Sandcastles

"I've just discovered how nice cake is and now you're telling me I can't have any."

She laughed loudly. "Cake, is it?"

"Yeah," I whimpered, struggling to concentrate as she trailed her fingertip down my collarbone. My nipples were hard; I knew she could clearly see them through the sheer fabric of my tee shirt and almost-imaginary bra. "Black forest gateaux. Covered in... uhn... dark, rich... with... cherries on..."

She kissed me once to shut me up, then spun away and tugged me after her.

"You talk a good fight," she said. "Sit your bum down," she commanded me as she pushed me towards one of the chairs at her small dining table. "There. Now, I'm going to relocate safely out of range of you and... catch my breath. Wow. I'm light-headed. Wine?"

"Oh, I suppose I can make do with that."

"You're being remarkably dramatic," she said as she bent to rummage in a cupboard for a bottle and two glasses.

I leaned against the backrest. "Is... is it normally this way?"

"You sound moonstruck. And no, it isn't. This is... this is something very different for me too."

She turned to face me and paused, staring at me for a while.

"What?" I said, suspiciously.

"Just... trying to etch this moment in my memories is all. I've... I spent a lot of time daydreaming about... about what it would be like to finally get you."

"And how's it going so far?"

"Oh, you know, alright," she said. "The sensations, the emotions, the colours - everything ... well, they're a hell of a lot more intense than I even dared hope they'd be, for starters..."

"You do kiss... nicely," I admitted. "Far, far nicer than any others I've had."

"Mm. Flattery will get you everywhere."

"Oh, I hope so," I breathed. "I'd be awfully disappointed if after all this you were going to just tease me a bit and leave me fluttering in the wind..."

"Oh, there's no danger of that, believe you me," she said as she poured my wine for me. "This... Ari, love, this is all just foreplay. Slow, extended, torturous, excruciating foreplay. And I can see you enjoy it."

"It... yeah. I guess my body's pretty clear on that front," I admitted, shifting on my chair.

"I love the shape of your nipples under those tops you insist on wearing. It's borderline scandalous. I approve."

"I'm glad you like them. You'd be the first. Guys never seemed..."

"I don't give a fig for what anyone else thinks or thought of them," she interrupted me. "I don't care for any opinions but ours. They're yours. You're mine. And I love them. And I'm going to kiss and tongue them later until your toes curl."

I shuddered.

"You like that idea, huh?"

"So, so much," I quavered.

"Mm. So, if I were, for example..."

She bent forward, and my belly clenched as she slowly nuzzled against the fabric that covered my right breast.

"Charley," I whined, writhing. "Charley, you're killing me..."

She tugged my shirt gently upwards to expose me. She pulled the cotton of my bra aside and took my nipple between her lips. I groaned, reached out to tangle my fingers in her hair as she gently squeezed me and teased me with the tip of her tongue. She exhaled, let me go, and came up for one slow, infuriatingly kiss.

"Just so you know," she said when she eventually could. "Just so you know, for... for research purposes... that it is killing me too. That... that was special. Oh my God I love your breasts."

I pulled her back down to me for another kiss; she whimpered, pushed herself away hard. "Wait... just let... just..." she panted.

She threw a leg over me and lowered herself onto my lap.

"There," she managed, with a pleased little grin. "I can't wait any longer. I need to kiss you more. I need to touch you more."

She nuzzled at my neck. And suddenly I wanted to feel her against me, so I raised my own hands to her; to cup the warm curves of her breasts through her cotton blouse before I began to fumble blindly at the buttons. I felt her legs quivering against me; she gasped a panting breath that became a ragged moan as her shirt fell open and I brushed her skin with my fingers. I slipped my hands around her ribs and groped blindly behind her, groaning as she nibbled along my clavicle.

"Where... the fuck... is the fucking clip..." I gasped in frustration.

"Clasp's in front, Ari," she laughed. "Between them. Here. I'll do it for you..."

She reached between us, hands fiddling - and then I felt the warmth of her bare breasts against me.

"That... that's so nice, Charley. God, you are so nice..."

She kissed slowly up from my shoulder, along the line of my chin and from there to my lips; I could taste the hot salt of tears.

"Charley... "

"It's OK... just... I've longed for this for so long. So long. Kiss me," she begged.

She clenched her arms behind me and pulled herself against me, gyrating back and forth on my lap.

I kissed her and she moaned, then she broke away again, buried her face in my neck, and just held herself to me, breathing hard, shaking.

"You do that very well," were the only words she said for some time. She straightened, wiped her eyes, and gave me a bright little smile. I snuck a glance down at her marvellous breasts and the disarrayed lilac bra that had restrained them. On a whim, I pulled my tee shirt off and flung it away. My own bra followed close on its heels.

"Hold still," I whispered. "Don't move a muscle."

I gently took her right arm and eased the sleeve of her blouse down it. I followed with the left, leaving her arms tangled behind her in the fabric of her shirt. I smiled up at her, and nudged the straps of her bra off her shoulders.

"So that's your game, is it?" she whispered. "Restraints. Kinky little miss. Do I need restraining?"

"I just want... unrestricted access to your breasts."

She puffed out her chest, preened for me. "I'm very glad that you like them."

"They're perfect. And they're so... oh, they're so soft..."

I leaned forward, contorted slightly so I could gently tongue her left nipple and areola.

"Oh my God, Ari," she breathed. "It's so hot to watch you do that..."

I swallowed, took more of her into my mouth, tongued on and around her like I'd seen so many people do in my robber's trove of recently-bookmarked reference videos.

She groaned, squirmed against me. "That's... Ari, that's doing everything it needs to. Oh... oh my God..."

Her legs spasmed on me, she whimpered.

"Like that?" I mumbled around her.

"Do the other side now," she demanded. "Even me out or I'm going to spend the rest of my life... walking lopsided... oh... oh wow..."

She fought her way free of blouse and bra, then dug her nails into my shoulders.

I felt her body trembling.

"Ari," she moaned. "Ari, you are quite possibly going to make me come from that alone. It's... amazing. It's... uhn..."

I nibbled gently, she arched against me.

"Use your fingers... on my other..." she moaned. "Don't change... anything... that's..."

She began to shift her hips in small circles, grinding almost painfully over and along my thighs. I started to flick her with my tongue, my hot breaths coming short and fast as my own need ramped up to maddening levels. She clutched at me, high-pitched little breathy moans escaping her as she shivered and shuddered against me.

"Ari... love... that's magic... don't stop..."

She fumbled for the nape of my neck, pulled me harder against her; it was difficult to breathe but I didn't care, I was too consumed with the taste and feel of my Charley to even think of breaking away.

She began to moan, low in her throat. I felt her hips buck.

"Ari..." she panted. "Ari, I'm really close. I'm really close now. Touch my pussy, Ari, just... just brush along it..."

Heart hammering madly, I did what she wanted, working my left hand fingers down past the hem of her skirt to the damp heat of her crotch as her thighs quivered against me.

The thin lace of her underwear was soaked; she let out a strange grunting gasp as I fumbled at her, then clenched her legs tightly and arched against me as I scrabbled the fabric clear of her and pawed awkwardly at her hot, sticky, soaking lips and their faint downy dusting of hair.

She was hot, and tight, and perfect on my questing fingertip. I found her, pushed a bit into her, and felt her pulse on me.

"Ari..." she cried out.

She clamped herself against me as spasms began to rack her; I released her nipple, snatched a desperate breath. She fumbled at my chin, lifted my face to her, and kissed me roughly as she shuddered moaned and shook and slowly, achingly slowly, calmed.

She slumped forward against me with a low, throaty moan; her breath tickled in and out over my bare shoulder.

I pulled my fingers free of her, earning another throaty moan and full body shudder for my sins. I licked her off me and then wrapped my arms around her; clutching her to me, conscious of little but the smell of her, the taste of her that lingered on my lips, and of how special the brief, stolen moment inside her had been.

She sniffed once, shifted slightly against me.

"I love you," she breathed into my ear.

"I love you," I echoed her. I squeezed my eyes closed and tried to get as close to her as I could.

"And I really loved that slice of cake," I added, unable to resist the temptation to tease her.

It was quite some time before she could stop laughing for long enough to answer me.

"Come," she managed, eventually. She lifted herself off me and, staggering slightly, took my hand. "Come with me."

"Where?"

"To bed. I want to explore you. All my other needs are secondary now."

She dragged me down the short passage to her room, then spun me to face her. She stood up on her toes to kiss me; I laughed softly as I felt her fumbling at the button of my jeans. "Undressing... mm... me already?"

"Gagging for you," she growled. "Do you have any idea... how much seeing you naked always turned me on?"

"Some," I whispered.

"Now multiply that a thousandfold now that I know I can touch you."

She pulled my jeans down to my ankles. "Get rid of those plimsolls," she commanded me. I pushed the first off my heel, then the second.

"And those jeans," she demanded; I kicked them free of myself.

She swallowed hard and moved in closer. I shivered as she reached out to trail her hands down my back and over my bum.

"Undress all of me," I begged her.

"Well... if you really want me to... you're going to have to be polite..."

"Charley..." I whined, and she laughed softly.

She slowly slid my cotton panties down and off me, her fingers against my skin raising goosebumps everywhere in passing.

"Can I... touch you?" she whispered.

"Stop asking permission," I moaned in frustration. "Just take me already. I'm tired of waiting. I'm tired of being empty. I'm yours to do with as you like..."

I shifted my feet apart, opening myself, silently granting her access; she trailed her fingertip down over my belly and mons and I moaned softly as I felt her on me for the first time.

She slid her digit slowly along and around me, teasing slowly between my aching ,soaked lips - brushing gently along the side of my clit to tease, just slightly, my entrance... then pulled it away.

I stared down into hers as she lifted her hand to her mouth and tasted me.

"Oh. Oh wow. I'm going to enjoy this," she breathed. "You probably have no idea just how much."

She shifted, shimmied, and I felt her skirt fall to the floor between us. Her panties followed.

She took my hand, turned, sat down on the edge of her disordered bed and pulled me down next to her. I was flushed, hot, heart racing from the twofold effect of nerves and need.

She kissed me once on the cheek, then on my lips, and then she put her hand between my breasts and pushed me firmly backwards; she shifted, lifted herself part onto me, her blonde curls tickling over me as she rested her weight on my body.

She shifted a knee, slowly moved it up; I spread myself for her, letting her put her thigh between mine. I gasped a breath, then a second, groaning as she began to kiss my throat and from there down to my aching breasts.

"Charley," I moaned. "Oh, oh, that's so good."

She took my right nipple between her lips; she bit down gently and I writhed, panting.

"Can I touch you again?" she moaned.

"Yes..." I hissed, desperate for her to be inside me.

I arched, knotting my fingers into her hair as I felt her fumble at me. I groaned as she slowly pushed a finger deep into me. I clutched at her, dug my fingers into her as she began, achingly, to tease at first one then, soon enough, what felt like two fingers in and out of me.

Or maybe it was three; I couldn't, didn't care.

I couldn't speak. Not really.

Nothing had ever felt this good.

Nothing in the world could have prepared me for the sensation of making love with her for the first time.

She was slow.

Achingly slow.

Languid, playful, unutterably frustrating...

She paused, frequently, to kiss me, to make sure I was comfortable, that I had her full and undivided attention. And, some part of me realised, to tease me more and to make it last as long as she was capable.

She drove me on; buoying me upwards on an flooding tide of exquisite tension and excruciating pleasure.

At some point I realised that she'd shifted again - she'd moved between my legs. She was staring intently down at my soaking pussy, her lip clenched gently between her perfect teeth.

Each withdrawal, each slow push into my body nudged me onwards; carried me that little bit further.

My throat was raw from the quick desperate gasps that were all I was able to take.

I could feel it coming.

Slowly my vision began to go vague.

I could feel my hands, my legs starting to writhe.

She eased me up.

Up.

Closer.

Closer...

And then without even a so much as an if-you-please, she began to drive her fingers hard and fast into me.

I cried out; my legs clamped together on her, my body writhing like some maddened creature, grunting, absolutely unable to control myself as I came, and possibly came again.

And then, nothing coherent - just the jumbled impressions of her arms around me, her lips scalding hot against mine, the warm globes of her perfect breasts sweat-slick against me.

She cradled me to her as I quivered, gasped, swore and who-knows-what.

"Don't... let go..." I begged her when I could at last form sentences again.

"I couldn't ever," she whispered.

And she held me to her until I was human once more.

.:.

She put my cup of tea down in front of me, and bent over to briefly wrap her arms around me.

"Are you OK?"

I shifted slightly, rolled my shoulders, enjoying the way she draped herself on me as I slouched once more on one of her battered kitchen chairs. She'd wrapped a long woollen gown around me to keep me warm; I smiled as she snuck her hands under the folds to cup my breasts and tease my extremely sensitive nipples.

"Think so. Too endorphin drunk to decide either way. Mm. That's nice. I like when you hold me like that."

"Hah."

"I've never felt anything like that before. Ever. I think you broke me. Um... just for interest's sake, how many fingers did you have in me by the end of that?"

"Only two."

"Oh. It... was nice."

"Good. I'm glad. God, you are delicious," she breathed. "And holy hell do you get wet."

"Charley!" I laughed, somewhat mortified.

"What? It's the truth!"

"You're making me blush."

"It just makes you prettier, if that's even possible."

I turned my head and tucked myself in against her, cheeks aching from the stupid grin that simply wouldn't go away.

"I can't believe it's taken me so long to realise that this is what I wanted all along. That you... were what I wanted."

"As you said, it's not really all that much time... if we ignore the missing years."

"I wish I could give us those back," I sighed.

"I know. So do I. But I have you now. It makes up for all of it."

She kissed the top of my head.

"So..." she said softly.

"Mm?"

"Want anything nice for dinner?"

"Just more of you. Another slice of your delicious, delicious cake."

She snorted. "Now that's a dish I don't mind serving you. On a platter, so to speak."

"Good, because I think I might already be addicted. Though you shouldn't expect me to move just yet; I don't think I can."

"Mm."

I leaned back against her, listening to the faint thump of my heart. The cranberry ache - banished briefly by post-orgasmic lethargy - came back, like a pair of hands slowly cupping my heart.

I didn't want to be without this; I couldn't bear the thought of not having her in my each and every day.

There was nothing waiting for me at home but an empty flat full of the dusty mementos of a lonely little girl.

I wanted something more. I wanted my happy-ever-after.

I took a breath, plucked up the courage to ask the Question.

"Charley?" I breathed.

"Yeah?"

"How are we going to do... this?"

"I guess we'll have to get intimate with the bus timetable..." she said. "So... weekends, I guess. Which is going to suck because I don't want this to end, ever. I don't want to have to say goodbye to you ever again."

And just like that I discovered how easy it was to make up my mind.

"Charley..."

"Yes, love?"

"I... need a change. I need something new, somewhere new. I'll move here if... if you want me to..."

Her hand twitched on my shoulder.

She pulled back slightly, lifted my chin so I'd look at her. Then, seemingly unsatisfied with that, she threw her bare leg over my lap and straddled me; gloriously naked, hair in disarray, eyes dark in the muted light her ceiling lights cast through their patterned fabric shades.

"Oh Ari," she breathed. She fumbled my hand into hers, played with my fingers in her old, old way. "Not that I don't appreciate it, I do, really... but... love, you can't make that sort of life-altering decision off the back of a single orgasm. Not even one of mine..."

"My life is where you are," I said.

She fell silent, staring down at me.

"You altered everything about it long ago. There's no wiggle room for me. I don't want to be beyond the reach of you ever again. I'll find a place up here when I can. When... when you're sure you still want me."

I watched the slow, glinting tear track down her cheek, felt her bite down hard on the sob, heard the little almost-pained whimper...

"That will never change," she managed at last, in a tight little voice. "Never in a month of Sundays. East of the sun, west of the moon, I will always want you and you alone. Always, Ari. Always, only you."

"OK." I whispered.

She latched her arms behind my back and clung to me, just breathing.

"Charley?"

"Yes."

I kissed her neck once, then tucked my face in against her.

"Make love like that to me again," I whispered.

So she did.

.:.

It was August and I was twenty seven.

The sun dropped slowly below the horizon.

I curled my toes over in the warm, white sand and listened to the gentle ripple of the waves.

She sighed out a breath, and shifted her head slightly on my shoulder.

I smiled as she curled her fingers over mine; the silver of our engagement rings flashing red in the final few rays of day.

"Not long left now," she said softly; I could hear her smile.

"Do you remember drawing that picture for me when we were nine?" I asked, as the memory suddenly came back to me.

"No. What picture?"

"It was the first time we met. At the end of the week, when I was leaving - you pushed a picture of two girls holding hands under a bright yellow sun into my hands. I often think about it. I wish I'd kept it but the years claimed it somewhere along the line."

She laughed. "How romantic. It must have been love."

"Mm. I always did like that song. Not really appropriate message-wise..."