Chapter 17

Now he did feel the feeling she'd accused him of! He had hurt the woman he loved by being afraid to tell her so. Bud raced from the room after her, wondering if he'd be able to catch her with the head start she had.

She was just about to round the last turn to her room when he came into the same hallway. Shouting to her, he pleaded, "Harriett wait! I need to talk to you!"

"Go away Commander!" she called back to him and turned the corner.

By the time Bud turned the same corner, she was safely in her room. He drew a deep breath and then rang her buzzer.

"I said, 'go away Commander'!" her voice came through the door.

"Please Harriett! I need to tell you the real reason that I didn't tell you! I thought you understood, but you had it wrong!" he waited a few moments to see if her door would open or he would be invited in, but neither of those things happened. Hoping that she was at least listening, Bud once again called out, "Harriett the reason I didn't tell you was because I thought you would figure out that I loved you!"

It took almost a full minute, but the door did open. Harriett stood there looking stunned and asked, "Would you please repeat that?"

"The reason I didn't…"

"No! Not that part…just the last part," she instructed urgently.

"I love you," he almost whispered.

"You do?"

He could only nod as he saw the hope rise in her eyes. Bud was too choked up to be able to speak.

Taking him by the hand, she pulled him into her room and as the door swooshed closed cutting them off from the rest of the ship, Bud found the woman of his dreams in his arms.

"Oh Buddy! I love you too!" she told him as she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him.

Quickly getting over his surprise, he began to return the kiss in earnest.

Their hands were not idle during the kiss, they roamed and caressed as the kiss continued to heat up. The only protest came when a pair of hands reached out to undo the fastenings of a uniform jacket. Backing up a step, Bud questioned, "Harriett what are you doing?"

"I was going to undress you," she answered simply, and then asked, "Or would you rather do that yourself?"

Sputtering because of his shock, he asked, "Shouldn't we wait till we're married?"

Stunned at the question, Harriett stepped away a bit and asked gently, "Buddy are you a virgin?"

"NO!" he exclaimed loudly, then went on to add a bit more quietly, "No, but my mother taught me that nice girls don't do that till they're married."

"So you've only been with 'not nice' girls?"

"I guess so," he replied, blushing.

"And if we made love before we were married then I wouldn't be a nice girl?"

Bud blushed even more at just the thought of making love to Harriett. She was so sweet and beautiful! He did want to make love to her, so his mind quickly thought of a loophole. "I guess it wouldn't be wrong…if we were…engaged," he offered tentatively.

"Buddy, are you asking me to marry you!?" she gasped.

"I…ummmm…sure…I mean if you want to…I ummmm mean…"

"YES!" she called out to stop his rambling.

"Yes?" he questioned.

"Yes, I'll marry you!" she cleared up for him.

"You will?"

"Yes," Harriett smiled sweetly.

"Oh wow!" He could only smile after that, at a complete loss for words.

"So, now that we're engaged, will you make love with me?" she asked, holding out her hand invitingly as she backed towards her bedroom door.

To be continued…..