The Warm Embrace of Love

As we lay in the bed in a post-orgasmic bliss, Terri said "It's so good between us, but it's never going beyond this, is it?"

"I'm not sure. We're both married to our jobs. We should enjoy what we have together."

"We will." She turned her head on her pillow and promptly fell asleep. I curled up beside her and draped my arm around her, resting my hand between her breasts. The cool breeze from the open window caused me to burrow deeper under the covers, seeking the warm embrace of her nude body and the thick down quilt that covered us.

Chapter Five

The Dead Battery

It was a few days after our dinner with my mother that Terri and I decided to get together to have a serious discussion about our relationship. She was going to make dinner for the two of us.

It was 6:30 p.m. I spent the day in our office, which relocated a few years back from Midtown Manhattan to an out of the way office park in the suburbs. I was heading out to my car in the building's surface parking lot. I'd left a half hour cushion for traffic. I was glad I drove my old beater SUV. I would likely be caught in horrible traffic and driving a manual transmission in bumper to bumper traffic was not my idea of a good time. My first clue that things weren't going to go quite right that evening was when the dome light didn't go on when I opened the door. Hmmm. I'll have to get that checked, I thought. But then when I pushed the start button nothing happened. Fuck, I had a dead battery. Sure enough, I had forgotten to turn off my headlights from the morning drive. Idiot! The parking lot was empty save for one other car. I was royally screwed. I was going to stand Terri up. Of course there was poor cell reception near my office building. Fuck, fuck, fuck.

I went in the office, angry at myself and a bit flustered. I spotted an office that still had its light on. If I wasn't mistaken, that's where we parked the auditor for the week. The door was partially open. I could see the back of her head. I knocked.

"Come in," she said, without turning her head away from her computer screen.

I did. I sat in the guest chair of the small office. She swiveled around in her chair to face me. Her presence filled the room. Her blonde highlighted hair, which was kept up in a simple twist during the work day, had been let down so it fell past her shoulders. She added eye make-up, accentuating her deep blue eyes. The business suit was gone. Instead she was wearing a sheer blouse emphasizing her ample bust where the unmistakable outline of her lacy bra was evident beneath. I didn't know if I had accidently fallen into the lair of a lioness where I was her next meal. I was frozen in place by her raw sexuality. She oozed sex. She radiated sex. My senses were awakened. Apparently I had missed a great deal during the week she was in our office.

"Can I help you?" she asked in an absurdly sultry voice.

I was tongue tied. "I ... I ... my battery is dead."

"Oh," she said. She pondered my dilemma for a moment. "Shall I give it a charge?" There is no mistaking what she was referring to. My underwear throbbed.

I felt like I was sinking like a stone in a pond, fluttering to the bottom. "No ... no, not my battery, my car battery."

"Didn't you want me to check both?" she asked in a pouty voice. She pursed her ruby lips for effect.

I was starting to get my bearings. "Do you come to our office dressed like this?"

"Dressed like what?"

I had to slow down. That was a loaded question. I might blow my brains out with the wrong answer. "Uh, dressed like you are going out on a date."

"Maybe I am. Aren't I attractive enough to be asked out on a date?"

She knew God damn well that she was smoking hot. She just wanted me to say it. "No ... I mean yes ... yes, you're extremely attractive."

She leaned forward just so. She knew that it would cause the top of her blouse to open so that I'd have a clear view of the tops of her heavenly creamy white breasts. I took the bait, my eyes wandering from her face to her luscious orbs.

"So do you like what you see?"

Right before I snapped to attention, having been caught staring inside her blouse, an image of my mother flashed in my mind. God damn it, this woman was as skilled at interrogation as my mother. Fucking revenue agent.

"Yes ... yes. I like what I see. I'd have to be a blind man not to see that you're gorgeous."

"Well thank you. So don't you want to know who I'm going out on a date with tonight?"

I feigned interest. "Sure, who is it? Anyone I know?"

"Yes, as a matter of fact you know him well."

Now she did have my interest. "Who is it?"

"Why it's you, silly."

"Me? But why me?"

"You're in my office right now, aren't you? And you look nice, like you're going out on a date."

"Well, yeah, I'm supposed to take my girlfriend out tonight."

"She really isn't your girlfriend. She's just a fuck buddy. At least that's what I hear."

How did she know? And what the fuck? "Hey, that's not nice."

"It's true, isn't it?"

I didn't answer quickly enough. That was acknowledgment enough for her. I decided to change the subject before I drowned. "So I was hoping you could give me a ride to my house. It's only fifteen minutes from here. I've got another car there that I can take."

"Or you could take me out on a date."

"Why would I want to do that?" I actually already knew the answer. Now I wanted to make her say it.

She stared at me until our eyes connected. "Because you want me more than anything you've ever wanted in your life."

My eyes met hers. My eyes said "yes."

She saw my answer and reacted as if I had said it out loud. "So what are you going to tell Terri?"

"I don't know."

"Tell her you met someone else."

"I can't do that."

"You're a terrible liar."

I laughed. "I know. You got me to admit that I'm not always truthful, especially when it comes to women."

I shifted the subject again. I had no idea what I was going to say to Terri. Somehow I was convinced I was going to take this vixen out on a date. "How did you know that I'd come back to the office?"

"I saw you left your lights on when I got here this morning. And I knew this place had shitty cell phone reception. I knew you'd be back. Everyone clears out of here by six. I just had to wait for you."

"You're a devious one."

"No, I'm just smart. I knew you liked me when we were in your office and you practically undressed me with your eyes." She walked around the desk so that she was right next to me. She was tall in her heels. The scent of her perfume wafted into my nose. I'm sure the name of it was "Seduction."

"Kiss me." She tilted her head slightly back and closed her eyes. I put my hand behind her, cradling the small of her back and feeling the fine silk of her blouse. I leaned over and kissed her tenderly on the lips. Her lips parted and out tongues met, starting slowly and then building to a feverish pace as my hand wandered lower, gripping her ass and squeezing the tight muscles through her wool skirt. Her arms were now around me.

As the thought of ripping her clothes off entered my mind she broke the embrace. "Call Terri."

I caught my breath and fished the phone out of my back pocket. I hit her name on my favorites menu.

"Skeet? Are you coming?"

"I'm sorry Terri. I was an idiot and left my lights on. I have to call a tow truck and wait for it to arrive."

"So you're not making it here for dinner?"

"I'm afraid not. Can I take a raincheck?"

There was an uncomfortable pause. "I don't think so."

"I'm sorry." I didn't know what else to say.

"So am I."

It was my turn to pause and think about my answer. "Let's talk about this over drinks. We'll do it soon."

"That's fine. Maybe a few days apart will help us figure out what we want in our relationship."

Rachel heard enough of the conversation to understand what transpired. "I'm sorry if I was rude. Terri seems like a nice person."

"She is. Maybe it just wasn't meant to be."

Rachel puts her arms around my waist. "So now you're free for dinner. Is there someone you'd like to take with you?"

I rubbed my chin. "I'm not sure. Do you have any suggestions?"

"How about you kiss me again and then you can decide?"

We kissed. For a long time. Then I asked her out to dinner.

Chapter Six

Clarity ... At Last

I waited for Rachel to pack her things in her office. As she was shutting down her laptop she gave me an impromptu summary of her background. Unlike Terri, but like my mother, she grew up from humble beginnings as the daughter of a single mom in Oklahoma City. The youngest of three children, she excelled in school and was able to secure a scholarship at Rice University. She majored in business and joined the New York Department of Taxation right out of school.

She was with the Department for five years, and at age twenty-eight was one of their more experienced field auditors. She researched my company as part of her pre-audit due diligence and was intrigued by my background. She knew that I started my venture capital firm on a shoestring and built it up to a multi-million dollar business. She knew that I was a major player in the North Carolina Research Triangle. She knew that my departed accounting manager was a shitty record keeper and had woefully under collected employment taxes.

I had phoned ahead to a local French bistro for a reservation and was listening intently as she drove to the restaurant. I heard about her friends, her family back in Oklahoma City and her career aspirations. She was currently living in a rent-controlled apartment in Brooklyn with a roommate who had inherited the apartment from her parents. I told her about my company, and the blood and sweat I had put into it.

As we dined on French onion soup and then steak and frites I told her about my mother (the good and the bad), my addiction to work, my aborted relationship with Mia, and then finally Terri. I told her that Terri had a difficult divorce that left her gun shy to marry again and about my Caroline's untimely death that left me a widower in my thirties. As I was discussing Terri I couldn't get out of my head her shiny dark hair, kind eyes, and the look of understanding that conveyed that she too had travelled a long, hard road to achieve success.

Rachel held up her side of the conversation, discussing her love of cooking and her training to run a triathlon. I looked at her as she was talking. I must have been a sucker for young blondes, as Mia was also about her age with blonde hair. My lust faded as the dinner wore on as I realized I was chasing a dream, a middle age man with a twenty something beautiful blonde on my arm. Mia taught me that the difference in age (and in her case sexual preference) was too big a hurdle to overcome for a long-term relationship. I didn't want to chase the dream again, only to have it turn into dust.

Rachel could sense the cooling of my passion. She looked and sounded as sexy as ever but now for some reason it was starting to roll off of me. She was a beautiful, young woman but somehow it didn't seem to be the right fit. Sure, we could have had a fling, but that wouldn't be fair to her - and it wouldn't be fair to Terri. We left the restaurant arm-in-arm but with silent assent that we would be friends and not lovers.

We stopped by my house. I had the opportunity to invite her in, but I couldn't utter the words.

"Rachel, thank you for the ride home." There was no passion in my voice.

"Thank you for the delightful dinner." There was disappointment in hers.

"I'd invite you in, but it's been a long day. Is that OK?" She knew this was a lie. As we both knew, I was a terrible liar.

She was understanding beyond her years. "Of course. I'm not working on any timetable. Let's just see where this goes."

I stood on my porch and watched as Rachel drove her car down the driveway and into the street. Before I reached for the door, I stood under the soft yellowish glow of the porch light and thought about everything that had happened over the past few days. The ups and downs. Seeing myself bend to the whims of many women. The most satisfying sex, in well, forever.

I realized who I loved. I just had to open my eyes.

I pulled my phone out of my pocket and hit Terri's number.

"Skeet."

"Terri, let's go to Vegas and get married."

"OK."

I finally found a lasting love. It was right in front of me the whole time.