by BWWM Club
She nodded.
“That means that if you want to go on a cruise with me, it’ll have to be in… well not in the style you are accustomed to traveling. It’s asking a lot of you, really. You might not have fun. The pool will not be exclusive and there will be lots of people in it. The hot tub will probably be too filthy for us to get into at all. There won’t be any special privileges. It will be a lot of adjustment for you.”
George smiled.
“What if we compromise? What if I call my travel guy, give him the budget, and get him to use his connections to get us an upgrade, but we pay what you intend to pay?”
Rebecca grinned back at him.
“That sounds like a great compromise. I’m on board with that.”
“Excellent. Then I’ll get right on that, and we will leave in two weeks.”
“Two weeks?” yelped Rebecca.
“No point wasting time, remember?”
“I need to call my instructor and make arrangements for my classes, and my garden… I need to make arrangements.”
“You do that, and while you do that, think of this.”
Without warning, he pulled her to him and kissed her, long and thoroughly, until she thought she had heard some of her brain cells frizzing and popping. When he finally raised his head, he looked at her, and nodded with satisfaction.
“Good. Now, Rebecca, I need to tell you something. This is the second time you’ve run scared. I understand why. I get it. But the next time you need time to think about something, time to think something through, talk to me. Don’t give me an ultimatum. Compromises can work, if we both work at it. I promise I will work at it.”
Rebecca nodded guiltily. The same thought had occurred to her earlier.
“I’m sorry about that.”
“I know you are. I was going to give you a few days to cool off and then come after you to get you to change your mind. I’m glad you got there on your own and came here, though.”
“You were?”
“Did you think I was just going to let you go without a fight? You underestimate how much you mean to me.”
Rebecca thought about that a lot as she scrambled to get ready to leave for ten whole days on that cruise.
You underestimate how much you mean to me.
She supposed that was true. Maybe she needed to work on that.
Two weeks flew by, and she managed to be ready on time, even if Grace grumbled about how little clothes she bought to prepare for the cruise. They would fly to Venice as the cruise would start from there. For ten days they would live her dream ten days until they reached Santorini.
She was looking forward to every moment of it.
George had agreed to her conditions about the cruise itself, but as they were driven to the airport, she realized that she had made no conditions about getting there – which was, apparently, on a private jet.
She grumbled a little about the extravagance and the waste, but it was hard not to be excited by it all. It was incredible. She’d never imagined that she’d ever experience anything of the sort.
By the time they landed in Venice and checked into their hotel – not in her budget, either – she was dazzled and more than a little dazed. George didn’t seem annoyed by her lack of familiarity with that lifestyle. He seemed to find it endearing, just as he found her protests at how extravagant the hotel by the canal was.
“But you love it all. Tell me you love it all,” he coaxed, after pouring her a glass of wine and pulling her out onto the terrace, where the view nearly took her breath away. It was dusk, and it was so beautiful that she could hardly believe it.
“I do. I love it all.”
“Now tell me that you love this.”
She sighed as he kissed her, so long and soft that she melted against him.
They hadn’t made love since that night, but he’d been kissing her every chance he got ever since they set off. It had kept her on her toes, and kept her wanting him. She wanted him so much.
“George.”
“Tell me.”
“I love this. I love how you kiss me.”
“Tell me you love this, too.”
He undid the straps of her sundress, right there on the terrace, with the golden glow of the dusk sun bathing her.
“George, I…”
“Tell me.”
“I love how you touch me,” she whispered, as he pulled her dress off her shoulder and pushed the short sleeves down, until her bra was visible.
“Tell me you love this, too.”
He kissed her neck and then traced his tongue down to the dip between her breasts. She shudder wish pleasure, her breath catching in her throat.
“Yes.”
“Tell me,” he insisted.
“I love… that.”
“Good. Look at me.”
He straightened, and she looked up at him as he slipped a hand down the front of her dress to cover her breast, to tease her nipple through the soft cotton of her bra.
“George.’
“Tell me you love that, too.”
“I… I love how you touch me.”
“Tell me. Specifically.”
“I love how you touch my breast. Oh, God! Somebody will see…”
“There’s nobody to see, but if there is, they will see a beautiful woman, and a man who loves touching her. What’s wrong with that? I love touching you, Rebecca. I love how soft your skin is. I love how your nipples grow hard when I touch them. I love how your lips part when I do this to them.”
He slipped his hand under her bra and teased her nipple, making her gasp a little, her lips parted as he said they would be.
“George.”
“I love how you say my name like that, breathless and wanting. I want to see you, here, in the dusk.”
“George.”
“I love your skin. It’s beautiful, radiant. I love your body, Rebecca. I want to see it.”
She could hardly believe it, she could hardly believe what he was doing, what she wanted him to do, as he pushed her dress down, and then pushed her bra cups down. He lifted her breasts, releasing them from her bra, leaving them free to his gaze. He touched them, stroked them, until she shuddered for him.
“I love how I can do that to you, Rebecca. I love how I feel when I touch you, and I see how it makes you feel.”
She could hardly stand as he teased her nipples, over and over again, bending down to kiss her lips, to kiss her breasts, to nibble at her nipples until she whimpered his name over and over again.
“Tell me you want more. Tell me.”
“I want more.”
“Tell me what you want.”
“I want you to touch me. I want you to make love to me. I want you to be inside me, deep inside me, please.”
“Rebecca, you undo me,” he said, his voice unsteady, and he pushed her dress down over her hips, until it pooled at her feet. He took her hands and led her inside, onto the bed, and pulled her panties down and off her, leaving her naked for him.
“I love looking at you,” he told her, and she could see how much he loved it as he undressed.
“I love looking at you, too. I love seeing how much you want me.”
He moved over her, his long, still lean body pressing against her as he kissed her long and soft, as if they had all the time in the world. He stroked her and caressed her, pressed soft kisses down her arms, down her torso, licked and nibbled at her nipples until she was gasping for him, reaching for him.
“Please. Please, I need you inside me.”
“You’ll have me. I promise.”
But she had to wait, as he pressed kisses down her belly, licked his tongue over her navel, kissed her hips, down her legs, her thighs, until she was quivering for him. He teased her with his fingertips, spreading her legs and touching her lightly, his fingers dancing up and down her slit, wet and ready for him.
“Please, touch me. Please, I can’t bear it, I can’t wait.”
“You can,” he promised, and she could, as he made her wa
it longer, kissed her inner thighs, the sensitive skin tingling as he got closer and closer. She sighed, her fingers tangling in his hair as he pressed kisses to her thighs, getting closer, until she was begging, pleading, desperate for him. She cried out when he finally pressed his lips to her intimately, licking her softly, teasing her again, making her wait again, until her hips moved, rocked, trying to get closer to him.
She cried out when he finally buried his face between her legs and licked her, closed his lips around her clit and sucked softly.
She writhed for him as he pleasured her, taking her so close to the edge, pulling her back and taking her close again, and again, until she was nearly in tears from frustration.
He didn’t give her what she wanted, not yet. He moved over her, pushed a leg up, and he held her eyes as he pushed inside her. She was so wet that she didn’t need lube, not that time. He kissed her, so deep, and she tasted herself on his mouth. It made her want more. It made her want him more.
He held her leg up against him and moved, angling himself as he thrust deeper and deeper inside of her, as she begged him for more, begged him to faster, to go harder. She held on to him as he gave her want she demanded, as he drove into her again, and again, until she was gasping for breath, reaching for her climax.
She was so close, so close…
He slowed down, making her cry out in frustrated despair, clutching at him, pushing against him, gasping for more, demanding, begging, promising anything he wanted.
He made her beg again, and again, until she was nearly in tears, before he finally gave in and thrust into her harder, and deeper, over and over again, steadily, until she held her breath for a long moment, so desperate for release, begging him not to stop.
This time, he didn’t stop. This time, he let her have what she wanted, and he drew every drop of pleasure she could feel from her body, tasted it on her lips, as he drove into her again and emptied himself deep inside her.
He gathered her to him, rolled over with their bodies still intimately connected, kissed her softly and said the words.
“Rebecca. I love you.”
She held on to him and knew that she couldn’t hold back, not anymore. She wouldn’t have, even if she could.
So she gave him what he needed, too.
“I love you, too,” she told him, a soft whisper of hope and fear.
She loved him.
God help her.
“You’re having fun. Admit it.”
“My feet hurt,” complained George.
“We’ll use that private hot tub your travel guy got us upgraded to and nothing will hurt. Come on, tell me you’re having fun. I saw you go hard at that dart game, and at that water polo game.”
“They were cheating,” complained George again.
“And so were you and you won.”
“That’s because I’m better at cheating,” said George, but this time, he grinned.
He had to admit that he was, in fact, having fun. This was absolutely not something he’d thought he would enjoy at all. He had always assumed that he would hate a cruise like this, with so many people, and so many activities. But he’d discovered that doing new things with Rebecca – even when the new things were group activities and competitions – could be fun.
He was enjoying it. He was loving every minute of it.
Of course, he didn’t plan to tell her that his travel guy had got them the upgrade because he’d paid for it, but that was give and take, he decided. Besides, no matter what Rebecca had told him, she did enjoy the comforts and the extra privacy, too. She had admitted as much.
This was working. It was actually working.
“Mind if we have dinner together, just the two of us, before we join everybody else for the party?”
It was the penultimate night of the cruise. Part of him couldn’t wait to check into the excellent hotel they were booked into at Santorini, but a bigger part of him was sorry that the cruise was almost over. But he had a surprise, before it finished, and he hoped it would be a good one. He hoped…
He looked at the woman who opened the door, dumped her shopping bags on the table while still keeping it organized, grabbed a towel and grinned at him. She was so much lighter than the woman who had left with him. She was so much more lighthearted, so much freer, and he knew he could give her more of that. He could give her so much more.
He was taking a risk. He knew that, of course. But at his age, what was there to do but to take risks? What was the point of playing it safe?
So he splashed in the hot tub with her, he made love to her in it until she nearly shattered his heart into a thousand pieces and made him whole again. He held her close, and he dried her hair for her, because he had come to discover that he loved doing many of the small, mundane things for her.
He’d had dinner arranged on a private deck for them, and he considered it a sign of progress that she didn’t ask him how he had paid for it. She was beginning to accept that his wealth was something that came with him, even if he knew that she had never wanted it.
That was astounding to George. This woman found his wealth a liability more than anything else.
There, far away from everybody else, far away from everything they had worried about, he knew. He knew that he didn’t just love her. He wanted to be with her. For the rest of his life, he wanted to be with her, and cherish her, and make her feel loved. Because every time she looked at him like that, every time she smiled at him like that, she made him feel so loved.
“This is lovely. It’s a lovely idea. It is nice to have time with you, just the two of us. But we’ve made a lot of friends, too. Even if we don’t keep in touch with them later, it’s fine, isn’t it?”
“Live in the moment. You wouldn’t think that you’d need a cruise to learn that lesson.”
Rebecca laughed, and George decided that he would spend the rest of his life finding ways to make this woman laugh, too. She had a wonderful laugh.
“Though you know, I think I will appreciate not eating so much seafood when we’re back. I know it’s great, the food has been great on this cruise, but I think I’m ready for something a little different.”
“We’ll try something different in Santorini.”
He poured her wine, and she sipped it, glowing under the setting sun. She looked so lovely at sunrise, and at sunset. She was so lovely.
“Rebecca.”
She turned to him, a smile in her eyes and on her lips, and there was no wariness about her at all. Wasn’t that a miracle in itself? She no longer expected things to go wrong when she looked at him. He would make that last, too. Forever.
“I love you.”
She smiled, glowing with happiness.
She took his hand, and raised it to her lips this time. She smiled, placed it against her cheek and gave him the words he needed.
“I love you, too.”
“I want… I want to spend the rest of my life with you.”
She went still, and George waited for the wariness and the doubts to come back. He waited, but they didn’t come. Her eyes were golden, and unclouded.
She held on to his hand, turned her face to kiss it again, and she nodded.
“I do, too. I want to spend the rest of my life with you, too.”
“Really? That easily?”
She grinned.
“I think the last few days have showed me that I deserve to be happy. You deserve to be happy. We make each other happy. We don’t need to follow other people’s conditions if it comes at the cost of that. We can try to make peace, and keep the peace, but not at that cost. I want to be with you, George. The only acceptable reason for me not to be with you is if you decide that you don’t want to be with me.”
A weight lifted off his chest. He took her other hand in his, squeezed it gently, and nodded.
“Then when I ask you with a ring, the way I should ask you, you will say yes?”
“A ring? Get married?”
He nodded, surprised that she’d sounded sur
prised.
“Isn’t that what we do next?”
“Marriage is about family, too, George. Marriage isn’t just about the two of us. When you ask, I will say yes. But you must ask me after we do what we can to find a way to link our families together. Without animosity, at the very least.”
George nodded.
A compromise, he realized – another one. He could live with this one. It was Rebecca that he couldn’t live without.
Chapter 11
“Are you sure this is a good idea, mom?”
Rebecca shrugged.
“I want you to meet him. He’s important to me.”
“I know, that’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about doing it here. Maybe we should, I don’t know, go out to a restaurant or something of the sort.”
Rebecca shook her head firmly.
"No. No, that's not going to accomplish anything. I don't want to hide how I live or who we are. We're not rich like that, and that's fine. There's nothing wrong with that. Why would we try to hide it?"
Phyllis sighed.
"All right, if you say so. Are you sure about Annabelle?"
Rebecca sighed.
"I want her here, but it's up to you. I'm not sure how this will go. George will be great, and Bethany will be the perfect guest, but Gerald..."
"You know, this Gerald sounds like a piece of work."
Rebecca chuckled.
"He is very protective of his father and the life he feels they should all have."
"A piece of work and a control freak," added Phyllis.
"I suppose he has his charms. He's a good-looking man. A powerful one, too. He's used to getting his way, people do what he thinks should be done."
"He should stop getting used to it. Okay, I'll stop. We have everything ready - we have pasta, we have the sauce, we have the appetizers. Good call with all of them. The tiramisu will be delivered in a few minutes."
Rebecca nodded.
The house had been scrubbed and polished until their backs ached. There were flowers - from her garden, because she'd managed that - and everything looked charming.
She could already just about see Gerald turning his nose up at everything, of course, but there was nothing she could do about that. She had done her best. She would be a good hostess, though not a perfect one, like Bethany was.