Two Thousand and Ten Ch. 06

How so much had happened since then, she thought to herself, how much they had changed as events had shaped them and drawn them to where they were now. It had been a harrowing year at times for both of them, but there had also been some good times upon which she would look back on with great fondness. Out of the darkness of Peter's ordeal in Nottingham, and her discovery about Clive's depravity, had come new life in the form of Alison's baby that Peter had fathered, and new love for her and the man she was now laying beside on her bed.

At that moment, as she gazed over the masculine topography of Peter's naked body, she knew that she would love this kind and gentle man forever.

Sunday November 14th 2010, 10:55 am

The bugler played the familiar and haunting sound of the last post as the standard bearers of the local branches of the Royal British Legion and the various scout and guide groups and the local regiment of the territorial army dipped their standards down and held them at an angle of forty five degrees.

"They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old. Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn," the vicar of the town's main church recited the words from Binyan's poem For The Fallen as the townspeople gathered around the cenotaph for the Remembrance Sunday service. "At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, we will remember them."

"We will remember them," Peter, Lindi and the rest of the assembled congregation responded in respectful unison.

The mayor of Westborough on Sea, bedecked in all her ceremonial finery, placed her wreath of poppies on the topmost step of the war memorial, took a step back and bowed her head. The other town dignitaries laid their own wreaths, followed by those of the local scout and guide troops, followed by those of several other local people. In the distance, the bells of the church chimed out the eleventh hour, heralding the commencement of the two minute silence. As they stood side by side, both Peter and Lindi thought of the relatives their families had lost, of the great-uncle Lindi had never had a chance to know, and of Peter's great-grandfather who had died on the battleground of Passchendaele at only nineteen years of age.

As the people of Westborough observed the silence, only the sound of birds in the trees and the distant waters of the English Channel lapping at the shore could be heard above the silence. It was a moment of respectful serenity for the lives of the seven hundred and eighty five men of Westborough who had sacrificed their lives in the name of freedom and of king and country.

The bugler played a reveille as the silence ended, and the standard bearers raised their flags once more.

"When you go home, tell them of us and say, for your tomorrow we gave our today," the vicar recited from his order of service.

He then led a final prayer to those that had given their lives in the name of freedom before leading the singing of a final hymn, O Valiant Hearts, before the congregation dispersed and everyone went their separate ways.

Sunday November 14th 2010, 11:45am

"Makes you think," Peter said as they walked towards the Coopers Arms where a hearty lunch of roast beef, potatoes, carrots, broccoli and Yorkshire puddings, all liberally smothered in thick gravy awaited them beside a roaring open log fire. "All those men, some of them not much more than kids really, their lives sacrificed on the battlefields of Flanders for just a few yards of ground."

"Such a waste," Lindi observed.

Since his son had been born, Peter had a whole new outlook on life and he found himself becoming more and more concerned about the future that awaited him and what the world would be like in eighteen years time. Had his son been born in a different era, when warfare had relied on men on the battlefield rather than the remotely operated missile systems and airborne drones of today, he too would have been required to sacrifice himself. It was all such a senseless waste. And if they dared to declare that they did not wish to fight they would be publicly shamed by the White Feather brigade. And then of course there were those who were shot for cowardice on the battlefield. For the young men of the Great War the choice was stark - fight and be killed, or be executed by firing squad.

"Whilst the generals sat, and the lines on the map moved from side to side," Peter said, reciting from the lyrics of the Pink Floyd song Us and Them.

"Did your aunts talk much about your great-grandad?" Lindi asked him.

"Not really, apart from the fact that my mother named me after him," Peter replied. "Although she did once tell me that he was the kindest older brother she could ever have wished for."

"Well, it's nice to know that you take after your fallen namesake," Lindi said as she wrapped her arm around Peter's.

"What about you? Did your mum ever mention your great-uncle Arthur?" Peter asked as they ambled along the street.

"When she was sober enough, which wasn't all that often," Lindi answered. "She said he'd died a hero - won a posthumous medal for gallantry during the evacuation at Dunkirk apparently, though I'd never seen it myself. I wouldn't have put it past her to have pawned the thing for booze money."

Peter declined to comment - he knew all too well what a sorry case Lindi's mother had been and there was nothing to be gained from digging up old memories. When she had eventually succumbed to her years of alcoholism, it had come as a relief of sorts for Lindi when her mother passed away. That didn't mean that she hadn't mourned her passing, in fact she had felt devastated at the time, but it meant that after all those years being a slave to the bottle she was finally at peace.

"Anyway, let's not dwell on her, shall we? I don't know about you but I'm starving!" Lindi said as she quickened her pace.

Peter knew when the subject of Lindi's mother was off limits and so he simply matched her pace.

Tuesday November 23rd 2010, 6:15am

Peter hit the snooze button on his bedside alarm clock, giving a temporary respite from its tinny electronic wake up call. Beside him, Lindi stirred.

"Mmmmm - what time is it?" she asked him with a yawn.

"Time to get up," he stated, albeit tinged with reluctance to get out of bed.

Why would he ever want to get up when he was warm and comfortable and lying beside the woman he loved? With that thought in mind he rolled over and wrapped his arm around her. He cupped her bare breast in his hand and softly kissed the back of her neck. Feeling her naked body against his as they greeted each new day in bed together was a novelty he was sure would never wear off.

During his adolescent years Peter, just like any young male of that particular demographic, was no stranger to the phenomenon of 'morning wood', but with each passing year waking up with an erection became an ever more seldom occurrence. But today was to be one of those increasingly infrequent mornings when he awoke with a sizeable tumescence.

Lindi was wrenched into sudden full wakefulness when she felt Peter's hardness in the small of her back. She reached behind herself and gasped as her fingers came into contact with what felt like a rod of iron freshly removed from a blacksmiths forge.

"Oh my God, Peter, that's massive!" she exclaimed.

He was by no means impressively proportioned, in fact one could say that Peter's penis was of merely average size, but on that occasion it seemed to feel much larger and much warmer than normal in her hand.

"Mmm?" Peter hummed in reply, clearly not quite fully awake and most likely unaware that he was monumentally erect at that moment.

Lindi rolled over to face him and took his morning erection fully in her hand. It felt like it was emitting some kind of radiation of pure masculinity. She teased back his foreskin and gently rubbed her thumb over the tip. It was at that moment that Peter was suddenly called to full consciousness. Lindi drew back the duvet to reveal the full extent of Peter's dawn tumescence. It was, to her, a truly magnificent sight to behold as it pointed out from him and pulsed and throbbed in time with his heartbeat.

"Now that's what I call a stiffy!" Lindi giggled. "Would be an awful shame to let it go to waste."

Peter of course picked up on what his lover was insinuating.

"Go on then," he said, perhaps a little resignedly.

Lindi needed no further invitation and rolled him over onto his back. Within moments, and with no kind of foreplay involved, she mounted him and sighed contentedly as Peter's larger than normal erection filled her vagina.

"Ohh-h-h-h yeah-h-h-h," she gasped as the tip of his engorged member kissed her cervix.

Almost as soon as she was fully seated upon him she began to rock her hips back and forth and up and down. She rode upon him as a though he was a young horse being broken in, such was the sudden urgency she felt. The rush of hormones was clearly mutually felt, for it was not long before Peter started getting into it. Of course, over the course of the weeks since they'd first made love to each other, morning intercourse was not unusual, but on this particular occasion there just seemed to be much more urgency than there usually was. For although he appeared to be somewhat resigned to having Lindi riding atop him a few moments earlier, he was now well and truly engaging himself into their increasingly rapid lovemaking.

"Oh-h-h, Pe-etey!" Lindi stuttered as she bounced up and down upon his supine body.

"Go for it, girl!" he responded, meeting each of her downward strokes with an upward thrust of his own.

Sometimes rapid sex can be the best and most intense sex there is, and this morning it was both very rapid and very intense indeed. In fact, it wasn't long before Lindi felt herself arriving at the edge of a scintillating orgasm.

"Ahh-h-h-a-h-h! Oh f-fuck, Petey Puppy!" she exclaimed.

Petey Puppy? Peter thought to himself as he gazed up at her riding atop him. Where the hell had that come from?

He put that thought to one side, resolving to ask her why she had called him that later. For now he simply savoured the sight of her completely losing herself to her orgasm. He felt her inner muscles quivering and gripping hold of his penis as her body tried to coax his into depositing his seed inside her. It was a effort that was soon to be rewarded - he was moments away from the point of no return.

"Nnngghh-h-h-h! Hah-h-h-h! Ohh-h-h-h!" Peter grunted primally as he erupted inside her, painting the inside of her vagina with a coat of viscous grey-white from deep within him.

In but the blink of an eye it was over. Feeling him explode inside her brought an abrupt end to her orgasm, but it left her feeling warm and sated, and she leant forwards to kiss him. Her naked body was beaded with a fine sheen of sweat, as was his, such was the heat generated between them in spite of the cold autumnal weather outside. She lifted herself up, freeing herself from her impalement and causing his erection to slide wetly out of her and slap against his belly. They laid together in each other's arms and kissed for a moment, and for that brief interlude they felt completely free from all the humdrum realities of the outside world.

At least, right up until the alarm chirped back to life.

Tuesday November 23rd 2010, 12:17pm

It was unusual for Lindi and Peter to lunch together, as their conflicting work schedules, coupled with the locations of their respective workplaces, normally prevented them from doing so. But today was to be an exception. Peter had surprised Lindi by turning up at the school reception, explaining that a meeting with a client from Swindon had been cancelled and that as a result he was at a loose end for the rest of the day. It was fortuitous, since he knew that Lindi also had the afternoon to herself with no classes scheduled until the following morning.

So he offered to take her out to lunch in Brighton, in an area of the city known as The Lanes - a district of narrow streets packed with cosmopolitan shops, eateries and boutiques. They found a rather bohemian delicatessen that served bagels and wraps and all manner of savoury delights and sweet treats. Peter ordered himself a New York style pastrami bagel whilst Lindi opted for an all day brunch bagel of eggs benedict, and they shared a bowl of lightly seasoned French fries, liberally drizzled in the deli's homemade mayonnaise.

After lunch they roamed around the narrow streets, gazing into the shop windows of the many sophisticated boutiques and little emporia beloved of hipsters that the district was famous for. Peter had to actually drag Lindi away from a shop that sold nothing but chocolate from all four corners of the globe, he joked that she was at risk of leaving a puddle of drool on the pavement if she wasn't careful, such was the way her mouth was watering at the dazzling plethora of chocolatey treats on display. Eventually he capitulated and allowed her to treat herself to a small selection of truffles that they enjoyed as they browsed around the Lanes.

As they turned one corner Lindi's eyes lit up as she saw a shop sign a few metres ahead of them. It was a rather simple sign - elegant black lettering on a red background, surrounded by an elaborate black rococo frame. The letters spelled out a word that was obviously Latin - Eius - which, if Peter remembered his Latin correctly from his schooldays, translated as 'hers'. Judging by the shiny black plastic mannequins, all of which were obviously female and dressed in nothing but rather racy and lacy undergarments, it was pretty obvious to Peter what kind of boutique it was. To say that it wasn't his scene would be an understatement, but for Lindi, well, her reaction to seeing the sign spoke for her.

"Ooh! I've heard about this place!" she enthused gleefully.

She instantly read the expression on Peter's face that he would be well out of his comfort zone in such a place as heavily charged with femininity as the Eius 'Sensuality Boutique', and so she suggested that maybe he would prefer to go for a stroll along the seafront instead. It was an offer he gladly took up. He left her with a kiss on her cheek before zipping up his jacket against the autumnal chill and heading off to leave her to her own devices.

Lindi entered the shop and was confronted by a dizzying display of exotic feminine underwear in all its many and varied forms. There were panties aplenty, knickers in abundance, bras, basques, corsets, thongs, tangas and g-strings, and in seemingly all the colours of the rainbow and in all manner of materials. There were racy black sequinned g-strings, sensual red lace thongs, playful yellow cotton panties with unicorns on them, baby blue negligees that were so delicate in appearance they looked as though all one had to do was breathe on them and they would fly away.

This was Lindi's idea of heaven!

"Good afternoon, madam," a sales assistant said from behind the counter. "Welcome to Eius, my name is Anya, how may I help you today?"

Anya spoke with a heavy Eastern European accent, but her command of English was impeccable.

"Well, I, er, guess I'm looking for something exciting," Lindi replied as she scanned around the boutique.

"Well you have certainly come to the right place!" Anya said with a broad smile as she came around from behind the counter. "Let us see what we can find for you. Did you have anything in particular in mind? A basque perhaps? Or maybe just some panties?"

"Well, I don't know really," Lindi answered. "I only really came in here on the spur of the moment."

"Ah, my favourite kind of customer!" Anya beamed. "But I can assume you want something to excite the man in your life. Or the woman, perhaps?"

"Or both," Lindi teased. "No, this would definitely be for him."

"Husband? Boyfriend?" Anya probed a little. "Toy Boy?"

"Boyfriend," Lindi answered. "We just got together a couple of weeks ago."

"Ooh! Congratulations!" Anya responded with a smile.

"Actually, we've known each other since we were at primary school," Lindi expanded. "But we've only just realised how we really feel about each other."

"Well, 'better late than never' I believe is what they say in this country," Anya said as she guided Lindi further into the boutique. "Now then, let's see what we can find for you that'll drive him wild, shall we?"

Tuesday November 23rd 2010, 1:23pm

Peter stared out at the waters of the English Channel that lapped against the pebble beach. It was a typically autumnal day on the south coast, that is to say that it was grey and overcast with a cold breeze. But despite the drab greyness of such days, Peter actually liked these maudlin days that so typified the British isles in autumn. There was just something about the atmosphere that appealed to his inner self, something he could never quite put his finger on that just seemed to make this kind of day special to him. Perhaps it was because seaside places such as Brighton and their home town of Westborough on Sea were less crowded than they were during the summer months, and that the townspeople had reclaimed their town from all the tourists, primarily from London. Such was the annual influx from the capital, Brighton was often known as 'London on Sea'.

He walked along Madeira Drive following the pioneering Volk's Electric Railway, the oldest electric railway in the world and still operating after over 127 years of conveying fare paying passengers along the long promenade of Brighton beach. As it was out of season however, the little narrow gauge railway had been mothballed during the autumn and winter months, ready to reopen the following spring. He ambled past the beach volleyball courts with their imported sand, the children's play area and the jungle themed adventure golf - all of which, like the electric railway, were totally quiet and shuttered up for the winter.

The various seaside attractions may have been closed for the winter months, but the seafront promenade was still busy with people cycling or walking their dogs, jogging, skateboarding, or like Peter, simply out for a stroll and to take in the sea air. After a while he passed the sign that indicated the start of the short stretch of the beach where clothing was optional - unsurprisingly, what with the weather being as cold as it was, there were no naturists braving the conditions that day. Eventually he reached the entrance to Brighton marina, and decided that he'd gone far enough, so he turned and started to head back into town to meet up with Lindi.

The cold weather might have dissuaded the local nudists from hitting the beach, but it certainly hadn't done much to deter the kite surfers, Peter noted as he saw a number of curved winglike kites flying above the sea near the pier a mile or so distant. Had both he and Lindi been more enthusiastic adrenaline junkies he was sure he would've given the sport a try. However, given the choice between donning a wetsuit and having to brave the frigid waters of the English Channel in November, and simply queuing up for a ride on a decent rollercoaster in one of Europe's best theme parks, he would've chosen the coaster every time.

Tuesday November 23rd 2010, 1:58pm

"I think this is definitely what I'm after!" Lindi enthused as she held her chosen items in her hand, ready to take them to the cash desk for Anya to process the transaction.

They were a very daring choice and she felt certain that seeing her in them would drive Peter crazy. Anya meanwhile, keen to increase her sale, made a suggestion.

"I couldn't help but notice you were with a man before you came in," she said to Lindi. "If you're interested, we do have a selection of underwear for men - maybe we have something for him that would be exciting for you."