by CK Ralston
In reality, she and Liam talked about getting married all the time—debated the pros and cons, would be a more accurate description—without ever reaching a definite conclusion, so far. They loved each other: that was a given.
“It’s the age thing,” she told Julia with a heartfelt sigh. “Sixteen years; it’s a lot and we both know it…but God, I love that guy!”
“I know you do, baby.” Julia patted her young friend’s hand atop the table. “The two of you together are just the cutest thing! It warms the heart of an old married couple like Percy and I, just seeing you two lovebirds holding hands and looking deeply into each other’s eyes at a faculty party—waiting to cut out of there and get home and…fuck each other senseless, I’ll wager!”
Miranda giggled, turning red. She rarely used profanity aloud anymore--she’d broken herself of the habit as she’d struggled mightily to improve her speech and vocabulary since starting college—but Julia, who was now like an older, favorite naughty aunt to Miranda, cursed like a sailor after a few glasses of wine, much to the younger girl’s delight.
“There just might be some of that still going on between Liam and me,” she finally admitted to her friend. “Although not as much as there was when we first met and got together. Too much reading and paper writing and research on my part, well into most nights, to allow for a lot of hanky-panky these days, I’m afraid, Jules.”
“Probably not. Twenty-one units a semester, indeed--what are you trying to do, kill yourself, child?”
“I’m just trying to graduate as soon as I can. I’ll be a sophomore at the end of this semester and into my junior year by the end of summer.”
“You’re serious about carrying another twenty-one unit load during the summer session too, then?” Julia asked her, shaking her head in the face of what she regarded as cruel and unusual self-punishment. “That wasn’t just wine-addled rambling the other night at dinner, when you talked about going to summer school and taking that many units yet again?”
“No, I was serious,” Miranda assured her.
“Well, I suppose you’re just anxious to get into grad school,” Julia said, reaching for the last of the Chardonnay she’d enjoyed three glasses of with lunch.
“Grad school? Me? You can’t be serious?” Miranda gasped, genuinely shocked at the idea.
“Of course you’re going to graduate school, you young ninny! Half of the department dotes on you just as much as Percy does—the old goat; he can’t brag about you enough, Randa—and he and Jerry are already feuding over whose graduate teaching assistant you’re going to be!”
Miranda sat back. Graduate school!
“I can barely believe I’m actually in college and doing so well, Jules,” she finally said, still beaming. “But graduate school? We’ll just have to see…”
* * * *
Summer flew by that year. Miranda had fewer classes to attend than usual because Jerry and Tom Scott had both let her do two “directed reading” classes under their tutelage. They reasoned that, since Miranda had already read all of the novels that their normal lower division courses would cover, she could better utilize her time by reading textbooks and critical studies of the authors involved. They then gave her the standard tests for the classes and she was done.
One night in July, when she had finished all of her studies and printed out her last paper of the week, she and Liam had taken advantage of the lull in her normally frantic schedule to have a long, leisurely dinner. They had a backyard feast, featuring barbequed ribs, corn on the cob, and baked beans, along with a great toasted bread dish garnished with cheeses and garlic, all accompanied by three bottles of a wonderful Merlot Liam had found. They then repaired to the rec room and watched a movie on the big screen while cuddling and drinking a few snifters of cognac.
Once in the bedroom, both of them feeling slightly drunk and very playful, they’d found themselves in bed, kissing and teasing each other, until both of them were as horny as could be. Miranda had kissed her way downward, just the way her baby loved her to do it, ending up at his engorged prick.
“My, my, professor,” she sighed in the darkness, running her tongue all over the head in a tantalizingly slow fashion. “What a massive, magnificent tumescence you offer a girl!”
He laughed heartily and then said, “Whatever happened to that darling waif I rescued from the parking lot? She would have said something like: ‘Wow, dude, your cock is awesome!’”
Miranda giggled, loving the easy camaraderie she shared with her Liam everywhere—even in the bedroom. He knew that she was messing with him and he always gave as good as he got in return.
“Well, dude, your cock is kinda’ awesome at that!” she whispered, sounding like the old Miranda for him for a moment. “How about a BJ?”
Liam didn’t bother to answer that one. Her lips were already surrounding his cock head gobbling it up. She worked her mouth over him, taking his huge dick all the way in until it disappeared down her throat, her talented little tongue coming out to lick his balls.
After another two or three minutes of her exquisite mouth-work, he sighed and said softly, “You may be a very erudite, educated young woman now, darling, but you’re still one naughty, naughty little imp in bed!”
“I know,” she whispered, easing her mouth off him and climbing up onto his torso, lowering her juicy cunt over his rock-hard prick. “Ain’t it wonderful how I’ve managed to keep my native nastiness in place, despite my impressive new vocabulary, sweetie?”
“Oh, dear God, yes!” he sighed as she began to ride him, her swaying, jiggling breasts just visible in the soft light of the late evening.
They made love for several more minutes, Miranda coming hard once around his towering manhood, and then she leaned down and put her arms around his neck and whispered in his ear, “Now you get to choose, darling. I have three orifices available for your fucking pleasure—where will you make your deposit tonight; down my throat, deep inside my tight little pussy, or way up inside my snug little asshole?”
Liam groaned, fighting to keep from coming right then. He grinned up at his little teaser and sighed once more, “Randa, you are such a hot little girl! I just can’t get enough of you!”
“I know. I can’t get enough of you either, Liam, you big sweetheart, you! Now fuck me! Fuck me hard, darling!”
* * * *
Just before the fall semester started, Liam surprised Miranda by taking his Holland & Holland double barrel shotgun out of the locked gun case in his study and cleaning it one early evening. The case had always made her slightly nervous, because she felt very uncomfortable around firearms.
Every time she looked at a gun, she saw her daddy lying in the driveway of the little rental house they’d been staying in that summer in Missouri, when her father had worked his last con. He had clipped a local farmer for eleven thousand dollars, and they were just packing up their old Caddie to vanish out of town when the farmer’s pickup truck had suddenly appeared in their gravel driveway. It had roared down the road at top speed, braking to a halt, the crusty old weather-beaten face of the farmer behind the wheel. Screaming curses at her father, the old farmer had leveled what had looked, to her, like the biggest handgun in the world at her daddy from out of the open driver’s window.
The gun had roared five times--the life blown out of her startled father before he had a chance to try even one honey-tongued, mollifying lie on the irate mark--with her looking on in horror. She had ended up in the Missouri Child Services System, eventually living with a foster family, until she had sweetly told her new “parents” one day that she would be late getting home from school that afternoon because she was going to the mall with some of her new schoolmates.
She had then hitched a ride to a truck stop outside town, made a deal with a not bad looking, young cross country driver—a blowjob every five hundred miles or so for a ride—who was headed west on what she ruefully came to remember as the BJ Express. Four big loads of come swallowed, while the truck barrele
d along at sixty miles per hour, two-thousand miles driven. That was how Miranda had paid her way out to California the first time, back when she had been sixteen.
She had used the same method of travel a year later to go to Florida, to hook up with a gang of her father’s old compatriots in Miami. They had a big con going and were looking for an experienced young woman to fill a vital role in the elaborate scam. They had all made a good deal of money and the gig had lasted until she was eighteen. She had then hit the road again, moving all around the country, managing to stay one step ahead of angry marks or the cops, eventually ending up with Aaron.
Now, watching her sweetie clean his ornate, one-hundred thousand dollar, custom-made-in-London shotgun, she found herself asking him, “Why the hardware, darling? Are the black helicopters coming to get us like the conspiracy nuts say?”
Liam grinned up at her and answered, “No, of course not; I’m going pheasant hunting with Percy in a few weeks, when the season opens. So I’m cleaning my gun and then I’ll be heading out to the trap range this weekend, to sharpen up the old eye. Would you care to come along?”
“I’m actually very uneasy around guns, babe.”
“Well, we can’t have that; you come with me, and I’ll show you how to shoot, all right?”
Miranda reluctantly agreed. Liam went down to a local gun shop and bought her a smaller, easier to handle, shorter-barreled shotgun that week and surprised her with it. She in turn surprised him and herself, by proving to be a natural with the gun; it turned out that she just loved shooting clay pigeons and she was soon very good at it.
She declined Liam and Percy’s invitation to go out and murder real, live pheasants along with them with her new gun when the season opened—she was still unwilling to kill anything—but she shot trap several more times that fall before the bad weather came and did very well with the rapidly flying targets.
* * * *
It was the middle of winter, but the rain had stopped an hour ago. Miranda and Liam were out walking together arm and arm, their umbrellas in hand, just in case. They came to Rycroft’s, the jewelry store where Liam had purchased most of the diamond, emerald, sapphire, ruby, and opal jewelry sets that now adorned Miranda’s jewelry case at home, when she wasn’t wearing them.
“Let’s just pop in here and see what’s new, shall we?” he said, stopping at the window.
“Darling, I have so much beautiful jewelry already. Do you really think I need more?”
“Gorgeous women always need more, sweetheart. Don’t you know that? Besides, it never hurts to look, now does it?”
With a sigh, she let him take her arm and lead her into the shop, knowing that she should have resisted a little more convincingly, but loving how much he spoiled her! And she did love beautiful jewelry—what woman didn’t?
After browsing around for several minutes, Liam glanced up at Paul Rycroft, the owner, who was hovering on the other side of the glass counter. A sly look passed between them. “This is all very nice, Paul, but don’t you have anything new to show us?”
The distinguished, gray-haired, perfectly-tailored jeweler brought a ring box out from behind his back and handed it to Liam, who took it and turned to face Miranda. He gave her a huge Cheshire-cat grin and opened the box, holding it out to her.
“Why, look, Randa. It appears to be an engagement ring!”
Miranda stared at the very large, very elegant, plainly very expensive diamond ring. It was the most gorgeous thing she had ever seen in her entire life.
Before she knew it, Liam was down on one knee, still holding the box out toward her. He was beaming at her as he whispered, “Would you do me the incredible honor, Miranda, of becoming Mrs. Liam Donnelly?”
Heart raced so fast that she thought she might pass out from excitement, Miranda felt her eyes with tears. She took a deep breath and swallowed, trying to keep herself together enough to speak, and finally managed to gasp, “Are you sure, darling? Are you sure that this is what you want?”
“I never wanted anything so much in my entire life as I want to marry you, my dearest girl,” Liam whispered, a tear forming in his right eye. “Please say yes.”
“Then yes! Of course, yes!” she blurted, her heart singing. “Of course I’ll marry you, you wonderful man…I love you with all my heart, Liam!”
Scrambling to his feet, Liam got the ring out of the box and placed it on her finger. It fit perfectly, of course, Paul Rycroft having had her ring size on file from their many previous purchases. Miranda held it up and the sparkle dazzled her for a brief moment, then she was kissing Liam, as happy as any girl had ever been in her life.
When they stopped kissing, Miranda heard a “pop” and turned to see Paul Rycroft and two of his employees standing behind the counter, smiling, champagne and flutes in their hands. The jeweler filled a glass for all of them, passing a pair to Liam and Miranda, saying, “Thank you for letting us be a part of such a special moment in your lives.”
“Why, thank you, Paul,” Liam said toasting him and then turning back to his bride to be. “Here’s to us, darling, and your beautiful new ring.”
“To our lives together,” she whispered, clicking flutes with him and then sipping some of the delightful wine.
* * * *
“And so, are you happy now?” Miranda asked Julia, holding up her ring in the dim light, showing it off.
“You know I am!” Julia said, drinking more of her wine, and then glancing over at Tess, who had joined them for lunch today. “Is that not the prettiest ring you’ve ever seen, hon?”
“It sure is, Jules,” Tess sighed, staring back over at the diamond.
The unlikely trio had become fast friends over the past year. Julia had commented once, during one of her lunchtime get-togethers with Miranda, about how much she liked the younger woman’s taste in clothes.
Miranda had responded by meeting her later that week at Tres Chic and introducing her to Tess who had proceeded to put together a new wardrobe for Julia that was elegant, and fashionable but age-appropriate. The redhead had joined the two of them for lunch the next week, Tess feeling nervous around the older college professor’s wife until Julia had downed her third glass of wine that day. She had then commented on “the balls of that fucking Don Scott, showing up at the last faculty party with some young tramp of a Lady GaGa look alike”. Tess had been sipping her wine at the time and had laughed so hard that she’d blown it out her nose, and the three of them had been as close as sisters ever since then.
Today, they were seated inside Danny’s; it was too gloomy and rainy to dine on the deck. It was still winter, but spring was coming on fast and the three of them had wanted to get together to start planning the summer wedding that Miranda and Liam had decided on.
“Church or outdoors?” Tess asked Miranda.
“Outdoors, I think. Liam never goes to church and I haven’t been inside one in years, so I think outside would be good for us.”
“Well, Jerry’s house has that huge backyard and pool area he’s put so much money into over the years, and his garden and lawns are immaculate,” Julia suggested, “And I know he’d be thrilled to offer it as a site.”
Miranda nodded, thinking it over. Jerry had thrown a barbeque and pool party for a few of them last summer. His place was beautiful, and quite spacious.
“And then there’s our summer place up in the mountains, if you’d like a cool spot to have it, amid the summer heat,” Julia went on. “It’s always fifteen or twenty degrees cooler up there during August than it is down here, in the valley. And we have a big clearing right by our cabin that could accommodate a large wedding party.”
“That sounds nice too,” Miranda said.
“This is so much fun!” Tess sighed. “I just love weddings!”
Chapter Nine
“This car is so fucking cool!” Tess laughed.
She and Miranda were in the XKE, top down, driving up Main Street. It was late spring, and they were headed back to Tres Chic after meeting
Julia for lunch. The radio was blasting and Miranda was humming along with it as she drove. Her auburn hair and Tess’s long red tresses were blowing out behind them; they had their sunglasses on and the day was perfect. Neither of them had a care in the world except, perhaps, whether all of the wedding preparations were going to come together smoothly that August, for the planned wedding in Jerry Kardon’s backyard.
“Thaaas right, bitch, laugh!” Aaron Marberry muttered, watching the two striking women drive past in the collector convertible. “You’ll get yours soon enough, you lying cunt!”
* * * *
“I hope you follow through with it,” Miranda said to her friend, looking up at her from behind the Jaguar’s wheel, as Tess stood on the curb, ready to go back inside the store and resume work. “It’s the best decision you’ll ever make, trust me.”
“I think I’m going to do it .I’m going to enroll in community college this fall, and do two years there—because I don’t have an English hottie with millions of bucks to bankroll my education like some lucky pusses I know, darling--and it’s way cheaper to go there than it is to go to the U. Then I’m going to transfer over to your alma mater and finish up my business degree. After that, I’m going to open up my own shop. I’m tired of working for other people and making them big bucks with my fashion sense and sales ability.”
“Good girl,” Miranda grinned up at Tess. “And I’ll be right there to help you. Any advice you need on writing papers or researching or like that…I’m your go-to girl, for sure. I’m an ace at that sort of thing, believe me.”
“Straight “A’s” so far? I definitely believe you,” Tess grinned back, and then looked at her watch. “I gotta’ scoot, kid. Trina’s not a stickler about time, but I can’t be too late getting back; not even to have lunch with two of our best customers. Ciao, babe!”
“Later!” Miranda called after her as Tess turned and dashed back into the store.
She put the Jag in gear and headed for home, not noticing the beat up old Toyota sedan parked at the curb, idling, four parking spots behind her, as it pulled out and began to follow her at a discreet distance. Gliding by the campus in the Jag, Miranda spotted a couple of people she knew from past classes together and waived gaily. They recognized her and the distinctive car and waved back.