Chapter 19
Maybe it was the scotch, maybe it was just the very long time I'd spent thinking about the possible life ahead of us for Bethany and I, or maybe it was my subconscious reluctance to end the dream of us that I had been wallowing in at the time, but for whatever reason - I woke unusually late that Sunday morning.
In fact it was only the incessant ringing of the telephone that finally stirred me.
'Ah, you are there! I thought you must have gone out already.' Bethany said when I eventually picked it up.
'No, you've discovered my secret vice - I was actually still asleep.' I admitted.
'Goodness - I've been up for ages!'
'Well I sat up for quite a while - thinking about us.' I explained.
'Nice thoughts - or doubtful ones?' she asked with a note of hesitancy in her voice.
'Oh nothing but the very nicest ones my darling. In fact I was busily planning some sort of future for us.' I blurted out.
There was silence for a few moments, and I began to wonder if I had stepped across some unspoken boundary - but I was quickly reassured by both her response and the almost girlishly excited tone in her voice. 'Well you can start talking about those things whenever you like! But before that, what plans did you have for today?'
'Today? Nothing in particular, a few odd jobs around the place, that's all - why?'
'We had a phone call from the father of a couple of the boy's school-friends, he was planning to take them out on his boat today, and rang to see of John and Jason would like to join them. And of course that was an offer they simply jumped at - I've just seen them off. So as you won't have had breakfast yet, why not pop round here and let me cook one for you. Then we can decide what we want to do with the rest of our day - that is if you don't mind spending it with me!' she added cheekily.
'Give me half an hour to shave and shower, and I'll be there. If nothing else, the offer of a cooked breakfast is far too good to turn down!' I answered in a similar tone.
She giggled. 'I thought that might be your answer. Now as I might well still be upstairs tidying up, I'll leave the back-door unlocked, so just come around through the garden and you can come in the back way. OK?'
'I'll be there soonest my darling, just start getting things warmed up for me!' I added before we hung up.
As the forecast was for the day to be another hot one, I slipped into just shorts, a polo shirt and loafers, and in something less than half an hour was making my way back around to Bethany's house.
The rear entry door was, as she'd said it would be, unlocked, and having gone through the deserted kitchen and into the hall-way that ran the length of the house, and remembered that she'd said she could well be upstairs, I stood at the foot of them and called upwards. 'Bethany! Bethany, it's me, Mark - are you up there?'
Her answering call had a strangely echoing tone to it, but she said she was, and told me to go up to her. 'When you get to the top you'll see that there's an open door. I'm in there.' she explained.
I climbed the main flight, then turned up the three or four stairs that led on to a hallway that mirrored the downstairs one - to the right all the doors were firmly shut, but to the left, and at the far end, there was one almost wide open.
I went straight in, and found myself in what was quite obviously Bethany's room - decorated in shades of primarily old-rose and dusty pink, with glossy white paintwork that highlighted the delicacy of those shades of colour. Then, adding a couple of more dramatic colour splashes, were a few objects of either rich burgundy or muted emerald green.
The bed, an over-sized one, had a throw-over that picked up those colours, contrasting with the crisp whiteness of what were obviously freshly-laundered sheets - and both those and the coverlet were turned invitingly down.
But there was no sign of Bethany.
'Wrong room darling!' I heard her call - the echoing effect that I noticed from downstairs, now very much clearer. 'I'm in the room next door.' she added - and sure enough when I looked out, there was a second, just partially opened doorway.
Again I went in - into one of the largest bath-rooms I'd ever seen - much of one side of which was totally dominated by a simply massive, late Victorian - complete with the apparently nearly always obligatory, claw-feet - bathtub.
It wasn't just much longer than any bath I had ever seen, but was really high-sided, so high in fact that although I could tell that Bethany was sitting bolt-upright in it, even I could see not more of her than just her head and the very tops of her shoulders.
I figured that it was quite big enough to accommodate most, if not all, of an entire brood of a Victorian family's children at the one time - and in spite of their sometimes much-vaunted prudery about matters sexual, we all know just how many of them there tended be in those days!
Bethany grinned when she saw my astonished confusion. 'I bet you used to play with ships when you had a bath as a small boy - well, as you see, this is a bath for grown-ups to play in! So come on - the water's still nice and hot - join me, come on in!'
The truly dumb side of my brain must have been responsible for my initial response to her. 'I've only just had a shower Bethany, just before I came around.'
She chuckled. 'I had one too, as I said, this bath is playing in, not for washing in. Come on, don't disappoint me I've been looking forward to this for an hour or more.'
Of course the moment I heard myself saying what I had, I realised just how stupid I had been, and had already started getting my things off before Bethany had time to finish her further invitation.
As I stepped nakedly forward, Bethany slid herself a little further down the bath. 'Hop in behind me please darling, you could sponge my back for me - first!'
The water was all but crystal clear, the surface faintly glistening from something she'd added to it, and as the heat of the water vaporised that, the perfume was reminiscent of what I had smelt on her the previous evening; carrying just a hint of an underlying scent of lemon-grass.
Although I knew her big brown eyes were staring up at me, as any man would at such times, mine were staring downward, staring down at her body. At her breasts - which seemed to be floating on the very surface of the water, being supported by it - and at her nipples - which were apparently already showing signs of their early engorgement. Then at the dark, triangular shadow below them - momentarily wishing I had been invited to step in from the other end, from where I might have also seen at least a hint of the fleshy cleft beneath it.
Pausing only long enough to take in the rest of her beautiful, and oh so very sexy body, I stepped over to join her in the water.
Bethany had obviously been careful not to put too much of it in the bath, and even when I slid down behind her - stretching my legs down the outsides of hers - even though the two of us of course pushed it that much higher, there was still at least one third of the side of the bath clear of it.
When I dunked the sponge in the water so I could do what she'd asked me to, sponge her back, I realised that what Bethany had added to the water must have been some sort of oil based essence, the water itself had a decidedly slippery feel to it. So, having sponged her for a little while, I put the sponge aside, and began to use just my hands and fingers.
With both her skin and mine sheened with traces of the bath-oil, my caresses glided over her almost frictionlessly, just barely skimming her - her always smoothly soft skin feeling even more like the most ultra-fine silk.
Bethany gave a soft sigh when I slid my arms around her, and my fingers tingled as they slipped over the gentle swell of her stomach and moved up to cup her breasts.
Just the feel of the swollen firmness of them stirred me, stirred and stimulated me, and the feelings I had felt just from looking down at her, grew even stronger. Feelings that soon became sharply focussed, in the pit of my stomach, my groin, my cock - and I felt the pressure of it twitching, then stiffening, and then far more quickly than usual, rising jerkily.
