Stormy Surrender

The POD was unloaded within the hour. The furniture was placed where she directed. And the boxes were neatly stacked in the rooms that they were labeled for. She had taken the bed from the guest bedroom at the Vermont house, having decided that she wanted nothing to do with the bed that Blaine had no doubt been carrying on his affair in. She had always preferred the guest bed anyway. It was a queen sized bed with a white wrought iron head board and foot board with this ivy scroll work pattern. In fact, she had taken all the furniture from that room…the night stands, the dresser, the chest of drawers, and even the Lane cedar chest from the foot of the bed that she had been filling for years with quilts she had made in various patterns and sizes.

Joey watched her direct his crew with a firm yet gentle hand. He saw the excitement building as she turned her new house into a home. She looked great, despite having slept in a car, being long overdue for a shower…and the bruises that had formed on the side of her face. She was clearly in her element. He couldn’t help but smile as he watched her. And once everything was unloaded and the truck had pulled away, he went outside to give them further instruction.

“I’m giving you guys a long weekend, since you’ve already had a long week. See you bright and early Monday morning. Enjoy.” And with that he turned and headed back into the house.

Marti was puttering around in the kitchen, starting to unpack boxes and find a place for all the dishes and cooking supplies. When she saw him standing in the doorway staring at her, she smiled. “What do you think?”

“It’s just like I imagined it,” he said. Walking over to her, he wrapped his arms around her and squeezed. “So you ready for that shower and nap? We can have a late lunch when we wake up.”

She smiled and nodded happily as she followed him to her room.

They undressed each other lovingly and with the confidence that comes from closeness and shared experience. As soon as they had finished removing every item of clothing, he carried the pile into the laundry room and started the wash. She smiled to herself. It wasn’t terribly romantic, but it was practical. Blaine had been charming, but there was no substance to him, to their life. She was ready for more after all those wasted years.

The shower was incredible. He had remodeled the shower so that they had multiple shower heads. There was no fighting for hot water. Instead, they could easily stay warm and still lather each other up. It was a lovely experience, but the longer she spent being close to him without the sex, the more impatient she became. Joey sensed it and because of her reactions to his touch and his kisses, he had taken to laughing at her.

“Listen, princess, I want you, too.” He used his finger to force her chin so that she had to look at him, but she still tried to avert her eyes.

“What makes you think I want to be with you again?” She jutted that chin out defiantly and earned a smile.

“Oh, you don’t? Well, then never mind.” He started to turn away from her, when she stopped him with a hand to his shoulder.

When he faced her, he found a look on her face that he tried to decipher. She seemed suddenly insecure and it bothered him some that he had made her look that way. “I might be just a little anxious for a repeat performance,” she admitted with a smirk. “I really think I should know for sure whether that was just a fluke. Maybe you’re a one trick pony and that was our golden day. Maybe there’s nothing special left. We should know now, before we get serious.” She smiled up at him.

“Baby, I want you, but I want it to be good and special and more than anything, I want it to be memorable. And right now, I’m running on fumes. Come nap with me and we’ll take it from there.” He pulled back the comforter on the bed she had just recently made and watched as she slipped beneath the Egyptian cotton sheet. She looked so damn appealing that despite his claim to be disinterested in sex at the moment, he was sporting a mighty fine semi.

She flopped onto her side, so that he could fit his body to hers. Before long they were both asleep. At some point, he started playing with her nipples. It wasn’t really that he was trying to start anything, but they were there and he enjoyed touching her. He felt himself getting harder. He pressed his erection up against her firm ass and felt her respond. She pushed her backside into him. He knew she was still asleep, reacting as if in a dream and he was rather enjoying this play session. He slid her closer to him so that he could slip a hand beneath her cotton bikini panties. He knew just where to touch, just how to stroke a woman to achieve the end he desired. It was no different with Marti, except that he cared about her enjoyment so much more than he did with any woman before.

Running his hand the other direction, he tried a different approach. And when she threw her leg over his thigh and he snuck a finger under her panties into her pleasingly wet opening, he was rewarded with a moan. She arched her hips some, rubbed against him. Every movement she made simply encouraged him to try something else, until finally he pulled her panties off and threw them over the side of the bed. Her eyes were still closed and he wanted nothing more than to make them fly open in surprise and drop sensually shut once more while he pleasured her.

Spreading her thighs, he bent low, and watching for a response he began to lick her most intimate of places. Soon, he had her writhing in bed. “Have you ever come this way before, sexy?” He asked in a low voice as he manually teased her.

“No,” she managed to gasp out her response, while arching her back and grinding against his hand. “There,” she murmured. “Yes, there, uh, harder, please.”

He was torn. Part of him really wanted to make her achieve that orgasm. And the other part, the greedy, aroused, painfully hard man wanted to be deep inside her, feel her muscles tighten around him, and suck on those hard nipples and kiss those sweet lips until the only word that would be able to escape them would be his name over and over and over again. It wasn’t a tough choice. Greed won out…mostly because he knew she wanted him, too.

When he stopped touching her long enough to position himself between her thighs, he was rewarded with a whimper. Damn, she knew how to make him feel like a man. He guided his cock to its new favorite place and glided into her warmth. Instantly, he was rewarded. Her legs wrapped around him. Her hands flew down to grip his ass. And he went deeper and pushed harder and harder. He could tell she was close. He had paid attention last time. He was learning her tells. Her eyes squeezed shut, she struggled to open wider for him, allow him deeper access. And then she stopped breathing. He could feel her muscles contracting around him as she murmured, “Ah, Joey.” She said it over and over again, until her orgasm ended.

All of that merely excited him more. Seconds later he felt that familiar release. In the past he would have been suited up. In the past he would have pulled out. In this moment, nothing felt better or more right that releasing deep inside her. She hadn’t objected last time. And if she minded now, she wasn’t saying. He pulled back and reached for the hand towel she had absent mindedly brought with her from the kitchen that now was on the nightstand. He cleaned gently between her thighs. He wiped himself off. Then he gathered her into his arms and slept more.

It was just after 2pm, when he awoke and found her staring up at him with those rich, expressive brown eyes of hers. “Let’s eat,” she said. “I’m starving. Let’s get dressed and head to the café. We can get it to go, if you want. I need chocolate cupcakes.”

She said the magic word. It was cupcakes. And when he thought of Laurel’s cupcakes he practically started to drool.

They dressed quickly. He pulled out the keys as they started to cross the road to his truck. A car pulled up in front of his house. It looked familiar. The driver stepped out and turned so quickly to get her bag from the back seat that he couldn’t even catch a glimpse of her face. He frowned, unlocked the truck for Marti, and headed over to the curb. His gut was already clenching. It couldn’t be. Every time he was happy, it was as if she knew. It was like she was still determined to make him miserable.

She turned, dressed in her tight navy blue skirt and white blouses. Her long caramel colored hair was pulled back into a long pony tail the laid flat on her back. Her eyes still held that same sultry appearance. Then her lips began to move. He had always been mesmerized by those lush lips and what she could do with them. His hand flew to his chest.

“Hello, Joseph,” she said confidently, in a way that didn’t even indicate she had been involved with him for nearly two years or that they had lived together the last six months of it.

“Finn,” he said. He crossed his arms over his chest. “What are you doing here?”

She smiled. She always enjoyed making him uncomfortable. “I’m your claims adjuster.” And with that, she turned toward the house, but paused. She surveyed the truck before she met his face once more. “And you may want to tell your girl over there in the truck that this may take a while.” With that she walked straight up to the front door.

He stood there, his chest hurting. He knew Marti was watching completely and utterly confused. And all he could think as he rubbed that hairless spot over his heart was I wonder what a coronary feels like. Maybe I’m going to die today.

In that moment, with Finn’s arrival, everything had changed.