The CC characters do not belong to me and this story is based on my own crazy musings after being inspired by so many wonderful fancfics writers – especially Geobacter, Ms Puddle, Elle Andrew, Keilant2 and the amanzing GosieKin

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What would you do if you could not be with the one you love? Would you deny your own yearnings and be content with secret love letters whilst waiting for years for that perfect love to be consummated? OR would you do something even more forbidden and contemplate other possibilities?

My idea is to portray Candy in a more defiant, self assertive light, perhaps maybe even putting her needs ahead of others for once in her life... Sometimes it is good to be a little selfish ; )

The Tutor

Candy sat by her lounge room window clutching the long awaited letter in her hands. It has been months since the last one... She missed her beloved so much and there was no one around to console her. Her cosy apartment suddenly felt cold and lonely. She loved him so much that a growing ache began in her chest, strangling her heart and before she knew it silent tears were rolling down her face. She let the tears roll uncontrollably and tried to suffocate her sobs with her hands. She always knew it was going to be like this, loving him in secret, knowing there were people who'd be hurt and shocked if their love was discovered. The letters were not constant (they both had to be careful!) but each one represented a promise of the life they would one day have. IF only society changed, IF only he gave up his obligations, IF only she could live with the consequences of what it would mean to have a life together...

Candy shook her head to disperse her painful chain of thoughts. Nothing mattered right now anyhow, no matter how much they loved each other at this point in time all they could do was to express their love in their secret letters but she knew she wanted, needed, so much more...

Suddenly a knock on her door startled her out of her melancholy. Dear God, what time was it, was it lunch time already? She quickly ran to the bathroom and washed her face. She couldn't allow HIM of all people to see her like this. She hurried to the door after a second, more persistent knock became louder and could potentially alert her neighbours of her impatient visitor's arrival.

"I am coming!" her voice sang as she unlocked the door and found her visitor waiting impatiently with a bunch of flowers in one hand and a basket in the other.

"Hello beautiful! I thought I would have to knock on another door and perhaps find a gorgeous, hungry damsel who'd gladly share my delicious offerings in exchange for a kiss" he smiled and winked at her as he walked past her into the lounge room.

She blushed like a tomato from head to toe. He was so handsome and his flirtatious, playful banter always had the same effect on her. "I am so sorry. I was reading a letter and lost track of time" she said, quickly grabbing the envelope from the coffee table and shoving it inside a drawer.

"Let me guess" he said in a dramatic, playful tone, "it was from him: he loves you, misses you, can't be with you right now but wishes to, blah, blah, blah, am I right?". He raised a beautiful eyebrow as a half smile adorned his sensuous lips. Again, she blushed and gently mumbled "Something like that..." her voice trailed with a hint of sadness. He hated to see her upset so he gently approached her and putting his arms around her, held her body close to consoled her.

"I am so sorry, sweetheart, I didn't mean to upset you by bringing it up". He cupped her face with his hands and placed a gentle kiss on her forehead. "There, don't think about sad things anymore. Besides I have a lovely picnic ready for you to enjoy and forget about your troubles for a moment" he said as he pulled away from her and grabbed the picnic basket . He opened it like a child wanting to share a treasure with his best friend. The basket was full to the brim and he had remembered all her favourite things: sandwiches, chocolate cake, as well as fruit and a variety of cheeses. There was also an excellent bottle of red wine and glasses.

Candy's eyes were wide open in complete surprise. "Oh my!" she exclaimed, "exactly how many people have you invited to this picnic? There is enough food to feed a family". He laughed out loud and responded with a twinkle of mischief in his eyes. "Correction my dear, a large family or a very hungry, very sad Candy!" His face lit up with a gleeful smile.

She turned to him and gave his ribs a well-placed, sharp elbowing. "I DON'T eat that much" she said indignantly, "I eat just the right amount to enable me to have the energy to do my work properly. SOME of us don't get to sit all day in the office, you know. I have to be working on my feet for nine hours straight!" She huffed and sat on her couch, arms crossed over her chest and a delightful little frown that made the freckles on her nose look more pronounced and beautiful than ever.

He adored her when she was like this! His laughter eventually died down as he sat beside her and put his arm around her shoulders.

"I am sorry precious, please don't get upset" and he gently kissed her cheek as one of his fingers absentmindedly twirled a stray golden curl. "I know how much you miss him and how sad you have been lately. I thought a picnic would be just the thing to cheer you up and I wanted to make sure I had everything you like to eat. I know I probably went a little overboard but I was just trying very hard to please you". He kissed her cheek again and placing his other hand on her chin, he slowly turned her to face him and whispered in a low voice "Please forgive my stupidity, I can't bear to see you upset".

She gazed into his beautiful blue eyes and nodded slowly. "I am fine, really. I just miss him so very much. When I am at work I don't have time to think about our situation but when I come home everything is so quiet that I cannot help but think about him, wonder where he is and what he's doing..."

Her voice trailed off again as tears welled up in her green eyes. She broke away from his gaze but pulled him closer. "It looks like it's going to rain" she said looking out the window. "I am not in the mood to go outside today anyhow, I am sorry our usual lunch date did not turn out very well" she said, quickly wiping the tears with the back of her hand.

He took her hands and raised them both to his lips, kissing them gently before placing them back on her lap "We have been having lunch together once a week for months now and not once has your company been disappointing" he said gently. "I know you're sad and cannot talk to anyone else about this because of the delicate circumstances surrounding your relationship".

His eyes locked into hers, brimming with his own unrequited love for her: a love that so far he'd been able to express only under the guise of brotherly concern. "But I am here right now, like I always try to be. Please, let me help you smile again" he said almost breathlessly "let me share the load with you so that your heart will only know love and be ready to love him without a trace of pain when you can finally be together again".

She gently nodded and carefully rested her head on his chest. How she loved the smell of him! She always thought her own smell was like a mixture of disinfectant and liniment and he always smelt like he had just stepped out of a bath. A fleeting image of the man holding her, naked in a bath was enough to make her blush again so she quickly giggled and stood up from the couch to grab the basket on the coffee table. "We can't allow this beautiful food go to waste then" she said cheerfully, "how about we have an indoor picnic instead?"

He roared with laughter again as he stood from the couch "Candy, you never cease to amaze me! What a wonderful compromise. Now the question is, should we really pretend we are having a picnic and eat on the floor or should be more civilized and eat at the table?" and without missing a beat she said "Floor of course!"

He knew the answer before he asked the question, but he laughed just the same. "Floor it is then!" he proclaimed as he took his picnic blanket out of the basket and proceeded to arrange the food on top for both to enjoy. He took a cork screw out of his pocket and opened the bottle of wine. The beautiful red liquid soon filled two glasses and Candy sat next to him to enjoy their meal.

Sitting on the floor next to each other, they chatted about everything and nothing at once. They had been friends for so long that they knew almost everything about each other, sometimes even finishing each other's sentences. Time had not weathered their friendship and now they felt they were closer than ever. When he started to work at the family's office, he decided that no matter how busy he was she was still too important to him and wanted to find a way to remain in contact. One day on her day off, he showed up at her apartment with a bag full of groceries. He said he was finished for the day and he'd thought he'd surprise her by cooking a delicious lunch for both to enjoy. She looked at him in complete surprise. She usually had toast for lunch on her day off so the offer of a cooked lunch was too good to resist. Ever since then, every Friday they have been having lunch together. Sometimes when he's away for work, he arranges for a local restaurant to deliver a gourmet meal at lunch time with a note from him, telling her to enjoy her meal and to look forward to their next cooking escapade.

Their picnic lunch was almost finished, and Candy could not help laying down on the picnic rug with a sigh of content. "Ah...I guess I was hungrier than expected" she said laughing "AND a little drunk". She covered her face with both her hands and grumbled half-heartedly "I guess this is definitely not very lady-like of me" before she held her belly with her hands in a fit of giggles. He was a little drunk as well and watching Candy rolling on the rug giggling, his mouth began twitching and it wasn't long before he was rolling around giggling as well. "Oh Candy! There will never be a lady more amusing than you" he said, with tears of laughter rolling down his cheeks "Aunt Elroy would have an aneurism if she saw us like this!"

Now she roared with laughter "Oh my Lord, what have I done! I have received a man in my house (gasp) ALONE. Quick, we must marry at once to protect my honour". He was in hysterics by now and unable to stop laughing "I think I need to re-educate myself about the birds and the bee, my dear nurse. Apparently all it takes to take virginity away is to say hello in private! What kind of textbooks are they training you with? The Bible? Good Housekeeping Journal? I didn't even get to take my tie off let alone my trousers!"

Candy was still rolling around laughing, shaking her head from left to right and mouthing the word stop but being drowned by her own uncontrollable laughter. "Well, my dear sir, in my expert opinion as a nurse I can tell you: mechanically it seems pretty straight forward. But I guess that's another thing I won't have the chance to explore any time soon" she said, suddenly regaining her composure. He stopped laughing and quietly sat up looking intently at her. "It doesn't have to be that way" he murmured, "I wish you'd let me help you".

Candy gave him a gentle smile "No one can help me. I am supposed to have needs and wants as a woman but I don't even know what they are. I can only tell him how I feel and how my heart aches but never show how my body yearns to be with him because I don't even know what that's supposed to feel like". She looked out the window again. The raindrops were gently falling, forming tiny little rivers on the glass as she continued "I want to be with the man I love, as I love him more than life itself. But I feel no carnal desire for him yet. I can't". Her voice sounded a little sad, so he pulled her closer to him, whispering in her ear. "It would be shame if you lived like a nun whilst waiting to be his seductress. It would be such a waste of your life".

His blue eyes gazed deeply into her green ones, wishing to find the right words to explain his unusual proposal without sounding self-serving. "What exactly are you suggesting?" she asked, swallowing hard and without looking away. The wine had certainly made her a little bolder than usual and thus she didn't feel the least bit embarrassed by his words. He took a gentle, deep breath, as the words began to slowly trickle out of his mouth "I want to teach you how to love" he said, blushing under her green, appraising gaze. "I know you don't love me like a man, but as a brother and I have learned to accept that. I am also aware that I am very much engaged to someone else and will marry very soon. You know, I care for my fiancée and I guess may even love her, but not in the same way I have loved you and thus I find myself facing a similar predicament to yours..."

He took another deep breath before continuing on "I guess you could say she was born to marry someone like me but her very upbringing hasn't allowed her to want me physically yet. If I cannot be with you and I am supposed to be happy by her side I need her to want me like a man and not like a character out of some story book romance". He took her hands and held them in his own, bowing his head down as he continued to pour out the feelings he had suppressed for so long. "I wanted to be the one you yearn for and the one to satisfy your every need but I know your heart belongs to another and I come to accept that fact. What I want is to teach you how to love him physically and without reserve. In exchange I need you to teach me how to be patient and a good teacher, so I can learn how to be a good husband to my wife and not resent her apprehension when it comes to physical love". His imploring eyes were silently pleading for her not to run away or kick him out of the apartment at that very moment.

Candy blinked in surprise, not at his request but at her own response to his words. Under normal circumstances she would have slapped ANYONE who made such an outrageous suggestion but suddenly she found herself very curious as to how this arrangement would work and what would it entail. He was still looking at her without blinking, wishing to be able to read the thousand thoughts that must be running thru her head. He stood up slowly and began to clear the picnic left-overs. Whilst he worked, he began to chastise himself in silence. What did he just do? Did he just proposition himself to this innocent, wonderful girl? How could he take such a gamble on their friendship, their bond? As he continued working, he wished she would at least yell or throw a shoe at him. Something, anything; her silence was killing him. Eventually she stood up as well, taking the scraps away from his hands and putting them on the coffee table. She then held his hands with hers and looking into his eyes said "Excuse me sir, but I need more information about this matter. Your proposal has its merits but lacks in details. You need to tell me exactly what sort of things we would do. After all, you'll have to be in charge if you're going to be my tutor..."

His jaw clenched as she raised her hand to softly caress the side of his face with her delicate fingers. He put his hands around her waist, pulling her close to him, his voice playful but thick with pent up desire. "You little rascal, you had me worried for a moment! I thought I had offended you deeply and looking for a way to get rid of me" he said before tracing her lips with the tip of his thumb "Firstly, I will only teach you what you want to know and will never push you to do anything you don't want to do". Her soft lips began nibbling at this thumb as the tip of her tongue darted out quickly to taste it. He drew a sharp breath at the sight of her beautiful pink tongue touching his finger and swallowed hard whilst trying to retain his composure. "Secondly, your virginity is not mine to take so we will never fully make love" he said, "however; there are many wonderful things we can do that do not involve any sort of... breaching". Candy looked at him with eager eyes as he placed his thumb inside her mouth, her tongue twirling and stroking as each lashing sent a shiver of pleasure that began in his hand and ended in his groin. He closed his eyes before hoarsely adding "And please don't call me your tutor... it makes me feel like a dirty old man defiling his young, defenceless student".

Candy stopped the tongue torture and grabbing his hands, placed them firmly on her round, hardened breasts "Well, this student is certainly willing to learn whatever her more EXPERIENCED teacher has to offer. And I too have a request to make..." he opened his eyes quickly, giving her a quizzical look. "Each and every lesson we must both be blind folded. My heart belongs to another but my body will be mine to explore as I see fit. In my mind, it will be my beloved's hands that touch my breasts and his lips that imprison mine. For you, the body you will be teaching will be your fiancée's and you will keep in mind your promise to keep her intact until the wedding night. Agreed?"

He dropped his arms by his sides and looked at her with a mix of unbridled fascination and surprise; he could have never imagined that a picnic could end like this!

"Agreed" he said finally, whilst extending his hand forward for a handshake. She smiled at his sudden, professional gesture.

"Silly man! I think we're now past handshakes" she said and throwing her arms around him, drew him towards her for a tender kiss.

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TO be continued...

Please be kind! This is my first fancfic EVER so am really nervous. Comments and suggestions would be appreciated.

; )