Several days had passed, and Amber and I had not spoken about Friday night when I had pleasured her with my hand, or about Saturday night when she had pleasured me with her mouth. It was not that we were pretending those events had not happened. Instead, it seemed as if we both thought that speaking about those events would profane their meaningful significance to us both.
As usual, I spanked Amber before she went to school, and as she stood again and returned her skirt to its socially-acceptable position, she looked at me with an expression I had never before seen in her eyes.
"I want to go back to the house," she said solemnly, even as she rubbed her sore backside through the back of her skirt.
I was a bit surprised, for Amber had shown absolutely no interest in returning to her former home once she had officially moved in with me. In the interim, I had gone to the house a few times per week while she was at school, primarily to clean a little and ensure everything was in order, and I still had a hard time being in the house in which my close friends had lived.
"Are you certain about this?" I asked softly, standing before my friends' daughter and placing a hand on her shoulder. "Are you sure?"
Amber simply nodded solemnly.
"Okay," I said. "When do you want to go?"
"Now."
I thought about that for a moment, about my schedule for the day, but I knew that I could shift things around being a Wednesday. "Are you sure you won't be missing anything critical at school?"
"I'm sure."
"Okay."
Maybe twenty minutes later, Amber unlocked the front door of her former home. She hesitated a long time before she finally turned the doorknob and opened the door.
Hand-in-hand, we walked through the house together, slowly. Amber looked upon everything with an expression I could probably never truly describe with any semblance of accuracy. Clearly, she was reliving memories, but whether they were positive memories or painful memories I could not tell.
Oddly enough, as we stood in the bathroom, she stared at the bathtub, clearly remembering one or more significant events which had taken place in the waters which had once filled that space.
Instinctively, I stood behind her and wrapped my arms around her. She trembled slightly, and soon I felt a tear upon a forearm, and I gave her a gentle squeeze in response.
"I should've waited for you," she whispered, and I initially thought that she was addressing a memory she was seeing before her. But then Amber turned around in my arms and looked up into my eyes. "I wish I would've waited for you," she whispered, the tears beginning to truly stream down her cheeks.
I did not understand what she meant, but I understood the she was in distress. I held her close as she cried upon me, gently rubbing her back as her tears flowed uninhibited.
Eventually, with tears still trickling down her cheeks, she stepped back from my embrace and took my hand in hers. I followed silently as she directed the way to her old bedroom.
The bedroom was rather sparse. The curtains, a dresser, a vase, the bed, and a few posters on the walls were really the only visible signs that this had for ten years served as Amber's private sanctuary. Yet as soon as Amber and I had stepped into the small bedroom, I could feel her calm, although she squeezed my hand a little tighter.
"You've been cleaning in here," she said flatly - not accusingly, but just making a simple observation.
I nodded. "I've been coming here periodically to check the house, make sure everything is as it should be, and to do some cleaning as well. I was just here yesterday actually."
"It shows," she said. "Virtually no dust on anything."
"If I had known we would be coming here today, I would have put some flowers in the vase."
That actually caused Amber to smile a little, subtly lifting her mood, and her smile brought a smile to my face.
"Are you okay?" I asked, deeply concerned. "I haven't seen you like this since the funeral."
Amber only nodded. She placed her hand upon my chest, directly over my heart, looking at her hand as if she could see through it and my chest to see my heart beating for her.
"I'm torn," she acknowledged. "I could sell the house and one of the cars and everything in this place and we'd be fairly well set financially for quite a while. You could even cut back on your consulting work if you wanted. But I also feel like I might lose a part of myself if I sold this place."
Gently, I caressed her shoulders. "Whether or not to sell is your decision to make," I said, although I was touched that she was thinking of me in her decision-making process, "but whatever you decide, I'll support you one thousand percent."
Amber's gaze finally rose from her hand upon my chest to my face, and she gazed into my eyes for a long time, her expression softening with resolve, with purpose. "Make love to me," she finally whispered, "right here on my old bed. Make me a woman. Please."
My eyes widened, for I definitely had not expected this turn of events. Then her eyes began to waver as tears began to well up and threaten to spill down her cheeks once again.
"Right here?" I asked, quite aware of the disbelief in my voice.
"Right here," she confirmed with a nod, tipping her head just enough for the first of her renewed tears to trek down her face. "Please. It means a lot to me to give myself to you right here, right on my old bed."
I began to understand - or so I thought. This house, and especially this bedroom, represented her life as a girl. My house – our house – represented her life as a woman. Giving me her body in her old house, in her old bedroom, upon her old bed, would signal the end of her girlish innocence. And, unless I was reading too much into the situation, it would also signify the break with her past, making it hopefully easier for her to sell this house and the other belongings associated with it.
I gingerly cupped Amber's head with my hands and looked deep into her eyes. "You really want this?" I asked. "Right here?"
"Yes," she replied, more tears falling down her cheeks. "Take me here. Right here on the bed. Make me a woman. Make me your woman. Please."
It was evident just how much she wanted this, and I wanted this for her. Yet I hesitated, for to me, it somehow just did not seem "right."
Sensing my slight reluctance, Amber caressed my chest, then allowed a hand to slide down my jacket and come to rest at the front of my slacks. Instinctively, I began to grow and harden underneath her touch.
"I want this inside me," she affirmed. "Please. I took my own cherry a while ago, so I can't bleed for you, but I still need you to make me a true woman..."
Her hand touched me more firmly, and my body responded accordingly as my arms enveloped her and my lips sought hers. We stood there for a long time, kissing, touching, beginning at last the consummation of our unique relationship.
Slowly, clothes were shed. I undressed Amber, and Amber undressed me. All that could be heard was the kicking aside of shoes, the undoing of zippers, the rustle of falling clothing, and the deepening of breathing.