held her hand and drew it up on the table.

Joy's mother abruptly left the room returning shortly with a stack of several presents wrapped in Christmas wrapping. "Joy, honey, I am so sorry but I will not be here for the Christmas holidays, Our book club is going on a Holiday Cruise in the Bahamas! I'm so excited. I'm feeling guilty about missing Christmas with you but we booked this before you came home"

"Oh, mom, that's okay."

"....so I am giving you your gifts now. Go ahead and open them!"

Joy was a bit embarrassed but opened her gifts and kissed her mom. Everyone had a glass of wine and talked. Eventually everyone headed to bed.

Joy and Gere went to their room and sat together on the bed and talked. They both were certain their relationship was heading toward a more intimate place, maybe even marriage, but it seemed kind of forced at this point. They each were a little afraid to voice their thoughts, afraid to hurt feelings.

Gere decided to take the lead, "Joy," he began, touching her knee gently, "I would like nothing more than to take you to bed right now, but I think it is a little too soon for us. What do you think?"

Joy breathed a sigh of relief, "I'm so glad you agree. I don't want you to think I don't want to be with you, in your bed, but not yet. I don't want our first time together to be in my childhood bed in my girly room, in my Mom's house, with my mom and aunt right down the hall. I would be so embarrassed the whole time and I want it to be special with you."

"I appreciate that," Gere answered, he couldn't help but be a little disappointed, but he agreed it was for the best. He was a patient man, and he could wait, especially for someone like Joy.

Joy embraced him and pulled his face to hers. She kissed him with love in her eyes, "I promise soon though," she smiled a cute little smile that strummed Gere's heart.

"So...how are we going to do this?" Gere asked.

"We are both adults, I think we could share the bed without...um...stuff happening"

Gere pursed his lips skeptical , "I don't know....have you looked at yourself? You're smokin' hot!"

They both laughed and Joy answered with a cute giggle, "You're pretty hot yourself!"

They embraced and kissed. The kiss began to grew until it got pretty intense when Gere suddenly separated from her and declared, "If we keep that up we'll be doing IT in your childhood bed, in your girly room, in your Mom's house with your Mom and Aunt right down the hall!"

Joy laughed,"Yes it was heading that way. I'll use the restroom to put on my pajamas. While I'm in bed, you can go and change into yours."

"Eh.... slight problem....I didn't bring pajamas, I usually sleep in my boxers. But I did bring my athletic shorts,"

"I win!" Joy pumped her little fist in the air, "I'll try to keep my hands off you." She smiled deliciously as she drew her pajamas and toiletries from her bag and headed to the bathroom.

He hoped that, under the circumstances, she would have long sleeved, full length flannel pajamas. The pajamas she pulled from her bag appeared to be a two piece silk set of a teddy and short pants.

Gere was helplessly attracted to silk women's wear. He loved the way silk hung on the curves of a woman and Joy had amazing curves. "It's going to be a long night," he thought.

When Joy returned, she was indeed clad in silk as he suspected. The pajamas were not sheer, but they hung on her breasts, hugging the outer curve of each mound and down into her cleavage. It was the points of her nipples jutting upward at the precipice of her breasts that caught his breath.

He could plainly see each tiny point pushing the silk material a half inch further like the corner poles of a tent. There obviously was little if any droop to her breasts, and they wiggled enticingly as she walked across the room.

He watched as her ass took up the same motion and rhythm as her breasts with each step. He had seen the shape of her legs in the leggings and yoga pants she wore from time to time, but to see almost the entire length of her legs without covering made him quietly gasp and mutter to himself under his breath, "Oh! My God!"

It was then she turned and caught him checking her out.

"You better forget THAT right now." She said with an impish little grin, pretending to be offended.

"Not going to happen," Gere conceded, "A man could never ignore or forget the beautiful shape of a lovely woman."

"Me? A lovely woman?" Joy batted her eyelashes and feigned an innocent look.

"You know you are, hussy!"

Joy gasped and playfully slapped his arm.

Joy blushed profusely and pulled the covers over her shoulders, "This is my side...my room -- my choice!" coyly smiling at Gere. As she drew an invisible line down the middle of the bed, she continued, "That's your side. We'll each stay on our own side and everything will work out fine."

"Uh huh." Gere said with an air of skepticism smiling all the while. He made his way to the bathroom, noting as he went where things were. He may look young for his age, but he had to pee during the night almost every night, especially after wine and beer.

When he returned to the bedroom, Joy was already asleep. Gere stared at her a long moment marveling her tiny figure in the bed. Had it not been for her beautiful white hair splayed across the baby blue pillow case, you would not realize she was even there! He gazed at her and his heart about burst with love for her. He quietly moved to her side of the bed and bent over, tucked her in and kissed her forehead.

She murmured softly as he drew his head away from her face, "I love you, Gere." He was startled for a moment and waited to see if she opened her eyes, but she was evidently still asleep. He almost decided he had misheard her when she spoke again more clearly this time, "I love you, Gere. Please don't break my heart."

The sincerity of the plea rung his heart as tears formed in the corners of his eyes.

"I love you too, Joy," he said softly. She smiled and stirred.

"What?" She said sleepily without opening her eyes.

"Goodnight, my love," Gere smiled and caressed her cheek with the palm of his hand.

"Goodnight." She murmured and tucked her face against the pillow.

She was asleep, but he smiled knowing he loved her too.

7.

Joy did end up singing for the three performances of 'Amahl and the Night Visitors' scheduled at the Performance Arts Center and the community were all abuzz over who this fabulous and beautiful new soprano who was in town.

The first half of December was consumed with all the logistics, performances, publicity appearances and radio spots. The pace was hectic, the performances were impeccable with Joy in the 'mother' role. Each performance was dedicated to the memory of Suzanne Murphy. The quality was a notch or two above the usual fare in Wenoka. The production was a resounding success, especially when word got out about the professional quality in which it was presented. It was a wonderful way to launch the fledgling Wenoka Community Opera Company.

The other development in Joy's life was the house she bought in a quiet old neighborhood. She fell in love with the little house when she first saw it.

Joy liked the old style of houses, like her mother's. She loved the architecture, and the older style materials. She only wanted a few modern appliances in the kitchen but otherwise she much preferred vintage homes.

Gere and Joy saw each other every day but were unable to spend any significant time alone, a situation which both wanted to remedy in the worst way. They texted and spoke over the phone, they ate at least one meal a day together if possible.

The only problem that Joy faced was the unwanted attention from her brother-in- law, Jack. He started texting her when she returned from Thanksgiving in Tacoma. She demanded he leave her alone, she blocked his texts and his phone number. Somehow, he always managed to thwart her attempts to block him. She didn't tell Gere about it, he would just worry about her safety. Jack would ever hurt her, and she figured she would eventually convince him to leave her alone. But, she already tried everything she knew but to no avail.

Once the Opera finished its performances, Joy's work turned to overseeing other Christmas arts events.

There was a mad rush as the community organizations tried to fit their event into the three weeks between the Holidays: the Theater presented a modernized version of "The Christmas Carol", the Chamber of Commerce sponsored a singing Christmas Tree. The Symphony, Community Chorale combined with the High School and Community College Choirs to perform the Christmas portion of Handel's "Messiah", and a 'Disney on Ice' troupe did three performances of a live version of "Frozen".

She was much busier than she wanted, but she determined to make more time for her developing relationship with Gere. She was in love with him, and hadn't told him yet. Somehow he was aware of her heart, she could see it in his eyes. She wanted him, and he wanted her, they waited long enough.

"I usually go home for Christmas at least for a few days, but with Mom on her Cruise I decided I will stay in my new house. I had so much fun decorating it! Thank you for all your help, by the way." Joy texted Gere. They were quite open in their communication, but she still couldn't bring herself to be so bold as to just come right out and ask him to sleep over.

"I hoped you would come stay with me a few days but I can understand that you would want to spend the first Christmas in your new house." Gere texted back, not as timid about letting her know his intentions.

Gere helped her set up her tree, and hang lights. He teased her that she might be overdoing it with the lights, but she thought they were so lovely! When she finally decided she did all she could, there were lights across the front eves and windows, on every tree and shrub in her yard (front and back) and across her living room.

Her fireplace held a gas insert that she turned on whenever at home. Gere admitted it contributed to a nostalgic cozy atmosphere as well as the obvious physical warming of the room.

"I would love to have you spend Christmas eve with me at my house, I'll cook!" Joy said.

"I can help, we'll cook together! What should I bring?"

"Just yourself, and maybe whatever you would like to drink. I don't like to eat too late so come about 5:30 we'll aim to eat before 7:00"

"It's a date!"

He embraced her and kissed her. She loved his kisses, it made her pussy wet on every time. She couldn't remember anyone who could kiss as well as Gere, not even her late husband.

Thomas was a decent man and husband up until the Alzheimer's changed him into a paranoid, jealous abuser, but he fell far short of being a great lover. Oh, he loved her, no doubt about that, and he was a solid rock to her, their relationship and the kids, but he didn't have much of a libido. To make matters worse, he didn't know his way around a woman either. Joy tried to teach him but it never went much beyond some perfunctory foreplay and missionary sex. The only times she had an orgasm was by her own hand...literally.

With Gere, she anticipated a different experience. His kisses alone nearly got her off! He loved foreplay, which had been the sum total of their physical relationship so far. They had necked like teenagers, 'petted' (as their parents called it when they were teenagers) and did almost everything that could be done with your cloths on. They had been to second and maybe third base, but now it was time for the home run. Joy giggled to herself as these thoughts went through her mind. Greer made her think 'dirty' thoughts, and she loved it!

Christmas Eve was just a few days away, and she was thinking of how she could make the evening really extraordinary.

She and Gere attended the play "A Christmas Carol" presented by the Wenoka Theater Company on their final performance. She remembered a prop they had prepared for the "Spirit of Christmas Present" character, who was basically 'Santa Claus'.

The staging had Santa atop a mountain of gifts and food items partially covered with a huge cape of red velvet with snow-white faux fur trim.

The food items were real, part of a charity food collection project that was quite successful. After the show closed, the food was to be distributed to poor families in the community.

It was the huge cape that had caught her imagination. As she played the scene in her mind she felt herself get wet between her legs.

"Allison, I want to check out a prop from the prop department, how do I do that?" She asked.

"I have the key." Allison smiled, and she pulled a key chain with numerous keys on it. "It's the one with blue nail polish on it...my idea!" She handed the keys to Joy. "Go find what you want and let me record the ID number in my computer."

Joy found the cape right off, It had not been put away as yet, she folded it up and pushed it into a plastic bag.

8.

Joy and Gere shopped together for their meal, They would have steaks with Sautéed mushrooms and onions, baked potatoes, asparagus, and pumpkin pie with whipped

cream for dessert. Gere put two extra whipped cream cans in their cart. Joy looked puzzled until she caught the glint in Gere's eye. "For the 'dessert' after the dessert" he said. Joy blushed and felt the tingling in her lower abdomen. The tingle remained the rest of the day.

Gere made a few stops to appease grandchildren that afternoon, but he made it clear that he had other plans for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. His family would meet the Saturday after, they didn't like it but Gere reminded them of the fiasco of their Christmas last year, which shut down most of their protests.

Joy barely contained her excitement to have Gere for Christmas Eve, she determined they would take their relationship to the next step. She waxed, shaved and plucked every extra follicle, had her eyebrows shaped, got a Mani-Pedi -- the works! She was ready!

The time approached when Gere should arrive. She made all the preparations but it still surprised her when the door bell rang so early. Gere was always prompt but not usually early.

"He must be anxious," she smiled, she left more than a few clues to what she hoped would happen tonight.

She scurried to get in position calling out loudly, "Come in, Gere, it isn't locked!"

She waited until she heard the door close and called, "in the living room."

Joy yipped and clutched the huge red robe around her neck when Jack appeared in the doorway. As soon as he saw Joy in her living room, he got a strange look in his eyes and ambled slowly across the room toward her.

Gere did arrive a bit early and puzzled when he saw a BMW pull into Joy's drive as he turned up her street. A man got out of his car with a handful of flowers and what appeared to be a bottle of wine or something.

Uncertain what to do. He checked the clock on his dash as he pulled in front of Joy's house. He was early but certainly she wouldn't have planned another visitor so close to his arrival time. That would go completely against everything he knew about her. Something was off with this whole thing. Something wasn't right.

Joy gathered the red cape up to her neck and wrapped her other arm around her bosom to cover her nudity. She scooted backward, away from Jack trying to put distance between them.

"Jack! What are you doing here? I didn't invite you over here tonight. You need to leave right now!"

"I texted you and told you I was coming to give you a gift and since you didn't tell me otherwise I figured you finally came to your senses and wanted me to come by. Look at you, ready for action!" Jack said with slight slurring in his speech and a leer.

"You're drunk! I want you out of here right now!" Joy screamed at the top of her voice. She had backed up to her china hutch, and had nowhere left to go, and he was still advancing. She got a sickening feeling deep inside. His was determined to have sex with her, and she wouldn't be able to stop him!

She steeled herself, resolved she would fight! He wouldn't kill her, drunk or not, but he clearly intended to rape her. She would have to fight him off if possible.

Jack grabbed at her and tried to pull the blanket she had wrapped about her body from her grip. She screamed again but held on tight to her only covering. The force of his efforts flung her across the end table propelling a lamp to the floor with a loud crash. She bounced off the couch and onto the floor which gave her a chance to escape.

Gere was approaching Joy's front door when he heard her scream and a huge crash. He flung open the door and rushed to the entry of the living room.

A man was trying to pull a huge red blanket off Joy, The flashes of skin under the covering indicated she wore nothing else. She was on the floor trying to crawl from him and keep herself covered at the same time. Gere didn't know the guy, but he guessed it to be Jack Harrison, Joy complained about him a few times.

Joy didn't see Gere yet, she was crawling the other way toward the kitchen. Jack was a bigger man than Gere, and he had never been in a fist fight in his life. If he was defeated, he would fail to protect Joy and perhaps enrage the man further. He decided that what he needed to do to protect her was to draw the man's attention away from her.

Jack, too, was unaware of his presence, intent as he was on Joy's nudity. Gere realized his advantage. He never played football in school, but he watched games on TV. He knew of illegal hits and their aftermath. Jack was standing in such a way, that he could 'tackle' him from the side and maybe turn his attention away from Joy giving her time to escape.

He decided to take him out by hitting him 'hard and low'. Gere ran across the room, lunged and caught Jack on the side of his left knee. He heard a fairly loud pop and Jack crumpled to the floor screaming in agony.

Gere feared he may have overdone it. He didn't want to injure Jack badly. He did succeed in getting the attack stopped before any harm came to Joy and managed it with no harm to himself.

Joy jumped to his arms and burst into tears clinging desperately to Gere. She tried to tell Gere what happened but her crying made it hard to understand so Gere just stroked her hair and face and shushed her reassuringly.

She had clearly been terrified and the relief she felt now that the danger was past overwhelmed her.

Gere heard sirens coming and turn up the street toward them. He took off his shirt and covered her nudity. He set her gently on the couch away from Jack and stroked her back and shoulders.

Gere looked at Jack who was still rolling around in pain and was about to get up to help him when two police officers moved cautiously through the open door with their weapons drawn.

"In here, officer's," Gere called. The police were evidently summoned by a neighbor walking her dog who heard Joy's screams and the sounds of crashing furniture. When he saw Jack writhing on the floor in pain, the male officer called for an ambulance. Meanwhile, a female officer took Joy to the kitchen to get her statement. After the officer questioned Gere, he was sent to the kitchen as well. In a short time, the ambulance showed up along with other police and took Jack, who by that time was sitting up but unable to walk.