by Lacy Hart
I had gotten out of bed before her and made us some coffee and toasted a couple of bagels. I put everything on a bed tray and brought it into the bedroom, where Sarah was curled up wearing one of my t-shirts that she had become accustomed to having on at night. I saw her start to pop her eyes open as she got a smell of the aroma of the coffee.
“Hmmm, that smells good,” she said to me as she sat up and stretched her arms straight above her head, causing her t-shirt to ride up slightly and expose her stomach. I placed the tray at the foot of the bed and passed a cup of coffee to her, and she took a quick sip. I then offered her a bagel, and she took a small bite.
“I feel like I’m still full from dinner last night,” Sarah said as she took another small bite. Sarah sipped her coffee again and then put her mug down on the nightstand and looked at me.
“I’m sorry if I ruined the date last night.” Sarah had a sad look on her face.
“Hey,” I said to her, putting the tray down on the floor and then placing my hand under her chin, so she had to turn her eyes up to look at me. “You didn’t ruin anything. I had an amazing time with you last night. It was great to get out and see you enjoy yourself. Don’t let what happened at the end of the night stand in your way.”
“That’s easy for you to say, Caleb,” Sarah replied. “I can’t get any of it out of my head. The thought that Denise is betraying my brother, and their daughter, makes me angry, but then everything that happened afterward with Jared… it just frightens me to think about it. What’s going to happen when I go back to the house? What am I going to say to my brother? How am I going to deal with Denise?”
“You don’t have to think about that right now,” I told her. I moved closer to Sarah and kissed her. “You can stay here until you have to go to work tomorrow. We can figure out the rest after all that.”
“Thank you, Caleb,” Sarah said to me, bringing her hand to my cheek. “I don’t know what I would do without you right now.” Sarah leaned in and kissed me, deeper than the first kiss we had today. She put her hands on my sides, pulling me closer to her. I moved my lips down from her mouth, kissing her chin and then softly kissing her neck, planting small kisses all over her neck and causing her to flinch and giggle. I looked her in the eyes and was happy to see her smiling again.
I went back to lightly kissing her neck as she lay her head back into the pillows. My kisses worked their way down her body, across her shoulders, until I was lightly kissing her breasts, first through the t-shirt she had on, and then after I helped her lift the t-shirt over her head, on the bare flesh of her breasts. Sarah held my head in the palms of her hands as I kissed her soft skin. I could hear her mewling lightly as I kissed her, moving from one breast to the other. I then kissed her stomach, moving down to her hips.
My fingers hooked into the lace waistband of the black panties she was wearing, and I pulled them down her legs, over her calves and feet, until they were free of her. I then kissed my way back up her left leg, taking my time to go over the contours of the muscles in her calves, the curve and bend of her knee, and the soft skin of her thigh until I reached the top of her thigh.
Sarah was breathing a bit harder now and had instinctually parted her legs. After reaching the top of her thigh, I slowly moved over to her right leg, passing over the warmth radiating from her body, and then worked my way down and then back up her right leg, kissing and caressing her until I was back to the top of her thigh. I looked up at Sarah and saw her eyes were closed and she was getting lost in the moment.
I lowered my head so my lips could meet her where she wanted me the most. Her hips thrust up to meet me almost immediately and when she first felt my lips and tongue graze her, she gasped and moaned. I continued to lightly brush my fingertips on the insides of her thighs, sending chills up and down her body, as I kissed, nibbled and licked at her most intimate spots. My tongue gently probed a little deeper with each upward and involuntary thrust Sarah seemed to make, allowing me to taste more and more of her.
Another glance up at Sarah saw that her eyes were shut tight, her head further down into the pillow, and while her left hand was gripping the headboard of the bed, her right hand had moved down to guide my head so that I was kissing and touching her with my mouth just where it would please her the most. The first time my tongue made the slightest contact with her clitoris, she moaned deeply and held my head tightly.
I knew just where she wanted me and what she wanted me to do as I felt her bend her knees slightly, opening herself up to me more. My tongue made long, slow strokes up and down, coming to a stop just short of her clitoris time and again until she couldn’t take it anymore. Sarah forced my head down, so my mouth was pressed deep against her, probing in and out of her. Her thighs tightened around me, holding me in place as I felt her hand release from my head so that she could hold on herself as her body tensed and then released the orgasm building inside her.
I looked up at Sarah, her hands clenched on the headboard, her chest moving rapidly as her breathing had quickened and then started to slow. As her blissful feelings started to subside, her eyes slowly opened and peered down at me. She gave me a crooked smile as she lifted her head to look at me.
“No one had ever done… oh man…” Sarah said to me as her head buried back into the pillow.
“I hope that doesn’t mean you’re too tired,” I said to her as I moved my body up and over her so that I could kiss her deeply. I pressed my body closer to her, and I could feel her hands slipping down the shorts I was wearing to get them off me. Once my shorts were down enough, she used her feet to remove them the rest of the way, smiling and giggling at me as she did this. I then easily slipped inside her, feeling her body envelop me right away.
Sarah’s hands gripped my backside pulling me as close to her as possible with each movement I made up and down. I kissed her hard on her right shoulder and then her neck, feeling my own breathing getting faster and more deliberate in no time at all. I started to try to slow things down, to make it so that I could last longer, but Sarah would not have any of it.
“Don’t,” Sarah said breathlessly as I thrust more slowly. “Please, I want to feel you.”
I resumed my faster pace, pushing us both closer and closer. Sarah’s body’s rhythm was meeting mine with every movement, and finally, I couldn’t hold back any longer. One final thrust, feeling the warmth and wetness of her, was too much for me to take. I groaned as I felt my body release, and Sarah tightened herself on me once again, holding herself against me. We both tried to keep still, to feel the intensity each other was experiencing as well, but the feelings coursing through me were too good to just hold still. I pressed my lips tightly against hers, kissing her deeply repeatedly until our orgasms started to subside.
I was sweaty, spent, and feeling a deep sense of euphoria. I moved down onto the bed and lay next to Sarah, watching her catch her breath. She turned her head and smiled at me, reaching her right hand over to gently stroke my cheek. She pulled my face to hers so we could kiss again and again.
I was looking deep into her eyes, her smile, and I whispered to her.
“I’m falling in love with you,” I said to her softly.
Sarah seemed surprised and maybe even taken a little aback at first. I could see her eyes clouding with tears.
“Oh, Caleb…” Sarah said, and she looked like she wanted to continue talking, but I interrupted.
“Before you say anything else,” I said to her, “please let me finish. I realize we haven’t known each other for very long. And I know I have… I have issues and baggage that some women may not want to deal with, I get that. But I want you to know that I’m working to change that, and you make me want to be a better person, for myself, my family, and for you. I understand if you think it is too soon to say something like this, but I wanted to tell you. You don’t have to…”
Sarah put her fingers up to my lips to stop me.
“Will you give me a chance to say something?” she said to me with a smile. “I k
now you have issues you are dealing with. Goodness knows, you know I have issues of my own I’m facing too. But I have never felt better about anything or anyone in my life. Caleb, you make me feel things I never thought I would get the chance to feel in my life. Hearing you say you’re falling in love with me… it brings happiness to me that I can’t even put into words. And it makes me glad to say that I’m in love with you, too.”
Sarah kissed me before I had the chance to say anything else and rested her head on my shoulder. We just lay there quietly with each other for a long while until I could hear Sarah breathing softly and slowly. I knew she was asleep in my arms, and I didn’t want to move at all to disturb her peacefulness.
I thought that I would feel nervous about saying I was falling in love with Sarah, but the words came easily to me. I didn’t experience any guilty feelings, and I knew I wasn’t betraying Ella in any way. I knew that this was the right thing for me, to live a happy life, and do the things that would make my life fulfilled. It was just like what I had talked about with Ella if anything were to ever happen to me while I was in combat. She understood it much easier than I did back then, and I think it just took meeting the right person in my life for me to comprehend it.
After some late morning sleep and early afternoon lovemaking, I decided to get out of bed and shower, and Sarah wanted to do the same. I let her shower first while I straightened up and made the bed. When she came out with a towel wrapped around, it took all I could to keep my hands off her. I tried to tempt her into tossing the towel aside and getting back into bed, but stronger heads prevailed, and she ushered me off to the shower to clean myself up.
By the time I got out of the shower, Sarah had dressed in a pair of black shorts and another of my t-shirts that she had taken from my dresser.
“You know if you keep taking my t-shirts I’m not going to have any left,” I said to her as I got clothes out for myself.
“I can’t help it,” she said to me, coming over and kissing me as she slowly unwrapped the towel from around my waist. “I just love the thought of wrapping myself up in them. And they feel good, too,” she told me as she pressed her body in the t-shirt against my naked body.
“Keep that up, and I’ll be taking that one off you right now,” I growled into her ear.
“Get dressed,” she said, tossing the towel into my hamper and walking out of the room, smiling.
I hastily put on a t-shirt and shorts myself and went out into the living room to see what Sarah was doing. She had her head in the refrigerator, looking over what we had bought at the store.
“What are you doing?” I asked her as I sat on one of the barstools.
“I thought I would make some dinner tonight,” she said to me.
“Well, I usually eat with Linda and Adam,” I said to her. It had seemed like it was so long since I had seen them. I didn’t want them to think I was shutting them out of my life.
“Okay,” Sarah said with a smile. “We can cook dinner for them over at the house.”
Sarah gathered up the supplies she needed from my kitchen, tossed them into a couple of bags and was ready to head out the door. I dutifully followed her down the stairs and across the lawn to the back door of the house so we could go right into the kitchen.
“This kitchen is much nicer than yours,” Sarah said teasingly.
“That’s why I don’t cook anything myself,” I told her.
“Well, today you get to be the sous chef.”
“I think it’s much easier if I just watch you do the cooking,” I told her, sitting down at the table.
“I’ll bet it is,” Sarah said to me as she came over and pulled me out of the chair.
“Come on,” she said to me. “Think of how impressed your son and sister will be when you say you made dinner tonight.”
“They might not be so impressed when they see and taste the results if I am cooking.”
“Oh, stop it,” Sarah said playfully. “Come over here and start chopping some vegetables. We’ll keep it simple.”
Sarah handed me a knife and a cutting board, and I went to work on the carrots and broccoli, making sure to cut them just as she instructed. She then put me to work on peeling potatoes for mashed potatoes, while she went ahead and took care of the main part of the meal, the meatloaf she was making.
“How’s this?” I asked as I finished slicing the potatoes. Sarah took a quick glance at them and nodded in approval.
As I was rinsing off the potatoes and putting them in the pot, Adam came walking into the kitchen. He had a surprised look on his face, not so much because Sarah was there, but because we were working in the kitchen, or I should say that I was working in the kitchen.
“What’s going on?” he asked, looking at me with a grin on his face.
“Your Dad and I are making dinner tonight,” Sarah said proudly.
“No kidding?” Adam said with a shocked look on his face. “You know how to cook, Dad? I can only ever remember you making pancakes when I was little, and those were from a box mix.”
“Thanks for your show of support,” I said to Adam. “Sarah is insisting I can do this, so I am giving it a try.”
Adam held up his phone and snapped a picture of me at the counter pouring potatoes into a pot.
“What are you doing?” I said to him.
“I had to get a picture to document this,” he said with a laugh. “I need to send this to Aunt Linda so that she knows not to pick up dinner on the way home.”
“Great, thanks,” I said to Adam.
Sarah had put the meatloaf in the oven already, and I got the potatoes boiling on the stove. Sarah then had me toss the carrots and broccoli with some oil, garlic, and spices and we put them in a roasting pan and slid them into the oven as well. In no time at all, I had to admit that the kitchen smelled pretty good.
I went about setting the table while Sarah put a quick salad together and checked on everything in the oven and on the stove. She then walked me through what to do with the potatoes, how to mash them properly with the masher and how and when to add the milk and butter. She also made sure I didn’t overdo it with the potatoes and turn them into wallpaper paste.
Just as I completed my tasks with the potatoes, Linda came walking in the front door and came straight to the kitchen. She giggled and smiled as soon as she saw me in the kitchen.
“I had to make sure I left the office early so I could get here and see this for myself,” she said with a laugh.
“I’m glad I am such a source of entertainment for everyone,” I told her.
Linda came over and hugged me from behind.
“Relax little brother, I’m impressed that you were able to do this. Who knew you had it in you!”
“Sarah did all the hard work,” I told her as I plated the mashed potatoes and put the bowl on the table. “She took care of the meat and told me everything else to do.”
“Sarah, I don’t know how you did it,” Linda said to her, “but if you somehow could get him to cook dinner, you are a miracle worker.”
Sarah just smiled as she placed the sliced meatloaf on a platter and put it on the table. Adam came back into the room and sat down at the table with the rest of us so he could take part in the meal.
Everyone filled their plates with food and dove right into the meal. The way Adam and Linda ate you would have thought they never had a meal quite so good. I guess when you were eating takeout as often as we do a home-cooked meal is quite a treat. I had to admit that everything tasted great, and I was proud of the compliments I received for the work that I did.
“Sarah, this is awesome,” Adam said as he went back for seconds on everything.
“You’ve done it now, Sarah,” I said to her with a smile. “Once you feed him like this, he’s going to expect it all the time.”
“I’m sure you can do the cooking just as well, Caleb,” she said to me.
“No, he can’t,” Linda and Adam both said together.
“What a nice vote of confidence,
” I told my family.
“We’re just kidding, Dad,” Adam told me. “You did a great job.” Adam wiped his face with his napkin and tossed it onto his empty plate.
“Thanks, buddy,” I told him. “Now you can clear the table and put things away.”
“Sorry, Dad,” Adam said to me. “I’ve got a test to study for tonight.” Adam sprinted up from the table and headed upstairs.
“You better really have a test!” I shouted after him as I heard him race up the steps.
“It’s okay,” Linda said to me. “I can take care of the cleanup.”
“Don’t be silly,” Sarah said to her as she stood up and pulled me out of the chair. “We can help, too.” Sarah looked over at me and smiled her pretty smile, and I could feel myself melting.