Special thanks to Mistress Lynn for her help editing this story. Any mistakes made are my own.
*
I expected him to blush and stammer out an excuse.
I expected him to turn tail and run like a scared puppy.
I expected slamming doors and spitting gravel from the tires.
He did none of those.
Instead, he stood frozen at the door. I watched as he set each of his tools on the table with careful precision. My heart pounded as he turned back toward us.
"I'd love to," he said with a smile.
**********
The loud ring of the doorbell echoed through the house and I hurried to pick up the last few toys scattered around the floor. I tossed them into the toy box in my daughter's closet and rushed to answer the door.
"Hey! Thanks so much for coming over. The toys in Anne's room are taking over the world." Jim looked relaxed standing there, the tools he needed for the job in his hand. "Putting these shelves up will help a lot."
"No problem. I'm glad I could help." He smiled and climbed the step into the house. I looked up as Jim towered above me, only inches away. I could smell the faint scent of after-shave mixed with sunshine. I had always been attracted to him, and having him so near made every sense in my body go on ready alert.
I led him through the living room and into Anne's room. Stuffed animals covered every available surface, crowding the bookshelf, bed, and corners of the room. "Holy cow. I thought you were kidding!" Jim chuckled in my ear, and I swallowed a gasp at his nearness.
I looked around at the overwhelming mass of furry objects. "I only wish I was kidding. The problem is that she remembers all of them by name and who gave them to her, which makes getting rid of them next to impossible."
I led Jim over to the pile of shelves and hardware stacked in a corner. "My plan is to have you put these up along the full wall and then put all the animals up there. Do you think it will work?"
Jim took a second to look at the hardware, which was a bracket rail system. Metal slots would hold brackets, which in turn would hold the shelves up. "Looks like it will. Do you have a stud finder?"
My eyes ran the full length of Jim's body and my mouth went dry. "Yeah, I'm pretty sure I do."
A slow, mega-watt smile spread on Jim's face and he chuckled low and throaty. My face flushed and I had no doubt at that moment that he could read my mind. I returned his smile with a lopsided one of my own. "I'll go get it."
I left the room and walked into the garage. The clock droned a steady tick, tick, tick, on the wall and I glanced up. One hour until Emily arrived. Of all the days that Jim had been free to help, this was probably the worst.
I'd purchased a new 50-inch HDTV a few weeks ago and Em was coming over to indulge in a favorite past time of ours. For years we'd been passing porn movies back and forth, giving reviews and discussing our likes and dislikes. An opportunity to watch a few together on the new television was not one we were going to miss. Unfortunately, I was desperate to get Anne's room under control. This had been the only day everyone was available while Anne was at camp.
I braced myself for the usual sharp pang of heartbreak I felt whenever I rifled through my husband's things, relieved to find that it had abated into sad acceptance. I located the stud finder in the bottom of the tool cabinet and walked back into the house where the sound of happy whistling greeted me. I smiled at the unexpected sound. Jim and I had been friends for years and having him in the house always made the air feel lighter. It chased away the lingering sadness hiding in the corners.
I walked back into the bedroom to find Jim on a step stool with a pencil and leveler in hand. His long, slender fingers expertly marked out a line on the wall and I stopped, stunned at the sudden visual of those same fingers expertly stroking deep inside me. A shiver ran up my spine, and my breath caught in my throat. The sound alerted him of my presence and he turned around.
"You okay?" he asked.
I tried to nod, but the abrupt mental image had left me weak. Instead, I shook my head in an attempt to clear it and then grimaced as concern washed over his face. Jim stepped off the ladder and walked toward me.
"What's wrong? You look like you've seen a ghost." He placed his hands on my arms and the contact sent an instant shockwave through my system. "Kate?"
"Oh... yeah. Sorry, I just got lost in thought." My mind raced for a plausible excuse for my obvious distress. Something other than the image of his hands manipulating my pussy. "I forgot to warn you that Emily is coming over in an hour."
Confusion crossed his face. "I know Em. Why would it bother me that she's going to be here?"
I took a deep breath and looked him in the eye. "She's coming over to watch porn with me."
For a second, he looked stunned. I could almost hear the wheels in his head turning, processing the information. His hands, which had been holding my upper arms dropped, as through my skin had caught fire. My stomach knotted. This news hadn't been taken well, I thought. Then he let out a gusty laugh. "Of all the things I expected you to say, that wasn't one of them. Don't worry, porn doesn't offend me. Although being in this room while the two of you watch it together might be...interesting."
He winked, and I grinned at the sudden boyishness in his face. "I guess I'll have to hurry so that you two can get to it." Then, chuckling to himself, he took the stud finder from my hand, turned, and went back to work.
I walked out of the room and into the kitchen to check that I had all the items we would need for daiquiris. Inside, I was still shaken by the image that had flashed through my head, but I wasn't surprised. I'd been having fantasies about Jim almost since the day I'd met him, something my husband had teased me about and then used later in some of our best role-playing games. Usually, those fantasies took place at night though and not in the middle of the day with him standing in front of me.
A knot of loneliness formed in my throat. It had been a long time since I'd had sex with anything that didn't have a "clean after use" label. It had been two years since Eric had died and I hadn't been willing to open myself up to anyone, emotionally or physically. The upheaval of my life had left me too weary and depressed to want to get involved in anything similar to a relationship.
That image of Jim's fingers playing with the softest parts of my body had made me remember the physical comfort another person could bring. I was now keenly aware of every month and day I had gone without someone. Plastic could get you where you needed to go, but it couldn't hold you afterward and it couldn't force you to bow to its will with luscious fingertips.
The sound of the hammer pounding against the wall brought to mind the thrusting of a hard cock inside my body and I tried to push the image away. Butterfly wings fluttered inside the pit of my stomach, brushing downward to tease parts of my body that didn't need any reminders of their function. I dreaded the afternoon ahead, so aroused that the poor man was lucky I didn't jump him then and there!
