This is chapter three in a six part romance that is a take off for me as my forte is really in the science fiction genre. I was very surprised that these were bought by a magazine. I hope you enjoy and, as always, I enjoy reading your comments and some of them are helpful to me and other writers so please feel free.
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Once again a tremendous amount of thanks goes to Literotica editor lipstickvogue for her untiring efforts and for her intelligent editing. If you enjoy this story, much of the credit goes to her.
We awoke in the morning still curled in each other's arms. We gave each other a loving hug and began our morning ritual with one exception. She pulled me into the shower with her with the comment that she wanted to make sure I got clean. I enjoyed the process and returned the honor. We decided to have breakfast in the dinning hall and spoke of things mundane and amusing. We walked the deck, played ping-pong and spoke of things mundane and amusing. We did all of the things that people at see on a luxury line do and spoke of things mundane and amusing. We talked of everything except us.
We had lunch in the dinning room and ordered dinner brought to her cabin.
With an after dinner drink in our hands, we went to the balcony and watched the dolphins play and spoke of nothing at all. She asked me to spend the rest of our cruise together so we went to my cabin and moved me to hers. That became the pattern of our existence for the rest of the cruise. We enjoyed each other in the night and during the day. We rented motor scooters in Nassau, went para-sailing, walking on the beach and ate in the local eateries. We were the quintessential vacationers. We had a marvelous time of relaxed and loving companions. As we were looking over the rail at the coast of Florida, I mentioned that it might be a good idea to exchange addresses and numbers. She chuckled and dug in her carry bag to reveal a paper with all of the information on it ready and waiting. I gave her my info and we stood in silence, content that this was not the end.
Then I made a serious mistake. Men are wont to make them, I have never figured out why that is. I had read an item in an online newspaper that morning that upset me and thought I would discuss it with her. Unfortunately, it was political and she took the opposite view. We began to argue and this escalated into almost a shouting match as we got ready to depart the ship. A week of love and discovery, ruined by a careless word from me. Ok so I was stupid. I even admitted it, but to no avail. We didn't even say a proper goodbye as we went our separate ways. All I could think of was, 'I will never see her again', as I walked to my car. As I was driving back up the highway I pulled out that slip of paper she had given me with all of her numbers on it. After pulling into a rest stop about an hour down the road, I called her cell phone. Three times. She wasn't answering. Have you ever felt the earth just swallow you up in your insignificance? It is not pleasant. I drove straight through to my formerly nifty condo. It just felt empty. That was when it hit me that I had actually fallen in love with this marvelous, wrong headed woman. In love. Me. How corny can you get?
This suffering went on for four terrible days and nights before I tried calling her again. No answer. Again. Back to personal castigation. It seemed to go on forever.
It was about three AM and I was sitting in my den doing absolutely nothing. My mind was wandering from this inconsequential thing to that and shying away every time it drifted toward Jayne. I had to get her out of my mind. I hadn't even been taking care of my business. No poker for almost a month counting the cruise time. I hadn't called my accountant or my business manager to check on things. Nothing.
Then, out of the proverbial blue, came the email. It had no subject line just a message. But what a message. And it was from Jayne. It read:
I need someone to make the stars shine brightly, to make the rainy days sunny and warm. I need someone to make me smile, someone who will complete me.
I need someone who will give me a helping hand when I am feeling down and let me help them up.
I need someone who is as honest as I am and wants that honesty.
I need someone who will support me and help me to reach the stars. I need some one that welcome support for themselves.
I need someone who will care, someone who will share, and someone who will always be with me in the long evenings.
I need someone who will comfort me and let me comfort them.
Someone who will cheer me on, and hold my hand through nighttime, dawn and noon,
I need someone to share happiness, passion and true love together.
I need you.
I wish to find you with all my heart.
I am waiting for you here
It concluded with the fact that she hadn't been at her place, but with her father since the cruise. So now I knew why she didn't answer her phone and it looked like she still wanted to be with me. Naturally I responded. I apologized. And waited. And waited. And called. Still no answer. Days went buy and still no answer.
Some jackass was knocking on the door. Somewhere in my brain the thought came that if we were going to pound like that at three AM it just might be important enough to answer. So I did.
She was standing there with her head bowed and her shoulders shaking. I could hear the almost silent sobs escaping from her. She wasn't even carrying a purse.
I put a finger under her chin and gently raised her head until I could see her eyes. "Welcome to my world," was all I could think of to say. We stood frozen like that for an eternity.
I opened my arms to invite her for a hug. We hugged tightly and went into my living room to sit on the sofa. I turned on the CD player. And we just snuggled for a few minutes. Then we began to talk.
I opined, "That really was a silly thing to have such a big fight over. I am really sorry I started it."
We played the blame game for a couple of minutes and began go neck. Then we began to NECK! The kisses were getting hotter and more intense with lots of tongue wrestling and roaming hands on both sides. But, we had a lot to talk about so it stayed at the petting stage as we sat and had a good productive conversation. The thing about the conversation that was so amazing is we actually listened to each other. It seems to be a forgotten art in today's society. I guess we talked for a couple of hours. I know the sun was coming up when we finally wound down and headed for bed.
We were both physically and emotionally drained so we didn't even think about sex. We snuggled into each others arms and drifted off to sleep with a few kisses and murmured pillow talk.
When we awoke in the morning we took a shower together and had some light play. She soaped me and I her. When she saw me getting hard she told me to cool down we would have time for that later. She had plans to drag me along on a shopping spree. YUCK! BUT! I was happy to be with her again. It made me feel good inside.
I actually had fun shopping with her. We went to breakfast at a little breakfast bar not too far from my place then I took her to some of the shops in town. We kidded back and forth about her choices and she bought me a shirt she liked. We walked a lot and held hands, stole some kisses along the way. I grabbed her ass in one of the more exclusive women's shops, which got me a punch in the stomach.
As we walked around the city of Charleston, WV I told her some of the town's history and pointed out that we had some really good restaurants. We had lunch at Joe Fazio's down on Bullitt Street. It is a good Italian restaurant with a friendly, up beat ambiance. Then we went for a walk down by the river. We talked some more about ourselves.