Storm Rising

He smiled a crooked smile. "But if every young, enthusiastic man was with an older, more experienced woman, and every young, perfect woman was with a man old enough to handle them right, who would start families and get on with life? That's the imbalance that's just one of life's realities.

"But the young love, as imperfect as it is, I think it's important to just be brave and go for it. It's important to handle it as love, not establishing status or playing power games or, God forbid, revenge for someone. It needs to be only about love, and if it is, it's all for the best. Love is important. It doesn't need to last forever or be serious or even mutual. Love is love. Love is what it's all about. You learn to love by loving."

He emptied his glass. "I didn't mean to lecture. I guess all of this sounds like so much nonsense to you. Do you want more wine?"

She nodded and he got up to look for another bottle. Looked like he would need to restock after this visit. He was still a little taken aback by this line of conversation, but it was the most refreshing one he'd had in years, maybe decades, and he wasn't going to cut it short just to be politically correct.

"I just want to find someone," she said sulkily.

"What about that boy you mentioned? What was his name? Will?"

She launched into descriptions of the boy and their relationship or lack thereof. It sounded like he might be interested as well, but maybe he was shy, because so far they seemed to have just circled each other without much success. James wondered if it was wise to meddle.

"So he's here just for the summer, just like you are?" he confirmed. Beth nodded.

"I think you should ask him out," he said. "Just go for it. What's the worst that can happen? He says no, so what? You try it and it doesn't work out, so what?"

She considered it, swirling the wine in her glass.

"You know what, I will," she said resolutely. "You only live once, right? I will."

"That's my girl," he said with a fatherly pride and felt just a twinge of jealousy.

--#--#--#--#--#--

Things didn't get weird between them afterwards. They still talked in the yard, and Bethany helped James with household chores. She did ask Will out, and by the looks of it they soon spent a lot of time together. James was happy for them and still flustered about the jealousy he was feeling. Was he jealous of Bethany, would he have wanted to be in the place of that young man himself? Or was he just jealous of their youth? He didn't know, and for all his soul searching he couldn't figure it out.

Two weeks later he had settled back into his lonely, uneventful life. He enjoyed watching Bethany come and go with her friends and even with the boy. He felt like a parasite leeching off their youth and energy. It was a welcomed change and would end soon enough. It wasn't that long until it was autumn again and Bethany would leave town. Her parents were coming home soon as well, he couldn't remember the exact date but he was sure it was around here somewhere. It wasn't important. Quite a lot of things weren't important to him.

On Friday he was settling on his porch for his evening beer. It was still extremely hot, but the weather forecast had promised storms for the night, and it would end the heat wave that had plagued them for weeks. He had enjoyed the warmth but he suspected he would also welcome the cooler weather. The heat didn't bother him, but he suspected this nightly ritual of light drinking was something he had better wean himself off from.

He spotted Bethany coming out of the house. She had a stuffed looking backpack with her, and another bag full of God knows what. She looked radiant and excited. She came to the fence and he left his beer on the porch and walked to meet her.

"Going somewhere?" he asked with a smile.

"Yes, we're going camping! Me and Will and our friends!" she exclaimed excitedly.

He was surprised, thinking they maybe didn't know about the rising storm. Or maybe they were going somewhere further away, he didn't know the extent of the storm front, he was only ever interested in local weather. He didn't travel much anymore. Or at all, really.

He was yanked out of his thoughts when she glanced around and lowered her voice to add, conspiratory, "I think we're going to do it tonight! With Will."

She winked and he could feel the most inappropriate grin spreading on his face.

"Good for you, girl!" he said. "Sounds romantic, campfires and starry skies and all."

It sounded also extremely uncomfortable, but he suspected a hefty dose of youthful lust would make up for the hard ground and biting insects and whatnot.

They chatted for a while, but Bethany seemed to be getting anxious, and soon they said goodbye and James went back to his porch.

Bethany walked up and down the pathway of her house, glancing at the end of the street every few minutes and bristling with impatient energy. James smiled, looking at her. It was so transparent to follow her emotions.

As minutes dragged on it became painful to follow her emotions. It was obvious she had agreed on a time her boy was to pick her up, and it was obvious that time came and went. She kept checking the time, looking up and down the street, checking the time again. She looked annoyed, then worried, then annoyed again.

After fifteen minutes had passed she was sitting on the stairs, staring at her phone. James thought he should go inside and not witness the scene of misery unfolding next door. It felt personal, it felt like he was intruding. It was like watching a scene of an accident, he was unable to let go.

She tried to call somewhere, supposedly Will. She got up and paced the yard again. So much energy. So much nervous energy and James couldn't not look at those long, smooth legs.

After a half an hour had passed she kept calling. James supposed it was for other members of their group now. Finally it looked like somebody answered, because she stopped dead in her tracks and listened.

It was awful to see her energy abandon her. Her shoulders slumped, her head hung down, and when she ended the call she stood still for a long time and didn't move at all. His heart sank looking at her. It was clear something had gone wrong in an awful way. Most likely she had been stood up, and in some way he felt responsible, for he had been the one to urge her to go for it in the first place.

Bethany walked slowly, so slowly back to the house and went inside. She didn't look around.

James sat on the porch. He was torn between wanting to go comfort her and fearing he would make it worse. His beer stood forgotten on the table. It had grown warm long ago.

The first gusts of wind preceding the storm shook the trees around the houses. Bethany's bags were still sprawled in the pathway. James made up his mind, locked his front door and walked to the neighboring house. He picked up the bags and went to the porch. He rang the doorbell and knocked, but there was no answer.

The door wasn't locked. He opened it cautiously and stepped inside.

"Bethany?" he called out.

He looked around the hall. There was no sign of her. He set the bags down and hesitated. He felt like a trespasser, but he had come all this way and he felt like he had to do this.

"Beth?" he said, kicked his shoes off and went looking for her.

She was in her old room. He remembered it being plastered with posters of bands and such clutter, but now it was stripped bare. The furniture was the same but otherwise it was impersonal, clearly a guest room now and not her den the way it had been when she had lived here.

"Beth," he said and walked to stand next to the bed. "I'm so sorry, Beth."

She sobbed. He lay his hand on her back, between her shoulder blades, very lightly and hesitantly. She sobbed again, and then suddenly she jerked up to a kneeling position and stared at him with venom in her eyes. He shrank away in surprise.

"YOU KNOW WHAT THAT FUCKTWAT DID!" she shouted. He could only stare at her, eyebrows raised. She grabbed the decorative pillows and threw them at the opposite wall as hard as she could, accentuating her words with the furious gestures.

"HE WENT...THERE WITH...MIA!" she shrieked. "And her. AND HER!!!! God this makes me SO ANGRY!"

She retorted to a wordless cry of aggression. She was so agitated she was trembling.

He understood now. Not only had she been stood up by the witless boy, she had also been fucked over by who she had thought was her friend. It was clear it had to be hurtful. He had trouble accessing the level of intensity of feeling she was displaying, but his empathic nervous system kicked in and he felt a shadow of it anyway. He gathered his courage, sat down next to her and pulled her into his arms.

"I'm so sorry, Bethany," he said softly. "I'm so sorry."

She was rigid in his arms, undecided, but then she suddenly caved. She pressed closer to him and started crying loudly. He held her and hushed her, stroking her soft hair that had the scent of some wonderful womanly shampoo. He buried his face in it and exhaled deeply.

Bethany was warm against him. Her back was slim and so smooth, he stroked it carefully and there wasn't a single fat roll or even a mole he could feel under her flimsy summer dress. The warmth of her skin radiating through the thin fabric made him acutely aware of how tightly she had pressed against him. He cleared his throat nervously.

"Listen, Bethany," he said. "I'm sorry your friends are assholes. I think they will regret it afterwards, and I hope they will learn their lesson. But I'm not sorry you tried. It was the right thing to do."

She wailed. He held her until she gradually stopped crying.

"Better now?" he asked. He was wary of her reaction. She nodded and sobbed as she straightened her back.

"I'll be okay," she said. "I don't blame you."

He nodded. He didn't really know what to say. Bethany seemed better. She was sullen and by no means happy, but she wasn't furious or inconsolable anymore. James swatted his palms against his knees awkwardly and made a stupid fake smile.

"Well then!" he said. "I guess I better be going. There's a storm rising, I better get home before it hits."

He got up and walked to the door. He hesitated and looked back at her.

"And Beth? I'm just next door if you need anything. Or if you'd like company or something. Okay?"

She nodded absentmindedly. He felt like an idiot, like he was a clumsy schoolboy again, and he just retreated into his own house. All this life experience and when confronted with female emotion he was just as useless as he had ever been. He looked at his wedding picture at the living room wall. Lily smiled at him radiantly, like she had always done. He smiled back, sadly, and went to make himself some tea.

--#--#--#--#--#--

Electricity went out before anything else happened. Air conditioning came to a stop and the simmering heat started to penetrate the building. He stupidly made it worse by opening the back door and staring outside for a long time, searching for signs of the storm or the electricity returning. Neither happened. He went back inside to search for candles and pour the rest of the tea into a thermos for later, in case the electricity would be out longer.

The storm didn't start in earnest until an hour later. It had been so hot for so long James had almost forgotten what this was like, this cool, moist air, this gusting wind. He stood at his porch, admiring the forces of nature. The rain was very heavy, it fell like a gray wall in front of him and the wind pushed it around the yard. Just as he thought he'd better go back inside he thought he saw a figure as the flash of a lightning lit up his yard.

Was it...could it be...another lightning flashed and yes, it was. Someone ran towards him, stooping slightly against the wind. He guessed who it was before she got to the porch, and he stepped to open the door in advance just before Bethany made it to the porch. She walked straight in and he followed. The noise from the storm was damped by the door.

She was drenched already from a short distance outside. He gestured for her to follow and got her a towel. For some reason he didn't simply hand it to her, but wrapped it around her himself and rubbed her back with it. Maybe he just wanted to touch her.

"Can I crash here for a while?" she asked, looking up at him. He didn't stand as proud as he once had but he was still a little taller than her.

"Sure you can," he said. "Does the storm scare you? You'll be alright."

She followed him to the kitchen and sat down by the table. It was almost dark with the heavy clouds of the storm, but he had lit a candle on the counter and it cast a warm, flickering light over them. She followed him with her eyes as he poured her a cup of tea and mixed it with a fat dollop of honey. He poured himself as well and sat down opposite to her, and it was a good thing he did, because next she drew a deep breath, looked at him with determination and said, "James? I'd like you to make love to me."

He snorted his tea across the table and coughed. "Um...what?"

"I've been thinking about this," she said. Her cheeks burned deep red, but her eyes didn't waver. "I need a good experience. I get what you said about being in the game and not being afraid, but I think I need a little boost. How did you say it? Love is what it's all about. And it doesn't need to last forever or be serious, as long as it is love. Are you true to your words?"

"Ah, hum," he managed.

She looked at him expectantly. He had trouble relating to this request, but his cock stirred in his pants, apparently not as hesitant as the rest of him.

"Look, James," she said. "I've thought this through. I want this. I even brought my own condoms because from our conversation the other night I deduced you're not prepared for casual sex. And I won't be offended if you can't get it up. At least I don't think I'll be. But I need this. So please. Would you."

Oh, goddamn. He had not seen this coming. This was better than any of the daydreams he had entertained about her since the night of his unexpected wet dream. He reached over to take her hand. "Of course I will. Honey. If that's what you want, of course I will. I just hope you won't be disappointed."

"It's not possible to get more disappointed than I am already," she said resolutely.

His mind was racing. It had been so long, so very very long since he'd done it with anyone besides Lily. He had known all Lily's buttons, but suddenly he felt insecure about his ability to satisfy this young woman. But he heard her plea. He just had to try his best.

He also contemplated positions and arrangements. One thing he was determined on was to go down on her, he had yet to meet a woman who didn't like that, and he couldn't possibly let this opportunity pass without tasting her sweet, young pussy. But the days of contorting himself to uncomfortable positions for prolonged periods of time were long past, so he had to be cunning. Cunning for cunningulus, he thought and suppressed a laugh. Oh God, he was regressing so fast.

James stood up and pulled Beth with him. She still had that hesitant but challenging look on her face. He took her face in his hands and kissed her forehead, nose, cheeks and finally her lips.

Her lips were so soft. Unbelievably soft and sweet. He kissed her slowly, wanting to stretch this first contact for as long as he could. She answered, and her hands swept his upper body, his shoulders, his hair, unable to attach to anything. He looked at her, staying close, and stroked her smooth cheeks with his thumbs.

"My God, you're lovely", he said admiringly and kissed her again.

She relaxed into his kiss little by little. He waited until he was sure and then he started to undress her slowly. Her clothes were wet and she didn't object at all when he gently peeled them off her. He used the towel to dry her up, and when he let his eyes glide over her flawless skin another kind of storm started to gather in his loins.

It had been so long. Way too long.

She was beyond lovely. He sat on a chair to dry her feet, and now he rubbed lightly up her body again, touching her only with the towel but looking at her closely. Her belly was as adorable as he had imagined, and to his relief she did have pubic hair. It was shorter and curlier than he had imagined, but it was simply lovely, and looked so natural on her. He hooked the towel around her neck and let go of it. He looked up at her face and set his hands on her flanks.

She looked down at him and her expression was serious. He spread his fingers and she felt so slim in his hands. His hands still looked like some ugly gnarled things, even more so now that their squiggly veins were in stark contrast to her smooth pale skin. He touched her gently, sliding his hands up until they cupped her perfect breast. Her nipples were of lighter shade than he had dreamt, and anticipation wrenched his guts when he thought he was moments away from getting to see if her pussy was as lovely as he had dreamt it would be.

"You are the loveliest thing I've seen in decades," he said seriously and moved his thumbs to touch her nipples. He followed in fascination how they puckered in anticipation before he actually touched them, and when he grazed over them they were already hard, like pebbles. He was awarded with a sharp intake of breath.

"Absolutely the loveliest," he murmured and pulled her closer.

She straddled him carefully, setting her round, warm thighs gingerly over his thin old man thighs. He had never been very bulky, but even he had been more muscular when he was young. He was still not weak or feeble, though, and her weight on him was not too much. He sighed with happy satisfaction when he felt the heat of her body so close to his body. She was just high enough for him to kiss her breasts, and that was exactly what he wanted to do now.

James started by tilting his head back and pulling Beth down to kiss him. He thought the position might make her feel like she was taking the lead, and he stroked her back slowly and kissed her. When she lifted her head and looked at him expectantly he kissed her neck, so tender and beautiful, then down to her collarbones and along them to the pit in between. She shivered when he started to close in on her breast. He kept his kisses light but used his tongue, wanting to taste every part of her wonderful elastic skin. He had trouble understanding how it was possible for a human being to be so firm and yet so soft. He pulled her closer and kissed the part of her that was even softer than the rest of her, the swell of her breast. He kissed the edge of her areola, following the edge of her softness and the wrinkled heat on the other side, and when she gave an impatient whimper he finally sucked the nipple into his mouth.

Oh God, yes. He hadn't thought he might die without ever getting to experience this again, and now the thought fled by and he laughed at it in his mind. The hardness was so right, her reaction to the flicks of his tongue were so right, and he couldn't have let go if it wasn't only to tend to her other breast. She arched her back to get her breasts pushed harder against his mouth, and he could feel his cock growing. He pulled her closer by her waist and felt the amazing heat of her crotch on him. She moved her hips a little, maybe unconsciously, and the rubbing made him stiffen all the faster.

He was pleased with his body's reaction, but it wasn't time for that, not yet. He wanted to kiss the honey pot she had between those beautiful legs, and he was about to. Just as soon as he could let go of her wonderful breasts. The flickering light of the candle cast shadows on her skin, and the shadow made by her nipple alone was enough to feed the lust growing inside him. He leaned back to look at her face again. Her eyes were half lidded and her breath was faster, and she put her fingers into his hair and looked at him steadily.