Sixes and Sevens Pt. 09

She heard his steps approaching the door and held her breath. The door opened and there he was. Her heart missed a beat and she tingled all over. He was staring wide eyed at her with his mouth open.

She said "Aidan, I came as soon as I knew you'd been. Can I come in?"

He continued to stare, he swallowed and blinked at her.

The humour of the situation got to her and she laughed at his amazed expression. This was her Aidan all right.

"Well? Can I?" she asked again.

At this he seemed to wake up.

"Yes, of course Sam, come in. It's just - unexpected.

Chapter 23

Aidan's mind was in chaos, he was still trying to cope with the surprise, still hardly believing this was real, deliriously happy that it was and Sam was really back.

He stood aside to let her in, and she passed him quickly and went to the living room, he following. She shed her damp overcoat and he caught it and took it back to the hall stand. Then he had an idea. He slid the snib on the flat's door to the locking position to prevent it from being opened from the outside. Julie would not be able to get in until he was ready. When he returned, Sam was sitting quite serenely on the sofa with a half smile on her exquisite face.

He stood transfixed inside the doorway to the room, gazing at her. He had thought he remembered how beautiful she was, but he hadn't at all. She took his breath away anew, which was probably why he was saying nothing and gaping at her. There were disjointed thoughts cascading through his head.

Why did he react so strongly to her? He was desolate when she left, so let down and yet relieved when he thought she had lied and had someone else. All those feelings were so powerful. Ever since, yes, she'd been there in the background. Had she been the source of that sense of longing, had she been behind that feeling that something was missing with Julie?

He now saw clearly that before he found out what Julie had done, he had decided to settle for her as his best option. Now, having seen Sam again, he knew he couldn't settle for anyone else but Sam. But why was she here? He was almost afraid of what she might have to tell him - that she was with someone else now. Fear settled on him. All this while he stood mute, gazing at her beautiful face.

For her part she too was gazing up into his eyes. Those eyes! He was so perfect. Ever since she had left, he'd been there in her consciousness, her perfect man. Not a superb physical specimen, but so grounded, so caring. The one who seemed to know and anticipate her every need, the one whose gaze on her nakedness was different from all the other men, almost sympathetic, certainly grateful, but not that selfish urgent lust she'd seen in every other man she'd been with.

Jerry certainly had not been able to control himself enough to be solicitous for her welfare. Aidan always put her first and himself second. Even Lawrence had that predatory look when she was naked in front of him, until the news of Aidan's visit had pulled her away from him.

Yes, Aidan had managed to pull her away from Lawrence, by coming hell for leather to see her as soon as he knew where she was, by waiting for her on the stairs when Megan arrived, by his leaving so as not to interfere with her happiness. It had been all for her, even his leaving.

Now here she was and she too was silenced. Would he repudiate her? Tell her that Julie was now his partner? But if that were the case, why would he rush to see her as soon as he knew she was in London?

For Aidan the feeling was so complete just to be with her in the room, she sitting demurely on the sofa. Yes, complete. Then he thought again about her boyfriend with whom she had slept the night, before coming to see him. How could she do that? A shadow crossed his face, and it provoked her into speech.

"What's the matter, Aidan?"

He was unnerved that she'd reacted to his thought, unaware of what his face betrayed.

"I don't understand. Why are you here? Why leave your boyfriend in your bed to follow me back here? Why?"

"Leave his bed?" she laughed openly then, and he could see she was without guile. "He never made it to my bed for the night, my darling."

"But Megan...?"

"Look, since October, I was under the impression you were back with Julie, that I had lost you. You had forbidden me from contacting you, and I left my address and phone number with her, and waited for you to make a move. When you did not reply, I assumed you did not want me."

"But I didn't get-"

"I know that now. You came. But before that I'd accepted you did not want me, and I found Lawrence. Lawrence is like you in so many ways and I had finally decided to give him a chance. We had nearly got to bed last night, in fact he was on it, when Megan hammered on the door and told me you had been there, waiting patiently on the stairs. You! You have no idea how excited, how deliriously happy that made me.

"Megan told me what you'd said, that you'd gone so as not to complicate my life.

"Aidan you've been complicating my life ever since I met you. You kept coming into my mind whenever I was out with a man - and there haven't been many men and only one made it into my flat apart from Lawrence. You'd intrude: this man didn't listen like you did, or he didn't care for me like you did. Even with Lawrence you'd keep intruding. Lawrence was the first man I was serious about, and yet you were there as a yardstick; I couldn't get rid of you!

"As soon as I knew you'd gone for my sake, I sent Lawrence home and came to see you."

"You know that Julie-"

"Was not living with you in October?" she said. "Had not passed on my card or message? I phoned Vicky to find out. I got the early train."

"I'm so glad you did. I was dreading this morning until I saw you at the door. Then everything changed - everything was perfect." He smiled happily.

A warm shiver went through her: everything was perfect because she was there, that's what he said. That's all she wanted to hear.

He was continuing, "You were so unexpected, I thought it was Julie. She was supposed to be moving in today for a trial six months - until I found out what she'd done."

"I think she loves you and wants you very much. Don't be too hard on her, she was afraid of me; she was fighting for you."

"But if I had known... As it was, I realised today that I was settling for her as the best of a bad job, which is a lousy foundation for a relationship."

"Yes, I know. I was thinking that Lawrence would do: he was enough like you, but I'm not sure it would have worked out longterm."

Aidan looked at her and felt that bitter sweetness again. He wanted her, but could not see any future for them. Was this prolonging the agony?

She saw his face change again and she too had that sinking feeling that this would not work out.

"Aidan?" She asked for his thoughts with the one word, his name. He caught her tone of desperation.

He gazed at her, then made a sudden move towards the kitchen.

"I'll make us some coffee," he said, "and then we need to think this through. Yes?"

She nodded. He went to the kitchen. She rose and followed him, she wanted him so badly she couldn't atop herself. As he opened the coffee caddy she was close behind him, her hands slipping round to hold his chest, while her body pressed against him, so that he could feel the mounds of her breasts and the third lesser mound of her sex. He shivered as he felt her hot wet lips on the back of his neck. He turned and her hands went round his neck and pulled his face to her as their lips met in a heated kiss.

Lips nipped lips, stroked lips, nibbled inside lips, mouths opened, tongues met. In all this her hands remained round his neck and his rested on her hips. Until that is, her hands dropped and pushed inside his arms to unzip and push his jeans down to fall round his ankles.

Then he broke the kiss. "Sam? Do you think...?"

"Tais Toi!" she growled, and rapidly undid and pushed down her own pants and panties to her knees, then returned to his briefs and pushed them down in their turn. Then she shuffled the three paces to the kitchen table, on which she sat and pushed her pants and knickers to her ankles, parted her knees and pulled Aidan in by his penis, lining him up and pulling him into her.

"Gurrgh!" the sound from her lips was a deep gratified growl, a powerful purr of pleasure. Matched by a deeper moan of "Oh, fuck yes!" from Aidan, as he felt her dark warm slick embrace fasten around his hardness.

With no further hesitation or delay, and powered by all the past frustration and his present frazzled emotions he began to use her hard, standing at the table and slamming fast and deep, rubbing his shaft on her clitoris while he stroked and caressed her cheeks and neck and forehead and hair with contrasting gentleness, all the time gazing with rapt surprise into her own wild, satisfied and dancing eyes, as she gasped "Ah, ah, ah!" at each powerful thrust.

She was supporting herself with one hand on the table, while the other pulled his head down for another deep kiss, giving forth a muted moan.

They were out of control, heedless, lost, thoughtless, and as he watched her eyes roll upward and close and heard her cries and squeals of realisation and release, he gave a guttural groan and pumped his life stream into her.

He slowed and she pulled him by his buttocks into her, pressing him deeply to her as her spasms no longer wracked her but began to resolve into a twitching peacefulness she had not known since she had left that very flat.

He felt drained, as indeed he was, but a great calm came over him, out of which he understood he could not live without this woman, and if he could help it, he would not let her go a second time. He leant forward and kissed her gently. She gasped and moaned and held his head to hers, lips locked, as he rested in her.

At length, he slipped from her and gently pulling her to her feet off the table, led her to the bedroom and his freshly made bed. There they each removed their own remaining upper clothing and climbed onto the bed and into each other. They entangled their limbs, arms wrapped round, thighs interleaved, which pressed his shrunken penis against her sex.

They kissed gently from time to time, shooting repleted smiles at each other. They allowed their hands to range over their bodies, reconnecting and retaking a sort of possession. They fell apart enough to allow hands to go over and under and round. It was a relaxed stroking, expressing deep affection and recovered love.

Gradually his fingers played more frequently over her vulva, stroking its wet length, and straying each time down the inside of one or other thigh, while she did likewise with his perineum and balls, dragging a single finger up the underside of his penis before holding it still, and then tracing over his body, to roam to his face, stroke his cheeks and draw the finger over his lips, causing him to attempt to suck on it, but she denied him, returning to his growing cock.

His fingers kindled a spark of arousal as he idly circled her clitoris, with an occasional drawing over it from her vagina their slick juices, and she responded by absently fondling and petting his cock to renewed erection, though not as hard as before, then beginning a slow, slack stroking.

Neither of them was trying to increase pace or pressure, all was gentle. Eventually, Sam lifted herself, climbed over him and guided him inside, sinking wetly down to full penetration. Then she leant forward until she measured her soft, pliant body along his, and as she pressed her now sharp nips into his chest, kissed him softly.

He put his arms round her and hugged her closer as if he wanted to be completely subsumed into her. She sighed as she understood his action, and kissed him wantonly, thrusting her tongue into his mouth. He allowed it as if ceding all his power and will to her.

She moaned, a look of wonder in her eyes which melted into one of admiration and gift, and she began, keeping the slow relaxed mode in which they were, to angle her hips to and fro, in response to which he pitched upward reciprocally, to embed himself more deeply each time, rather than exacerbate the pace.

Thus they continued, endlessly it seemed. Both began to feel the tendrils of a need to accelerate the pace, but each resisted, until they saw the truth in each other's eyes, and smiled at being found out. Thereupon the pace and the force intensified. They felt the gathering of their climaxes, as they read the messages in each other's eyes and levelled the action to allow the orgasm to arrive more intensely.

When it hit, it smote them both, wringing an anguished wail from her and a grunting sob from him as their bodies convulsed and jerked for the second time that morning, caught in the rapture that ravished them.

She had raised herself on her straight arms, but now collapsed onto him to lie, panting as he was, on his hard body, his arms coming round her again to hold her tight and feel her in her orgasmic bliss, tracing the contours of her spine. She in her turn felt his contractions, and seemed in her mind to feel the hot gift of his seed, of which there was in fact little after their previous coupling.

Once quietened, she slipped to his side and curled around him, stroking his face and gazing at him. He saw her sated eyes half closed, and then a moment of perplexity cloud their quietness. Since she told him to 'shut up!' in French, no words had been exchanged, and none were needed. Everything was communicated by their eyes and mouths and bodies, and was the more eloquent and intimate for that.

But now, as they lay exhausted, Aidan spoke.

"Sam, my love. We have to find a way. Somehow we have to find a way. I don't want to lose you ever again."

Her eyes filled with unshed tears, as the full import of his words struck home. It was as good as a proposal of marriage - a commitment for life - and she knew from that moment she wanted nothing else.

"We will, mon amour, we will."

Her assertion lifted his spirits and a wave of happiness and contentment flowed into him. He kissed her again.

It was at the moment their lips touched that they heard the sound of a key in the lock. They heard the struggle to turn it, and the frustrated jiggling followed by a ring at the bell.

"Oh hell!" muttered Aidan. "It's Julie."