Second Chance for Romance

Chapter 18

Wren fixed a special dinner on Friday. We’d all had a tough week and wanted a bit of a celebration. She made trout amandine with steamed vegetables. It was disgustingly healthy, but Christy saved the day with a sinful almond pound cake. Afterward we opened a bottle of amaretto that someone had left at the Halloween party.

Trip swirled the amber liquid in his glass. “You know, I really enjoy these dinners, just the four of us.”

I narrowed my eyes at him. It sounded too pat.

He knew he’d been caught. His look said it all, Sorry, dude. She put me up to it.

I chuckled.

“What’s so funny?” Wren said.

“You,” I said. “And you know why.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said loftily.

“Sure you don’t. But yeah, I enjoy them too. And thanks for cooking.

Thank you, Christy, for supplying the calories the fish and vegetables were missing.”

“Don’t blame me,” she said, “I’m trying to gain weight.”

Three pairs of eyes rolled.

“I’m serious. You have no idea how hard it is.”

“Sorry, my love,” Wren said. “None of us have any sympathy.”

“Paul does.”

“I do? Since when?”

“Since you told me I couldn’t be a starving artist.”

“Maybe you should try a liquid diet,” Wren suggested.

My eyes snapped to her.

She ignored me.

“Do you think it would help?” Christy asked earnestly.

“It might,” Wren said. “You’d have to drink everything through a special straw.”

“That’s okay. I love straws.”

“You’d need a big one.”

“The bigger the better.”

I had a hard time keeping a straight face. Trip wasn’t in on the joke, but he figured it out pretty quickly.

“You’d have to swallow a lot at once,” Wren said.

“I can do that. And if I can’t, I’ll just drink more often.”

“That might work. It really depends on the straw.”

“Yeah,” Christy said. “Some are better than others.”

I lost it at that point.

Christy looked confused.

“You explain it to her,” I said to Wren through tears of laughter.

“Explain what?”

“I’ll tell you later,” Wren said. Then she smirked at me. “Two. Zip.”

“Oh, absolutely,” I said. “Well played. Very well played.”

Christy was naïve, not stupid. She thought back and realized what Wren had really been talking about. She threw her napkin at her.

“That’s just mean,” she added. “I thought you were serious!”

“I’m sorry,” Wren said. Her ear-to-ear grin said different. “I couldn’t help it. You were just so enthusiastic.”

“Yeah, and dumb!”

“Not dumb. Just…”

“Beautifully clueless,” I finished for her. I smiled at Christy. “Don’t worry. I’m the same way. Not as beautiful, but a lot more clueless.”

The phone rang. I was the closest to the kitchen, so I went to answer it. I was still chortling as I picked up the receiver.

“Hello?”

“Paul?”

I cleared my throat and turned serious in a hurry. “Hi. How’re you? Hold on a sec. Lemme switch phones.”

“Who is it?” Wren asked from the dining room.

I stuck my head into the doorway. “It’s for me. Long-distance. From California.” I felt a stab of guilt at the half-truth. “I’m gonna take it upstairs.”

I caught Trip’s eye. “Will you hang this up for me?” He was farthest from the kitchen, but I didn’t want either of the girls to hear who was on the other end of the line.

“Um… sure,” he said.

Wren looked suspicious until Christy started up again.

“I can’t believe you did that!”

“I wasn’t doing it to you. I was teasing Paul! ”

“That doesn’t make it any better.”

I handed the phone to Trip and said in a low voice, “Cover me.”

“Yeah, sure, of course.”

I slipped past him and edged around the arguing girls. I sprang up the stairs two at a time and skidded to a halt in my bedroom. I kicked the door shut and swiped the phone off its cradle. “I got it,” I said into it.

“Okay,” Trip said. “Looks like we averted World War III down here.”

“Thanks, man.”

“Don’t mention it.”

The line clicked.

“Are you still there?” I said, a little breathlessly.

Gina laughed. “What was that about?”

“Long story. Hold on a second.” I tried to control my breathing as I listened for telltale clicks or breaks in the line. I didn’t want a certain meddling matchmaker to pick up an extension and listen in. “Okay,” I said at last. “Go ahead.”

“Is it a good time?”

“Yep. We were just sitting around after dinner.”

“Ah, okay. I just got home from the clinic.”

“Good day?”

“Yes, but a lot better when I came home.”

“Oh, why? What’s up?”

“Three things. First, I read your latest letter. So I was thinking of you.”

“In a good way?”

“Very good.”

“Cool.”

“Second, Regan has a date tonight. She already left, so I have the apartment to myself.”

“Does that—?”

“Third, I’m running a hot bath right now.”

“Yep,” I said with a laugh, “that means what I think it does.”

“Oh? What do you think?”

“Let me ask you a question first. What’re you wearing?”

“The pearls your parents gave me.”

“Anything else?”

“A smile.”

“Yep, it means what I think it does.”

“You know me so well.”

“I do. But I’m way overdressed for this call.”

“Oh? What’re you wearing?”

I skinned out of my clothes in record time.

She laughed at all the rustling.

“Sorry, bad connection,” I said at last. “What’d you say?”

“I said…” She turned on her sexiest voice, “What’re you wearing?”

“A goofy grin.”

“Anything else?”

“A hard-on.”

She laughed again, warm and rich. “God, I miss you.”

“I miss you too.”

“I wish I could see you.”

“I’d mail you a picture,” I said, “but I don’t have a wide-angle lens.”

“Ha! That was good.”

“Thank you, thank you. I’ll be here all week.”

“Hold on a sec,” she said. “My bath is ready. I don’t wanna drop the phone.”

I listened to her turn off the water and sink into it with a low groan of pleasure.

She picked up the phone again. “God, this water feels good.”

“I know what would make it better.”

“You?”

“Yep.”

“Mmm, I’d like that. Your hands, your hard dick…”

Speaking of which, I thought, and flopped on the bed, where I introduced the hand in question to the hard dick in question.

I started stroking as Gina described exactly what she wanted to do to me

in the bath. I didn’t even try to prolong things, so I had to juggle the phone and reach for Kleenex at the same time. She must have heard, because she started telling me how much she wanted to taste my come. I blasted the tissues with about a quart of the white stuff.

“I wish I could taste it,” she said as I caught my breath.

“Me too.” I swallowed to moisten my mouth. “Your turn?”

“I wanna take my time, I think.”

“Fine by me.”

“You remember the first time I gave you head?”

I thought back. “Um… at the quarry?”

“Uh-uh. On the raft. Movie night.”

“Ah, that’s right! I remember now. We could hear the laughter from the clubhouse.” I chuckled. “I remember trying to concentrate on what you were doing.”

“You came on my face. It was the first time I tasted you.”

“Yeah, I remember.”

“And then you came on my boobs.” She sighed, and I imagined her fingers moving in circles over her clit. “That’s why I’m wearing your pearls today. I was thinking of you last night. About our first time.”

My dick perked back up, so I gave it some attention.

“The women at the clinic thought they were pretty. I got hotter and wetter every time they said, ‘What a lovely pearl necklace.’ They had no idea.”

I snorted a laugh. “I bet.”

“I almost had to slip away to the bathroom to take care of things.”

“I can imagine.”

“But I’m glad I waited. I came home and read your letter and wanted you more than ever. God, you make me so hot.”

“And you make me so hard.”

Her breathing grew heavier, and I described what I remembered of that first blowjob on the raft.

“Stop,” she said at last, breathless. “I don’t wanna come yet.”

“Mind if I do?”

“Mmm, I’d love it.”

“I wish you were blowing me now.”

She laughed suddenly. “You remember the time Heather went to that party and told people she was Becky Leonardi?”

“Vaguely.”

“Becky Blowjob,” Gina said with a sigh of nostalgia. “God, we had fun back then. Heather and I were talking about it yesterday. That’s why I was horny last night and thinking of you.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah. Remember prom night?” She let out a soft sigh, and I realized that she was playing with herself again.

“With Scott and Shannon?”

“Mmm, yeah. Heather and I double-teamed him.”

“I remember.” It was the first (and only) time I’d had sex with Shannon.

“He screwed me while I licked her. Oh, God… that was so hot.”

“No kidding.”

“And then later Heather and I sixty-nined. Her tongue on my clit and Scott’s cock in my ass. Unh!”

“You like it in the ass, don’t you?”

“I do.” She panted. “I wanted to do it after the wedding. I wanted you in my ass.”

“You should’ve told me.”

“I want it now, your big cock in my ass.”

I reached for more tissues and almost dropped the phone.

Gina moaned in pleasure. “Oh, God, give it to me.”

I muffled a groan and hosed the Kleenex with another load of semen.

Gina was still panting when I recovered. She moaned and whimpered, so I told her how I wanted to spread her cheeks and slide into her. I added details and kept talking until she cried out.

A shiver ran through me as I listened to her orgasm. The big head was ready for another round, but the little one needed a break.

You’re getting soft, I told it.

I need more exercise.

Maybe you’re right.

And proper facilities, it added. Your hand is getting tired.

Ha! Working on it.

Gina eventually recovered enough to speak. “That was totally awesome.

Can’t you just fly out here and give me what I want?”

“’Fraid not. Sorry.”

“Why not?” she half-whined.

“You want the long version or the short one?”

“Ooh, ooh, the long one.”

“Ha! But seriously. No can do. Sorry. I’m as busy as you.”

“I know. I just wish…”

“Yeah, me too.”

“Hold on a second,” she said. “The phone just beeped at me. Ugh! It says Low Battery. Regan must’ve left it off the charger. I hate when she does that.”

“That’s okay,” I said. “I need to go anyway.”

“Hot date?”

“A project, actually. And some reading. But if I had a date, it’d be with you.”

“That’s what I wanted to hear.” She fell silent for a moment. “I miss you.”

“I miss you too.”

“The phone is beeping at me again. This is so lame. I’d better go. I’ll send you a letter tomorrow.”

“Okay. I’ll look for it.”

She hesitated, and I knew why.

I wasn’t ready to say it either.

“Well, bye,” she said at last.

“Yep. Bye.”