The Strays

This is my longest story to date, written exclusively for Literotica. There's a lot of build-up in case anyone's hoping to knock out a one page wonder. I researched all over the internet on the subject of Genetic Sexual Attraction, but don't expect 100% realism.

This is a work of fantasy fiction and all characters are of the age and mind of consent. Enjoy!

*****

1

Marie Redgrave was nineteen years old when she gave birth to her one and only. Now thirty eight, she was as content as she believed she would ever be, alone and happy in the apartment she had called home for over a decade and with a job she actually enjoyed.

But for some, the definition of contentment bore little gravity over the reality. When a lifetime is spent overcoming terrible mistakes and personal tragedy, just the idea of coming out the other side to relative stability qualified.

Over the years she came to believe that the way things happened was for the best. It was eighteen years ago that she had escaped her abusive boyfriend. Her baby Robert, she instinctively felt, even while he was long for the outside world, was better off adopted. She had barely been able to protect him in the womb. That put all manner of insecurities on her mind, to become deep rooted so quickly.

Kenny had shown no desire to change as the baby bump grew. He still drank all day every day, by any means necessary such as their welfare, and had never any intention of working. He showed her no more affection than what already came from the back of his hand. She put him up for adoption and the rest was history; long, bitter, painful and drawn out.

She escaped some years later, realising what he had cost her, all that she had compromised just to remain on the leash of a failure who cared for nothing but where the next bottle of booze came from. She had wasted her youth on that bastard, and turned her back on the most important part of her life, and for what?

That train had long ago rolled out of town. Her bed was made. The only thing she could do was to move on and try to pick up the pieces and to put it all behind her. And with those pieces, life became about the little things and what she was happy to settle for.

So many years had gone by that she doubted she'd ever be able to find her way to Robert, let alone to somehow be a part of his life. It seemed unnatural to her, the way some people sauntered into their children's lives after so many years, expecting everything to work out.

It just didn't work the way some believed it should. She was very aware of the differences between ideal and reality. Maybe someday the boy would come looking, but her heart had grown not to expect it. There would be less disappointment with zero expectation.

So as she had done time and time again over the course of her life, she moved on and lived for herself...

2

It was a Saturday morning when, out of the blue, Marie was checking her emails and then her Facebook messages when she found a Rob Hanson in her inbox. At the time she thought nothing of it until she actually read it.

Marie was well proportioned and fit but with natural curves at 5'3" and 110lbs. Though her profile picture didn't hint so much at that, her dazzling blue eyed smile and long curly red hair drew plenty of attention from strangers.

The only reason she didn't delete before reading was that she found this Rob Hanson attractive enough to steal her attention. It had been a long time since anybody had caught her eye.

'Okay handsome Hanson,' she muttered apprehensively, 'what have you got to say for yourself?'

"Hi, sorry if this shocks you but I'm looking for my mum. I was adopted at birth and never knew her. You share the same name..."

Marie didn't know how to feel. After so many years of feeling there were no more surprises left to catch her off guard, she never truly believed this moment would happen. Even if she imagined the many different ways it would happen, and those first words spoken, there was no preparation for it.

For hours she couldn't reply. Her heart remained in her throat all morning. She was a nervous wreck. Her mind was neither here nor there.

'It is him, it is. It has to be. How many Roberts do you think were born to any old Marie Redgrave?' she debated with herself. Then she battled to keep a cool head, going back to the computer to finally respond to him.

I gave birth to a baby boy nineteen years ago and put him up for adoption. Can you tell me more about yourself? What hospital were you born in? What city?

The wait was maddening, her nerves shot. Marie waited and waited for a reply. Then to see that he had read her message and that he was in the process of sending his own reply, her heart fluttered, and her abdomen knotted up with anticipation.

When Marie's son found her that day, she didn't cry like she always thought she might have. It was just the second most surreal day of her life since giving birth to him, knowing that he wouldn't be hers but somebody else's son.

'That's that, then,' she said to herself in the deafening quiet of her apartment.

3

For months they spoke back and forth. They were as inseparable as relative strangers could be through the power of the internet. That's where she laid out her undying remorse for him, and her life story ever since.

'I don't want you to feel bad about it. I bet you'd have been a great mom but I understand. You just need to know that I've had a good life, he told her and then, don't let it pull you back, mum.'

"Don't let it pull you back..."

He was so mature for his age. Marie wished there and then that she had exercised more care and maturity at that age. Now what was she doing? She was trying to make up for lost youth by living like a widow. And Rob was right. She had let it pull her back her entire life.

And he had called her mum.

They had talked about Rob's adoptive parents a few times. Marie found it fascinating to know what kind of woman replaced her as his mother and couldn't help but feel something like jealousy.

She'd have been so proud for her baby to call her mom and for it to mean something. But she hadn't mothered him. She hadn't raised him. She couldn't claim that title any more than as a term of affection.

'You know, Robert,' she told him over the phone when they summoned up the courage to take their relationship to the next level, 'I think if you're going to keep calling me mum, you should probably come pay me a visit so I can at least earn the title.'

'Yeah that'd be great,' he said without hesitation and she could hear it in his voice that he wasn't just saying it to make her feel better.

'You could stay for the weekend, how about that?'

She couldn't wait. Rob couldn't either. The night before the long train journey cross country, he left a text message on her phone. Marie herself couldn't sleep, so it became a short conversation of sorts.

'I'm excited about tomorrow. I can't wait to take this beautiful lady in my arms,' he said and decorated the message in a series of X's and O's.

'This old girl,' Marie replied, 'is looking forward to that, and big fat kisses for you,' also festooned with symbols of affection.

'Big fat kisses for everyone LOL snog my face off by all means. I'm so happy I found you!'

She thought nothing of it. So you don't invite your mother to snog your face off, but Marie wasn't in that frame of mind. She hadn't actually been his mother since day one and she didn't see the harm. If Rob was as charming a gentleman in reality as he was online and over the phone, she could at least rest in the knowledge that the most regrettable decision of her life bore sweeter fruit than the past two decades.

Something was changing inside of her and she was fine with it. This young man who called her mum (she still called him baby) was too good to be hers and yet he wanted to be. They were more than blood, they spoke like old friends and yet they set the house on fire like the best of new...

Acquaintances-that was too formal.

Companions-that was too lived in.

Family didn't fit the bill, but there was a closeness she couldn't explain in words.

God, I do love him, she thought with a contented smile, and she told him so before bidding him goodnight. And as she rolled over in her bed, snuggling deep into the pillow with a pleasant sigh, one more message came through.

'Yes to snogs!'

Oddly she didn't see the harm in knowing, off the cuff, that she would willingly let him. She wanted him to, that beautiful boy.

4

Friday evening she was waiting for him outside the train station. At first her heart stopped. Her long lost love, the son that couldn't be, stopped dead in his tracks when he saw the little lady's dazzling eyes and red hair, which appeared aflame with the late summer sun.

All six foot of him, with his shorn black hair and subtle five o'clock shadow, rugged and beautiful-even when she couldn't control her widening smile, Marie was frozen to the spot.

'Hey,' she said shyly as he approached on confident feet. Without stopping he picked her up and spun her around, planting a kiss just between the corner of her lips and her cheek. She yelped, laughing all the while and waited to be set down before getting a real eyeful of her long lost boy.

'You look beautiful.'

'Look who's talking,' he laughed. They gazed into each other's eyes for some time before Rob took the initiative further. 'So what do I call you, my mum away from mum?'

She chuckled, shrugged, didn't know what to think. She was acting more like a cheerleader than anything that a mother might resemble, other than considerably older. 'I don't know, if you like. But feel free to just call me Marie if it feels right.'

'Okay...'

'So here's the deal,' Marie said, showing him around the apartment. 'The couch is pretty decent for sleeping, but we can take turns, unless you're not uncomfortable sharing? I won't object. We'll probably end up talking all night anyway; all the catching up.'

She had shown him everything-bedroom, bathroom, kitchen and living room. It wasn't big but there was plenty of breathing space. All that Rob could really process, after just twenty minutes meeting his biological mother up close and personal, was how enchanted he was with her.

He couldn't help it. There was something about this woman. Marie was thirty eight now but she had a youth about her-be it her personality or her soul-that made them kindred. She could have been his babysitter when he was twelve, or his adoptive cousin, who wasn't even ten years older than he was.

'I'm okay with whatever,' he smiled.

The air between them intensified then. They hugged again, another tight and soundless hug that lasted forever. Together they stood laughing in each other's arms and yet neither was aware of what the other knew for sure. That intensity hadn't gone away in the slightest.

They had dinner, washing it down with enough coffee to wire a zoo full of monkeys. Not that they needed it, although their day had been tiring. The air between them crackled and roared. It was a party for two and if the house were on fire they'd have only escaped to return with marshmallows.

Marie had lived alone for so long that Rob filled her quiet world with so much joy and laughter and yet the boy had always seemed so quiet and introspective elsewhere. It was as if they brought each other to life.

By one that morning, they were still at it. The conversation gradually turned to relationships, girlfriends and boyfriends. Anybody who didn't know their story wouldn't have known from listening that they were mother and son. Marie and Rob didn't have those boundaries and so it felt good to be able to talk about their frustrations.

'So is there a lucky lady in your life?' she pried.

'I haven't been with anyone in almost two years,' he admitted freely. He was perfectly happy with that, so it seemed.

'That's a long time for such a handsome young man. What kind of girls do you like?'

He blushed. It seemed so unfitting of his rugged appearance. She found that adorable and couldn't help but smile sideways as she gazed at him, head resting in the palm of her hand.

'I like redheads actually.'

'Oh wow, there's hope for me yet.'

'Redheads with lots of freckles and big blue eyes, big boobs...'

Marie looked down her own v-neck top and straight back at Rob. She wasn't sure whether he was saying what he saw or if this was half the reason for their natural magnetism.

'Rob's mom has got it goin' on, eh?' she teased. 'You're a painfully good looking man. I bet you have no trouble. And there are plenty redheads by that description in this part of the world. Why the wait?'

'I just,' he paused, 'I never felt a connection. Girls my age are just so shallow. They expect the world, they seem so immature and-I don't know-the last few times...'

'I thought teenagers were all about the sex,' Marie reflected. 'Sex and music and getting drunk...'

'It's different now,' he said struggling, 'you don't know what part of your private life isn't all over Facebook. I don't want that. I want to just be myself without having to act up to some social expectation or other!'

'Yeah,' Marie looked back. She hated to think about it so recklessly then, and without parental filters, but what a woman like herself wouldn't do for a strong young virile man to make up for lost time. She took his hand in hers while he was processing what he had said to her and gazed lovingly into his eyes. 'I think it's time for bed. Have you decided? Couch, bed or share...'

'I'll take the couch, don't worry.'

She wanted to ask him something. When he went to get up and away from the table, Marie held onto his hand and pleaded with his eyes with a badly practiced smile.

'Completely up to you,' she started.

'But...'

'I was thinking,' she paused, 'I never got to hold my baby.'

Rob understood. The smile he offered back melted her heart.

'It wouldn't be weird, would it?' she asked.

'No, I'd actually like that,' he affirmed.

She wrapped her arms around him, snuggled up from behind, and as her long lost son drifted off to sleep in the arms of his stray mother, their fingers entwined and she kissed his shoulder, enraptured by how good it felt to have him here, so intimately close.

And alone finally that night, her heart pounded at her breast, pressed softly to his back. She wrestled with her overwhelmingly strong love for him, as though she really had known him her whole life, and also as the thing she had spent her life yearning for. She did not think such strong feelings would become so mutual, let alone so quickly.

He was not just the son she gave to a better life. He had become the man of her dreams. Nobody on earth made her feel this way!

5

Sunlight filtered through the vertical blinds and a soft breeze caressed her gently awake. Content she lay in the arms of her little man, who was so much bigger than her. She felt safe and loved and happy, for the first time.

She opened her eyes to be greeted with her son facing her, still sound asleep, and soaked in his beauty. Face to face, their breaths collided, tickling her nose.

Marie regarded him wondrously, amazed that she had created him. And recalling the previous evening, it was remarkable how alike they were in personality, despite having been separated at birth.

Careful not to wake him, she kissed his forehead ever so slightly and smoothed his brow with the softer back of her hand. He opened his eyes, taking moments to focus, before looking right back at her with a grateful smile.

'Hi, honey,' she greeted. 'Did you sleep well?'

Rob nodded. 'How long have you been awake?'

Mischief glimmered in her eyes as Marie thought what came next.

'Long enough to fall in love with that gorgeous sleeping face,' she giggled and began planting big wet kisses all over him. 'That's for not giving me the snogs you promised.'

Rob rolled away onto his back, his face scrunched up into a sleepy grin as she followed him with more of those big wet kisses. Laughing, she rolled over with him, attacking his face with her harmlessly soft lips, planting one after the other on his nose, his cheeks, the sides of his mouth.

Then she landed one right on his lips with a, 'hmmmmm-MWAH!'

It didn't matter that she could now sense his erection tenting his boxer briefs. So that happened to teenage boys. She felt no fear. It was harmless. Wasn't it?

Her naked thigh brushed against him. She too was wearing clingy briefs and a tank top. Nothing was about to accidentally ride up but it didn't stop the feeling of being essentially skin-on-skin together, in the same bed.

Lovingly, she cuddled him close and rolled him back onto his side, so they were face to face again and in each others' arms. 'I can tell you're mine,' Rob said coyly. 'I know where the weird comes from now.'

She stroked his cheek. 'Are you happy?'

'I am. Are you?' he returned.

She nodded in all certainty. 'Thank you for being here. I do love you.'

'I love you too,' he replied and smooched her. Then that kiss became something else. Their hands on each other became something else. And in Robert's eyes lay a question that maybe asked "how far is okay?"

That time she broke it off sooner and suggested breakfast.

6

'No mother kisses her son that way. No mother rolls around in bed like that with her son. His cock was hard as a tree trunk. You were getting wet off it. You didn't want that last kiss to end. You wanted to reach into his boxers and grab hold and you wanted him to...'

Marie silenced her thoughts the best she could, soaping her dripping wet body beneath the showerhead. For most of those fifteen minutes her eyes remained closed and she did her best not to touch herself where she had undeniably awoken her younger urges, but all became lost in a blur of teasing and remembering what it was like to be wanted again.

Flashing before her eyes, his face drew nearer, time and time again, his lips touching hers. And in her mind, those lips didn't just press up against her wetly and stay there so much as they worked hers open as his tongue sought hers.

He's sleeping on the couch tonight, she lied to herself.

That afternoon they caught a train into the town centre and adventured along the shopping precinct, arm in arm. They still had so much to learn about each other. Shopping was a great way to learn, seeing as Marie was pretty sure she was going to be surprising him every birthday and Christmas from then on.

All afternoon she tried to buy him things, but he wouldn't let her. Sheepishly, he worried that she didn't have the money to give away, even if she wanted to, but in the end, she insisted on something.

'Oh these would look great on you,' Marie said in the men's clothing section of the local TK Maxx. She was holding up a pack of boxer shorts. The display cover suggested that they were very clingy and thin. The underwear model's junk was barely leaving anything to the imagination.

Rob took a shine to them, which pleased her very much. 'They do look snug.'

'My treat, please,' she begged, to which he accepted. Then she gushed, 'you'll have to show me these later, they'll look great on you.'

He didn't have any idea she was thinking about how big his junk felt mashed up against her earlier that day, in bed.

Early that evening they went to Chinatown for a meal. Marie was in seventh heaven, being able to treat her son like a mother wanted to. The fact that he didn't look like her son, but more like the best date on the planet, brought new energy to her.

Dinner was playful and immature as they joked and shared stories on past dating disasters. They toasted to the best date either of them ever had, and with that they knocked back a few more drinks until it was time to head back.

'I had a great time,' Rob thanked and kissed her on the cheek as they sat on the train back home.