It was between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I woke up one morning and knew I was ready. I tapped his number and he answered on the second ring.
“Hello, Auggie.”
I melted a little inside when I heard his voice. “Hello, Worth. It’s good to hear your voice.”
“Not as good as it is to hear yours.” The deep timbre of his voice made me shiver and I knew he wanted to say more, but couldn’t. He was in full control of himself. “How have you been?”
“I thought we might meet for a late lunch and talk a little. Do you have time?”
“Of course. Where would you like to meet?”
“Don’t laugh, but at the Hilton,” I said, reminding him of all the times we’d gone to the Hilton before. I heard him catch his breath and he sounded choked when he answered.
“See you there in the bar at two?”
“See you.” I hung up and started getting ready.
Worth
I couldn’t believe it when I saw her name come up on the caller ID. I’d begun to fear that I’d never hear from her again; it had been so long. I knew Mother had been to see her. She’d stopped by the estate after leaving Auggie and told me about their conversation. I don’t understand why it didn’t occur to me that Auggie might be blocking me because of her memories of Linc. We looked so much alike; identical except for the eyes. Our personalities were not alike, however, but that didn’t seem to matter when it came to Auggie’s brain. Hearing her voice on the phone had been like drinking sweet syrup. It seemed to fill in all the gaps and I had great hopes. Of course, she could be meeting with me to end it all. It was a chance I had to take.
I walked into the bar and didn’t see her yet. I took a corner table where I could watch the door, and I didn’t have long to wait. She swept through the entrance a few minutes later.
She took my breath away. She was wearing a deep teal mini dress and laced heels. Her hair was different and it took a moment before I realized she’d cut it. It was asymmetrical and sassy. I wondered if it was an indication of how she might have changed emotionally. I was not to be disappointed.
Auggie didn’t walk, she skated up to me. Leaning toward me, she wrapped her arms around my neck and kissed me full and deeply on the lips. I was instantly molten inside, hard and needing her softness. I could hardly speak. “You look stunning,” I managed and she laughed at my discomfort.
“Not the little wife you remembered, eh Worth?” She slid onto a seat and ordered a martini. I was stunned. She was nothing like the woman who had left my house that early fall day. She’d been filled with insecurity and fear; this woman was a powerhouse of confidence and strength. Where was her heart now, became the question.
“How have you been?” I asked her. I didn’t need to ask, I could see it before me. I was just generating conversation so I could hear her voice.
“I’m here, you tell me,” came her cocky response. Oh my god, but I loved it. This was the Auggie who had walked into my office that first day so many years ago. All attitude and swagger.
“I’d say that I remember you from somewhere and it’s fabulous.”
She laughed and the sound was venomously attractive. “How have you been,” she continued. “Did you have a good Thanksgiving?”
“It would have been better if you’d been there,” I offered, knowing it was a risk to say so.
“I wasn’t ready then,” she said, “but I am now. I have a proposal for you.” The deep green eyes reflected the color of her dress and I was hungry for the taste of her skin.
“Tell me,” I almost ordered her.
“I happen to think you’re pretty great and I happen to be excited by the idea that I’m married to you. The only problem is that I’ve been attributing some old memories to you and that’s where the disconnect was. So, what I’m asking you to do is to court me. I want to give you a clean slate and vice versa. I’m proposing that we fall in love.”
I could not have imagined sweeter words. I didn’t waste any time. “Deal.”
She laughed and her head lay back, her long throat exposing itself and I wanted to suck it. Her hand sneaked across the table and over mine and when it withdrew, there was a key card in my palm. “You bring the champagne, I’ll bring your dreams,” she whispered and then skated back out of the room.
I was completely floored. I had to catch myself for a minute and be objective. Had she gone off the deep end? Was she in trouble? I didn’t think so. Damn, I hoped she hadn’t. I was so hard I wasn’t sure I could walk. I flagged the waitress and order two bottles of champagne and some food sent up to the room. On staggering legs, I walked toward the elevator, checking my appearance in the lobby mirror.
***
I slid the key card into the door and opened it. It was one of their better suites and Auggie was waiting for me in the sitting room. She was surrounded by vases of flowers and sat in a transparent negligee that left nothing to the imagination. Somewhere along the way, my horse-loving wife had become a siren.
The champagne and food arrived then and I caught the delivery outside the door. No one would see Auggie the way she looked now — but me.
As I walked toward her, she lifted a remote in her hand and the lights went very low and music started snaking through the room. She tossed it on the table and slid toward me in a measured, sultry walk. She was bare-footed and the transparent negligee was slit to the waist on both sides. There was nothing to hide her from me but a curtain of swirling fabric and a sassy length of hair that hung over both shoulders. Her hands were on me now, unbuttoning my shirt one at a time, but not in the order from neck down. She unbuttoned the last button first and slid one finger inside the opened fabric as if testing the temperature of water. “Not yet,” she whispered and moved to another button. It parted and again, in went her finger and she licked it, saying, “not yet.” Another button and, this time, her tongue tested the open fabric. I was hard and wanted her to open my pants, but knew she was doing this in her own time and method. “Almost,” she said this time and with one smooth movement, ripped the shirt open so my bare chest was exposed to her eyes.
She slowly ran her eyes from my neck to my waist and fixated on my crotch as though that was her next goal. Instead, like a snake, she wound about me, her breasts pressing through the thin fabric into my bare skin. Once she stood behind me, her hands slid into the top of my waistband and she jerked, ripping the fabric. Before I could react, her hands had reached around in front and unbuckled my belt, sliding my pants and underwear down into a puddle on the floor. The hands did not leave, however, but cupped my balls while her thinly clad pussy pressed itself against my ass. My knees were ready to buckle but I held it in check. I knew if I interrupted her plan, it would be forever interrupted.
Keeping one hand on my balls, she moved around to face me and fell to her knees, taking my rigid cock into her mouth as she slid down my length. I bent my knees to accommodate the difference in height and this was nearly my undoing. Her mouth, so warm and moist, so familiar, belonged to a different Auggie. This Auggie was my wife beneath, but her exterior was pure sex.
She ran her tongue slowly around my tip, tracing the ridge with a flicking motion. My breathing was coming faster and I wanted to pick her up and find the bed. She wasn’t done with me yet. She was behind me again and now I heard a noise; a soft brrrr and it was then that I felt the vibrator wand she held in her hand. Slowly, she inched it the length of my ass and the vibrations shot through and into my body. My cock began to vibrate as well and the pleasure of it was excruciating.
“You know…” she said softly, “boys and girls are alike at the beginning. I’m willing to bet that I can make you feel the same as I do when you touch me.” Her voice was ethereal, warm and yet distant. At that moment, she gently thrust the vibrator in my ass and lay it against the flesh to one side so the vibrations travelled by erotic osmosis to set me on fire. This was my undoing and I swung around and picked her up, kicking open the door to the bedroom to reveal a bed surrounded b
y candles. I followed the path left open and laid her gently on the cushioned surface, covered with layers of silk.
I ripped the fragile fabric that covered her and she spread her legs wide, motioning for me to enter her. It took no coaxing, no preparation. I plunged into her as deeply as I could, and her hands picked up sections of silk, running them over my buttocks. They were contrasting and unbelievably erotic sensations. I pounded her and she cried out my name, begging me to be harder. Her legs moved upward and folded around my waist. I pressed her into the bed and pumped her relentlessly. Driving into her, the force of my body drove her toward the headboard and she reached for a cushion to protect her head. I was another man, another mind, another body. I had no coherent thought; nothing but to claim the woman who was mine and had taken me back. I would never let her come to harm again.
I finally found my release and she sighed with relief that she had helped me reach that crescendo. “Did you?” I gasped and she nodded and smiled. “I was so out of my head…”
She nodded and smiled again. “I know. That’s what I wanted. This was all for you.”
She got up from the bed and went into the bathroom where I heard the water start. I laid there in the aftermath of sensation and thought back over the preceding few hours. I had been terrified to meet her, certain she would tell me she wanted to end everything between us. I’d prepared myself for the worst and here I was, the recipient of a gift so unbelievable that I felt I didn’t deserve it.
“Worth, c’mon,” she said and I looked over to see her standing naked in the bathroom doorway. I rolled from the bed and followed her. She had the whirlpool tub filling and had transferred some of the lit candles onto the bathroom floor. I stepped in and held out my arms for her. She crawled up to sit between my legs, her back against my chest. I gently fondled her breasts and relaxed as the swirling waters cleansed us of the perspiration from our lovemaking. I put my hand over her pussy, gently rubbing her out of a feeling of possessiveness. I grew hard again and I knew she could feel me pressing into her.
Auggie looked up to smile at me, then moved to her hands and knees and I couldn’t believe she was inviting me to enter her again, this time from the rear. This time, we were gentle and tender; a languorous rocking that fed not only the sexual desire, but the desire for possessive closeness. This time was for her and I prolonged her enjoyment as long as I could. It was a symbolic and generous sharing; her submitting to me in a body of swirling water. She had shed her fear and trusted me totally.
When we finally climbed from the tub, Auggie grabbed a few trays of finger foods and we kissed and fed one another, turning on the massive flat screen to watch a movie. The next thing I knew, it was morning and the television was still on. I flipped it off and rolled to my side to pull her close to me. I thought about how close we’d come to falling apart. I counted the weeks that she’d held me at bay and then finally, when I was about to lose hope, called me. She was a new, improved Auggie. She had taken the time to know herself and get rid of the demons that stood between us. Auggie had done the work and now it was up to me to do the same. I owed it to her to walk the line of pure honesty. I also suspected it was the only way I would hold on to her.
I resolved to find things for us to do together. We had all the money we could ever possibly need. While she was gone, I realized that money only meant something more to be taken care of. It could not buy me Auggie and did nothing to increase our happiness.
Auggie finally stirred and I ordered us coffee and breakfast, which quickly appeared at the door. We snuggled in bed, watching the morning news and chatting casually about the weather.
“Auggie?”
“Hmm?”
“I’ve decided to do something I hope will make you happy.”
“What is it?”
“Well, first let me say that I’ve realized what you’ve been doing during this time we’ve been apart. I know you talked to Mother and the missing link…” I winced at my pun, but went on, “in your memory couldn’t have been all that pleasant to process. I’m very, very glad that you felt we were worth it.”
“Of course you’re worth it. I love you,” she reassured me.
“I know I’ve built a good deal of our life together around the idea of making more money and building my personal reputation. Yet, when it came down to my feeling the most threatened, it was because you weren’t in my life.”
“I feel the same way,” she whispered, snuggling up against me. We were both wearing the complimentary robes the hotel provided and hers was only loosely draped, giving me full vantage of seeing her nakedness beneath. I fought to keep my mind on the topic at hand.
“I want us to do something together,” I began.
“I thought that’s what we were doing?” Her hand snaked down to my penis and she began petting me.
“Oh, darling, as good as that feels, please listen to me.” I moved her hand and she pouted. “Here, now, just listen, okay?”
She pretended to pout but sat straighter, a glint in her eye as she licked her lips and nodded.
“My businesses can run on their own. I only need to be present a day or two a month; supervise the board, that sort of thing. What would you say to our beginning some sort of project together, just the two of us? Sort of like what you did at Sunset Village and then with the farm we donated. Maybe something with horses. What would you say to that?”
She scrambled to sit up completely and was grinning widely. “I’d say I love the idea, Dr. LaViere,” she agreed enthusiastically.
“Okay then, Mrs. Dr. LaViere,” I mocked her, “I leave it up to you to choose the project and you can count me in.”
“Done!” she pronounced. “Now, would you make love to me, please?” she asked sweetly and threw open her robe as she beckoned to me.
I had no choice but to accommodate her, if only in the spirit of cooperation.
CHAPTER TWENTY THREE
Auggie
I’d made my decision and hoped that Worth would be on board with it. As much as I’d loved Steeplechase, things just weren’t the same. Carlos was gone and he’d been too old to ride for the past few years. I decided that my Steeplechase days were over and I was going to convert that part of the estate for a new purpose.
I wanted to build a camp for children from inner cities. I’d seen these areas on my runaway excursion when I’d left Worth early on in our marriage. There were sections of those big cities where the children looked as though they were being incarcerated — almost prisoners of war. They lacked the fresh air and freedom of riding without fear of being attacked. They needed to learn how to care for animals and hopefully would see that there were options for them beyond the feeling of pure survival every day.
I proposed the idea to Worth and he generously agreed. We began setting up the legalities with my friend, Brandon.
Brandon wasn’t quite as enthusiastic as I about the concept. “Auggie, are you two sure this is really what you want to do? You know, it’s a big responsibility. Many of these kids are troubled. They’ve lived with inner city life and know the way of the streets. They’re really not going to be very happy in a Kentucky farm environment.”
“We’ve thought about all that, Brandon,” I reassured him. He and I were sitting in a park. I’ve brought a picnic and we watched the ducks as we discussed our plans. Brandon still had a holdout hope that Worth and I would break up. He had not yet married and I brought this up now. “Brandon, you and I have always had a special relationship,” I began. He looked hopeful at the turn in the conversation and nodded. “You know I’m fond of you — always have been. But if you’ve been holding on to some idea that maybe there’s a future for us, well I wish you wouldn’t. My marriage is stronger than ever and I don’t want you to be alone.”
His face fell and I felt bad, but I knew the words had to be said.
“I won’t deny there were times I was cheering against Worth,” he admitted. “I’ve always loved you, Auggie. I just missed the boat.” He reached ou
t and patted my hand and I grabbed him, throwing my arms around his neck.
“For what it’s worth, Brandon,” I spoke softly into his ear. “If it weren’t for Worth, you and I would have been together long ago.”
He lingered in my embrace a moment longer than necessary and then broke away. “I’m not sure if that makes me feel better, or worse,” he chuckled, trying to lighten the moment.
“Isn’t there some nice gal you’ve had your eye on?” I prompted him.
“Oh, I’ve not been a monk, don’t worry,” he grinned. His eyes sparkled as he looked out over the small pond. “There have been a few lights in my gloomy past.”
“I’m glad, Brandon. I’d hate to think that you were holding out on my account,” I teased.
We sat comfortably silent for a bit and Brandon pulled another sandwich from the picnic basket. “You know Auggie, there’s more to this than you might think. What happens to these kids when you treat them like royalty for the summer and then send them back to an impoverished world? Is that really the kindest thing you can do for them?”
“Oh, I’ve thought about that. I really have. The way I look at it, though, is that one summer of freedom might be enough to show them another way of living; that they have options. I can’t see that as a negative. The only thing worse would be not giving them a way out.”
“But are you two truly ready for the responsibility? These kids will be used to living a certain way. They’re not going to simply slide into the role of a genteel old money family without looking for ways to apply what comes naturally for them.”
“We get that. Don’t forget, Brandon, Worth may have wasted most of his education on spoiled socialites, but he does know his stuff. He sees it as a chance to really use the tools he’s been given. I really can only see it as a win-win all the way around.”
“Okay,” he said, wiping the crumbs off his pant leg. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you. I’ll start the paperwork for the foundation right away.”
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