Just a Little Love Story

Chapter 8

Marco

"You always make me feel special." Wendy pressed a small bite of papaya to my lips.

The sun shone bright through the chalet's windows, and the sunrays kissed the placid waters of the ocean, creating white waves of lights that reverberated inside the bedroom. Wendy's quarters overlooked a private beach from where one could observe the orcas' passage. The rustic fireplace had been burning logs since the night before, when we arrived to Wendy's retreat in Bainbridge Island. As usual, food expertly prepared by her chef waited for us. All my favorites were on the menu. Wendy knew of my predilection for vegan dishes, especially if we were to spend time in her four poster bed. I knew for a fact that vegans taste better.

I opened my mouth and accepted the offering. The fruit was juicy and it melted on my tongue. The air was redolent of Wendy's perfume mixed with the resin from the burning wood. Reclining on the sumptuous daybed where we had moved after a night of lovemaking, I lowered her with me and kissed her hand. "You deserve to be treated like a queen." I licked her fingers, cleaning what was left of the succulent nectar of the papaya. "I'm sorry for making you wait at the party."

"You were worth the wait, my dear." Wendy purred when my fingers skimmed her ribcage. "What a vision you are in a tuxedo—" Sighing, she leaned against me. "When you descended the staircase, all eyes were on you. I only wished we could've left sooner."

I chuckled. "It would've been in poor taste if you disappeared at your own event."

"Nowadays, I just sign checks—"

"Don't paint yourself like that. As if you didn't fight like a lioness to take Stop the Hunger where it is now." I raised her chin to lay a small kiss on her lips.

She was soft and yet firm. Some women chase youth, especially in Wendy's social circles, but aging had made her more interesting. I'd been her well-being coach—that was the official title she had chosen for me—for more than ten years, and I saw how she had changed. Through thick and thin, she wanted me by her side. I kept her company at the hospital when she had a double mastectomy, and the senator was busy screwing his secretary. The lines around Wendy's eyes told the true story behind the perfect façade her husband had created for her, and I liked her for that.

"Thank you, sweetheart." She looked at me with her green eyes that were always sad. Then she slid over my body, her hands roaming my chest, my abs, then lower still, while her mouth nipped and suckled.

I didn't receive pleasure from her actions, but it pleased her to reciprocate my earlier ministrations, and she would be distressed if I stopped her. The first time I told her she had hired me to fulfill her desires, not the other way around, she smiled and dropped to her knees.

"I want to feel I can still please a man," she had said. Incidentally, a few days earlier, the senator had asked they sleep in separate bedroom because his mistress was jealous.

Since then, I always let her know how much I enjoyed her company and praised her skills. I also refused to work with women who belonged to her circle. In Mercer Island's small community, rumors spread fast. When she asked me why I let down offers that were more generous than what she was paying me, I took her out for dinner and explained no other woman could compare to her. After that, her bonuses made up for any loss I had sustained.

I still inwardly cringed any time she exposed her submissive side to me. Women should never be on their knees. They should never be exposed and vulnerable before their lovers. But pleasing me made Wendy happy, and my only worry when I was in her company was to never let her feel like a failure because she wasn't twenty years old anymore.

"You are so beautiful." She stroked me and kissed me intimately, her mouth coaxing my body to react.

I groaned my appreciation.

Among my clients, Wendy was the one who knew me the most, because she took the time to study my reactions to her gentle touch. With her, I mastered the art of faking.

Her tongue swirled up and down, and I shuddered as it was expected of me. "You're so good—" I told her, lowering my voice to a growl.

With her free hand brushing the inside of my thigh, Wendy moaned. A smile graced her eyes as she looked for mine, and I reassured her, caressing her head and arching my neck soon afterward. By now, I usually gave her what she wanted, but my mind was elsewhere, making it difficult for me to concentrate on the warmth of her mouth and the delicate movements of her tongue. She hesitated, then her hand changed speed, but it only brought me further away from the here and now.

I called her name softly and petted her hair. "Yes, like this." Applying the slightest pressure with my hand, I directed her pace to a slow dance. I closed my eyes and reached for my secret haven, the one spot in my mind where I kept my most precious memories. When I needed to detach myself from reality, I retreated there, where only joy existed.

A brief image passed before my closed eyelids.Lilian laughing. My mouth parted in a smile, and the rest of my body followed.