You're Always In My Thoughts
1
Gemma knew that it was crazy, to feel the way that she did, when it was she who had broken off their affair some two years ago. Stan had not pursued her, as he had once done, and when she had used a torrid affair with him, twice, in order for her to conceive and make real her hopes for motherhood. She had lived a lie, with her husband Jake, but her conscience had eased over the years since those dissolute and reckless times. Stan had given her space to do that. To now see how he was with Betty, his devoted wife, reassured her that their secret was safe. The passionate man that she looked at now, and had known of so tempestuously, did not play around.
She had known that his startling offer to be of help had been transformed into an altogether different emotional, and only too physical, bond that she too could not get enough of. But pushing her luck and failing to quell her lust for him, and he for her, would have brought their carefully constructed world come crashing down.
Now, as she looked at him fooling around with the kids in the garden, she knew that she was living a lie. The sight of the man, her father-in-law, with his greying hair and clipped beard, strong tanned arms and chest that his short-sleeved denim shirt failed to conceal from her sight, made her wonder how he kept the years at bay, or their effects upon him. He was agile, scooted around in his deck shoes and chinos and, as always, seemed to behave as a big brother rather than a devoted grandfather.
Just as it was for her, it was an act that concealed a deeper secret, a gift that kept her special love for him so very much alive. It only needed a look, or a moment's touch of his hand, a parting kiss to her cheeks that lingered a split-second longer, that informed her of what could so easily be at work in him once more. She saw it in his grey-blue eyes, on the pout of his lips that had grazed her body so wonderfully and had claimed her in places that had her crying out his name as they loved. It had been at such moments, of passionate and tempestuous loving, that she knew Stan found something more to please him when he was with her.
Forbidden love brought inventiveness and a raging need to live it all out so differently from ordered ways. There were times when it felt as if he was always in her thoughts. She knew again that she wanted them to be made ragingly real, felt the sharp gnaw of longing for the man as she saw him saunter over the slabbed patio and come into her kitchen, his bulk filling the doorway.
'Need some help carrying those out?'
His deep voice matched the sight of the strong man that he was, someone uninhibited when it came to expressing his attachment to her.
'Yes, in a moment,' she smiled on meeting his appraising look upon her, placing the jug of tropical fruit juice, and glasses. on the tray. She had been working on it as she watched and thought of him, the others in the lunch party, her closest friends Alan and Susie, busily engaged in chatting with Betty and Jake. 'I haven't said this in a long time, but...but I need you to do me a favour.'
Susie was going through the same roller-coaster ride as she had done, but to share with her the secret, of solving it, would be a step too far. The question, on what to do, would have to come from Susie. The answer to it, or another perspective, would not be volunteered so easily.
Gemma felt his touch to her hip, under her floaty blouse, as Stan drew closer, his caress going unseen as they stood by the worktop set under the window that looked out onto the garden.
'I'm here for you, you know that, even after so long and not being together. I miss those times...'
The sight of her tempted him often enough. Gemma had regained her slender beauty, the ravages of carrying, bearing, and then nursing kids having been exercised away. The set of her full lips could so quickly be transformed into a captivating smile, her russet blonde hair long and rebellious. His Betty had even gone so far as to offer advice on what to do, and the results were there for him to now look at and appreciate all over again, just as he had done some years ago and when the subject of him being a 'donor' had first been raised, much to her surprise and dread of discovery. 'Keeping it in the family' had been the explanation given for his offer to help her.
'It's crazy, it's a crazy need that I have for you. Just looking at the kids reminds me of what happened...all of the time.'
'And seeing me here with them only makes that worse?' he retorted in his direct ways of it.
'No, or not in the way that you mean!' Gemma made them step out of view and soon kissed him. She shivered on feeling Stan's questing caresses upon her skin. She loved his touch on her body, how Stan cupped her breasts in his large hands as he felt their weight, the slow brush of his thumbs over her nipples making them achingly firm and proud against the fabric of her dress. She felt the rush of longing in her belly and squirmed free of his claims. 'You now know how it is again for me!'
He did not react to her moment's anger. 'The fire still burns in each of us, so we could meet and deal with the heat?' he murmured and not seeking to detain her, but the intent behind the stilled look of his eyes only too clear.
'Yes, it still burns, so be with me again and make it soon!' Gemma whispered, darting a glance his way. before stepping nimbly out of his reach. She had heard Susie call to her now sought to gather her thoughts, brushed down the skirt of her dress that his claims upon her had drawn up so that he could touch her thighs. Hunger for the man would go unrequited. 'Take the tray out for me, please? We can have lunch now,..it's almost ready. I'll text you, in our old ways and we can go from there, you...you darling man.'
On halting breaths she had whispered out her confession before Susie could hear it or see how they were together. A fleeting moment of shared intimacy would have to suffice. She saw Susie smile at him in her winning ways as they brushed past each other in the doorway.
Gemma waited until they were alone. 'Sorry, Sue...I got distracted.'
'I can see why,' Susie smiled and giving her a knowing look. 'He looks all man and Betty clings to him as if she's just met him...'
Her friend came to stand by her side and the two of them watched Stan walk to the table that was laid out for their lunch, the parasols snapping on the light breeze. So much had been done to the garden, by Stan's capable hands and knowledge of such things, to transform it over the years she and Jake had lived here.
'They're close and always have been, Jake tells me,' Gemma replied somewhat woodenly but seeing what Sue meant. 'He loves the kids so...'
'And he talked of what a good Mum you are and the problems you had in making it happen. It affected all of you in the family, so he said. You kept on trying.'
'Yeah,' she sighed. 'Until it happened for me it had become an obsession. Did he tell you that too?' She wondered on what had provoked Stan to even speak of it, seemingly unprompted.