As the days pass by, James and Cadie fall into a comfortable routine. He gets up at four thirty in the morning, showers and gets dressed, makes breakfast for both of them, and goes back upstairs to wake her.
He leaves for his cover job as an insurance investigator at six o'clock and is away all day. He calls her at lunch, and finds out if there is anything that she needs him to get on his way home. When he gets home, she usually has dinner ready for him. Sometimes, he picks up something to go on the way home.
It turns out that she is a superb cook, and he realizes that he is really going to have to work to stay in shape because of it. He also discovered that she was a very talented baker. He loved her cinnamon chocolate chip cookies.
On the days that she has therapy appointments, the routine varies a little, but not much. He sleeps until seven-thirty and then gets her up, taking her to the therapy center at nine, and staying with her. He usually runs a couple of his cases by her to see if she can find anything he might have missed, which she had a knack for doing. When she gets finished in the late afternoon, they usually eat out somewhere.
During the weekends, when he is off, they usually work around the house. Yard work, upkeep, the normal things a married couple would do.
After a number of months, when he calls home, she has an unusual request.
"Do you need me to pick anything up on the way home today, babe?"
"As a matter of fact, James, I do. You got a pen and paper handy? I need six packages of Jello, six two liter bottles each of Ginger ale, Cream soda and root beer."
"What for, if I'm allowed to ask?"
"You'll find out when you get home. Besides, I've got plans for tonight, and they do include you."
"Ooh, Will I like it?"
"Maybe. Let's just say that it's time that I did something that I've been putting off for a while."
"What is it?"
"You'll find out."
As he gets ready to leave work that day, a few coworkers approach him. They invite him to join a group of people that are dissatisfied with the way things are done. He tells them that he'll think about it and tell them next week.
Not used to wearing a suit, as soon as he gets to his truck, he loosens his tie and shrugs off his jacket. He unbuttons the top two buttons of his shirt and starts the truck, pulling out of the employee parking lot and into traffic.
It takes him about fifteen minutes to go by the grocery store and get what he has on his list, wondering all the while on the drive home what devious purpose Cadie has for all the sodas.
When he gets home, he heads for the door, but before he gets there, Cadie is there to meet him, standing on the porch, wearing braces on her legs that helped to take the pressure off of her knees.
He is, at the very least, surprised to see her up on her feet by herself, knowing how painful it must be for her. He is even more surprised when he carries the packages into the kitchen and watches her begin to work her magic with the drinks.
She places the new garbage can on the floor and starts pouring bottle after bottle of soda into it. She dumps the jello powder into it, stirs it up, and then shoves it across the floor and into the walk-in freezer.
"Now, we let that sit for a couple of hours, and then we attack it. Been a darn long time since I had a Hammerhead."
He watches her in puzzlement as she walks right up to him and kisses him passionately.
"She's finally comfortable with me!" he thinks, happily, throwing himself into the kiss.
Desire slams into him as she slides her hands lower and caresses the front of his pants. He is breathing heavily as he pushes her back a few steps and turns his back to her, trying to get control of his reactions before he lost it all and took her right there on the floor, like a whore.
She misinterprets this as a rejection and closes her eyes for a second to get a hold on her emotions. She then turns and races up the stairs as fast as she can.
James stands there for a few minutes, bewildered, and curses as he suddenly figures out what has happened. He rushes up the stairs behind her and follows her path into her bedroom.
He finds her lying across their bed, crying softly. He silently moves over to her and begins to rub her back. He tucks a pillow under her chest to help arch her back. He continues to massage her back, getting farther and farther from her spine and ever closer to her breasts. He doesn't fail to notice the small moan that she makes when he pulls away. As he sits there, she rolls over and gets up, coming over to stand in front of him.
"Are you sure?" he asks her, standing up and taking the few steps forward to bring him into arm's reach of her.
She nods, love shining in her eyes. "I have never been surer of anything in my life, James. I've had lots of time to think about this, and I realized that life is too short not to do what I want to every once in a while, and I need to exorcise these demons from my past."
"Then your wish is my command, princess." He leans past her and turns on the stereo. "Dream On" by The Oak Ridge Boys is playing.
She puts her arms around his neck and he lowers his head to hers. He brushes his lips softly against hers and feels her quiver. He then attacks her lips with his. "Open your mouth for me, little one. Let me inside you."
She opens her lips under his and feels his tongue enter her mouth and start mating with hers. She feels him reach up to her shirt and unbutton it at the same time she does the same to him. She finishes first and pulls his dress shirt off, literally ripping his t-shirt off of him and puts her hands on his bare chest.
He cups her ample breasts in his large hands. They fit perfectly. He bends down and she arches against him, threading her fingers through his dark hair, seeking more.
He slides his one arm down and behind her knees, wrapping the other around her shoulders, picking her up and carrying her the few steps to the bed. He lays her down and takes off her braces and pants.
She moans in protest as he pulls away. He reaches for her arms and places them above her head, telling her, "I'll be right back, baby. I just need to get my pants off."
He gets out of his slacks and boxers as quickly and as gracefully as he can, almost ripping them off. He lies down next to her on the bed and pulls her into his arms powerfully, almost painfully. He seals his mouth to hers and plunders her mouth with his tongue.
He takes her hands and puts them on his chest, letting her know that she was free to explore his body as he was doing hers, giving her the chance to get to know him without him forcing himself onto her. She takes the chance that he has given her and runs her hands over his chest, tracing the old scars and tangling her fingers in the sparse amount of fine hair that he has between his pectoral muscles and then lightly trailing her hand downwards, following the line of hair descending from his navel.
"I want you so badly, babe. You have no idea how long I've wanted this. I want to do it all to you. I want to take my time, make sure you're getting as much pleasure as I am; and I want to nail you as hard and as fast as I can. I want to be so deep inside you, honey, that you can never get rid of me. I want to plant my seed inside you and watch it grow. I want to catch the baby as it comes out and know that both the baby and mother are mine."
She clamps her mouth shut, trying not to scream as she becomes lost in the pleasure of their activities.
"Open your mouth little girl. Let it go. I want to hear you come."
She whimpers as he groans and moments later, both yell each other's names as they both come at the same time. After he catches his breath, he rolls them over to where they are lying on their sides, facing each other, still joined together.
"So that's why they call you Grand Slam..." she giggles.
He chuckles with her and responds with, "And that's the reason they call you Spitfyre. Why didn't you tell me that you were afraid to have sex?"
"I thought that you knew the reason already. I wasn't afraid to have sex with you, I was afraid that it wouldn't just be casual sex like you wanted. I knew that if I did have sex with you that I would fall even deeper under your spell than I already have."
He pulls her close to him and kisses her. "I never wanted just casual sex. I wanted something more meaningful, like you. Honey, sex with you is not something casual; it's a life altering experience. If we weren't already married, I'd propose to you." She immediately recognizes that there was a bug on the windowsill, and it wasn't from their organization.
"I have to confess something, James; I need to come clean about something. One of the reasons I'm so afraid of sex is because, when I was about six or seven, my mother was still heavily into drugs and was trying to figure out how to pay for a tattoo." She stops and swallows.
"Go on. Don't be afraid, I'm here with you and you'll never be alone again. You can tell me anything, and I'll never think any lower of you. I'll be your friend even if no one else will." He strokes her hair absently.
"She negotiated a deal with the two teenage boys on how to pay for it. The next morning, she left me at the house with the boys and no one else. All I can remember is the boys hitting me and then pulling my shirt off. I black out there for the first time. I fought them tooth and nail when they tried to take my pants off, but they were too big. Everything goes black then, again, and the next thing I remember is that I was huddled on the couch, trying to cover myself with a crocheted afghan that was lying there. When she finally returned, the boys gave me back my clothes and told her that I fought them and didn't want to do whatever happened. She cursed me all the way across town to the house. I never knew why. I think, years later, I put two and two together and came up with four. And even now, I can't listen to Sixteenth Avenue by Lacy J. Dalton or I'll start having episodes of PTSD."
He snarls as she relates one of the most shameful secrets from her past, realizing how embarrassed she is, and how scared she is that he won't want her anymore. He suddenly reaches out and gathers her trembling body close to his, hoping that she'd soon feel at ease enough with him to tell him all of her hidden secrets. "It's not your fault, baby girl. There was nothing you could have done to stop them. The best thing you can do now is to forgive them and go on with your life."
He kisses her and discovers that she's ready for round two, and that, surprisingly, so is he. And so the night goes on... they alternate between napping and making love.
A/N: Some of her memories actually happened to me. The song is one of them, and so is the incident with the boys. The only thing changed there is the actions and reaction of her mother. I don't think mine knows about it happening. The drink is something my fiancée and I came up with one weekend before we got married.