The Art of Love

When I started a painting evening class at my local college, I was hoping to escape the loneliness of an empty house. I never imagined someone might use it to escape their life. That was before I met Jackie Brownlow.

We were thrown together as the two singletons on the course. I remember arriving early for the first class and taking my place at the centre of an arc of easels. I picked that spot because I thought it would be easier to paint our subject head on. Other students arrived, and we introduced ourselves. There were two older couples and a trio of young women. Jackie arrived just as the tutor started and took the only vacant seat next to me. She looked flustered, so I gave her a reassuring smile.

I put Jackie in her early forties, married with kids. She was English, of medium build, with dull brown hair. She exuded nervous energy, like a cat scoping out unfamiliar territory.

The course assumed no previous knowledge, so the tutor got us doing ice breaker drawing exercises to loosen up. Afterwards, we walked around, looking at each other's attempts to reproduce the still-life objects on the table. Everyone laughed nervously, relieved we were all equally bad except for Jackie whose efforts were several levels above the rest of us. She definitely had an artist's eye. I joked we had a ringer in the class and she blushed at our spontaneous round of applause. Her smile changed an ordinary face into something special. Her hazel eyes shone. I was not the only one to notice. I hoped we might chat after the class but everyone left sharpish. Jackie was first out of the door.

Over the next two weeks, Jackie relaxed. I'd watch how she did something and try to copy her. She'd stifle a gentle laugh at my efforts.

"It's easy when you've got a magic pencil Jackie."

"Then let's swap Don."

Our hands got in a tangle over the exchange, which embarrassed both of us. `No holding hands in class,' someone joked, and we sat like two awkward school kids. We'd got as far as confessing I was a widower and she was divorced with teenage kids. But the art studio was not the place for more intimate disclosures.

I was hopeful we might go for a coffee. I had no ulterior motive. The age difference between us made any liaison remote, and I think Jackie was relieved I was not an eligible man. I sensed issues with her male relationships.

When she did not turn up for the fourth lesson, I asked the tutor if he'd heard from her and he said she had problems with her car that were too expensive for her to repair at the moment. I asked him to give her my number if she would like a lift to class. She called the next day.

"It was very kind of you to offer Don, but things are awkward for me at the moment." She sounded genuinely disappointed at missing out.

"Jackie, I've got no idea what's going on in your life, and I don't need to know. But this class is important to you. I see how you come in stressed and flustered and how that all flows out of you by the end. You go home a different person. You need this safety valve."

She went quiet, and I realised she was crying. "You noticed that, did you Don? The course has been an escape from my life. I miss it."

"Then don't give up. I'll collect you from wherever you want and drop you back there afterwards. No one needs to see me."

I'd guessed right. "Thank you, Don. I'm a single woman again. I should be able to have a life of my own, but It's a struggle."

I picked her up at a bus stop the following week.

"What are you smiling about Don?"

"You tell me first Jackie?"

She looked in the vanity mirror and reddened at her image. It was suddenly difficult to look at each other. We spent the journey talking about anything to avoid discussing the feelings that meeting again had evoked. I broke on our way back and broached the subject.

"I thought I'd never see you again Jackie. It was not a nice thought."

"Don, you are a very nice man. I wish there was a place in my life for a friend like you, but that would draw you into my chaos, and I wouldn't want that to happen to you."

That seemed to be the end of it. We'd lapsed into conversational noise to fill the silence. Jackie noticed a large supermarket ahead.

"Do you want something from there Jackie? They are open 24 hours."

"I couldn't ask you Don. Not now I've let you down."

I pulled into their car park to end the discussion, and soon we were pushing two trollies. She was grateful. Her grocery deliveries missed lots of things, and her kids complained. She'd soon filled a small trolley. I had a bag full in mine.

"Look at me. Out with a woman after 9pm and we are not going to A&E. That counts as a date at my age."

Jackie laughed. "We are not on a date Don. Anyway, what age is that?" We swapped numbers. She said I was five years younger than her father. I said she was two years older than my daughter. She scowled at my smile and declined my high five.

Her shopping filled several bags. "I can't carry all this. You'll have to come to the house with this frozen stuff, Don." The prospect unnerved her. Jackie's whole body seized up. Whatever was at home was a source of worry.

"You get in the back before we turn into your street and we'll pretend I'm a mini cab." She smiled at my subterfuge and relaxed. Her good mood lasted until we parked opposite her street to change seats.

"Oh god. That's Ryan's truck. He's not supposed to make unannounced visits, but he thinks he can check up on my life whenever he likes. I don't care what he does with his bimbo hairdresser. Why can't he just leave me alone?" She was getting in a state. "Let me out, Don. Just take the food if you can use it."

She reached for my door as her front door opened. A man came out and shouted something we could not hear to a boy who had followed him down the path. The man was in his early forties, tight tee shirt to show off his overdeveloped arms. He had a dyed blond haircut that would look stupid on a man half his age.

Jackie scrunched down in her seat even though there was no risk of her being seen. "Ryan is a builder when he's not in the gym trying to look like a pound store hulk. With the stuff he takes, he's got the Hulks' anger. I bet he's wound the kids up again and left me to deal with it. Josie has had enough, but Sean is his spy."

I understood the daily stress Jackie lived under.

Ryan stalked towards his pickup. I saw a violent man, an angry man, an abuser. She'd divorced him, but he still made her life a nightmare. I knew what Jackie escaped for a few hours each week at our art class. We watched him drive off and waited a while before I pulled up outside her house. She shouted for her kids to give a hand with the bags.

Sean was a mini me version of his dad. Same stupid haircut, but his skinny frame in his wife beater had not yet benefit ted from steroid enhancement. Give it time, I thought. Josie was thirteen, going on 25 with an attitude and trollop make-up that compensated for a lack of self-esteem. Jackie read the pity in my face and wiped away a tear. The kids trudged off with all the bags from the boot, including mine. I could hardly ask for it back.

Sean came back to give me the third degree. "Where are you from, mate? Most cab companies won't come around here."

I had to think on my feet. "We don't anymore, but there's an old card by the supermarket payphone. The lady said she had frozen food. What was I supposed to do?"

His dad had briefed Sean to note all comings and goings. "Okay mate. Why don't you let me have a card? We'll ask for you next time."

"Sorry son, I'm out of them. Hang on I may have one left." I opened my wallet and gave him a cab card for a company that went out of business during Covid. He studied it, furrowing his mono brow. To seal the deal, I pressed my phone in my jacket pocket and made it ring. I answered an imaginary call.

"No Col, I'm just leaving the badlands. Station ETA ten minutes. Don't give the job to Sean, he's a wanker." The boy's eyes went up at the coincidental mention of his name. "Right, I'm offski. Don't let that food defrost."

Jackie watched my performance. First in fear, and then trying to stifle a laugh. I waited until Sean turned around, gave her a wink, and drove off.

#

I thought we'd weathered the storm, but the next week Jackie phoned me to say she was giving up the class. Something had spooked her, and she didn't want to talk about it. She was in tears. "Please Don. This is hard. I like you. We could have been... I'm sorry, I have to go."

That was that. The following week I didn't even get a call. It helped when they removed her place in the class. Then I got the call that changed everything.

"Don. It's Jackie. I'd understand if you just tell me to fuck off, but I had to take the chance. I've tried to call you three times before and I chickened out."

"Are you ok Jackie? Has Ryan done something to you and the kids?"

"Bless you Don, we're fine, but Ryan isn't. It turns out Ryan's tart was not divorced, as she claimed. She's still married to a man doing time. He got an early release and thought he'd surprise his wife. He got more of a surprise than he bargained for, walking in on Ryan's hairy arse bouncing on her."

"Is the man ok?"

Jackie laughed. It took her three attempts to get the words out.

"I'm a bad person for laughing, Don. The guy is an extremely violent man. Ryan thinks he can handle himself, but he can only beat women and kids. The bloke threw him down the stairs of her flats and gave him a kicking. Ryan is in hospital with a fractured leg and broken ribs. His face looks like he's been hit with brick. The bloke also slapped his wife into the middle of next week before the police carted him back off to prison."

"Looks like there is a God. What happens now?"

"I took the kids to see him in hospital. I said look at your father. This is what happens when a bully meets a bigger bully. Do you want to end up like him Sean? It shocked them to see the man who terrorised us, looking so feeble and broken. We left him two suitcases with all the stuff he had in our house. I've got an injunction against him. Ryan's history."

"What does that mean Jackie?"

"It means I want to paint and I want to see you. If you'll still have me."

Next week I took her to the class. Afterwards, we went back to my place, and she gave it the once over.

"I thought it might be old man-ish, but it's classic. It's very relaxing Don."

"If you like mid-century Danish furniture and muted colours, then I'm your man. I'll make us some tea."

I didn't realise how relaxing it was until I came back into the lounge and Jackie was fast asleep on the sofa. I woke her before it was time for her to leave.

"Jackie, wake up. Wake up, darling." I said it twice more before she stirred.

She looked at me through heavy-lidded eyes. "Say it again Don. Call me darling, again."

Jackie sat up and pulled me down onto the sofa. All the weeks of yearning for her. All my years of being alone vanished with that first kiss. Neither of us wanted it to stop. She straddled me and held my head, forcing her mouth against mine. My body tingled at every point of contact. Her thighs around mine; the heat of her pussy on my belly; her nipples against my chest. I massaged her lovely arse through her jeans, forcing her pelvis against my erection. We moaned. She undid my shirt. I pulled her tee shirt off and pushed her bra over her tits. They fell into my mouth. She had long nipples, made longer by my sucking.

"They are very sensitive Don. Sometimes I can cum just from having them sucked. If a man can be bothered." I accepted the challenge and Jackie shook. "Yes Don. Suck them harder. Oh, my God. I'm cumming. I'm so wet." She ground her pussy against me, then collapsed on my chest and hugged me as aftershocks echoed through her body. "Thank you, Don. Thank you for this and for not giving up on me, even when I gave up on myself." Snotty tears of joy mingled with my chest hair as I held her close.

Jackie looked up at me. Her face was different. It was serine. It was beautiful. "I suppose you'd like to fuck me now Don?" I nodded. "There are a couple of problems." I pulled a face. "First there's my period." I smiled. "Then there's a bad case of thrush." I stopped smiling. "Bummer, I know Don. I'm gagging for you too. But there's no reason you should go without."

She climbed off and made quick work of pulling my trousers and pants down. I was sporting my best erection in ten years. "You've got a nice cock, Don. No grey hair down here." She sucked my balls. God knows how I held back. Then her lips closed around my cockhead and Jackie bobbed, gently taking more of my shaft on each cycle. I was delirious.

"I've never had my cock sucked so well Jackie. I can feel myself in your throat. You are wonderful."

She looked at my face and smiled. Then she started showboating. Nibbling my shaft, teasing the eye with her tongue, sucking my balls again until I thought they would come off in her mouth. I wanted to cum, and I wanted this to go on forever. When Jackie thought I'd had enough, she sucked me hard and drew the spunk from my balls. I actually felt it moving up my shaft like she was slurping a thick milk shake through a straw.

"I'm cumming Jackie. Be careful if you don't—" But she did, and I spunked into her mouth five times. It surprised me I could still come so copiously. Jackie swallowed as much as she could, but it dribbled from the corner of her mouth. I pulled her off her knees and she kissed me. I tasted my cum in her mouth.

"Ryan would never do that. It disgusted him when I tried it. He made me feel like his cum bucket. "

"Those days are over Jackie. Your poor pussy won't know what hit it when you get rid of that bug. I forbid you from wearing knickers in this house. Do you understand?"

After next week's class, it was a repeat performance. We were restricted to heavy petting like a couple of horny teenagers while we waited for the penicillin to do its job. At least we talked on the phone every day.

"I got used to this house being empty but now it feels strange. I wonder what you are doing during the day Jackie. At night I can't get to sleep because I'm hard thinking about you. I'm making up for twenty years of not wanking."

She laughed and also admitted to restless sleep. She promised to put me out of my misery soon.

#

The last night of our course was a review and celebration. The class was going for a drink afterwards, so I put on smartish clothes. Jackie wore her usual jeans and tee shirt, but scuttled off to the toilet before the class started. When she sat down next to me, I almost said that the seat was taken. She looked transformed in a lovely animal print dress. Jackie wore lipstick and her hair, which she'd earlier hidden under a baseball cap shone. She was pleased with my reaction.

"I thought I'd give the harassed mum look a night off. Do you approve?"

It was all I could do to keep my hand off her in front of the others. During the previous week, we voted on our favourite pieces. The tutor announced the results, and it was no surprise Jackie won first prize in two categories, but I was pleased with my third place.

In the pub afterwards, one of the husbands leaned over as we watched Jackie at the bar and said he thought I'd scooped first price. Everyone knew we were an item, but we didn't care. We cried off early. Our excuse was a fictitious family problem Jackie had to attend to. The same bloke winked and reminded me to send him a postcard from our honeymoon. We laughed about it in the car on the way to my place.

"Everyone thinks we're fucking Don. Those two wives were so nosey."

"Their husbands were no better. Let's not disappoint them."

At home, Jackie complained she could not walk any further in her high heels. I said they were not walking shoes, and she agreed. She took my shirt off and her dress quickly joined it on the floor. I gasped at the sight of her black lacy knickers and bra and hold up stockings. She did a twirl, showing me the black string bisecting her bare arse cheeks. I fell upon her like an animal. My mouth was on hers, then in her hair, her neck, her shoulders. Any piece of flesh I could claim. I squeezed her arse, pulling her hips against my erection. I have never wanted a woman more.

We made it to the couch. I didn't have time to undo her bra, I just flipped her tits out of the cups and sucked her hard nipples.

"I'm going to cum so hard. Hurry Don."

I pulled her flimsy knickers off and pushed Jackie back onto the sofa and opened her legs. Her fleshy pussy lips parted, revealing pink wetness. She looked like a porn star.

"Was I worth waiting for Don?"

My face was in her pussy. Enjoying the smell and taste of her. My tongue found her clit and Jackie bucked against me.

"Eat me, Don. Eat my cunt. He would never do that." I took her at her word and sucked and nibbled her lips. "Oh God, you're a cannibal."

Jackie spread her thighs wider. I lapped up and down her crack and teased her arsehole with the tip of my tongue. Jackie squealed and spread her cheeks to give me clear access. She arched as I slipped two fingers inside and found her g-spot. My combined assault on her pussy and arse overloaded her senses. Jackie came, clamping my head in a delicious trap of creamy thighs and rough lace stocking tops. Spiked heels dug into the small of my back as she twitched and subsided before releasing me.

She kissed my pussy smeared face. "I taste like I've been with a lesbian, Don."

"I didn't think my cock could get any harder, but it has. I've got to fuck you now, Jackie."

She opened those lovely legs, and I slid into her warm, tight cunt. My first woman in five years; longer if I recall the last years of my marriage. She was everything I dreamed she would be. Jackie moaned as she adjusted to accommodate me. (I learned later, Ryan's steroid obsession left him short in the plumbing department. His loss was my gain.)

We fucked slowly, looking into each other's eyes. Words formed on my lips. Jackie put her finger on them to shush me.

"I know you do Don. I've known for a long time. Save them for when I really need it."

Something inside me broke. I kissed her and my body went into auto pilot. Our hips found their rhythm as we sped up. Jackie's tight pussy milked the spunk from my balls and held me on the edge. "I love you too, Don." She relaxed, making me flood into her. Every emotion of the last five years coursed through me. Love and hate, ecstasy and despair, grief and bliss, utter bliss.

I collapsed against her, and Jackie held my head against her chest and stroked my hair. "Let it all out Don. Let it go and float away. I have."

We made it to the bedroom where Jackie stayed the night. Her sister was staying with her kids. We woke several times to take pleasure from each other's bodies and satisfy appetites too long denied. It was light by the time we were too exhausted to keep going. I wrapped my arms around her, hoping to trap Jackie in my bed forever.

"It won't always be like this Don."

"Why not, do you snore, Jackie?"

In the year we've been together, we've established some ground rules. I want a girlfriend; Jackie wants a boyfriend; her kids don't want a grandad dad; and I don't want more grandkids, thank you very much. It means we pretend the painting class is still going. Jackie stays the night twice a week. Her kids have accepted our relationship. They've become nicer people now that Ryan's malevolent influence is gone. This can work for all of us.

It turned out my joke about Jackie being a ringer was the truth. She went to art college when she was eighteen but had to give up her course to look after her younger brothers and sisters when her mum became terminally ill. Jackie spent the next twenty years putting everybody else's needs before hers. When she divorced, she was desperate to rediscover the person she could have become. Now she can.