Sister Golden Hair Delight

Chapter 17

"I had a finger up my ass and it still wasn't good enough."

Early morning, Thursday, July 26th

Carrier USS Reagan, 280 miles west of Hawaii, Pacific Ocean

Maria....

As I was being strapped into the back seat, Osborne went over the emergency procedures again.

"I'm telling you, Colonel, when we shoot of the cat, it'll be like nothing else. Ever been in a sports car?"

"One time, with a friend of mine."

I was already squirming in the seat knowing what was coming was going to be bad. Even though I skipped breakfast, my stomach was tightening, just thinking about it.

"Well, we're going to accelerate from nothing to something in about two seconds. I'll give you the heads up."

The two Hornets lined up side by side on the ship's catapults and I could see Jim waving at me from the other Hornet.

"Colonel, we will launch about ten seconds after the other plane. You good to go?"

I knew he could immediately hear my breathing speed up.

"Colonel, you all right back there?"

"Yeh... yes... let's just go."

With a wave of his hand, he signaled his fellow pilot and the deck crew that he was ready and first one and then the other F-18 were flying away from the carrier.

The launch pushed me back into me seat with a great weight on my chest.

By the time I opened my eyes, 'Yellow Flight' was ten miles in front of the fleet and we were heading back toward Hawaii. Flying about a half-mile apart, the two pilots practiced combat tactics, changing every twenty minutes from lead to wingman.

The smooth ride had given me a false sense of security and I was enjoying myself. The checker-shirted crewman who cinched me in must have done it a little too tightly because the crotch strappings had started to rub my thighs and were driving me insane in a very good way.

I couldn't believe it... the rubbing straps had caused me to orgasm right there in the back seat. I still don't know if it was because of the thrill of flying now that I wasn't afraid anymore to fly

The two planes pulled closer together so I could have some souvenir photos taken. I pulled out my small digital camera and started taking pictures, moving it around the cockpit to get that 'perfect' shot for my living room wall.

Jim was rapidly taking photos of my fighter just one-hundred feet away traveling at 900 miles an hour. He waved at me and as I waved back, he finally took the photo he was looking for. It's still hanging on our living room wall.

Phelps, the other pilot, told me later that Jim had asked him if there was going to be any layover time in Honolulu or if we were just going to refuel and leave. Phelps told him that since he was the general, we could do whatever he wanted.

Later that evening, Jim told me he had Phelps set up a flight time for the next morning so we could spend some time in Waikiki together and he had wanted to take me out for some shopping and dinner.

Far ahead was Barber's Point Naval Air Station where we were going to land.

Up front, the pilot was contacting Barber's Point Naval Air Station.

We were all on the same frequency so I was able to hear what little conversation there was between Jim and Phelps.

"You're good to go, General. Shall I contact the others?"

"Let me do it, please."

"You're the boss. Yellow Flight One to Yellow Flight Two."

"Yellow Flight Two... go ahead."

"Maria, can you hear me? Good. I'm taking you shopping and to dinner. We'll get a couple of rooms at the Royal, how's that?"

"Thank you, General. I'm looking forward to it."

I had hoped the sexual tension between the two of us might go away now that I was interested in Commander Hunter... even if Michael had been 'damaged' by the women in his family, I still thought I could 'fix' him.

**********

Early morning, Thursday, July 26th

Royal Hawaiian Hotel, Waikiki, Honolulu

Immediately after landing Jim called the Royal Hawaiian and reserved two rooms for the night. After we showered at the air station and put on our clean uniforms, we caught a cab into Honolulu.

Paying the driver, we checked into the Royal and dropping off our travel bags, we walked over to the shopping center. Jim said he knew he could travel around and go to dinner in his uniform but the idea of me in uniform for dinner didn't sit well with him.

An hour later, he bought me a gown, silk underwear and high heel shoes. Arranging for the clothing to be delivered to the hotel no later than four in the afternoon we went sightseeing.

Lunch was an upscale Chinese restaurant in the center of Waikiki and then he asked if I wanted to go swimming. We headed back to the shopping mall and he bought some swimwear, sandals and beach towels for the two of us.

I was confused at what he was doing. He was treating me so nicely and I thought that he might want to sleep with me before we returned to Malibu and Alessa. It seemed so out of character, though, that while the idea lingered in my mind I thought I was wrong.

We change back at the hotel and met in the hallway. I knew was a reasonably good-looking woman but the skimpy red bikini I had chosen was going to so turn heads as soon as we went downstairs. We walked out on the Hawaiian's private beach and found a spot under a shady umbrella.

Smoothing out the beach towels, I ran into the water and swam out as far as I could because I just wanted to be alone. I bobbed around in the water just thinking of my life and how Michael could possibly change the way I had been living.

Quite a while later I returned dripping wet. He tossed me a towel we had taken from the hotel and I quickly wiped myself off and wrapped my dark hair.

I saw him looking at the bathing suit so tight against my body. The sea water, although much warmer than at Malibu and Zuma, was still cold enough to have my nipples stiff and standing out under the fabric. For a moment, I thought the fabric had shrunk because it molded itself against my pussy and I could see it plainly, when I glanced down.

I grinned, seeing that he was beginning to be aroused. Soon, he was more than just aroused and it would have been obvious to anyone looking that his mind was not on watching the waves roll in.

I thought, damn the military regulations that had forever kept us apart. For a brief moment in time I wanted to grab his hand and rush back to the hotel and fulfill the fantasies I had watched grow and entangle my soul for the last five years.

Then I knew that wasn't such a good idea. I knew I couldn't do that to Alessa, even though I didn't like her that much then. It was my own sense of honor that stopped me from at least trying to have sex with him.

Even then, I realized that what happened between Jim and me was not her fault. It was entirely ours... mine for not declaring myself to him, his for breaking my heart with both Miriam and Alessa.

Too late now...

"Thank you, General..."

"C'mon, there's no one here except us... you know it's always been Jim."

He caught me blushing but he didn't know why and I wasn't about to tell him.

"Thank you... Jim. I really appreciate your doing this for me. Uhh, how are things with Alessa?"

I had hoped to push the conversation toward him and away from me.

"Maria... I've liked you for a very long time."

Was he coming onto me, after all these years? I couldn't believe it. My heart sped up as my simple little world began to crash around me.

"I need to say this while I can. I was in love with you, but... you know... it wasn't possible... I was goddamned fool not to say something. I couldn't say anything, although I wanted to. I was so fucking stupid. I hoped that you would have said something, done something, but you didn't."

So... it was my fault? He was right though, in a way... I should have said something, but I was trapped just like him. Damn it to hell! His affirmation of everything I had thought about just made me so much worse. If I could have run back into the ocean I would have swum toward Asia until I drowned I was so sick at heart.

"You seem to like this Hunter fellow. Do you think anything will come of it?"

My Latin temper was boiling just under the surface. Now he was worried about my personal life? What the fuck was he doing to me? I didn't know whether to bother answering or not.

"He's getting out of the Navy when this tour is over next month. I'm going to meet his family. He has four sisters."

"Is this serious? How can I help you? Just say it, Maria. I'm sorry that I never said anything. At the beginning, I was a stickler for following the rules and then there was Miriam... then, you know... and now, there's Alessa. I'm going to marry her. I wanted you to know."

I rolled on the towel, turning away from him to hide my tears. All that time lost and now gone forever. Why did he have to tell me this? My sobs became louder and he then he had to know what a fool he had been, before and definitely right now.

A while later we went back into the hotel and up to our rooms. I turned to him and calmly as possible said, "What time is dinner, Gen... Jim?"

"When would you like to go?"

"I would like to lie down for a while. Is seven all right?"

"Fine, I'll make the reservation downstairs. Maria, I'm sorry. I know that I've hurt you. I didn't mean to but sometimes we're just as guilty of sins of omission as we are for actually doing something.

Would you... can you... please forgive me and still be my friend? I don't have many friends. The military... the job... it just doesn't allow for it. You know that. I'm sorry.

The only thing I could give you was the financial opportunities that I had. Truth is no one else has as much money as you. I think it's about $35 million now. I've always been your friend even if I couldn't be your lover."

He had walked over to his room door and looked back. I stepped inside mine and locked the door. I didn't want to see him right then. Why did he do that? What had started out as such a nice day was ruined. I was such a goddamn fool around him.

The afternoon dragged on as I tried to think about our future relationship.

**********

Evening, Thursday, July 26th, 2007

The Royal Hawaiian Hotel, Waikiki, Hawaii

I lay on the bed all afternoon, my mind rumbling through my feelings for Jim. He had been in love with me almost the whole time but a miserable series of events and rules kept either one of us from saying anything. At least he had been honest with me. I hadn't though... I didn't tell him anything... I knew it was better to leave it that way.

Somehow, I foolishly thought at the time, I was going to marry Michael... well, maybe not. I really wasn't sure what I was going to do with him other than my decision to get him away from his family.

I've enough money today, thanks to Jim. I have never forgotten that. I had known that he was helping everyone there, but I had not known that he had been doing so much for me. It had been the only way he could express his feelings.

I had lain there trying to put some order to the jumbled emotions running through my heart.

After several hours of frustration, I found myself moving my fingers into my panties and over my mound. Moving my fingers over it, I was pushing hard for several minutes and then I moved down to my clit. I slowly massaged it rubbing gently round and round. I could feel it immediately grow and expand between my thumb and forefinger. I began to moan just so slightly that only I could hear.

As I could feel myself getting more and more moist I slipped my forefinger into my pussy and began to finger-fuck myself in and out while my thumb continued to gently attack my clit.

My other hand began encircling my left breast and finding its nipple began to move against it as it swelled up, hardening and rising to meet my fingers. I squeezed it so nicely and then began to pinch harder as my moaning increased.

Soon, I had two fingers inside and began to open myself up more and more until I was able to have all four fingers working in concert with my thumb.

The first orgasm hit me and I trembled, shaking my pelvis, wishing Michael was here with me going down on my pussy and bringing me off. His educated mouth was so, so much better than my fingers but he was still out in the middle of the Pacific and I was here in this hotel room by my goddamn self.

It was then I knew I should have gotten a towel first from the bathroom before adventuring off between my legs and the fluid leaked down between my legs coating both my ass and the sheets.

Seeking that higher high, I took my hand away from my breast and moved it down, down to slide against me between my pussy and my ass. I needed a better high after everything that had happened today. I refused to be without something.

Abandoning all pretense of modesty, I slipped my middle finger up and into my asshole ever so slowly and began to move it in concert with those fingers already moving faster and deeper in my pussy. I could feel myself in both holes with the fingers of each hand.

I soon had another finger in my asshole and began to spread them apart opening it farther. I knew it was all for nothing, though, for I had neither a butt-plug, a dildo or a dick to put there and had to remain satisfied with just the three fingers I now had pushed up in there.

I came hard and was confused for a moment as to which fingers to move. I had totally lost control of myself both mentally and physically and then the room darkened.

I must have fallen asleep for the next thing I remembered was the alarm going off. I still had two fingers in my pussy and the sheet was soaked.

I was too embarrassed to call room service for another set of bedding and through several towels from the bathroom onto the bed.

Damn, it was six o'clock already! I started to get ready... I didn't want him to think I hated him after his confession. I was mad at him, but... he didn't deserve that... and, I wanted to work with him after I left the service the next year. I was done with all this military running around. It had been enough..

I took another quick shower and started to dress for dinner. The smoothness of the silk underwear was so different from my usual wear. After putting on the dress, I looked into the mirror. From over here, I look pretty good. I moved closer, inspecting my face. Not so good here, these 'crow's feet' around my eyes. Laugh lines, some call them. Not too much laughing in my life, though. I cared for him too much to hate him. He was as much a victim as I was.

'OK,' I told myself, 'woman, time for dinner.'

Jim was walking down the hallway toward my room and I practically ran out, knocking into him. He grabbed me to keep me from falling down. I had looked into his face, seeing his concern. He started to lower his head to mine... and then stopped, turning crimson.

"Uh... are you OK?" That was the best I could do? God, I was so screwed up.

"I'm fine, now, Jim. Let's go to dinner and that dance you promised me."

He gingerly took my hand on his arm and we took the elevator down to the Azure restaurant. Walking across the lobby, I felt as if every eye was on me and my almost skin tight gown showing my breasts and butt off. I felt like I was naked and actually liked the feeling.

Today, I think it was a response to both what Jim had done and whatever Michael would be in my life. It was a powerful feeling, somehow. Instead of being nervous dressed as I was, I found it to be emotionally exciting and I felt myself getting warm.

Within minutes, we had a table in an alcove.

There was a silence for a short while and then I spoke. "Jim... Thank you for telling me. I think I know how hard it must have been. I felt the same way about you. I waited and waited when I should have just said something. You've always been a gentleman with me, even when we were in Iran. You have no idea how hearing this from you after all this time...

Jim... you've found Alessa. Do I wish it were me? I do but now I'm going to marry Mike Hunter. He's a good man and we think alike with similar interests. He has a family, which I really never had.

You were the closest person I ever really thought of as family. I know he can love me.

I want to be your friend, Jim. I really do. You have Alessa, now. She's so in love with you. I'm happy for you, Jim. My time will come."

I tried to convince myself that what I was saying to him had some truth to it but at the time, it didn't. I had hoped I had convinced him of my good intentions and reached across the table to him.

"Friends?"

"Always and forever."

I picked up the menu and looked at the fish, trying to decide between the ahi and the opah.

As the evening moved on, the tension had eased somewhat. I knew everything happened for a reason. Starting out in the Marine Corps, eventually going to Iran and surviving that, coming to work at the Joint Intelligence Center at Malibu, meeting Hunter on this most deadly of missions... it was all fate.

Seeing so many of my fellow Marines die over the last few years... it had to be Fate... and Fate had dictated I would follow this new path in my life. I would make it work; Fate required it.

Of course, at the time I had absolutely no idea how Fate would throw Alessa and me together following what happened.

"I know what we've said... but, would you like to dance?"

He looked nervously at me, wondering what I would say.

"Yes, I would. You know, we've never danced before in all this time. Maybe it's about time, one last time. Please."

As he held me in his arms, feeling me pressed tightly against him, I wondered for the last time what it would have been like if either of us had said something, anything, years earlier.

"Jim... Thank you for today... all of it. I know it hurt you and me.... Nevertheless, we've had a chance to get it out in the open. I know you'll always be my friend. And, if I ever do get married... when I get married, I would like you to walk me down the aisle. Please."

"Yes, Maria. I can do that. I'm going to give you time with Hunter and let that work out for you. You'll me tell when we can personally work together again.

Maria, I know now that I failed you but I can't turn my back on Alessa. That would be cruel and inhuman and I do love her. I'll always be there for you, no matter what."

My only answer was to lay my head against his chest and close my eyes and dream of things that might have been.

He said goodnight and walked down the hallway to his room. This time, I waited until he was gone and then closed the door... on so many things.

**********

Morning, Friday, July 27th

The Ribbons of Fate Lie Waiting in the Surf

The phone rang in my room telling me it was 6 a.m. and our cab would arrive promptly at 7:30. I downloaded his pictures from the flight onto my laptop.

One, I knew, was going to make a great wall display back in Malibu. I carefully folded the gown with the rest of my new clothes and arranged to have them FedEx'd home, not wanting to subject them to the harsh conditions aboard the fighter plane.

Finishing a light breakfast, we were just on time to meet the cab and return to the air station west of Pearl.

Changing from my tan service uniform to the required flight suit, my put on my garrison cap and black leather boots.

Sometimes people have the strangest thoughts floating through their minds and for me it was no exception... Not too stylish, but definitely safer than those high heels from last night.

As I looked over the suit, making sure everything was correct for the flight to San Diego, I saw that someone had sewn on the patches for the three F-18 squadrons and the other four flight groups that had participated on the forever-classified mission.

On the left side on the sewn leather tag was my name and rank and the right side had the carrier air wing patch. Then I saw the piece of paper that had fallen down when I shook the suit out.