Welcome to Part 8 of my series, 'Four Plus One' (sorry for the delay, technical stuff). The first chapter, Monkey Bars, is in the First Time category: it will make more sense if you start there. Or just jump in where you want! Please vote or comment if you like it.
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Andrea hesitated. Her fist was raised to strike the door, but had stopped at the top of the swing. She frowned.
She half-turned away, then resolutely swung back, forced her hand up and knocked before she had a chance to falter. A voice answered.
"Mmhmm?" An inviting response, not at all threatening, yet Andrea shuddered before she entered Danny's room.
Danny lived in the "fifth bedroom"; in reality it was a glassed-in veranda. Upstairs, a wide corridor ran from the rear stairs straight back to the front wall of the house. Originally you would have stepped out the french doors onto a veranda that ran the width of the building. Now louvred windows blocked the view and made it into a draughty long room with warped floorboards. Danny had fixed perspex sheets over most of them, put up blankets to help hold the warmth and made quite a cozy space for himself. It felt a little like camping in your own back yard, like it did as a child. The girls thought it exotic and strange, a place outside normal barriers. But the whole house was "outside normal barriers."
Andrea gazed around her. A bed, with Danny in it. An old wardrobe. A chest of drawers with a wallet, keys and a few bits on it. A chair with the famous leather jacket over the back. A simple, tidy room, not what she was expecting for a "boy's place." But then, she wondered, what is a "boy's place" anyway?
"I need to explain something to you." The words wouldn't come out of her willingly. Why was this the difficult, She thought angrily. I wasn't deceitful. I was clear from the start. I just thought it wouldn't work, At least not how everyone else was imagining it.
Danny composed himself. "You know my secret is I'm good at listening!"
Andrea smiled to hear her own words being quoted, then realised he'd done his trick of putting you at ease. If anyone could make this mad household work, it would be Danny. She sat on the bed.
"You could tell how tense I was, and you've made me relax! How do you do it? How can you be so, so decent? This whole Love Shack we've set up. I was dubious, Phoebe was naïve, but you... you just keep giving. You found the house, you did most of the clearing, you put so much in; I'm worried. There's a danger you'll just think you're being used. What do we offer in return? I feel so uncertain about all of this."
Danny smiled. "We're all in a relationship. We offer ourselves, as best we can. If we try, then at least we know we tried. That's certain. I see how you all look after each other. I hope you see that I want to look after us all as well. I've had enough uncertainty - and danger - in my life up to now. This may be uncertain but there's not much danger!
He paused. "Y'know, I've had some pretty black times over the years, and the memory, of a dark-haired girl who loved God and who showed me He's watching and caring... I owe her more than I can repay."
He was quite solemn by the end. Andrea took his hand as a glistening tear rolled out of the corner of his eye and down across his temple. He gripped her hand. He went on.
"I'm meant to be here, I'm sure. God told me to come and find you. He told me something else, I think it was to stay and set this up. I haven't yet discerned it exactly." Andrea smiled at his unusual choice of words.
He sniffed loudly in the quiet room. "Danger! Is a scratch the worst you can do?"
That brought his injury to Andrea's mind and a professional interest came up. "How is it? Not getting infected I hope."
Danny peeled back his t-shirt to let her see the red line across the top of his chest. It was long, but healing well. She touched it lightly, running her hand from the graze down his chest, through light curls to his nipples. Pausing there, she felt his breathing intensify slightly. She brushed further down, over firm muscles to his track-suit pants. She came back up and sculpted his chest muscles with her hands, smoothing her palms over the now-hardened nipples. Over his shoulder muscles and down his torso again. As a masseuse she knew how to manipulate Danny's muscles to give him satisfaction, but she found herself enjoying it too. She reached his track pants.
She flashed a look at his face. Danny was smiling his crooked smile. He raised his eyebrows a fraction, and she smiled back. On impulse she brushed under the waistband and followed the warm skin into his denser pubic hairs.
