Chapter 3
Chapter Three
T roy pulled the truck over to the side of the secluded road as Faith finished reading the letter and closed the album. Her heart was filled with so much happiness and love, she wondered how it all fit without bursting at the seams.
Troy remained silent and she appreciated that he gave her time to compose herself and her thoughts. She looked around at their quiet surroundings and felt certain there wasn’t another human being for miles around. Fred Watkins, Troy’s father’s best friend, owned the land where they were parked. He’d inherited it from a great aunt, but he chose to reside in his family’s large house in town, rather than move into his late aunt’s small cabin. He only used the land during hunting season, usually with Troy’s father.
Troy put the car in park and turned off the engine, leaving the power to the radio on. He unbuckled his seatbelt and fiddled with the CD player for a second. Soon the truck was filled with Lionel Ritchie’s voice singing “Truly.”
“Have you been rifling through my CD collection?” she teased, glad for the opportunity to lighten the emotions of the moment.
“I know you like his music.”
“Troy…tonight…everything—” She closed her eyes and tried to find a way to express how much this evening meant to her.
He reached over to take her hand, squeezing it gently. When she opened her eyes and looked at him, she knew he understood. He could read the words in her face as easily as she could see the understanding in his. They were connected by a lifetime of experience and sometimes words just weren’t necessary.
The crinkles around his eyes deepened as he grinned. “So, here we are.”
“Watkins’ Lane. This certainly brings back some memories. One night in particular…” She smiled when she saw he was recalling the same night she was.
“We did quite a bit of fumbling around in my dad’s backseat,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck. “Have to admit I’m not real proud of my effort that first night.”
“I was a virgin and nervous as hell. You knew that.”
“Yeah, I did. And it sort of scared the shit out of me. I didn’t want to hurt you, Faith.”
She scooted across the seat, closer to him. “You didn’t.” She tucked her hand under his T-shirt, running her fingers along his chest.
“Yeah well, even so, you have to admit, it wasn’t my finest hour. It was over in less than a minute.”
She stroked his nipple, loving his quick intake of breath. “Funny. I don’t remember that night as being anything short of magical.”
He snorted. “You’re crazy. You don’t know what magic is.”
She smiled and decided to throw out a challenge. “I don’t, eh? Well, then maybe you should show me.”
“Oh, I’m gonna show you alright. What do you say we go for a do over?”
“Do over?”
He nodded. “Sort of like taking a Mulligan in golf. I want a chance to take your virginity again…this time without all the shaking hands and rushing.”
“Sounds like we’ve finally gotten to the good part of your planned activities.”
He placed his hand on top of where hers rested on his chest, the thin layer of his shirt separating them. For a moment, he looked at her and as she watched he seemed to transform before her eyes. Gone was her cocky, fun-loving husband and in his place, she watched the boy she’d fallen in love with reemerge. His face was more serious, more sincere. “Are you sure you want to do this?”
She blinked, trying to figure out what he was asking, until he continued.
“I mean I’ve heard it can hurt the first time.”
She closed her eyes and smiled. He was taking them back in time, giving her a second chance for magic.
“I’m sure,” she whispered, trying to bring forth the younger woman, the Faith she’d been all those years ago, when sex was an unknown and exciting thing.
At her answer, he bent forward and kissed her. It was a gentle melding of lips that spoke of newness and discovery. She moved closer, anxious to relearn all the things she’d forgotten about her husband’s lips.
“God, Faith. I want you so bad. It feels like I’ve waited forever for this night. We’ll go slow, I promise, and if you change your mind, just say so. We don’t have to do this.”
“Please,” she whispered when his hand drifted up to cup her breast.
“Don’t worry, baby. I’ll take care of you. I’ll always take care of you.”
With his gentle touches and sweet words, he transported her back in time and she felt the slightest fluttering in her stomach. Butterflies? Nerves? God, this really was starting to feel like her first time.
“I want to see you,” he whispered as his lips moved along her cheek, not stopping ’til he reached her ear. He sucked the lobe into his mouth. “I want to take your shirt off. Just your shirt…for now. Okay?”
She nodded, her voice failing her as he reached for the hem of her T-shirt, pulling it over her head. His gaze fell to her chest and she felt a hot blush rise to her cheeks as he looked at her. His eyes studied her body as if he’d never seen her before and for the briefest of moments, she actually felt the urge to cover herself up out of modesty.
“God,” he murmured. “You’re so beautiful. Can I take your bra off? I want to touch your breasts, kiss them.”
She moaned as she nodded. She wanted his lips on her, wanted his hands touching her. He reached behind her and she smiled when he fumbled with the clasp of her bra. His words drifted back to her. Do over. Magic.
As he pulled the lace away from her body, her hands did move up to cover herself. The moment was too real and she couldn’t overcome the belief that he was truly seeing her for the first time.
“Don’t hide yourself from me, Faith. Ever.” He gripped her wrists in his large hands, pulling them away from her breasts. His touch was firm, and arousal dampened her panties as she trembled slightly. He noticed her response, but mistook it. “Are you cold? I can turn the heater on.”
She shook her head. “No. No heat. I’m burning up.”
He smiled at her admission and she watched him slip briefly out of his role, back into the skin of her confident, sex-incarnate husband. “Those are only sparks. By the time we’re finished, I’m going to have you hotter than a raging inferno.”
He didn’t give her time to respond as he bent his head to her breast, sucking her nipple into his mouth roughly. She threw her head back and he took the motion as an invitation to advance their play. Pulling away briefly, he reached beneath his legs and hit the release on the bucket seat, pushing it as far back as it would go.
Gripping her legs, he pulled them toward him. “Lie down.”
She slowly reclined as Troy twisted, positioning himself between her legs and coming over her. He resumed his kisses to her breasts, tweaking her hard nipples until she was squirming beneath him. “I love your tits,” he whispered and she grinned at his very masculine admission. “I want to squeeze them around my cock and fuck them.”
“Do it,” she urged.
He shook his head and she watched as he seemed to catch himself. “Later. This time is for you.”
He unbuttoned her pants and slowly dragged down the zipper. The entire time he watched her face and she could see he’d fallen back into his earlier role. The transformation was amazing. Why hadn’t they ever tried role-playing in bed? Troy was obviously a natural.
Anxious to resume the play, she reached out and grasped his wrists—her nervous gesture causing him to stop.
“I just want to touch you. Just my fingers, Faith. If you don’t want any more than that, I’ll stop. Honest. Let me show you how good I can make you feel.”
She licked her lips apprehensively. “Just your fingers?”
“For now,” he added. “Then you can tell me if you want more.”
She nodded her assent, lifting her hips as he pulled her jeans down. She expected him to leave them around her ankles, so she was surprised when he didn’t stop until the denim and her tennis shoes were lying in a heap on the floorboard. She was completely naked in his truck in the middle of nowhere and he’d yet to take off a stitch of clothing.
He’d given up his place between her legs when he undressed her and his hip was now next to her closed legs on the seat. His hand drifted along her upper thigh and instinct had her pressing her legs together more tightly. “Just my fingers, Faith,” he repeated. She nodded, but made no move. “Open your legs. Let me in.”
She spread her legs a couple inches.
“More.” He moved his hand to her stomach and left it resting there while his gaze remained on her pussy. “Spread them apart more.”
The tight space in the truck cab limited her legroom until Troy took over for her. Lifting her left leg, he placed it over the back of the truck seat. Then he gripped her right one and pulled it around his hip as he resumed his place behind the driver’s seat and between her legs. If she’d felt exposed before, it was nothing compared to now as she lay spread-eagle and nude.
“Jesus. I have a feeling should my life ever pass before my eyes, this is going to be the image that flashes in my mind. God, Faith. You are so sexy.”
His words eased her discomfort until his hand reached for her. Dragging his fingers slowly down her stomach, he drew a trail from her navel to her clit, stopping when he reached the distended flesh begging for his touch. “You’re wet.”
She nodded. Of course, she was wet. She was drenched, drowning in a sea of arousal.
“You weren’t wet the first night.”
His words caught her unaware. “I wasn’t?”
He shook his head. “You were too nervous and I was too stupid to know how to put you at ease. I know I must have hurt you.”
“Doesn’t look like that will be a problem tonight.”
His face was serious and she suddenly realized just how much he’d worried about their first time. The worst part was she could have set his mind at ease years ago. She didn’t remember a bit of pain. She didn’t remember anything except the amazing feeling of having him inside her. But she knew her husband and she knew words wouldn’t have the same effect as actions.
“What would you have done differently?” she asked.
He turned on the seat and slowly leaned forward until his mouth was hovering just above her pussy. His hot breath as he spoke tickled her sensitive flesh. “I would have done this.”
His lips descended and he paid homage to every needy part of her. His lips sucked on her clit, his teeth nipped at her mons, his tongue traveled from her bottom to her opening, thrusting inside as she thrashed and moaned against the seat. For several minutes, he gave her all the things he’d regretted forgetting the first time. When he added his fingers to the mix, slipping two inside her, she closed her eyes, shuddering as her orgasm came.
“Troy.” His name fell from her lips on a gasp as he climbed over her. She wrapped her legs around his jeans-clad erection, her body thrusting against him, seeking more. He kissed her and she tasted her juices on his lips, the sexiness of that sensation driving her needs even higher. “Please make love to me. Please.”
She heard the rasp of his zipper, felt the head of his cock as it prodded her sensitive flesh. “Hold on to me,” he whispered.
She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and recalled him saying the same words to her all those years ago.
Hold on to me.
She’d held him that night and she’d never let go.
His cock pushed in slowly, gently and she knew he wasn’t finished making amends for the past. When he was seated to the hilt, he stopped. Raising his head, he captured her gaze. “Okay?”
She smiled, a tear escaping despite her best efforts to hold it back. “It’s perfect, Troy.”
He kissed her cheek, rubbing his nose along the damp skin where the tear had fallen and the serious young man disappeared. She knew this time he was gone for good. Her self-assured, sexy husband returned and grinned. “What do you say we try to beat our previous time?”
She giggled. Sex with Troy was always fun. She clenched her pussy muscles tightly, loving the groan her sexual teasing brought from his lips. “Think you’re up to it, old man?”
He pulled out until just the head of his cock remained inside, then he pushed back in—hard, deep, fast. She gasped. “Was that a challenge?”
She tightened her legs around his waist, changed her position slightly to capture him even deeper. He gritted his teeth when she ran her fingernails along his back, through his T-shirt. “Game on.”
Rather than laugh, Troy took her dare to heart, coming into her body with finesse and skill. He drove her to two more climaxes before she felt his body tighten. He called out her name loudly as he spilled his come into her body, kissing her as if his life depended on it.
“Love you,” he muttered as they both gasped for breath.
A niggling worry tugged at her heart. “Troy, I’ve never thought of our first time together as anything less than amazing. We really didn’t need the do over.”
He studied her face for a second and then a wide grin broke free. “Hell, Faith. Every time with you is like the first time.”
“Magic?”
“Magic.”
For several moments, they remained locked together. The windows of the truck had fogged up so completely, Faith felt like they were drifting alone on a cloud. After several minutes, Troy pushed himself up, reclaiming his seat behind the steering wheel.
One glance proved that while he’d managed to strip every piece of clothing off her body, he’d done no more than unzip his jeans. He reached down to pull her up, and then went to work finding all her clothing as she dressed.
Once she’d put herself back to rights, Troy pushed the lever and moved the truck seat forward once again. “You know, I seem to recall someone trying to talk me out of buying the truck with the extra large cab, saying something about it being too big and a waste of money.”
Faith laughed. “Troy. I was wrong. Very, very wrong.”
He cranked up the defroster with a shit-eating grin. “Music to my ears.”
As Faith glanced at the car’s clock, she was shocked to discover it was only nine-thirty. It seemed like she and Troy had lived a lifetime in the past few hours. She laughed to herself when she realized they actually had. They rode without speaking for several minutes, letting the radio fill the silence.
As they drove back into town, Faith looked at Troy. “What’s next?”
“Well, the little detour down Watkins’ Lane sort of threw a wringer into my plans, but it’s nothing we can’t work with.” He pulled up in front of Grace United Methodist Church.
“Was tonight a little bit too much for you? Feeling the need to pray for forgiveness of your sins?” she joked.
“Sex with you is never a sin. More like a gift straight from God. You don’t really need me to tell you why we’re here, do you?”
She shook her head. “We got married here. I’d never forget that.”
“Yeah, well. There was a church social going on until about nine o’clock. Pastor Gregory said we were welcome to come to it and maybe walk around the sanctuary, relive the wedding day part.”
Faith tried to work up a bit of guilt about messing with his plans, but she couldn’t seem to produce the feeling. “Oops. Sorry.”
He laughed. “No, you’re not.”
“Looks like the social’s over.”
Troy glanced at the dark church. “Yep. Locked up for the night. Guess that means we’ll just have to skip this part and move to the next item on the list.”
“Which is?”
He pulled the truck back on to the road, gesturing to the photo album still lying on the dashboard. “Why don’t you turn the page and find out?”
Faith opened the photo album and laughed at the picture on the next page. It was a photograph she’d taken of Troy the night of their wedding. He’d taken off his shirt, but pulled the suspenders on his tuxedo pants back up to be silly. He was flexing his muscles for the camera. Reflected in the mirror behind him was the image of her, still in her wedding dress, taking the picture and laughing.
She glanced up as he pulled into the parking lot of the only hotel in Carlysle.
He looked over at her and smiled. “Honeymoon. Read the letter and then you have a promise to keep.”
“Promise?”
“Something about me getting lucky.”
She laughed. “I thought you already did.”
“That was just the appetizer.” Troy tugged on her ponytail playfully. “Now I’m going in for the main course and dessert.”
Faith smiled, and then looked down to read her next letter.
Faith,
When I look back at this picture, I’m amazed to recall how young we were when we got married. Back then, it didn’t seem strange to get married at twenty and yet, I can’t believe our folks didn’t go through the roof when we suggested it. Instead, your mother made you that pretty white dress and my mom baked a cake for the reception, while our family and friends gathered around us to wish us well. Jackson turned twenty-one last month and I know without a shadow of a doubt if the boy said he wanted to get married, I’d tell him he’s too young.
We were young, Faith, but when I think about it, I realize my feelings for you now haven’t changed through the years. Our love ran hotter than a furnace when we first got married and I can remember rushing through the days at work, just so I could run home to you.
I became a man in your arms, physically and emotionally. When I left my parents’ home, I was an idealistic boy with more plans than brains, more grand schemes than money. We grew up together—you and I—struggling to pay the rent, to keep food on the table, to adjust to living away from home.
That first year was tough. I was working two shitty jobs—both for minimum wage, while you spent your days stuck in our tiny apartment, taking care of other people’s kids. We ate a lot of macaroni and cheese! Then my mother got cancer and passed away. The night she died, you stayed up with me all night, talking to me, holding me. You were the glue that held me together, kept me moving forward. My parents raised me with their values, but you’re the one who taught me what those values meant. You showed me how to walk the walk and how to live inside my own skin. You never stopped believing in me, in our future, in our dreams.
I flexed my muscles for you the night of our honeymoon, tried to impress you with my brawn, but the truth is you’re my strength. Without you, I’d be nothing.
Troy