Laura

Chris and Laura consummate their love after Chris shows Laura how to trust again.

*

That first morning he had disappeared for a long time, and then sauntered back through the kitchen where Becky stood, completely clean shaven. She had then followed him out and watched as he removed the front door and carried it easily out to place it on the two chairs so he could work on it.

Slowly walking over to stand near him as he worked, she pointed out "I didn't tell you to shave it off."

"Yep you did."

"No I said shave it for all I care."

"I took that as a yes you wanted me to shave it. Don't you like it clean shaven, because I can grow it back again?"

"I told you I don't care."

"But I do, I care what you think."

She stared at him with arms crossed and then turned and walked back into the café, her back held ramrod straight and head held high, her pony tail swinging with every step.

Chris shook his head to himself and carried on working.

*

Fascinated, she stood there watching him as he knelt on his hands and knees filling in some missing grout in the entrance tiles. The door was now stripped of the old green paint and sat waiting for him to complete preparing it ready for painting, and earlier he had asked her what colour she would like him to buy.

Tersely she had replied that it wasn't up to her, but to ask Maidie but he just shook his head and said, "Baby tell me what colour you like? I asked Maidie and she said to ask you."

"I don't care."

"Do you want to play this game again? What colour do you want me to paint it?"

"I don't care!"

"OK, I'll put it this way. Do you like the red of the gingham tablecloths? Would you like the outside to match the inside, or would you like it another colour."

"It makes no difference to me."

"Yes it does, it's your choice and I can't paint it until you tell me what you want."

"I told you I don't care." as she stalked back to the kitchen, past the table with the two couples sitting eating the toasted cheese sandwiches she had just brought out.

Maidie stood beating the cake mix in the bowl and without looking up laughed and said, "For someone who isn't interested in him, you sure have spent most of the day watching him work."

"I have not."

"Oh yes you have my love. You gonna tell me about him and you?"

"No. Just that he was part of my old life. But that's in the past."

"Maybe not so much is the past as you think." and with a wink Maidie stopped beating the mix and poured it into the cake tin.

*

Chris sat on the harbour wall watching the people going about the quay; a young couple walked hand in hand pushing a child in a buggy. He watched as they disappeared up a side street out of sight.

Maidie stood watching him as he sat there, and then wandered over, sitting down next to him, a smile on her face. "You love her don't you?"

"Yeah, but she doesn't love me."

"She's not indifferent."

"She's changed; whatever happened to her has changed her, made her so she doesn't trust me. I need to make her feel safe, to realise I'm no threat to her."

"What did exactly happen to her Chris?"

*

Maidie and Chris had come to an understanding; they both wanted Becky to break free of the prison of her own making she had set for herself. The friendly woman had sat on the harbour wall and explained to Chris that since she had brought the scared and injured young woman here to her little café after finding her, she had hardly ventured out. Preferring to work all day and sit watching the television upstairs in the little sitting room that they shared at night.

Men from the village had tried to ask her out but she had given them the cold shoulder, and when Maidie had to go into the big town for supplies she refused to go with, preferring to stay around the café, rarely venturing very far.

Chris told Maidie about how he had fallen in love at first sight, how he had finally got the courage up to speak to her, only to lose her when she disappeared. Maidie sat and listened in horror as he explained what had happened, asking for help, so that he could build her confidence that had systematically been beaten out by her husband.

They decided to let the young woman make the decisions for the improvements to the little café "After all," as Maidie told him "Business could be better and some changes might increase the flow of customers. Lets give her back her dignity and confidence by letting her control her little world, and then maybe she'll realise she can venture out past it and no longer be afraid."

Leaning over he kissed Maidie's cheek and placed his arm around her giving her a hug, "Maidie you're a good woman, and a real friend. I promise to call our first born after you," and laughing out loud "even if it turns out to be a boy."

*

After supper that night Chris walked up to the little cove and stripped off. Earlier as they had sat at the table in the café for supper, he had told stories of his wandering over the last months, making Maidie laugh with his tales of how he had got stuck with the bike one night in a cow field, only to fall over on his face in some fresh cow pats, and about the time he slept in a farmer's barn, waking up to find that he had slept the night with a collection of curious cats curled up around him, and how he couldn't get rid of the smell for days.

Lying back in the water, he thought about how Laura had sat there at the table, watching him, a frown on her face, picking at her food. As the water lapped around his floating body, he relaxed, clearing his mind. He would wait and see what tomorrow would bring.

*

The next morning he had prepared the two women breakfast, serving it to them with a flourish. Maidie had told him he would have made someone a great wife, and he had laughed a big hearty laugh causing the laugh lines around his eyes and the deep dimples to appear, and Becky had sat staring, a little flutter running through her as she took in his face.

As he got up from the table he looked at her and winking said "Shave or stubble babe."

"I told you I don't care."

"But I do, so I'll take that as a no, don't shave, shall I?"

"Do what you want."

"Maidie do you think that was a no, don't shave?" Laughing Maidie said "I think she likes you with a little growth love, very sexy."

Then with a final wink at the frowning face stubbornly staring at him, he walked to the door and started to remove it from the frame.

During the day he worked on the preparation of the door, aware of her watching him, trying to be as unthreatening as he could, smiling through the window at her when he caught her eyes on him. Customers came and went, and as she served them she would look out through the little bay window at him painting an undercoat on the door as it lay out on the quayside. She watched as passers-by would stop and talk with him, watched as he would straighten up and nod, the paintbrush in his hand, his other hand on his hip, the gentle breeze coming off the sea catching his hair.

He seemed so at ease with people, open and friendly, whilst she felt so clumsy and tongue tied. She remembered his gentleness towards her when Mrs Jackson was dying, and a little more of the wall she had built around herself started to crumble.

Maidie stood behind the counter buttering a sandwich for a customer, watching Becca as she gazed at the tall man through the window. She smiled to herself as she watched her unconsciously pull the pony tail up higher on her head, and pull down the black top she was wearing so her cleavage showed a little more before turning towards her and saying "I'll take him out a cold drink, it's hot out, and he must be thirsty."

"Yes love that's a good idea. Grab him a slice of that fruit cake as well."

*

Chris was kneeling down, the paint brush in his hand smoothly moving back and forth over the now sandpapered and prepared wood of the door. Aware of Laura standing close behind him by her unique scent, he quietly waited for her to speak.

"You must be thirsty; I've brought you a drink."

Placing the paintbrush across the tin of undercoat he stood up, turning towards her a smile on his face, "Thanks babe, it's hot out here," and placing the cold can against his forehead and bringing it down to his neck held it there before popping the tab and taking a long drink.

Laura stood holding the plate with the cake, watching fascinated as he drank from the can. At the base of his neck there was a small dip and beads of sweat had gathered there before they ran down his chest to disappear into the neck of the white tee shirt he was wearing.

Chris noticed her watching him, pleased that she was showing some interest in him as a man and raising his left eyebrow, smiled as he bent down to put the can on the floor by the paint tin, and as he straightened he enquired "Is that for me?"

Embarrassed at being caught staring at him, she held out the plate for him and started to turn away, but Chris reached out and gently took her arm in his hand and softly asked "Stay a while please; keep me company while I eat."

"OK." and shuffling she looked down at her feet unsure what to say.

Chris looked at her standing there, then pointing towards the harbour wall suggested, "Lets go over there and sit down, I can eat my cake in comfort, and we can just chill out for a while."

They walked over and sat down, he eating the cake and she sitting in silence next to him.

"You still haven't told me what colour to paint the door. Got any suggestions?"

"Not really."

"Look at the front of the café babe, what do you see."

"What do you mean?"

"Look at it as if you were a possible customer, tell me what you see."

"I see a stone cottage with a green window,"

"Hmmmm, now tell me what would pull you in to eat there, as opposed to going over there to the pub on the corner for food?" nodding his head towards the quaint rustic pub on the corner, people entering it through the shiny black doors surrounded by hanging baskets of flowers.

"I don't know."

"If I was a customer I would want to see bright fresh paint, a colour that attracts me, tells me the café is bright and cheerful and the food great. What colour do you think we should paint the outside babe?"

Becky looked more closely at the little café, and noticed for the first time it looked sad and neglected.

Looking down at her sitting there staring across at the building he quietly whispered "What colour would you like, what do you think we could do to make the business better for Maidie?"

Shyly she looked up and in a questioning voice "Red maybe, a nice bright red to match the table cloths?"

"OK babe red it is." He whispered and he leaned down and kissed the tip of her nose.

Blushing she grabbed the plate out of his hands and getting up from the wall said "Red door but white door frame and windows, and don't drip paint on the quay side."

"Yes ma'am."

* Becky watched as Chris went out after supper, just like he had the last couple of days. She wondered where he went each night, as she sat in the tiny sitting room with Maidie watching the old portable television perched on the old coffee table pushed up against the wall.

Maidie loved to watch the soaps, getting into the machinations of the characters, as she muttered to the screen as if the actors could hear her, "Don't listen to him love, he's seeing someone else," or "dump her, she's bad news."

But she didn't care what was happening on screen, especially tonight. Tonight her thoughts were elsewhere, picturing him as she had seen him today, stretching up as he lifted the door into place, his muscles moving under the smooth skin on his arms and shoulders, his legs planted apart for balance, looking so masculine and strong. Becky realised she didn't feel scared of his strength, didn't feel threatened by him at all, unlike with Robert. Somehow she felt safe, able to be around him and not feel he would turn on her at any moment.

With a shock she realised that she was becoming more and more attracted to him, sexually, and with a sudden movement got to her feet and announced she was going to take a bath and go to bed.

Without taking her eyes off the small screen, Maidie just nodded and said goodnight.

*

Days passed by, every morning Chris would cook and serve the two woman breakfast, and each morning he would ask her "Babe, shave or stubble?" to which she would reply "I don't care." His answer always the same, "But I do, I care what you want. Shave or stubble?"

She then would say in a grumpy tone either "Shave it off or leave the stubble." and he would comply with her wishes. Secretly she loved the little game, and started looking forward to it each morning, just as she loved it when he called her babe. When Robert had used the endearment she had felt he wanted something from her, but when Chris called her babe she felt cherished.

The little café was slowly being transformed, each night after it closed, Chris would work on painting the inside, white with red trim to match the front and table clothes. as suggested by Becky when cajoled by Chris. During the day he built a wooden sign the shape of a pot of tea, to stand outside so that Maidie could write the day's specials on for customers to read.

Becky stood leaning in the door way watching him work, she had been annoyed at first that he had penetrated her safe little world, away from all the bad memories, which she had tried to put to the back of her mind. Her past life which he was part of was something she didn't want to remember, the pain, the hurt, the fear. But as the time moved on she had started to remember the sweet times she and Chris had spent together, innocently talking as he sat on the wall, laughing in Mrs Jackson's sitting room, the kiss on the top of the hill that last day.

He could see she was starting to relax more and more with him; she was no longer acting quite so cagily around him, and giving suggestions as to how she wanted the renovations to go. Her confidence was growing, now secure that anything she asked, Chris would do without mocking her, or telling her that she was stupid.

*

One night into the second week Becky followed him keeping her distance as he left the café walking along the road out of the village. She had wondered where he went each night, leaving her and Maidie alone, and slowly the thought that he might have found some local girl down the pub started to worry her, so quietly she followed until she saw him climb down to the little cove. Fascinated, she watched as he stripped off his clothes and walked naked up to the shore line, his body lit by moonlight as he slowly waded in to swim.

Finding a large flat rock at the back of the cove, heart beating fast, she sat down, straining to see his head and arms as they moved through the water, until he finally moved towards the shore and standing up walked out of the water, the sight of his glistening naked body caused a flutter of longing to start deep in her soul.

Chris had noticed her as he started to wade out of the sea and walked unhurriedly up to her, his body wet and shining. Just seeing her sitting there waiting for him caused the warmth to start in his groin, making him harden, that pleasurable familiar feeling causing his breath to quicken. Standing unashamedly in front of her he silently looked down into her eyes, judging her mood, seeing in her eyes the longing and need but also the uncertainty. Slowly, so as not to scare her, he moved behind her, climbing up on the rock and settling down behind her, his legs each side of hers, and his arms slipping around her belly pulling her gently back towards him.

Bending his head towards her neck, he planted a line of little kisses up to behind her ear where he whispered, "I've wanted you for so long, to be able to hold you, to kiss you, to be inside you. I dream about you each night, how it will feel to move deep inside you. To have your body rubbing up against mine. Baby it's up to you. Say yes and I promise to make you feel good, say no and I'll leave you alone." He continued to nibble on her neck as she arched backwards allowing him access to more skin.

Lifting one hand up to her face he gently turned it towards him and as she twisted her body slightly he kissed her mouth, a slow wet open mouthed kiss, the taste of salt on his lips. Slowly his hand moved down from her face, sweeping down her neck to cup her left breast, gently squeezing it, before rubbing his thumb back and forth across the nipple that had started to harden.

Tongues met as the kiss deepened. Becky felt cocooned by his hard wet body behind her, his arm still holding her firmly against him so that she could feel his hard manhood pushing up against the base of her spine, her breast and sensitive nipple tingling under the cotton material of her sleeveless clinging vest as he teased it with his fingers and thumb. Slowly Chris pulled his lips from hers, and kissing the tip of her nose whispered "Say yes."

Becky looked up into his eyes, realising he would go no further without her permission.

"I'm so scared", she admitted in a trembling voice.

"I promise I won't hurt you, I would never hurt you. Say yes, take the risk, let me give you the pleasure you deserve."

"I'm not very good at this."

"Baby you could never disappoint me." He softly kissed her lips and then his hands moved to the bottom of her cotton top, lifting it up, and as it reached her arm pits, she lifted her arms up over her head and backwards behind his, exposing her small perfect breasts, tipped with dark hard nipples.

Pulling the top completely off her and throwing it to the ground, Chris looked down at her beautiful body arched backwards and exposed, and using both hands gently skimmed over the tight little buds, making her arch even stronger, a deep sigh escaping her throat.

"Say yes." He breathed into her ear.

"Yes, oh yes." Body arching up trying to get him to rub her nipples harder, but instead his hands swept down across her belly down to the fastening of her jeans and undoing the zip, slipped one hand in to her pants and down until his finger felt her hard nub, gently rubbing it back and forth before moving it further finding her entrance to her body, and slowly, gently dipping it in as she shifted her hips allowing him more access.

"That's it Baby, you're in control," he crooned, moving deeper into her tight entrance, and nibbling on the side of her neck he continued moving his finger inside her, whilst a finger on his other hand went down to the hard nub rubbing it at the same time.

Becky felt herself drowning in sensation, unable to keep still, her legs spread wider, offering him more access, and her hips lifted, as she held on to the back of his head, her back arching up, her breasts straining, small panting breaths coming from her slightly parted lips as she moved higher and higher towards release.

An explosion of pleasure radiated out from between her legs and up through her belly, as she cried out, and then slowly drifted down into awareness. Chris was holding her slumped body against his, kissing the back of her neck, then trailing his tongue down the indent of her spine between her shoulder blades, warm and wet.

Getting up from behind her, Chris climbed down from the rock and faced her, fully erect, and holding out his hand, without a word invited her to climb down from the rock and stand in front of him.

Becky stood there as Chris knelt down in front of her removing her jeans, panties and shoes, then leaning forward kissed her navel, using his tongue to caress and swirl around the small indent, before kissing a line down to between her legs where he kissed her most intimate place. Becky gasped and her hands burrowed in his thick hair as she stood there, this large but gentle man kneeling before her, putting her pleasure before his.