I looked down at Simone sleeping softly beside me and could hardly believe my good fortune.
Just hours ago we had been married...a union that, until six months ago, seemed virtually impossible. Oh, I had tried and tried, but she was enamored with another just as much as I was enamored with her. Over the years I had remained around the family, loving her every moment, doing what I could for her, caring for her children, seeing to as much of their needs as I could. Call me a friend, call me a faithful dog, call me a fool. But I wanted to be around her constantly, despite her claims of liking me only as a friend and not wanting to ever get married again.
Her cries for help kept coming, though. Mostly financial, but sometimes supportive. I was always glad to be there for her, though sometimes I felt used. However, I loved her, really and truly loved her, and that made me stick things out.
The breakthrough came with her eldest daughter. She was putting herself and her mother through hell. Simone couldn't take it. As naive as she was about her children's actions, her children were her life. She thought the world of them, struggled to give them the best upbringing she could, and it broke her the day she found out it didn't take with Andrea.
She had called me crying into my cell phone. I wasn't two minutes away from her house and, filled with worry, I stopped by. She sat on her couch, heaving with sobs. I sat beside her, uncertain what to do. Gingerly, I put my arm around her shoulder and held her, scared to death that she would pull away or brush my arm off. She didn't. In fact, she curled her feet on the couch and leaned further into me. I felt her bare shoulder and arm under mine and started, despite myself, to get hard.
She was wearing a sleeveless top, one that showed off her perfect shoulders and toned arms. Her pants were really short and hid little of her trim legs. I took in all of this, closed my eyes, breathed deeply and hugged her closer to me.
She responded to this and put her right palm against my chest and adjusted herself so that her knees were touching my thighs. I put my left arm around her waist and pulled her even closer to me. I kissed her forehead and shuddered, grasping her tighter.
When I relaxed my hug, she looked up at me. Her normal defiance and self assuredness were gone from her eyes. Instead there was a certain hurt and vulnerability there. There was also something soft, something questioning.
She took a deep breath and her hand slid from my chest onto my lap. Suddenly, it contacted my hard-on and my eyes opened in shock. She pulled her hand away suddenly. I was now very embarrassed.
"Why are you hard?" she asked.
"Because I'm holding you," I said.
"If just holding me makes you like that, me naked would give you a heart attack."
"It would be quite a beautiful way to die."
"Well, I'd better not chance killing you," she smiled.
"No, no. I'd rather like to take the risk."
"I bet you would."
"We'll start slow, like an experiment. With a kiss. If there is no adverse reaction, we could go further, see what happens. You know, stop just before my heart attack."
"I'll hire a nurse to run the experiment on you. Listen, we talked about this before," She started to pull away. "I..."
She didn't finish, for I'd suddenly put my lips on hers and was grasping her tight, kissing her. I pulled her into me and gave her everything with the kiss. I expected her to push me away, she didn't. When we broke apart, I expected a slap, it didn't come. Instead, she just sat there with her eyes closed.
"Simone," I stroked her hair, the side of her face. Her shoulder, down her arm. In doing so, my palm brushed downward along her right breast. She didn't react. My hand continued down her arm to hold her hand.
"Simone," I whispered again, and took my hand and stroked her right cheek. I let my hand fall, this time down the center of her chest and this time, when it met her breasts, I let it linger over her right breast. Her nipple got hard under my hand. I began to caress it.
"Oh, Simone," I said and leaned her back onto the couch. I lay over her, propped on an arm and stared down at her. Her eyes were still closed, Her mouth was partly open. I kissed her eyes, then her cheeks, then her closed lips. My right hand found her face and shoulder and then her left breast. I massaged it through the blouse a moment while kissing her face and neck. Then my hand roamed down and moved under her shirt, lifting it slowly until her small, braless breasts were exposed.