Jennie

While Lisa did the dishes, I laid a towel over the counter in our master bath, filled a cup under the faucet.

Lisa came in rubbing her stomach. "I think I ate too much."

"I told you not to have that second piece of pie."

She nodded at the scene unfolding in front her. "What's all this?"

"Get a chair from the dining room."

"You gonna shave me?"

"You said you needed one." I glanced at her over my shoulder. "And you're always raving about how much you love—"

"Shaving you? Mmm." She came up behind me, catching my eye in the mirror above our sinks as she slid a hand down my tummy. "Speaking of, you should be due for one yourself."

I relaxed against her front as she pushed her hand into the waist of my jeans. "Some of my friends at school have started waxing," I told her as she toyed with the lace band of my thong. "Do you want me to do that? It's cleaner."

"And put me out of the job?" She rasped into my ear, her wandering fingers making my breath catch. "You know how much I love to do it."

Lisa was a true creative. It was something everyone else overlooked. She hadn't just built our home. She didn't just put furniture together. She designed with attention to every detail. And she'd designed me, too. We'd spent many nights in the clawfoot tub she'd chosen and installed. She shaved my legs, took her time on my bikini line so she wouldn't nick me, and was never satisfied until it was exactly as she wanted it. It always led to sex. Her focus and care, and the slow, controlled way she groomed me until she was content, was a special kind of foreplay.

Tempted to give in to her, I blinked away my haze and forced myself back to reality. I'd get mine soon enough, but first I wanted to pamper this one who worked way too hard. I urged her hand from my pants. "Later," I said. "Right now, what I really need is a chair."

"Coming right up."

A few minutes later, "Feels good," Lisa murmured. "I need you, Jennie." She pulled me between her legs by my hips, her eyes trailing up my stomach and over my breasts in a way that tightened my insides. "I have since you walked in the door."

"Mmm, yeah," she said, pivoting and heading the opposite direction down the hall. "We haven't done it in there in a while."

I rolled my eyes as she stopped short in the doorway of the den. "When did you do all this?"

Lisa looked back at me while stocking the fireplace. "Johnnie Walker Blue Label?" she asked as I poured us drinks at a side table. "What's the occasion?"

"Doing all right?" She asked.

"Yep." I worked the back of her neck, running my fingers up to her scalp then down her spine. The California sun was strong, even in winter, and despite her naturally bronzed skin, she had a faint tan line at the back of her neck. "Is it making any difference?"

"Yeah, Birdy." She laughed. "But you're sweating on me."

I pinched her arm. "You love it."

She looked over her shoulder and up at me. "Come here."

I leaned over her front, sliding my hands down her pecs from behind, flipping my long hair over her shoulder to nuzzle her neck. She pulled me closer by my arms. "There's the sweet spot," she said as I massaged her abs of stone, my fingers inching lower and lower.

She released my arm to pick up her whisky from the side table, took a sip, and passed it back to me. The burn of liquor, of the fireplace on my skin, loosened my limbs.

"You're shaking." She trapped my knees with her biceps, pulling my legs to her sides and massaging my calves.

"Your shoulders are too wide." I put the glass next to her on the ground. "My thighs hurt."

She scooted forward, away from me. "I've never heard a better invitation. I'm more than happy to relieve your aching thighs."

"Tonight's about you. Get on the rug so I can work on yours."

"When did you get so bossy?" She asked but went to lie on the floor where I'd piled the pillows. She stuffed one under her chest, resting her chin on her forearms. "Persistent? Impulsive? Yes. But my little bird used to have a shy side."

"You've spent the last few years touching, licking, and kissing the shy right out of me," I pointed out, sitting on her ass.

"I have, haven't I?" she asked, a smile in her voice. "How come Blue's not nudging her snout up my ass?"

"I put her out back."

"You really planned this out."

"Shh." I ran my thumbs up the muscles around her spine. "Try to relax."

Once I'd located a knot, I used one elbow, then both, to get deeper. I added more and more pressure until she groaned. "All right, you win," she said. "That feels fucking great."

When I hit a sore spot, she bucked her hips. As turned on as I was easing the aches in my strong love, as much as I wanted her to pull me into her arms and make love to me, I mostly wished she'd be able to relax until I'd exhausted myself.

Of course, I had no delusions that would actually happen. There'd be no end to the massage or start to sex. Lisa's groans deepened as I hit her lower back. I dipped my fingers under the waistband of her jeans, kneading the top of her ass.

"Don't neglect the front," she said.

I slickened my palms with more oil. She lifted her hips as I slid my hands down the front of her pants and stroked her once, long and slow. I sat back as she flipped over and took her pants off. There'd be no more subduing the bear, so I gave in and climbed on.

"Your face is pink," she said.

"I'm warm from the fire."

She opened my blouse, offering slight relief from the heat. I shut my eyes as she slid my top off my shoulders, then unbuttoned my jeans. "Let me see you," she said.

She could already see as much of me as she wanted, but as always, she wanted my eyes open. I looked down at her, leaning my hands on her chest. My hair made a curtain around us, her abs tensing as the ends grazed her skin. "Even lit up by the fire," she said, shoving a hand in the front of my jeans, "you look angelic."

I sucked in a breath as she circled her fingertips over my clit through my underwear. "Maybe it's a disguise to lure you in," I said, biting my lip.

"It's working." She slipped aside the crotch of my panties. "The question is, how deep do you want me?"

I bent at the waist to hover my mouth above her. "Do you have a setting other than 'as deep as possible'?" I asked.

She fought against my jeans to push two fingers inside me, flicking them until my thighs shook for a different reason. With the tight fit, her palm massaged my clit. "Are you teasing me?" She asked, withdrawing her hand. "Because that's a two-way street."

"I doubt that's a game you want to play." Worked up from the massage, I was nearly panting already. I wiggled off her lap to kiss my way over her pecs and abs, letting my hair trail on her skin, knowing how it tickled and aroused her. Pulling down her underwear, I licked the underside of her shaft while raking my nails along her inner thighs. I tongued the tip of her, glancing up from under my lashes.

By the time she gave in and fisted the hair at my scalp, she was writhing beneath me. "You win," she said. "Put your mouth on me."

"Not yet." I smirked. Once, turning Lisa on had been an adventure, her body new territory to chart. Now, I could follow the map with my eyes closed and had many times. Just as she knew a feathered touch along my ribs always made my breath hitch, I knew grazing a fingernail under her balls turned her erection from stone to pure steel. Gone were the days of my timidity and uncertainty. When I took Lisa in my mouth, I did it with the confidence that I could send her to heaven with a blowjob—and also that she wouldn't let me. When she was as turned on as she was now, she never finished anywhere but balls deep inside me.

I sucked Lisa with everything I had, to make her feel like a king, to show her how I worshipped her—and I didn't stop until she started to come apart beneath me. I had her partway down my throat when she tugged me up by my hair.

I stood to peel off my jeans, taking my time so she could watch. I didn't have to ask how she wanted me. Whenever we fucked after time apart, she had to be able to touch me everywhere, look me in the eye, watch my face as I climaxed. That first time, she wanted me raw so she could come inside me. After she'd had her fill, she might fuck me from behind or ask me to swallow her, but never that first time.

I slipped my underwear down to my ankles and stepped out of them to stand over her.

"Are you wet enough or you want me to eat you out first?" she asked.

With only her words and the flicker of her tongue over her bottom lip, my knees weakened. "I don't think I can wait," I said.

"Me neither."

As I lowered myself, she took my hips, positioning them over her. I braced my hands against her chest and sank onto her. Some nights, she couldn't get inside me fast enough. Others, she allowed me to take control, to tease both of us as I let myself adjust to her size. It didn't matter how many times we'd been together, our union always felt like the first time—overwhelming, big, thick.

Lisa squeezed my waist until her fingertips nearly touched. She cupped my breasts as I rocked on her, thumbing my nipples, then wrapping her hands loosely around my neck. She held me in place as she took over, thrusting up into me so I could do nothing but take all of her and moan each time she hit the right spot.

She flipped me onto my back. The right side of my body cooled quickly away from the fire. Her first thrust from on top came undiluted, hard and deep, the manifestation of her ache to be inside me all day.

She dropped her forehead to mine, and without warning, she slowed, lengthening her thrusts. She kissed me with the same gentle control, both of us appreciating the simple joy of being there together.

"Let's make love here every night," she murmured.

"Life is not that good," I said. "It can't be."

"It can. It is."

My heart swelled, and I held on more tightly as she picked up her pace. One of her hands roamed down my side and over my hip, pulling my thigh up until my knee was bent. She reached underneath me, teasing forbidden spots that she knew put me on the brink of climax. I let myself get lost in her, in the desperate and loving way she took me, and when she was ready to come, she made sure I did first.

As my orgasm worked through me, she moved my hands above my head. I barely felt the grip of her fingers laced with mine, the grunts that rumbled her chest, and then the hot, slick way she filled me.

Lisa rolled onto her back, sweating with labored breaths. I stayed where I was, boneless and sinking into the pillows. After a few moments, she squeezed an arm underneath me to pull me into her side. "I thought I was eating frozen leftovers by myself and jerking off tonight," she said, eyes already closed. "I can hardly believe my luck."

She murmured her last words, fading fast. I was still wide awake. "You jerk off when I'm not here?" I teased.

"Hmm."

"To what?" I shifted up to rest my arm on her chest and my chin on the back of my hand so I could see her. "Internet porn?"

A grunt was her only response. I'd lost her. I took a few moments to study her serene face. I'd accomplished what I'd wanted—I'd spoiled her into a coma. But alone with my thoughts, Doyeon's questions floated to the front of my mind. How long until I got to call myself her wife? I'd waited years to be hers at all. Even though I was the one who'd wanted to put off marriage, it didn't really make sense to me anymore. Once I graduated and moved back in fulltime, there was no reason not to have a wedding.

Lisa's breathing had evened out. Now probably wasn't the right time to bring up marriage.

Then again, when had either of us ever gotten our timing right?