Chapter Baggage
John Miller’s POV
East Orange, New Jersey, Mary’s home
Sunday, August 14, 2022
I woke with Mary tucked under my right arm. We’d kicked the covers down to my waist, and her right hand lightly wrapped my morning wood. I looked down at her red hair and face; she was angelic, relaxed, and peaceful. Her lingerie displayed her breasts to the desired effect, which only caused my cock to harden further.
I reached across with my left hand, pushing the hair back from her face and placing it behind her ear. She stirred slightly, her mouth opening to blow air on my chest. I continued the light touch, working my way down to her neck and shoulder.
She reacted by snuggling closer, and her hand moved up a little with my cock trapped in it. I didn’t want her to let go, so I let my fingers trail down from her shoulder to the swell of her breast.
Her eyes opened as my finger slid inside the lace and brushed her nipple. “Good morning, Mary,” I whispered.
She woke up enough to figure out where she was, then jerked a little as she realized what her hand was doing. She let go of it like it was hot and rolled off me. “I was enjoying that,” I teased. She sat up, her messy hair backlit by the morning sun through the window. “You look like an angel,” I told her as I ran my hand down her arm.
She smiled and looked around, and everything changed. She froze, her hand going to her mouth, then bolted for the bathroom.
I sat up to go after her, but the door slammed shut before I could get out from under the covers.
Something scared her. I looked to where she’d been looking, and it all came into focus for me.
On the dresser was the memorial to her late husband. A triangular US flag sat in a display case. My stomach sank as I realized it was the one that covered his casket. There was a picture of him in his dress greens, with his rank, pilot’s wings, and medals surrounding it. Other photos showed their wedding day, the birth of Heather, and their first Christmas as a family.
I was the first man she’d let into her life since his death, and she hadn’t moved on from him yet. Sex with another man in her marriage bed with his presence still so prevalent? Impossible.
I could hear her throwing up behind the locked door.
Fuck. What an asshole I was, seducing the widow of a fallen soldier in front of his memorial!
I got out of bed, grabbing my clothes and overnight bag on the way out. I went to the other bathroom and dressed, then headed down to the couch in the living room.
Should I go back upstairs and knock on the bathroom door? Stay here and wait for her to come down? Should I make breakfast for her?
I took the coward’s way out and walked out the door. There was a Starbucks a few blocks away, so I had time to think as I walked. I had baggage; hell, I had a trunkful! A divorced alcoholic in his forties with commitment issues wasn’t a great catch. As much as I liked her, in the back of my head, I was wondering if I was good for her. Mary was beautiful, intelligent, caring, and vulnerable. If I let this relationship fail like every other one I’d had, two people would get hurt.
And I was drawn to Heather as much as I was to her Mom.
I pulled out my phone and called Cathy. She was a much better guide than her husband on relationships. “John? What time is it?”
“It’s just after six. I’m sorry I woke you, but I may have fucked up here.”
“You didn’t call for a ride to the train station, so it can’t be too bad. What happened?”
I talked through the night and the sudden change in Mary last night and this morning. “I think it’s clear she isn’t ready to move on from her late husband yet, even though it’s been years.”
“She likes you a lot, John. You’re the first person she’s gotten close to, and there are bound to be bumps in the road.”
“I know, but I don’t want her to be scared of me.”
“Let me talk to her.”
Shit. “You’ll have to call her phone. I’m not there now.”
“JOHN! What did you DO?”
“I chickened out. I got dressed and left. I’m on my way to Starbucks. I need some caffeine so I can wake up and think.”
She didn’t finish chewing my ass until I reached the front of the line, but at least she knew what Mary would want. I picked up coffee and muffins, then walked back to her condo. Standing in front of the door, I had another nervous moment. Should I knock and wait or walk in?
I knocked. I heard footsteps, then the door opened. Mary was wearing cotton shorts and a T-shirt and was holding her phone to her ear. “I’m sorry,” I told her. “I got spooked and ran.”
“I’ll meet you in the kitchen in a minute,” she said as she stood aside.
I set her coffee down at her place and sipped my own while I waited. Cathy was trying to save our relationship; she’d probably called when I hung up with her. I heard Mary tell her goodbye just before she walked in and sat heavily in her chair. Mary set the phone next to her coffee and took a sip, moaning in pleasure. “Things didn’t go as I had hoped,” she told me. “I wanted to be with you last night. I tried but choked like a dog on a chicken bone.”
I reached out my hand for hers, running my thumb over her knuckles. “You’ve got nothing to apologize for, Mary. You said you weren’t ready.”
“I want to be ready! I want to move on with my life, and then this shit happens. It’s been six years!”
“Some things you can’t ‘get over.’ You have to learn to live despite them. Trust me; I have a backpack filled with them.” She smiled a little and squeezed my hand back. “Take the time you need. I can wait until you’re ready to make love.”
“Thank you.”
We talked about our hopes and fears over blueberry muffins and coffee. Mary found out she wasn’t the only one with doubts; I told her about my divorce and my embrace of the bottle. “It took me years to get my life back together, and I didn’t do it alone,” I told her. “Have you gotten grief counseling?”
“No,” she confessed. “I had to be strong for Heather.”
“Do you know how many cop funerals I’ve been to where they thought they had to be strong? Who thought counseling was for wimps and losers?” She read my face. “Trying to be strong turned me into an angry drunk. Group counseling helped me put my life back together.” I pulled her out of her chair and into my lap. “Are you going to church this morning?” She nodded. “Speak to your priest about it.”
“I’ll have to go to confession,” she said as she laid her head on my shoulder. “I’ve got a lot to confess.”
“It helps.” We talked for another ten minutes before we started to kiss, and I moved us to the couch. “What time are you picking Heather up?”
She looked at the clock. “I have to grab her church clothes first. If we leave in thirty minutes, I can drop you at the train station first.”
“Thirty minutes?” I waggled my eyebrows. “That’s only enough for three, maybe four orgasms for you.” I slid her until she was lying on the couch, pulling her shorts off and tossing them aside. “No underwear?”
“I was hoping you’d come back,” she confessed.
“Staying away from you would be a mistake.” I moved her legs apart and leaned in. Her neatly-trimmed sex was flowering with need. I kissed her inner thighs, then around it. She arched up, needing me, but my hands held her off. She squealed when my tongue finally made contact.
I lightly traced her lips, then flicked once at her exposed clit. “Please,” she begged me. “I need you.”
I slid my tongue up and down, circling her clit before returning down. I wet a finger and slid it between her labia as I sucked on her bud. She started to tremble as the finger pushed into her wet canal. I turned my hand, rotating the finger and rubbing the inside of her sex as I sucked and bit on her clit.
She went off like a rocket, nearly bucking me off her face. It took her a minute to catch her breath. “Lose the shorts and get up here.”
I stood up, dropping my pants to expose my erection. Mary moved us into a sixty-nine with her on top. I went back to work on her, using two fingers this time, while she licked and sucked me to distraction. Mary bucked hard a minute later as the orgasm washed through her body. She buried my cock in her mouth to muffle her scream.
I had trouble concentrating on what I was doing as she continued working with her hand and mouth. I was getting close, and I told her. “Where do you want it?”
She responded by swallowing me to the root. I felt my balls clench as I rushed to a finish. I pulled her down, finger-banging her fast as I bit her clit, and our orgasms crashed into us like a city bus. “Fuck,” I said as I started shooting a big load down her throat. She came so hard she squirted, spraying my face as she squeezed my fingers.
After my fourth shot, she released my sensitive cock and collapsed on top of me, resting her head on my hip. “Holy shit,” she whispered.
“Wow,” I responded. It was a first for me, and it felt like more than just sex. I’d received hundreds of blowjobs and gone down on women before. What we just shared? It was a whole different level of sexual and emotional connection.
She moved off me and realized what a mess we’d made. “Shit, I’ll get a towel,” she said as she ran off. I watched her ass as she ran for the bathroom, returning a minute later to clean me off. “I’m sorry. I’ve never done that before.”
“All I can think about is when we can do it again,” I replied. Mary smiled and wiped off the leather couch after I got up. “Too bad we’re out of time.”
The kiss goodbye at the train station was full of need and longing. “Whatever it takes for us to be together will be worth it,” I said as I stood up.
“I’ll get help,” she promised. “Call us when you get home.”
I watched her drive away, then went inside the station. All too soon, I was back in my lonely-ass apartment.