Decades

Alone Together

Lindsey drove them to Stevie's house, thinking briefly of the home he shared with Carol Ann. The home he should be sharing with the woman in his passenger seat. They'd complicated their lives so unnecessarily.

He reached for Stevie's hand and brought it to his lips, briefly taking a sideways glance at her. Her brown eyes took on a golden cast in the sunlight as she stared at him. "You're the most beautiful man I've ever seen, do you know that?" she told him.

He gave her a sweet smile and kissed her hand again. He held her hand all the way to her house, hating to break the physical connection to even get out of the car, knowing what awaited him behind her door. He kissed her again and then went to the passenger side to open her door. She snaked her small arm around his waist, and they walked inside together.

She led him straight through the other rooms and up to her bedroom, not even pretending to be a good host by offering him a drink. Hand in hand, they stood beside her massive bed, a far cry from the mattress on the floor they'd spent many nights upon. Stevie kissed Lindsey softly and then stepped away to light what felt like a million candles. She pulled the curtains closed in her room so they were illuminated only in candlelight, and the bright sun wasn't present to shine its uncomfortable light on what they were choosing to do.

Finally, she turned on the radio. Every love song she heard, sang, or wrote was about the beautiful man standing in her bedroom. He was in her room, where he'd been before. This wasn't the first time they'd ended up there. He loved being surrounded by her softness but felt uncomfortable when he looked around the space and saw there was nothing of him there.

He was in her room, not their room. It was a dynamic that made him feel like her guest, not like the person she loved. She could see his discomfort and set out to change that. Stevie made her way to Lindsey and kissed him. She was going to love away the struggle he had with her to prove her love to him, once and for all.

She pulled him into a warm embrace, inclining her head and standing on her toes so she could line his mouth, jaw, and ear with soft, slow kisses. She felt the love radiating from him, and when she drew away to look into his blue eyes, she melted. He was hers, and she was his.

His hands went to her face. Her lips were reddened from kissing the stubble on his face. He dragged his finger across her lips, and she kissed it gently, taking it into her mouth seductively. As much as she was enjoying the warmth between them, what she wanted most was the heat. She had ambivalence about Lindsey in many instances, but never sexually. He was the best lover she'd ever had. There were times when he was selfish in bed, but even during those times, she knew that it was his extreme desire for her that was driving him, and knowing she had that power over him turned her on more than encounters she'd had with other men who were providing all of the foreplay a girl could want.

They had the time and the place to be alone tonight. No hungry, hurried quickie in a broom closet or an infrequently used stairwell would do. Today and into the night, they would have every inch of each other.

She reached for his shirt and helped him remove it, kissing his chest and nibbling lightly on his nipples once his chest was bare. She ran her nails across his back lightly and down his sides, leaving him with chill bumps that she could feel under her fingertips.

He unbuttoned the back buttons of the dress she was wearing and let it drop to the floor. Stevie stood before him in a white lace bra and barely there matching white panties. Her skin golden and glowing after a recent beach day, contrasted with her lingerie, made her look like an angel.

She was a vision to Lindsey. He had long ago memorized her body and leaned into those memories more often than he'd ever want her to know. But seeing her this way was always brand new for him and left his heart racing.