“You have to wait and see.” Charlie smiled again.
Charlie’s truck had a bench seat; I sat as close to him as a person could get without sitting on his lap. I actually thought of unzipping his trousers and straddling him for a bit of the good stuff before we got home but Charlie would have been uncomfortable with that and it wouldn’t have been right to interfere with what he had planned.
He put his hand on my knee and then inched closer to the inside of my thigh. Having him touch me like that was the sweetest tease as Charlie continued his foreplay.
When we entered the house I could smell the pork roast still in the oven. The table was set with candles and a small bouquet of flowers as a centerpiece. Charlie seated me at the table and put a napkin over my lap and then he served me the food that he cooked and the produce that he’d pulled from the garden only hours before.
It was a great meal and at first Charlie couldn’t take his eyes off of me but mid way through the meal Charlie was looking down at his own plate. When I realized what the problem was, I took his hand in mine and asked if he could be my dessert.
Charlie’s smile was all I needed as I pulled him to his feet and jumped into his arms. He carried me to bed, removed my clothes like only he could and then pleasured me thoroughly. Charlie didn’t have a lot of words but the ones he whispered were spot on.
“Time away from you is torture for me, your man who wants you all the time.”
His breath in my ear tickled and sent shivers down my back. I closed my arms around his neck and whispered back.
“Yes, you are my man; I claim you and want you all the time, too.”
After that we let our bodies speak for us. We loved each other and made each other feel good.
After a couple of hours in bed, the mess in the kitchen started to work on my nerves.
“I’ll be back in a bit,” I told Charlie.
I was gone maybe five minutes before Charlie came looking for me. He found me just starting the dish washer. He grabbed a sponge and wiped down the counters and then readied the coffee maker for our morning coffee. We were a good team in the kitchen, too.
When we were heading back to bed, I collected my guitar because I had a little thing that I wanted to give to Charlie.
“While I was alone in the music room yesterday I worked on the final song for the PBS special. I completed it and now I’d like to play it for you because I wrote it with you in my head and in my heart for every line and every note.”
We crawled into bed propped up on pillows. Then I played the guitar and sang my song for Charlie. It was a song of love lost then loves return again even stronger and sweeter than it was before. It told of how missing my man made our time together revered and would never be taken for granted again. It was a pledge to do all in my power to keep our love fresh and inspiring. The importance of being there for those who are the most precious in our lives was the final verse and rang of promise and hope and an anchor when things got too crazy.
Did Charlie like the song? Yeah, I’d say he did because it replaced ‘Crazy Love’ as his favorite.
“I can’t wait for Tut to hear that,”
Charlie took the guitar from me and showed me just how much he liked the song.
“Helen squawk, Helen.”
Tut screeched as he came running into the kitchen to greet me.
“I love you, Helen.”
As soon as he got my attention, he stood tall, spread his wings, and walked to me with his full wing span on display. It was the sexiest thing that bird could do for me. He knew how much I liked it.
“Hey, hey good lookin’, I’ve missed you pretty boy.”
I cooed to him. When he got to me, I stroked his beautiful feathered head and scratched his chest in answer to his physical request. Stroking my fingers through his feathers all the way through his tail feathers was a favorite coddle of Tut’s and I did it time and again while I spoke of my undying devotion to him.
“I love you Tut, my sweet pretty boy. Have you missed your Helen?”
I sweet-talked him all the stuff I knew he wanted to hear.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah asshole.”
Tut had indeed missed me; he butted his head into my arm over and over again to get me to touch and stroke him.
We spent about a half an hour together before he bored of the coddling and went to find Charlie. He and Charlie liked to screech and whistle at each other daily. Sometimes it was annoying but most of the time I’d just go to the garden so they could have their fun without my interference.
I took my coffee to the garden and sat for a time at the table in the middle of all my plant buddies. While I was there I started piecing together the meaning of the ‘red spark’ travel information that I’d acquired to that point. Even though I had an idea that I was secondary in the whole connection scenario, I couldn’t make any hard decisions yet and knew that more travel was necessary.
Charlie went to work and Tut went to attend to his morning nap so I was free to do a little traveling. First and foremost I called Charlie to let him know that I was taking a trip into the universe if Ricky invited me with her red.
“We didn’t talk about it Charlie, but did you get a chance to hook up the camera in our bedroom to watch me while I travel?”
“Yes, as long as you stay in the bedroom I can keep an eye on you.”
“I’m going to jump as soon as we hang up. I love you Charlie. Thank you for protecting me.”
“You’re my woman, what can I do?”
I knew Charlie would prefer that I didn’t travel via the red spark but I don’t think I had a choice. I needed to find out some stuff.
On my bed I looked at Ricky whose invitation was surrounding me and pulling at me but I waited until she presented her red spark then I jumped. Catching the current took no effort and the decent didn’t take me by surprise. I was ready and relaxed and focused on learning whatever it was that Ricky willed me to learn. The redness was still odd and maybe a bit ominous but I tried to accept that it wasn’t going to harm me and worked to keep the peace and calm that was necessary. The turbulence and the spinning felt like an amusement ride so I looked at it as though it was based in fun.
When the initial rush was over I found myself again on the cruise ship with Michael but that time we were in his stateroom on the bed for the kiss back. I was privy to more of Michael’s thinking.
“This is the oddest relationship. She looks so serious; Christ, what is she going to do to me?”
I saw the effect the kiss back had on Michael. As he clung to me in the throes of his instant orgasm, I could feel his fear as he pushed it into the background and reveled in the feelings that the connect ridden kiss back presented to him.
“I’m in love, Jesus, that’s strong. Help! I’m going to have a heart attack. Whoa, who is this woman and is she trying to kill me?”
Then there was nothing for an unknown period of time and I awoke with Charlie sitting next to me. Unable to do anything other than smile at him, I did just that. Charlie pulled me into his arms and cradled me in a sweet and tender embrace and held me until my strength returned. It didn’t take long before I could move so I took the opportunity to put my arms around his neck and put my fingers in his hair.
I hoped I’d never take Charlie for granted; no one in the world had ever been sweeter to me or made me feel more loved. It was comforting to have him there when I was so vulnerable. I seized a large section of Charlie’s hair and with it pulled him to me.
Charlie kissed me and when we separated he asked.
“Oh, can I have you now?”