

Her

Catalyst

## a story of hope and love

## in an alternate timeline

# Part 05 of 25

## Geoff Schultz

ebook format edition - distributed by www.smashwords.com

Copyright 2020 by Geoff Schultz

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book, or portions thereof, in any form.

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, and events in this book are products of this writer's imagination or, in the case of referenced historical persons, are used fictitiously. Any other similarity to actual persons, names, or events is purely coincidental.

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License Statement: This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this writer.

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Note to the Reader: The principal elements of this story were previously released under a different title by Glynn Glenn who requested that this writer rewrite and release this story under his own name.

WARNING:

Each of the 25 Parts of Her Catalyst has some descriptive scenes of intimate pleasure experienced individually or shared between consenting adults which are inappropriate to children and will be offensive to some adults. Some Parts also have brief descriptive scenes of violence unrelated to intimacy. In addition, some of the statements and ideas expressed by the characters may be offensive to some people. The intent of this writer is not to be offensive, but to allow the characters to practice their right of the freedom of speech.

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An explanatory note:

This story takes place in an alternate time line which uses a calendar of ten months with six weeks of six days each. The remaining five days are set aside for the New Year holiday at the beginning of the year which expands to six days every fourth year.

Months are identified as 'first' through 'tenth' with the New Year holiday being the 'zero' month at the beginning of each year. The days of the week are known as: first-day, second-day, third-day, fourth-day, fifth-day, and sixth-day. Dates are recorded with four digits for the year, two digits for the month, and two digits for the day. For example, 2120-06-18 refers to the year 2120, the 6th month, and the 18th day.

Days are divided into 24 hours with the start of the hour being referred to by the number followed by the word 'hundred'. For example, noon is called 'twelve hundred' and an hour later is 'thirteen hundred'. Rather than use precise times, the following abbreviations are used to designate general time periods with the dates:

(n) for night or about from 0001 to 0600

(m) for morning or about from 0601 to 1200

(a) for afternoon or about from 1201 to 1800

(e) for evening or about from 1801 to 2400

For inclusive time period listings with dates, '>' is used between time period abbreviations. For example (m>a) means from the morning into or through the afternoon. For partial time period listings with dates, (a1) is the first part of the afternoon and (a2) is the second part of the afternoon.

The cartographic coordinates used in this story to identify municipalities and other locations are based on a defined circumference of the earth of 25,000 miles divided into 1,000 units of 25 miles each. Longitudinal coordinates begin near the western edge of the Western Ocean (in the reader's timeline it's called the Pacific Ocean) and reach the 500th unit near the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. While the units are 25 miles apart at the equator, their separation diminishes as the location nears the North and South poles. Latitudinal coordinates begin at the North Pole and maintain a 25 mile separation to reach the 250th unit at the equator and the 500th unit at the South Pole. After the cartographic coordinates were defined, it was discovered that the circumference of the earth around the poles is less than it is around the equator so there is some overlap of units at the North and South poles based on maintaining the 25 mile interval between units measured from the equator. For the story of why the cartographic coordinates were developed, please read The Trouble With Luck available at www.smashwords.com/profile/view/GeoffSchultz.

# Her Catalyst – Part 05

2147-09-08 (a3)

When she lets George breathe, Sharlene sits up, quickly unbuckles and unzips his pants, then leans back over and kisses his face, his ears, and his neck. After his breathing has settled, she locks lips with him again and as the kiss goes on, she supports herself on her left arm while her right hand slips under the waistband of his underwear to caresses his lower abdomen and scrotum and then stroke his rapidly growing penis.

As she lets him breathe again, she stretches out her legs to lay on him. While her hips rock back and forth over her wrist which is between her legs and connected to her hand which is still stroking his penis, the pleasure for both of them rapidly grows. He quickly pulls her shirt out of her pants and his hands are soon caressing the bare skin of her sides and back which causes a tight upward spiral to develop as the excitement and pleasure of one enhances and encourages the excitement and pleasure of the other. As one of his hands slips under her back bra strap and the fingertips of the other hand slip under the back waistband of her pants, she cries out while his penis pulses under her hand.

Even as she starts to catch her breath, her hips start rocking again across her wrist, if they had ever stopped, only now they're joined by his hands at her waist which help her rocking motion. This proves to be too exciting as she climaxes with another cry of pleasure. When he pushes her up at her waist, she pulls her knees forward to lift her pubic area away from her wrist. As he notices her buttocks sticking up, he would be getting excited all over again if he wasn't already spent. Eventually, her breathing settles some and she tells him, "Thank you, my wonderful man, not only for the pleasure, but for having the discipline to stop it for the moment."

"Thank you, my lady, for touching me. You're truly an inspiration. I had no idea I could climax again so soon."

She forces herself to move then tells him, "Lay and rest, my man, I'm going to see if we have enough of a sample for a sperm count." Between the two of them, they move his pants and underwear down several inches and reveal a small puddle of semen. She somewhat stumbles out the door and is soon back with a spoon and table knife to scoop up the semen. After she sets it on the bathroom counter, she washes him and as she dries him, his only response is a dreamy smile.

Since she guesses he's about to fall asleep, she pulls a blanket over him, briefly kisses his forehead, then takes the spoon and knife to the kitchen, gets out the microscope, transfers the semen to a slide, and examines the sample. As she carefully looks all over the sample, she doesn't see any of the 'little buggers swimming around' as Doctor Karlson put it. That ought to make George happy, although it would be wise to examine another sample since this one was soon enough after his previous release that there might not have been enough of the 'little buggers' ready to be released.

After she cleans up the microscope slide as well as the spoon and knife, she puts the microscope away. In the bedroom, she sees that he's fallen asleep, then washes herself and changes her panty. She decides to let him sleep so she goes back to the kitchen, makes some tea, then sits down and reads through the request for proposal and draft proposal which Klara had left. She writes down a number of questions and some thoughts about the proposal then puts it away because she's interested in George coming up with his own thoughts and questions. A little later, she remembers that Klara is coming to dinner and maybe Mariam also, so she checks to see what she has available and sets out something to thaw.

Sharlene goes back to the bedroom to check on George and can only grin at the state of undress they left him in. After she briefly considers the situation, she figures it's time to get him up so she lays down next to him and props herself on her left arm next to him and begins to fondle his scrotum and limp penis with her right hand. It's seldom that she's seen it in this condition and she delights in how it feels to touch it, although it's not long before it starts to grow almost as if by magic, in spite of her understanding the biological functions which take place inside of his body. Even as his lower anatomy arouses, he doesn't, although his sleeping face is starting to dreamily smile.

A little later, she leans over to half lay on him, begins to kiss his face, and whisper in his ear that it's time to wake up. Slowly he wakes up, and in spite of being somewhat embarrassed at being partially undressed, he can only smile at her as the pleasure flowing through him from her touch makes it difficult for any other thoughts to fully form. She reluctantly releases his penis then willingly moves her hand to caress his face as she says, "Time to wake up, my one and only."

"You are a joy. I don't think I've ever been woken up so wonderfully before." He gently pulls her head to his and thoroughly kisses her. When he breaks the kiss in order to breathe, it takes all of her effort to restrain herself from escalating the pleasure yet again. Swiftly, she sits up, stands up, then holds out a hand to help him up. As he looks at her for a little while as his breathing settles, he seems to sense her struggle, so he takes her hand, and instead of pulling her back onto the bed as he's so tempted to do, he uses her hand to help him sit up as he involuntarily groans.

"What's the matter?"

"My back isn't used to laying on the bed while my feet are on the floor. I'll be okay in a little while." He glances down at himself then up at her and remarks, "I guess we did leave me in a rather unusual state."

She bites her lip for a moment because it's one thing to talk about it in general, but it's quite another to have the evidence stand up in front of her. Eventually, she manages to say, "I hope it doesn't make me sound bad or something, but I like to see you like that."

He shakes his head then tells her, "Young lady, you really are most unusual. I don't think you're bad at all, I just can't understand how you can like seeing an old man like this. I guess I just have to accept that's how you feel. I must admit that if our positions were reversed, I would find the view most wonderfully interesting and would have to severely restrain myself from wanting a closer look."

He pushes himself up, pulls his clothes back on, and feels embarrassed as she avidly watches him. She takes him by the hand and leads him to the table where she sits him down, gets him a drink, and asks him to read over the request for proposal from the Institute and Klara's draft proposal. While he reads them and writes down his own questions and comments, she makes a quick trip to the post office and the grocery store.

When Sharlene returns, she has the groceries in the house before he can offer to help, but he notices she seems somewhat bothered, so he asks her, "What's the matter, love?"

"I thought I was being followed part of the way."

George gets up and wraps his arms around her as he asks, "Did you recognize a vehicle?"

"No, that's the weird thing. The feeling persisted even when none of the vehicles looked the same. I took a couple of turns away from home and took a long way around and the feeling disappeared as quickly as it appeared. I can remember it, but I didn't feel it for the last few blocks."

"Strange. Well, you're safe now. Next time, let me go with you."

"Maybe I will. Thank you. Let me put the groceries away. Will you help me get dinner started?"

"I'll help in any way I can."

"Thank you."

It doesn't take them long to get the ingredients ready so all that's left is the final combination and cooking.

A little later, she asks, "Well, what do you think of Klara's proposal?"

"She's right, there is a lot of the legal stuff that either doesn't mean much to me or make sense. I wrote down a number of questions which could probably be answered by a first year law student or are a part of generally accepted legal statements." He hands her his list of questions and comments.

"Interesting. You asked a number of the same questions I did."

"Really? I guess great minds do think alike," he grins at her.

Sharlene sets the paper down and hugs him while she asks, "George?"

"Yes, love?"

"Why have our desires been so strong today? Or is it that our resistance is running low?"

"I don't know. I've been wondering the same thing. I thought I had enough trouble controlling myself before. Today, it seems so much harder to not touch you a lot more."

"That's the way I feel."

"Before we talk more about what we don't understand, we probably ought to discuss Klara's proposal as she requested."

"You're right. Do you need a fresh drink?"

"Yes, please."

As they review the request for proposal and Klara's draft proposal together, they come up with a couple of other questions, some possible answers to a few of their earlier questions, but no great understanding or solutions, although they do gain a little better understanding of how the other person thinks and views things. After they finish their discussion of the proposal, their conversation moves to guesses about how things might change and what might be involved in starting the company and getting it going.

Sharlene's phone rings and she answers it, "Hello?"

"Sharlene, it's Mariam. Can I come over?"

"Of course."

"I'll be there in a few."

Sharlene can almost hear the click of Mariam disconnecting the call and explains to George, "That was Mariam. She's upset and will be here in a few minutes." They make quick bathroom trips, move the papers from the table to a corner of the kitchen counter and share a quick hug and a kiss before the doorbell rings.

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2147-09-08 (a4)

Sharlene barely gets the door open before Mariam rushes in and almost fiercely hugs her. When she releases her, she rushes over to George, barely stops, then asks, "Hold me, George?" When he opens his arms, she seems to fly into them. After a moment, Mariam requests, "Tighter, old man, please," so he tightens his hug as much as he dares.

Sharlene closes and locks the door and steps close.

Mariam briefly hesitates then says, "Sharlene, I'm sorry, but I need a man's hug right now."

"It's okay, Mariam," and she rubs her back between her shoulder blades, "I fully understand." Sharlene steps up behind her, reaches around Mariam, grips George's belt on each side at the waist and adds her own strength to squeeze Mariam between them. After awhile, Mariam start to slightly relax and while her head is on George's shoulder, she begins to sob.

Quite awhile later, she rubs her face on George's shirt to dry her tears and then she lifts up a hand, pulls his head down, and begins to kiss him. As his eyes open wide in surprise he looks at Sharlene who nods her head in approval just before the doorbell rings again. Sharlene steps away, opens the door, and invites Klara in.

Klara steps in the door and stops in shock as she sees George kissing a strange woman. It takes her a moment to recognize Mariam and when she looks sharply at Sharlene, she gets a nod in return. After she closes and locks the door, Sharlene steps back to them as Mariam finally breaks the kiss to let George breathe and he looks at Sharlene and Klara with an expression of bewilderment while he tries to catch his breath.

Sharlene again caresses her back and says, "Mariam, Klara is here. Do you want to tell us about it?"

"Yes." She briefly hesitates before she asks, "Sharlene, I'm sorry, but can George hold me?"

"Of course. Would you like a drink?"

"Wine, please."

Sharlene looks at Klara who answers, "The same."

They walk to the love seat and Mariam barely lets him sit down before she swarms onto him and sits on his upper legs and snuggles up to him, Sharlene gets a couple of glasses of wine while Klara grabs a dining room chair to pull over to the love seat. After she gives the wine to Klara and Mariam, Sharlene sits next to George on the love seat and lays a comforting hand on Mariam's knee while George gingerly holds her.

"Mariam, what happened?"

Instead of answering, Mariam hands her empty glass to Sharlene and requests, "More?"

"No. I don't want you drunk before you tell us."

A moment later, Mariam nods her head then turns to Klara and asks, "How much can we sue that slime filled maggot ridden Institute for?"

"That depends on why we're suing them."

"Anything under the sun, moon, and stars."

Klara gently says, "I'm sorry, Mariam, but you'll need to be somewhat more specific than that."

"I know, it's just that I'm so angry, so mad, so hurt, so . . . everything, I can't think straight," and bursts into renewed tears. George hugs her tighter and cradles her head on his shoulder as he gently caresses her head with his right hand while he tries to comfort her. Sometime later, as her tears diminish, Mariam accepts tissues from Sharlene to dry her tears and blow her nose before she asks, "What did I do with my purse?"

"I don't know." Sharlene gets up, goes towards the front door, then says, "Here it is. You must have dropped it when you came in."

After she digs into her purse, Mariam pulls out a compact recorder and hands it to Sharlene who passes it to Klara while Mariam explains, "That's what I recorded in the afternoon session. I'm sorry I don't have a recording of the morning session." She drops her purse on the floor beside the love seat, leans closer to George, pulls his arms tighter around her, pauses, then says, "After I left the shop with my vehicle, I was angry they had messed with my vehicle, but I tried to keep my anger under control. I had barely sat down at my desk when the directors called me in.

"They didn't seem to care about my vehicle troubles, they just wanted to know how the visit to 'Mr. G' had gone. I tried to give them a factual report of George's house and library. They just nodded and smiled at each other as though I had confirmed their initial impressions. Then they asked what I had learned about your plans. I started out by saying that you would like a list of equipment, both hardware and software, and other supplies which the Project used so you would be able to purchase equipment which was familiar to the employees. Immediately, they called Kassandra in and told her to start putting together such a list. Kassandra looked somewhat bewildered at such a request, but said, 'Okay,' and went out.

"I talked some about the investor you guys had mentioned, like he had more than enough resources but doesn't like to throw money away, while they assumed it was 'Mr. G' I was describing. No matter what I said it only seemed to reinforce their impression of 'Mr. G'. There were almost gleeful when I said you were already searching for a place to rent and that the investor had already set up a new company to manage the Project. At about that time they called an end to the session and told me to be ready to come back in an hour or two after they had had their lunch.

"I grabbed a sandwich and a drink from the cafeteria and went to the testing area. On the way, I saw Kassandra and asked her to come along. Thankfully, Todd and Julie were there so I told the three of them what was going on. They didn't disbelieve me, but they had a hard time believing the directors could stoop that low. Todd gave me that compact recorder to take with me. I don't know how well it picked up the conversation or if it lasted the whole time, but it was the best I could do."

Klara assures her, "Mariam, you did well. I'm sorry I didn't think of giving you some sort of recording device to begin with. So how did the afternoon session go?"

Mariam begins to tremble and as the tears begin to flow, George kisses the top of her head and murmurs comforting words and after awhile, she calms down a little which enables her to speak. "I don't think I've been so humiliated in my life. When they called me back in, they asked about the video recorder and I said there was only a little on it. I handed it over and they immediately put the recording in and watched it on their big screen. They stopped it every few frames to discuss what they saw.

"They asked if Molly was a trained guard dog and I had to say I didn't know. They even tried to estimate how big the house was from the outside. They figured that even if it wasn't five thousand square feet it was a lot bigger than any cabin they had ever seen. When the recording ended as Sharlene was coming to hug me, they asked why it ended. I pointed out that I couldn't very well keep my finger on the record button while I tried to hug someone since that would be too obvious. They reluctantly agreed that was probably true.

"I said there was a little more. They started the recording again, saw the library and then could hear the voices in the background and saw that the recorder was taken away. Then they started in on me about being incompetent and not able to complete such a simple task. It was all I could do to take it and not lash back out at them.

"When they eventually ran down, I said that you had threatened to sue me for corporate espionage, but had agreed to accept a signed confession which said I had been coerced into doing so. They wondered why that upset me. I asked them if they knew the consequences of corporate espionage. They said there was nothing to worry about because first of all, you wouldn't want to jeopardize your chance to get the Project and secondly, they had a good lawyer.

"Finally they asked if I had any success with getting close to 'Mr. G'. I tried to be very precise in asking them if they meant did I have any success in using my body at their demand to take 'Mr. G' to bed to make him more inclined to pursue the Project. Their reply was something like, 'Yes, of course that's what we meant.' I simply stated that 'Mr. G' had refused my offer.

"They stared at me in disbelief for awhile before one of them asked, 'He refused? Weren't you clear enough?' I'm afraid I was somewhat hysterical about then and told them that 'Mr. G' clearly understood my offer and refused me and that it was very humiliating to offer myself to someone only to be refused and how could they force me to do something like that.

"They said they didn't force me. I asked what kind of choice did I have if it was either offer myself or lose my job. They shrugged that off and said maybe I ought to lose my job for not succeeding. I pointed out that nowhere in my job description was there anything about using my body for sexual favors. They said my job description was whatever they decided it ought to be.

"Then they said they would consider my future standing with the Institute and told me to leave. As I was about to step out of the door, I heard one of them say, 'I wouldn't have refused her.' I turned back and said, 'I wouldn't have offered,' then slammed the door on my way out. I grabbed my stuff from my desk and came here."

As George holds her tighter, Sharlene grabs her hands and says, "Mariam, I'm so sorry."

"I hope I didn't mess things up for you guys."

Klara moves her chair closer, takes one of Mariam's hands from Sharlene, and tells her, "Mariam, I'm so sorry they put you through that. If I had guessed they would go that low, I would have gone in with you or not discussed anything over the weekend." Klara pauses a moment to look at each of them then says, "It looks like they've drawn the battle lines. Mariam, do you have any personal items at your desk?"

"Yes."

"Do you have access to get in after normal work hours?"

"Yes. What are you getting at?"

"Please don't react until you hear everything I have to say. Based on how they treated you this afternoon, do you feel comfortable trying to continue to work there?"

"No. But what else am I going to do? If I get fired for walking out . . ."

George clamps a hand over her mouth and gently says, "Shhh, be patient, let Klara talk."

"Thank you, George."

* * * * *

2147-09-08 (a5)

When George removes his hand, Mariam says, "I'm sorry, Klara."

Klara assures her, "We understand. The Institute would be well within its rights to fire you for walking out," Klara holds up a hand to forestall her protest then continues, "regardless of what prompted you to walk out. However, what they told you and how they treated you is very much grounds for a lawsuit. It won't necessarily get your job back, assuming you want it back, but it will certainly vindicate you so that any reasonable person won't have a problem hiring you based on your employable skills. Okay?"

She hesitates before she responds, "Okay."

"After dinner, you and I will go remove your personal items from your desk, we'll even take a security guard along to observe if we need to. Then we'll leave a note addressed to your boss which says that you quit effective immediately. Tomorrow or later, if they contact you, tell them only to contact me. As far as your future employment is concerned, I'm more confident than ever that you guys will get the Project. In the meantime, I'll hire you as a local law clerk."

Mariam protests, "But I don't know anything about being a law clerk."

"Can you take dictation and file?"

"Of course."

Klara assures her, "Then you'll do fine. The rest you can learn. Sharlene, about how long will it take to fix dinner?"

"No more than a half of an hour."

"Good. Can Mariam borrow your computer while you work on dinner?"

"Sure, let me get it."

"Mariam, first document, a letter addressed to your boss saying that effective immediately, you quit, with no explanation. Was your boss in the meeting this afternoon?"

"Technically, no. Effectively, yes. According to the organization chart I report to the manager of administrative services for the Project who has been reassigned since the Project has shrunk. Since then, I've been reporting to the director of the Project."

"If he doesn't understand why you quit, no explanation will help him to understand."

"Here's the computer."

"Thank you, Sharlene. Mariam, scoot over and let George up for a little while."

Instead of scooting over, Mariam turns and kisses George to his wide eyed surprise, but when he sees Sharlene smile and nod, he responds to the kiss. After she breaks the kiss to let him catch his breath, Mariam scoots over while Klara shakes her head.

Sharlene leans over, hugs Klara's shoulders, and tells her "I wouldn't object if you want to kiss him too."

Klara looks at him speculatively for a moment then says, "But, Sharlene, he's too old to be a toy boy."

They all start to laugh.

"Thank you, Klara, for seeing me as I am." He stands up and kisses Sharlene who enthusiastically responds.

When George's breathing has somewhat settled and before he can step away, Klara pulls him down by his sleeve and to everyone's surprise, she kisses him as well.

He stammers, "Why . . . Klara?"

"George, I'm not sure. Because I wanted to. Because I didn't want to feel left out. I don't really know. Either way, thank you for responding."

He takes several steps away, then turns and looks at each of them before he proclaims, "You're all crazy. Can't you see I'm just a boring worn out wreck of a dirty old man!" He turns and swiftly walks down the hall.

"George!!!" Before Sharlene can race after him, Klara grabs her and pulls her onto her upper legs and holds her tightly. Sharlene reaches out an arm, "George!?!" then collapses into tears.

"Shhh, Sharlene, I'm sorry. I didn't realize he was so close to the edge."

Mariam asks, "What edge?"

"How much do you know about George?"

"Only what Sharlene has told me and what I've seen for myself. He's a very kind, gentle, and generous man. He's not someone I would have ever made an effort to get to know, but now that I've gotten to know him a little, he's, well, . . . I'm sorry, Sharlene, but I'm finding myself rather attracted to him."

Klara explains, "Think of decades of no one making an effort to get to know you, then as an old man set in his ways and in his self-image, a kind beautiful young woman steps into his life and says she wants him. A little later, another beautiful young woman invites him to bed. I don't know if he noticed it or not, but Angelisa went out of her way to hug him. All of a sudden, he feels surrounded by women who want his attention. It's more than his self-image can handle. I assume he's had other crisis points over the past few weeks."

Sharlene nods her head as she accepts some tissues to dry her eyes and blow her nose before she responds, "Poor George. He wasn't shown love as a child, he wasn't viewed as boyfriend worthy through high school and college, then he marries a woman who is more interested in escaping an abusive father than loving him. His only protection was to reinforce the self-image that he's unworthy and unwanted. He still has trouble believing I want him. He's getting better, but it's so hard for him. Yet, he has so much love and care to share, that I feel selfish if I don't encourage him to share his hugs and kisses. Klara, why did you keep me from going to him?"

"Sometimes he needs time to deal with his crisis on his own. I imagine that when he's had other crisis points, you were right there trying to convince him and demonstrate how much you want him."

"Yes. Was that wrong?"

Klara shakes her head as she answers, "No, it wasn't wrong. That's probably what he needs most of the time. This time I sensed some anger in his voice. If that's true, then he might have unintentionally lashed out at you and then felt horribly guilty afterwards. Does he have these crisis points often?"

"They're becoming less frequent, but it seems like it's just one little thing which pushes him over the edge and I never know how close he is until I do or say that one little thing. Klara, I'm certainly not blaming you because I've been doing it all along, but I suspect that you kissing him did it this time."

"You're probably right. I have the impression that he's surprised when Mariam kisses him, but it's not an unexpected shock. Since up to now I've pretty much kept my distance, he expected me to maintain that relationship or to slowly change it, so for me to kiss him must have been quite a shock."

Mariam asks, "Sharlene, what did you mean when you said that George wasn't shown love as a child?"

"From what he's said, when he was very young, he was shown love and affection, but when he was about school age his parents decided he was getting too old as a boy to be shown physical affection, so they stopped. The problem was that he was the oldest of five kids, so while his parents provided physical affection to his younger siblings, it was denied to him."

"That's rough. It would have been better to have not been given any all along."

"Yeah. It's very hard for him to accept the idea that he's worthy of love and affection. What I have a hard time understanding is how he still has so much love and care to give. With his background, I would have thought it had dried up long ago. When he was holding you a little while ago, how did you feel?"

Mariam answers, "Like I was safely in the arms of love, almost as though I was a beloved daughter who had scrapped her knee. So why did I respond to him with a kiss and want . . . more?"

"Exactly. Klara, what about when you kissed him?"

"He was obviously surprised, but he quickly responded to the level of kiss which I gave him, no more and no less."

Sharlene nods her head as she explains, "That's what I've found. It's like he knows just how much love, care, comfort, or whatever you want to call it, to give at the moment to meet the need. Yet, it's like he has a deeper well of affection, which can sometimes be sensed, and if you can reach it, you somehow know it will fill you up to overflowing."

Mariam's eyes briefly open wide before she responds, "Yes, that's it. So why has he been so lonely?"

"You said it earlier. He's not someone you would have made an effort to get to know. He's also a strong introvert, so he won't easily put himself into a position for others to get to know him. One time when we talked along these lines, he 'blamed' me in the sense that if I hadn't shown an interest in him, you and anyone else would have ignored him. But since I, as a 'beautiful young woman', showed an interest in him that raised the curiosity of other women as to what I find attractive about him."

Mariam nods her head before she admits, "He's got a point there. I know that's what encourage me to take a second look at him. . . . Sharlene, I don't know if you can answer it, but sometimes he seems to get nervous when I'm nearby, yet when I was sitting on his lap and crying, he was pouring out all of the love, care, and comfort I could want."

"You mean like when you asked if his announcement of going to bed was an invitation?"

"Yes."

"I'm somewhat guessing here, but I think part of it has to do with his religious devotion as a young man. It was ingrained in him that the love/sexual relationship was to be between one man and one woman. It's like he can't fathom giving love to more than one woman at a time. He's centered his love on me, for which I'm thoroughly grateful, but by doing so, he feels like if he shows affection to another woman it would be a betrayal of his love for me. I think if I wasn't so accepting of either of you kissing him, he would have quickly pushed you away. Even then, he can't understand why I'm not jealous of your interest."

* * * * *

2147-09-08 (a6)

Klara clarifies, "It was more than religious devotion. When I was investigating him and then did some more research later, I learned that he has a master's degree in the field and served a couple of years as a minister. I'm not sure, but I received the impression that he felt he needed more training and was preparing to go on for a doctorate, but the school he intended to go to wouldn't accept his previous degree and wanted him to start over. He had a young family then and didn't want to backtrack four years, so he left the ministry and did what he could to support his family."

Sharlene's eyes open wide, "Wow. He didn't tell me any of that. Hold it, four years for a master's? Master's degrees are one maybe two years at the most."

"Not this one. It's three years of academics plus one year of internship. Before he could start on his doctorate, George also needed an advanced master's degree which was at least another year and then the doctorate was another three or four years."

"That's longer than it took for me to specialize as a Doctor of Medicine. I had no clue there was that much education involved in being a minister."

"There's not, at least not always. Because I was curious, I did some more research and found that the requirements for being a minister varies greatly depending on the organization a person is associated with. It ranges from essentially no education if a person is able to talk a good line, up to the four year master's degree which George has. Usually the doctoral degree was pursued only by those who wanted to teach at the graduate or higher level."

"Klara, do you know what subjects were covered in that four year master's degree."

"Yes, but I'll let you do your own research because we're getting way off of the subject."

"You're right. I'm sorry, Klara."

"Sharlene, you don't need to feel sorry. I understand you want to learn more about your man. I would gladly tell you, but at another time."

"I understand, thank you. I'll get dinner going unless you need me for something else."

"Dinner, please." Klara warmly responds to Sharlene's hug and fondly watches her as she goes to the kitchen.

Mariam quietly says, "She's rather precious to you."

Klara nods her head as she responds, "Yes, she is. I think of her as a surrogate daughter which was why I investigated George as thoroughly as I could. I'm sorry. Let's get back on track. A letter of resignation, young lady."

"Yes, ma'am."

It's not long before Mariam turns the computer screen to Klara who quickly reads her proposed letter of resignation and nods her head in approval as she says, "Good. Now, I've got something much harder for you to do. I had hoped that George would have been here to help you, but I think you can manage. I want you to write up as much as you can remember from your conversations this morning and this afternoon. Don't worry about spelling or grammar, just get down as much as you can remember before you forget it."

Since she's somewhat surprised at the suggestion, Mariam asks, "You wanted George to hold me and comfort me while I wrote it down?"

"Yes."

"I would have appreciated that, but after hearing more about his background, maybe my pain isn't so unmanageable. Just leave the tissue box here. I think I'll beg another glass of wine from Sharlene before I start."

"Can you get me one, too? I'm going to try listening to your recording. On second thought, that might disturb you. I think I'll try my transcription program first."

As Mariam starts to type, with occasional sniffles, Klara picks up her computer from near the front door where she had set it down and goes to the table and starts the transcription program. The more she reads as the program displays the results of the transcription, the angrier she becomes. Finally, she lets the transcription program continue to run in the background, opens up her word processing program, and starts to type.

Sharlene has to call her name a couple of times before Klara looks up to hear her say, "Dinner's almost ready."

Klara nods her head in understanding, finishes typing her thought then sets her computer aside and looks up to see Sharlene hand a tissue to Mariam to dry her tears and sets the computer to the side to hug her. Klara walks over there and is almost to the love seat when Sharlene looks up and stares at the hallway entrance. The other two quickly turn to follow her stare and see George standing there.

After he briefly meets each of their eyes, George drops his head, but speaks clearly, "Ladies, I want to apologize for yelling at you. I'm sorry I have such a hard time accepting your affection. Although I desire affection, I certainly don't deserve it and I very much don't understand why you would want to bestow any upon me."

He pauses for a moment as though to gather his thoughts then looks up at Sharlene with tears rolling down his cheeks and says, "My lady, you've been so kind and generous and wonderful to me, I can't even begin to express my gratitude. Every day I grow deeper in debt to you. I feel like I'm a burden to you and interfering with you starting your company. Since I can never repay my debt, I had better leave before I burden you anymore." He picks up his luggage which none of them had seen him bring out and starts to walk towards the front door.

Sharlene races and blocks the door just as he's reaching for the handle. She lowers her voice so only he can hear as she declares, "You can't leave."

"Why not?"

"Didn't you give me your heart?"

"Yes . . ."

"And you said that where your heart went your body would follow."

He hesitates before he admits, "Yeah, I guess I did."

"Your heart isn't going out the door, so your body can't either."

"Oh. . . . But I'm a burden to you. And I have these emotional freak-outs. How can you put up with me?

"George, sit down. . . . Please?"

Reluctantly, he sits on the chair by the front door and she's immediately sitting on his upper legs with her arms around his neck. She briefly pauses then tells him, "I understand that you have a hard time accepting affection from me and others because you've learned over the years, and then further convinced yourself as a defense mechanism, that you're unworthy and undeserving of affection. I also understand that it's going to take time for you to unlearn that. I'm sorry you feel like I push you into giving and receiving affection from others. I have no intention of hurting you or to encourage other people to hurt you."

Sharlene pauses before she goes on, "I'm not quite sure how to say this even though I've mentioned it before and am becoming more convinced of it all of the time. George, you have a deep, filled to the brim, well of care, concern, and affection just waiting to be shared. Why only a few people see it, I don't know, but it's definitely there. How it survived your years of loneliness, I'll never know. George, you think that I or Mariam or even Klara are showing you affection which you don't deserve. I'm sorry, old man, but that's not the case. The affection we show you, at least in the beginning, is only a reflection of the affection you're already showing to us. We're just trying to give back to you a small portion of what you've already given to us.

"The reflection of affection which we give you may appear different from what you show, but it's only a reflection. Only after we've drank from your well of affection for awhile, can we begin to give you of our own affection. I know I'm not going to convince you completely of that here and now, but I'm going to keep telling you and keep reflecting your affection back to you as best I can for the rest of your life. You gave me your heart and I intend to keep it.

"The only way you're going to leave me is to die and I'm going to fight that as long and as hard as I can. Now, no more talk about leaving. . . . Oh, George, you're so precious to me. I need you and I want you desperately. I can't imagine life without you. Stay with me . . . please?"

He hesitates long enough for her to begin to worry until he stumbles over his words, "I . . . I'll stay. . . . I'm sorry I upset you and hurt you."

"Shhh, no more apologies, just stay, just love me as you have." She kisses him breathless to stop any more protests or apologies. "We can talk about this more later. Right now, we have guests and dinner is ready. Yes, you can face Mariam and Klara, they're aware of how hard it is for you and they care about you because you've shown them your care and concern." She gets up, firmly holds his right hand, and tells him, "Come, we have dinner to serve. You're going to have to help me figure out how to serve it because I'm not going to let go of this hand for quite awhile." She pulls him to his feet and to the kitchen.

While he shakes his head in disbelief, George has to bite his lip to keep from crying over how wonderful Sharlene is to him and how precious the support, care, and encouragement is which she so freely gives him. Even for him to bite his lip isn't enough to stop all of the tears, and he tries his best to help her serve dinner without letting his tears take over or to obscure his vision, too often.

* * * * *

2147-09-08 (e1)

It's a rather awkward dinner. The ladies can see that George is barely holding on and close to breaking down again. Their hearts ache with the desire to comfort him as he would so willingly comfort them, yet they're afraid that almost anything could send him back over the edge. It's also awkward because Sharlene refuses to let go of his right hand even though it's obviously difficult for him to eat with his left hand. That may actually be helping him to hold on because it makes him concentrate on trying to eat and not to think about the shock to his self-image. Sharlene continues to hold his hand as they clean up after dinner while Mariam and Klara go to remove Mariam's personal items from her desk at work and leave her letter of resignation.

Sharlene leads him to the love seat and has George sit where she usually sits then she sits on his upper legs so their clasped hands are between them, but not separating them as she puts their hands between her thighs then leans on him. With her free right hand, she reaches up to caress his face as soothingly as she can. He seems to relax a little since Mariam and Klara are no longer there.

Soon, it becomes apparent that his relaxation is not one of feeling better, but a relaxation of letting the emotions flow because her caressing hand is suddenly wet with tears. Although she's very tempted to start telling him how wonderful he is, she realizes it could too easily dissolve into a 'you're better than I' argument which would do neither of them any good. Without saying a word, she continues to gently caress his face.

A thought crosses her mind and she quickly undoes part of her braid, and while she holds onto the loose end, she begins to dry his tears with her hair. It takes him awhile to notice the difference, but when he does, he goes very still. He raises his loose left hand and gently stops her caressing hand to touch what her hand is holding. Even though he can see that it's her hair through his tears, he still touches it as if to confirm that his eyes aren't deceiving him.

As his hand follows her hair up to her head and seems to make an extended examination which includes him even gently pulling on her hair as though to verify that it's attached, she becomes rather mystified by his behavior. She's not alarmed yet, but she's certainly wondering what's going through his mind. Slowly, his hand begins to follow her hair back to her hand, but when it reaches the top of the loose hair, his hand backs up a little and unbraids more of her hair, a little at a time, until her hair is all loose. His hand drops and his head bows down.

As his tears continue, she takes more of her loose hair and dries his tears with a handful of her hair, instead of using just a little of her hair as though it's a paint brush like she did earlier. Again, he goes very still, and he touches her hair from her hand to her head and back. When he apparently verifies that she's actually drying his tears with her hair, he holds a handful of her hair to his face and breathes deeply as though to inhale her hair . . . and then the flood gates open and the tears flow.

She can't explain it, but for some reason, she senses that this cry is one of healing rather than an expression of pain, so she continues to caress his face with her hair held in her hand even though she knows she can't dry his cheeks as fast as the tears are flowing and she intersperses her drying attempts with light kisses. As the tears diminish, he seems to truly relax and the tension begins to flow out of his body. She continues to wipe the occasional tear which seeps from his closed eyelids even as he seems to have fallen asleep.

Sometime later, George begins to stir, sighs deeply, and slowly opens his eyes to her warm smile. A little hesitantly, he returns her smile and asks, "You want me?"

Although she's somewhat puzzled by his question, Sharlene quickly responds, "Yes, George, I want you."

"You really want me???"

"Yes, I really want you. All of you."

Almost as though he's speaking only to himself, he says, "She wants me. She really wants me." A few moments later, he looks directly into her eyes and asks her again, "You, the most beautiful woman in the world, really want this worn out old wreck of a man?"

Without bothering to argue adjectives at a moment like this, she answers, "Yes, George, I really, truly want you, just as you are."

"Incredible." A slight frown crosses his face and he asks, "Are you sure?"

"Very sure."

"You're not teasing me?"

She shakes her head as she assures him, "No. I would never tease you about how much I want you."

George sits back and looks at her for awhile before he bows his head and says, "Thank you, Sharlene." A little later, he looks back up at her, "Thank you, Sharlene, for wanting me. You're a wonderful woman and I truly don't deserve your care, but I really appreciate it that you want me. It means . . . everything to me. I only hope I can return at least a small portion of the love and care which you've shown me. Thank you."

His kiss is long, gentle, and full of love. Even though she has no idea what caused the apparent change in his mind set, she responds to his kiss as longingly as she can. As he leans back to catch his breath, he hugs her to him. A little later, he says, "Sharlene, I can't tell you how sorry I am that I haven't believed you when you said you want me."

She puts her hand over his mouth and assures him, "No apologies, George."

He kisses her hand then gently pulls it away from his mouth and tells her, "This one needs to be said. You've been wonderfully patient with me in trying to help me to understand that you want me. You've shared your heart with me and you've shared your body with me and I deeply appreciative it. No one has ever given me a greater gift than you have.

"I don't understand why it's taken me so long to accept what you keep saying and demonstrating. I know I can never give you a gift which can come close to matching the gift you've given me by accepting me as a person, as a friend, and as an intimate partner. If you think I won't be too great of a burden on you, I would like to stay and try to express my deepest gratitude."

Bypassing words, Sharlene tries to kiss him as thoroughly and with as much desire as she thinks she can without overwhelming him. When she lets him breathe, he can only stare at her with a somewhat stunned expression. She releases his hand which she had been holding since before dinner, pushes him back until he's laying almost flat, kneels on the love seat while she straddles his legs, sits on his knees, and starts to unbutton his shirt.

When she starts to undo his pants, he stops her and pulls her hands back up to his chest. Since she doesn't want to push him, she limits herself to caress his upper body. Moments later, she braces herself with her hands and bends over to kiss his chest. Between her kisses and seeing her buttocks high in the air, he feels his excitement growing.

He gently grips her upper arms and pulls her a little further up his body before he reaches past her arms and begins to caress her breasts through her shirt. The pleasure hits her and causes her to stop kissing him and as she groans with the quickly growing pleasure, she turns her head sideways to rest it on his chest. Even as she's surprised at how quickly the pleasure builds up inside of her, she soon cries out with her climax. He stops touching her breasts and pulls her further up him so he's able to kiss her lips as soon as her breathing has partially settled.

She moves her kisses to the rest of his face when he needs to breathe. Before his breathing has settled, he rolls her partially to his left and starts to kiss her right ear then begins to work his way along her neck while his right hand moves back to her breasts which escalates her pleasure and overwhelms her ability to verbally contain it when he sucks on her left earlobe while he tantalizes her left nipple.

They briefly rest while his right hand unbuttons the top couple of buttons of her shirt. He slides his right hand across the front of her shirt over her breast, down her left side, across her hip, down the outside of her leg while his left arm slides down her back. When it has caressed part of the way down her leg, his right hand slides to the back of her leg while his left hand grips the waist band at the back of her pants and pulls her body further up him. As he starts to kiss her upper chest, her moans turn into panting groans of pleasure while his right hand slides up the back of her leg almost to her buttocks, then down, then zigzags back up, then down, each time the pleasure goes higher until she has to cry out in release in unison with his non-verbal release. They both feel weak after the release of their sexual tension so they just lay there and simply hold each other.

* * * * *

2147-09-08 (e2)

After awhile, it dawns on her that Mariam and Klara could return at any time. In fact, she's surprised they haven't already. Reluctantly, Sharlene gets up and helps him up. In the bathroom, she's surprised he doesn't protest when she helps him wash up, but she isn't sure how much of that is due to his being tired and how much is due to him finally accepting it. As his yawns and stumbling quickly become more obvious, she helps him into his pajamas and barely has him in bed and covered with the blankets before he falls asleep. For a few minutes, she sits next to him while she caresses his face and watches him then she gets herself washed up and re-buttons her shirt.

Sharlene is just starting to brew a cup of tea when the doorbell rings. When she sees that it's Mariam and Klara, she opens the door and invites them in. As she closes and locks the door, she asks, "Would you like some tea or something else to drink?" They agree that tea will be fine.

Mariam steps into the kitchen, looks around, and asks, "Where's George?"

Sharlene answers, "In bed, asleep."

"Is he better?"

"Yes."

"Good."

"Did you have any problems getting your stuff?" Sharlene brings the tea fixings to the table.

Mariam shakes her head, "Not at all, we even had some help from one of the security guards who insisting on gallantly carrying my stuff to Klara's vehicle. Even better, they gave us a recording of both of my sessions with the directors."

Sharlene's eyes widen in surprise as she asks, "Really?"

"Yeah. Apparently when the conference room was built, the directors insisted that it be wired for sound and all of the meetings conducted there are recorded and kept for a couple of weeks before they're taped over."

"That's interesting. But why would the security guards give you a copy of the recordings?"

"They were upset at how I was being treated, especially since one of them was directed to put the tracking and recording device in my vehicle, which, of course, they knew was illegal. They knew Klara could easily subpoena the recordings, but they wanted to make sure we had an unmodified copy. So they provided the recording before they were legally required to, in the hope of partially making up for illegally messing with my vehicle. Klara asked them to write out statements of what they had been told to do and email or fax it to her while they keep an original signed copy. They were more than happy to comply."

Sharlene asks, "Klara, are you going to need some help dealing with all of these issues?"

"I think I'll be fine, especially since Mariam is now free to help. Most of what I want to do is pretty straightforward, uses standard formats, and is mostly filling in the blanks which Mariam will be able to do with a little direction. I may stay a day or two longer than I had originally planned, but I'll wait and see how things go before I make formal plans."

"I may not be as fast on the keyboard as Mariam, but I'm still willing to help."

"Thank you. By the way, did you and George have a chance to look over the proposal and make a recommendation regarding the rentals?"

"Yes. For the proposal, we have three lists. Two lists are our individual set of questions and comments while the third is a combination with some guesses at priority of importance."

"Excellent." Klara pauses then asks, "And the rental?"

"We went through a number of pros and cons of each place and listed some factors which we don't have enough data for. Based on our pros and cons, we put them in order of preliminary preference, even though we know the order can easily change based on some of the other factors. Some of those factors Mariam might be able to answer, some you might have answers for, while the rest will have to be guessed at."

"Well done."

Sharlene suggests, "Maybe you ought to look at our results, before you dish out the praise."

"True, but both you and George have a stake in the issue and I think you made your best effort in spite of unknown factors."

"Thank you, Klara. By the way, how did your meeting go with the police lieutenant regarding the corporate espionage?"

"Very well. They believe they have enough evidence to begin a criminal case and they think I ought to hit the Institute with a civil case at the same time. We did some discussion about the Institute's treatment of Mariam, but weren't sure how to fit it in. Now that we have much more information, I'll try to meet with the lieutenant again tomorrow to let him know what happened and plan our strategy. I'll need to bail out shortly because I want to run the recording through the transcription program and have a printout available for the lieutenant."

Klara pauses then asks, "Before I go, can you tell us what happened with George?"

"After you guys left, we sat on the love seat for awhile. I started to caress his face and he cried again. It was hard, but I didn't say anything and just let him cry. Sometime later, his tears subsided for awhile and then he really started to cry, but this time it seem more like a healing cry instead of the hurting cry of before. When he settled down again, it was like a light bulb had gone on, because as we talked, he seemed to accept and believe that I wanted him. We kissed and touched for awhile and then I got him to bed just before he fell asleep."

"I wonder what turned the light bulb on."

Sharlene shakes her head as she says, "I don't know."

"Not that it's any of my business, but if you knew what the trigger was, it's possible it could help you if he has a relapse."

"I wish I knew for the same reason."

After a few moments of silence, Mariam notices, "Sharlene, your hair is loose. Don't you usually keep it in a braid?"

"Oh, yeah. George likes my hair, so I undid my braid a little and used the end of my hair to caress his face when he was crying."

Klara looks at her in surprise then asks, "What? You were caressing his face with your hair?"

"Yes. Why, Klara, is it important?"

"Maybe. I don't mean to pry, but can you be a little more specific about what happened?"

Sharlene describes what happened.

Klara nods her head, "I'll bet that's it."

"What is?"

"You dried his tears with your hair."

Sharlene pauses then says, "Um, Klara, why would that have any significance? George likes my hair, but how could drying his tears with my hair have any meaning?"

"Depending on the society or culture, almost anything can be significant. In George's case, I'm guessing it has to do with his religious background. The situation was somewhat different, but there was an episode in the Bible where tears were dried with a woman's long hair which led to an outcast being given acceptance and forgiveness. It was probably all sub-conscious on George's part, but you drying his tears with your hair, probably evoked a strong symbolism of that type of acceptance and forgiveness being given to an outcast which is a large part of George's self-image."

"Fascinating, I never would have guessed. He seems so disinterested and even somewhat hostile to religion."

"He was probably badly burned by one or several people which turned him off to religion, but that doesn't purge the knowledge or the background which was already there."

"Thanks, Klara. I'm glad you remembered that."

"I'm surprised I did. I hadn't thought about that for years. Hopefully, he'll be able to move forward and heal some, although it may be some time before he's ready to accept affection from anyone else. Don't look so sad, Mariam, I'm the one who pushed him over the edge. I still don't know why I pulled his head down to kiss him and that bothers me. Sharlene, there's no need for you to look so smug. Okay, yes, he's a wonderful man. Why are we so affected by that old man?"

Sharlene suggests, "You took the time to look beyond the external appearance to see the inner man."

"With you leading the way. How many others are going to start looking closer at him?"

"I didn't lead the way. If Aunt Paula wasn't with Uncle Paul, she would have had George wrapped up and hidden away. Even though she knows she couldn't easily live with him, she wouldn't have wanted to share him with anyone else."

Klara nods her head as she says, "She thinks the world of him and seems very happy that you two have found each other. Yes, she does worry about your age differences, but figures it's much less important than your mutual happiness."

* * * * *

2147-09-08 (e3)

Klara briefly pauses then changes the direction of the conversation, "Enough about George. I need to get these recordings transcribed and think about how to bring the pieces together. Mariam, even with the recordings, I still want you to finish writing up what you remember. A personal statement can be more effective with a judge and a jury than a recording. Even if we don't need it for legal pursuits, it can still be good for you to get it out and on paper. I guess I should have asked, are you willing to work as a legal clerk for me?"

"Until we get Digital Empathy going, I would be inclined to volunteer, but I certainly won't turn down any pay."

"Then consider yourself on the payroll. In that case, I'm going to start dragging you with me. And I'll probably work with you at your place or we'll camp out here. I never did like conducting business affairs from a hotel room. Besides, you'll feel more comfortable either at your place or here. What time did you normally start work?"

"Eight hundred."

"That's good. I'm not inclined to get started any earlier than that myself. In the morning, I'll call you before I come over and let you know what the plans are. Okay?"

"Sounds good, boss."

Mariam and Klara just grin at each other.

"Okay then, I'm off. Hugs, you two." Sharlene and Mariam willingly hug her. Klara gathers up her things, as well as what Sharlene gave her regarding the proposal and the rentals, and just before she goes out the door, she says, "Sharlene, I'll call you to fill you in on what's happening or to let you know we're coming by. I don't know if we'll have time to do the rental tomorrow, but I intend to do it before the end of the week. Until tomorrow, bye." Following the sharing of another quick hug, Klara is out the door.

After Klara pulls out of the driveway, Sharlene closes and locks the door and goes back to the kitchen to fix another cup of tea.

Mariam says, "I hope I don't mess up this legal clerk stuff."

"I'm sure you'll do fine."

"I don't even know how to dress for the role."

"I think if you were dressed inappropriately, Klara would have said something."

"You're probably right. How does she keep all of these issues separate in her mind, especially since they're so interrelated?"

Sharlene suggests, "Practice, I guess. You did the same at work, it was just a different subject matter."

"I hadn't thought about it from that aspect. Changing the subject, does it bother George when I hug and kiss him?"

"Yes and no. We've talked about it some, but some of what his response might be, I'm guessing at. I think when you're hurting and you hug or kiss him then, he's okay with it as a thank you for the comfort which he gave you. Or when it's totally spontaneous like when he thought of the company name, he can manage it because he thinks you responded that way to anyone handy. But when it's directed to him as a person, that's where he has the problem.

"He's had a hard time accepting affection from me. It's even harder for him to accept it from someone else. He's very afraid of hurting me and seems to consider the idea that giving or receiving affection with someone else is a betrayal towards me. Before he kissed you back earlier today, he looked at me as though to ask permission."

"I thought I noticed some hesitation on his part. Sharlene, how do you feel about it?"

"I know that the proper societal response is to feel jealousy, but I don't. It's strange, but I sense a large reservoir of affection in George and feel like it would be unreasonably selfish on my part to keep it all for me. Everyone needs affection and since George seems to have a large supply, I feel like I want to share his gift with others. I suppose if you started to drag him off to bed to make love, I would probably start to feel jealous and betrayed."

"I certainly don't want to do that to you," Mariam hesitates some before she continues, "but I have to be honest and say I'm more than a little curious about how much pleasure he could give a woman in bed, which is strange to be so curious about such an old man. I don't understand it, but I suspect he could give the most virile young man I've had in my bed a run for his money."

"What gives you that idea?"

"I suspect that when he sets out to please a woman, he focuses himself on doing only that and lets his own pleasure take a back seat or be fulfilled as a result of pleasing her."

Sharlene lowers her eyes and blushes slightly before she says, "That's George."

"Really?"

She just nods her head.

"Oh, my. Has he?"

"Made love to me?"

Mariam nods her head.

Sharlene shakes her head as she answers, "Not yet. I suspect that unless one of us totally loses control, it will be awhile yet before he does. Or should I say, unless he totally loses control. I've already made it clear I want to go all the way, but he gently stops me, says 'not yet', then gives me so much pleasure I'm not sure he could give me more pleasure if he did let himself go and make love to me."

She looks up then continues, "I'm sorry, Mariam, I don't intend to make you more interested in George. Right now, if for some unknown reason you two did happen to touch intimately, I don't know if I would object to it or encourage it, but if he brought back some disease as a result, even if it's curable, I would be royally pissed. I know George is clean and I know I'm clean and I fully intend to keep it that way.

"When he's finally ready to make love to me, I certainly don't want to worry about protection from some disease to spoil the fun. Not only that, but any of the sexually transmitted diseases could be physically devastating to an old man like George. If he was to die from some horrible disease as a result of giving someone else an hour of fun or even comfort, I can't begin to describe how mad I would be."

"Thank you for the warning and frankly, I fully agree with you. I think sex is fun and it should stay fun and it can be if a person is careful. Just as I abhor the idea of getting a disease, I think I even more greatly abhor the idea of giving a disease. A little fun isn't worth those consequences, especially when there are other opportunities for fun without the risk."

"Thank you for understanding."

"Thank you for talking about it. I'm sorry, Sharlene, but I couldn't even entertain the idea that my man might be in someone else's bed. How come you can even consider the idea?"

"I honestly don't know. I suppose I could ask you the same question."

Mariam eyes pop open in surprise as she asks, "What!?!"

"If you don't like the idea of someone else taking your man to bed, then how can you consider taking my man to bed?"

"Oh! You're right. I'm so sorry, Sharlene. I was only thinking of myself. I hope I haven't ruined our friendship by my behavior."

"No, Mariam, you haven't."

"How can I be so selfish as to want your man? I don't remember ever trying to barge into anyone else's relationship like that."

"Well, I've encouraged you to some degree."

"That's still no excuse for me wanting to."

"Mariam, I forgive you. I don't think it's strictly your fault. George seems to have a similar effect on others around him."

"I think I was as surprised as he was when Klara kissed him. . . . Sharlene, are we friends still?"

"Of course, Mariam. George has had to talk to me on a number of occasions about either some of my movements or my behavior. He didn't tell me to change what I was doing, because he didn't believe it was his right to tell me what to do, but he did want me to be aware of how my movements or behavior might be interpreted by others and then I can act as I choose to. From that basis, I'm not going to tell you not to hug and kiss George, but only ask you to think about the situation or setting and how others, George included, might respond."

"Thank you. I think your heart is as big as or bigger than George's. . . . You've given me a lot to think about. . . . Well, I'd better be going. I still need to finish my assignment for Klara."

"Did you want to do that here?"

"I appreciate the offer and the company, but I intend to work on it with a big glass of wine and I don't want to drive afterwards. I've already copied it to a mini-drive. No, you go cuddle up to that wonderful man of yours. I'm half inclined to ask you to apologize to him for me, but it would be best if I did that myself." Mariam stands up, pulls Sharlene up onto her feet, hugs her as she tells her, "Thank you for staying my friend."

"I need you as a friend, too."

At the door, they hug again and Sharlene briefly kisses her. Mariam can only look at her momentarily in wonder, then hurries out the door. After Mariam drives off, Sharlene closes and locks the door, turns out the porch light, leans back against the door, and wonders herself why she kissed Mariam. Is it because she felt Mariam wanted or needed it, or because she wanted to share that level of affection?

Sharlene shakes her head because she doesn't know and can't remember thinking ahead of time about why she did it. Since she can't give herself an answer, she cleans up the tea fixings, makes sure everything is put away, turns out the lights, and heads to the bedroom. She quickly gets ready for bed then gladly cuddles up to his warm back and is soon asleep.

* * * * *

2147-09-09 (n>m1)

When he wakes up sometime in the night, George just lays there and soaks in Sharlene's presence at his back with her arm under his pajama top where she's hugging him. Eventually, his bladder gets through to him and he reluctantly gets out of bed and takes care of his body's needs. When he gets back in bed, she sleepily cuddles back up to him and he lays there for awhile as he feels amazed and seemingly finally aware that SHE wants HIM. She certainly hasn't made any secret of it, so why has it taken him so long to accept it? Before he can think about it for very long, he falls asleep.

* * * * *

Sharlene wakes up almost suddenly to an insistent bladder. Once she satisfies her bladder, she resists the temptation to crawl back into bed and wake George up to pleasure. Even though she knows it won't distract her completely, she does a heavy martial arts workout followed by a tai-chi cool down. After she takes a shower, she gently wakes him up and he gladly combs her hair.

As she rests her hands on his upper thighs, she barely resists moving them higher, while it's all he can do to not reach around her and begin to caress her. Once her hair is combed and braided, she gets up, briefly kisses him, and almost dashes from the room. Slowly, he gets up and gets his own shower in the other bathroom since he's almost half afraid that showering in the same place right after her will be too much for him. When he's done and dressed, he steps up behind her in the kitchen and hugs her.

"Oh, George!" She leans back and almost melts in his arms. "I hate to say this, but can you please step back? If you don't, I'm going to ruin breakfast." He briefly kisses the top of her head, reluctantly releases her, steps back, and gets out plates and eating utensils to give him something to do. They quickly eat while they barely taste the food then clean up the kitchen.

They look at each other for a moment, and before he can ask how she wants to be touched, she's in his arms and hungrily kisses him. When he can breathe again, he lifts her up and sets her on the kitchen counter while she wraps her legs around his waist, pulls him closer, and renews the hungry kiss. Too soon, she has to let him have an opportunity to catch his breath so she moves her kisses to the rest of his face and starts to unbutton his shirt, while his hands pull her shirt out of her pants and unbuttons the lower buttons to reach in and begin to caress the bare skin of her sides and back.

When his breathing is partially settled, he pulls his right hand out from under her shirt to capture her head and lock lips with hers while his left hand slips under her back bra strap to caresses her skin from side to side, but when it slides around her right side while still under her bra strap almost to her front, she cries out with the pleasure of her climax.

As her breathing settles, he kisses her face, her ears, sucks on her earlobe, and soon her pleasure is building again. A little later, she drops her knees to the sides and pulls him just that little bit tighter to her and while his left hand supports her back, his right hand begins to caress her left breast through her shirt, even though he can barely reach it with their bodies so close together. She turns slightly which enables his hand to more fully bring pleasure to her left breast while she rubs her right breast on his chest. Soon, she's unable to hold it in any longer and climaxes with another cry of pleasure then rests her head on his shoulder.

"Thank you, George, thank you very much. I do want more of your touch. Maybe I can manage to wait for awhile. Thank you."

He gently caresses her head while he tries to calm down and is somewhat glad she can wait because he's too well aware of how close he came to losing control.

Slowly, she sits up and as she makes the effort to act calmer than she feels, she buttons up his shirt and asks, "George?"

"Yes, love?"

"Will you stay with me?"

"As long as you can put up with me."

"You know I want you."

"I'm beginning to accept it even though I don't understand it."

"As long as you accept it, I'm not going to worry about the understanding."

"Sharlene, I'm sorry it's taken me so long to begin to accept it."

"Considering what you've told me about your background and adding that to societal standards, I think I can partially guess at how hard it's been for you. Thank you for allowing yourself to open your mind to what you thought was impossible."

"Thank you for being a persistent young lady. You could have easily given up on me as a lost cause."

She shakes her head then verbally responds, "Not easily. Even when I tried to take your advice and follow societal standards to ignore you as unsuitable for me, something about you kept calling me. Those days when I helped Aunt Paula in the store, I kept hoping you would show up. But I was also afraid of how I would respond if you did."

He blurts out his words, "Why me?" then tries to make his reaction more reasonable, "Sharlene, you're so beautiful, there's hardly a man who wouldn't want you. On top of that, you're kind, gentle, generous, intelligent, and the list goes on. A lot of men would look no further than your body, but many others would see that your inner beauty easily matches your outer beauty."

"Why you? I can explain it in a single word, comfortable." When he can only stare at her, she tries to more fully explain, "I'm comfortable with you. A lot of the credit for opening my eyes goes to Aunt Paula who assured me that you can be trusted. It didn't take long for me to feel comfortable with you. You may have been impressed with my external appearance, but you still treated me as a person. You didn't appear to change your behavior around me and you certainly didn't make any effort to impress me like so many other men have tried to do. And you didn't expect me to act in any particular way. You let me be who I was or wanted to be.

"Once I realized how comfortable I was with you, I was able to look at you more closely, past the exterior and try to see and understand who you are as a person. I liked what I saw. You're kind, gentle, and generous, yet you are who you are. You don't put on airs and you don't try to impress others, while you let them be who they are. So many people I've known don't know who they are because they're continually playing roles. Many of those who do know who they are, are so arrogantly self-confident it's revolting. You don't fit in either of those camps. The more of the inner you I see, the more I like. And the more I like about you, the more I want you."

"You could have found someone younger."

Sharlene shakes her head then asks, "Where would I have looked for someone younger and for how long would I have to look? Even before I met you, I had basically given up on the idea of finding a man who would interest me. It's sad to say, but in a way I'm glad my mom isn't fully functional, otherwise she would be trying to hook me up with about any man my age she heard about, regardless of whether we were compatible or interested. So it's either you or nobody and I much prefer you."

It takes him awhile to respond to her clear statement, "Thank you. I . . . I don't know what to say."

"You don't have to say anything. Just accept that I really do want you and for you to stay with me and keep touching me." Her kiss is long and thorough, although she does her best to keep the passion out of it, at least for now. Since she guesses that he's just as close to losing control as she is, Sharlene tries to delay the inevitable in order to make the journey last maybe another step or two.

When his breathing settles, George steps back a pace, lifts her off of the counter, lets her stand on the floor, and hugs her very tightly. He kisses the top of her head then tells her, "Thank you my lady. Thank you very very much."

All she can do is try to hug him even tighter. Reluctantly, she pushes him back and says, "I need to wash up."

He gently caresses her head and when she looks up at him, she can almost see the words 'do you want some help?' on the tip of his tongue. Since she doesn't want to even consider his unspoken question, she gives him a quick kiss and almost runs from the room.

As he watches her leave, he marvels that she does want him, but there's no surprise at his desire for her which leaves him almost trembling. He goes over to the love seat and picks up the book he left there. It isn't until she's back in the room and sits at the table with her computer that he's finally able to begin to understand the words he's looking at.

* * * * *

Sometime later, George is startled to hear Sharlene's voice until it dawns on him that he had fallen asleep and she's talking on the phone. He hears her say good-bye and starts typing again, so he turns his attention back to his book. An unknown period of time later, he feels something on his leg which is in no way related to the book he's reading so he looks up and sees that her hand is caressing his leg. He almost flings the book aside before he lifts her from her kneeling position on the love seat next to him, turns her, sets her on his upper legs, and hungrily kisses her to which she enthusiastically responds. His hunger for her inflames her own desire and when his right hand cups and begins to caress her left breast through her shirt, she quickly climaxes. When their breathing settles somewhat, she makes a simple request, "Oh George, more!"

He leans her back and cradles her head on the inside of his left elbow which enables his left hand to slide over her shoulder so his fingertips can tantalize her left breast while his right hand moves to her right breast. As her nipples grow under his hands, her pleasure grows even faster. She cries out into the open mouth of his kiss. They both pant while they try to catch their breath, then his right hand slides down her torso, over her hip, down her left leg a little ways, then slips between her legs high on her upper thighs. Her legs quickly spread in invitation and almost begin to tremble from the pleasure as he caresses her legs, one then the other, to within an inch of her pubic area.

As the waves of pleasure crash through her, she barely avoids crying out as she tries to hoard the pleasure as long as she can, until he turns her torso towards him and sucks on her left earlobe which becomes the overwhelming straw to release her cry of pleasure. She slumps into his embrace and feels numb with pleasure. A moment later, she more senses than feels his right hand move from between her legs to the outside of her left leg and pull her snugly to him.

* * * * *

2147-09-09 (m2>a1)

It seems to take almost longer for her to recover from the pleasure than it did to receive it. Sharlene knew she was hungry for George and his touch, but she hadn't noticed or realized how hungry he was for you. Even as she just thinks about it, she can feel the waves of pleasure still sliding up onto the shore of her consciousness. They may not be the surfer waves of moments before, but they're still very much there.

She tells him, "Thank you so very much. I always seem amazed at how much pleasure you can give me. And before you tell me that it comes from inside of me and from my lack of previous touching, it's your hands and lips and desire which bring that pleasure out. Oh, George, I'm so tempted to have you touch me more, but duty intrudes. Klara and Mariam will be over in a little with the expectation of having some lunch and they won't be expecting me to be dining on the pleasure you give me. Will you help me fix lunch?"

His answer is drawn out, "Yesss."

"Why are you reluctant?"

"I just want the world to go away so I can give you pleasure. I'm afraid, my lady, that when it finally dawned on me that you actually want me, you've released a monster."

"Oh, goody."

He stares at her disbelief.

"I've always wanted my very own monster, as long as you'll be the monster in my bed instead of under my bed. And you already know such wonderful tricks. Will you teach me some more?" She's already kissing him before he can set aside his disbelief to respond to her kiss. His breathing is only partially recovered when she gets up and pulls him to his feet.

After they make quick trips to the bathrooms, they meet in the kitchen and soon have a large plate of sliced meat, cheese, and bread to make sandwiches. They just finish getting everything ready, except for the drinks which George is pouring, when Sharlene goes to answer the doorbell.

After they come in and hug Sharlene, Klara goes up to George, who unconsciously takes a small step back, reaches over, and holds his right hand in both of hers and says, "George, I want to apologize for pushing you over the edge yesterday."

"You had no way of knowing I was on the edge."

"Nevertheless, I shouldn't have forced a kiss on you without your permission."

"I'm sorry I reacted to such a wonderful gesture on your part. I just don't understand why such a pretty woman as yourself would want to kiss this old man. Still, I thank you." George partially bends over, raises her hands, and kisses the backs of them. In a moment, they're in each other's arms with a warm hug. When he releases her and steps back, Klara reluctantly follows suit while she reflects that it's been a long time since she's received such a warm caring hug.

The next thing he knows is that Mariam has slipped into his arms and is tightly hugging him. As he somewhat gingerly hugs her back, she tells him, "George, thank you for holding me yesterday when I was so distraught. Seldom have I felt so safe and comforted as when you were holding me. Thank you." She gently lays a hand on the side of his face then almost has to tear herself away in order to avoid kissing him.

They sort themselves out, sit down to eat and the ladies chat a little while he eats in somewhat of a daze. While he doesn't seem to notice the taste of the food or that he's actually eating, George feels overwhelmed that Klara and Mariam apparently want to hug and kiss him also. He's barely come to terms with the idea that Sharlene wants him. It's almost as though she's some sort of sorceress who's put an enchantment on him to make him attractive to others.

Why would she want to do that when she clearly says she wants him for herself? He knows she's a very generous person, but is she so generous that she's willing to share her man? No woman he's ever met or heard of would do something like that. Sharlene has to rub his arm a couple of times, before he's aware that Klara has called his name. He turns to her and says, "I'm sorry, I was off thinking. Yes, Klara?"

"I want to thank you for your comments on the proposal for Digital Empathy to take over the Project. You raised a couple of good questions I hadn't considered which will improve the security of the Project from the Institute being able to reacquire it. I would like you two to review the updated proposal this afternoon. At your suggestion, I've also contacted the government agency which is responsible for requiring the Institute to disburse the Project and they are very interested in what is going on and promised to take a closer look at the Institute and who they decide to award the Project to and what their reasoning is behind the choice. It may change the odds of our getting the Project, whether that's good or bad, I'm not sure, but it will make the award decision more unimpeachable.

"I've also reviewed your pros and cons regarding a rental facility and like the way you think. I've discussed it with Mariam who was able to provide some of the answers to the questions you two raised, so I would like you two to re-review the choices based on the new information. I contacted the real estate agent who said all of the rentals are still available, but he won't be available until early this evening or tomorrow afternoon. We'll still have to play that one by ear as to when to meet with him to sign a rental agreement."

Klara takes a drink before she continues, "This morning, we met with the police lieutenant who is handling the corporate espionage case and I gave him a copy of the recording from Mariam's 'discussion' with the directors of the Institute as well as the transcript. I assured him of the source which he'll check anyway. Apparently, the security guard we dealt with is a retired police officer who used to work for the lieutenant so there shouldn't be any problems there.

"As he glanced through the transcript, his eyes opened wide. He asked which transcription program I used and when I told him, he said it was the same one the department used and was widely recognized by the quadrant judicial system as accurate. He looked at Mariam and said, 'You have quite a case here, young lady.' Mariam pointed to me and told him, 'We're already working on it, sir.' He just grinned at both of us. Then he named a judge who we should see who has more experience in the field of employee rights and sexual harassment. We have an appointment with the judge early this afternoon. To put the paperwork together for Mariam's lawsuit against the Institute was one of the easiest I've done since so many of the accusations were copied right out of the transcript."

Sharlene says, "You've been busy."

"That's the way I like it. Mariam's been a lot of help and I couldn't have done as much without her help.

"I have a big vested interest in all of this."

Klara assures her, "That still doesn't negate how helpful you've been."

"Thank you, Klara."

"Sharlene, thank you for lunch. I don't mean to be the type to eat and run, but we do have an appointment."

"Klara, if I can help the cause by serving lunch, they I'll gladly do it."

"Thank you, both of you. We may be back for dinner, I don't know. I'll let you know one way or the other." Klara quickly hugs them both, as does Mariam, and then they're out the door. Sharlene closes the door then comes back to the table where George is still standing.

He asks, "Why do they want to hug me?"

She steps into his arms which encourages him to demonstrate her answer, "Because you give good hugs."

"But where did they get that idea from?"

"They've both hugged you before. I suppose you can blame me for either telling them or enjoying your hugs in their presence. And I can blame Aunt Paula for her telling me that you give good hugs."

"I suppose you would give me the same answer as to why they seem to want to kiss me."

"Yes, I can, although I'm not quite as sure about the accuracy. Mariam agreed with you that my interest in you sparked her curiosity about you. Since then, she's come to like you because she likes who you are. Klara was puzzled by why she kissed you. She enjoyed kissing you and liked how you responded, but she didn't know why she initiated the kiss."

"What if they want to . . . push it further?"

"I don't think you have to worry about that with Klara. Mariam, well, Mariam is finding you interesting."

Since he's genuinely puzzled by her answer, he asks, "Why?"

"For many of the same reasons I do, you're kind, generous, gentle, and caring. You give good hugs and kisses. You heard what she said about how safe and comfortable she felt while you were holding her when she was upset. That means a lot to some of us women. It would have been easy for you to take advantage of her vulnerability, yet you didn't. Even if no one else had been here at the time, you still wouldn't have taken advantage of her. She knows that and appreciates it.

"In a way, it's sad that Mariam, Klara, and Aunt Paula view you as so comfortable and desirable to be around. Each of them has much more experience with male companions than I do, yet they still gravitate towards you as though it's rather rare to find a man who is comfortable and trustworthy like you. That's a sad thing to say about the male of the species. . . . You're a very special man, George Greyson. I realized it very shortly after I met you, and as time goes on, I've just become more convinced of how special you are. I suppose that's part of why I don't feel particularly jealous when others want to hug and kiss you. In a way, I feel like I'm being extremely selfish to keep you all to myself."

"I need to sit down."

* * * * *

2147-09-09 (a2)

Sharlene releases him just long enough for him to pull out a chair at the table and sit down before she sits on his upper legs and snuggles deep into his arms.

"Where were you decades ago?"

"Oh, George. It's very sad you were ignored and unappreciated for all of those years and I'm sorry you had to suffer such neglect. . . . I hate to say this and I'm sure I'm not going to say it right, but in a way, I'm not sorry, because if you had found acceptance and love years ago, then you would be happy in some other woman's arms and I wouldn't have a chance to know you, to love you, and to want you."

"Oh. . . . So, my presence in your life is more important than my years of loneliness?"

"Ouch, George, I didn't mean to make it sound so harsh."

"I'm sorry. I'm not blaming you, you had no control over it. I'm just trying to understand the contrast."

"For contrast purposes, then, yes, you being in my life and wanting me and me wanting you, is more important to me than your years of loneliness. I very much wish I could have known you those many decades ago and given you acceptance and love so you wouldn't have had to suffer the hurt and neglect. I can't change the past, but I intend to do all I can to make your present and future enjoyable and as full of acceptance and love as possible."

"Thank you, my lady," he hugs her tighter while tears roll down his face.

Sharlene lets him cry for awhile before she asks, "What's the matter?"

"Nothing's the matter. I'm overwhelmed by how accepting, kind, generous, and loving you've been to me. It's like . . . more than I can manage to deal with." She pulls his arms tighter around her then reaches up her right arm to pull his head down to kiss his tears away. After awhile, he calms down enough to say, "Thank you for putting up with me and all of my emotions."

"I'm glad you're willing to share your emotions with me. It makes you more real. And it gives me a chance to give you some comfort after all of the comfort you've given me. I don't mean to play a game of one-upmanship, but I feel like you've given me ten times as much pleasure, comfort, and love than I've been able to give to you."

"I'm not going to argue with you, but even if it was true, it's a very small price to pay for the acceptance you've shown me and for wanting me."

"Oh, George," she silences him with a long kiss since she doesn't want him to find another way to make her into the heroine when he's the hero in her life. After his breathing has settled and they've cuddled for a number of minutes, she asks, "Are you going to be able to function?"

As he tries to step away from how nearly overwhelmed he feels, he finds that it's an almost impossible effort to put a deliberate leer into his voice and say, "That depends on what kind of functioning you want."

While she's thrilled not only by his unvoiced suggestion, but by the humor in his voice, she tells him, "Not yet, lover boy, we need to clean up after lunch and review the documents Klara left."

"Oh. I'm sorry. Yeah, I guess I'm ready to function."

"George, don't be sorry and don't go so serious on me. I love your humor and your desire for me. I even like your leer because I know it's done in fun."

"You do?"

"Very much so. For me to hear you express your desire for me, even in humorous terms is thrilling."

"Really? What if I . . ."

Sharlene clamps her lips over his until he's breathless. When she has enough breath, she tells him, "Don't tell me. Show me when the time is appropriate." Before he can respond, she gets up and starts to clear the table. George makes a big effort to not think of her and of all of the many ways he would like to touch her and give her pleasure and he manages to control himself while he's catching his breath, even as she brushes by him while she clears the table, . . . until she bends over almost right in front of him to dry the table.

As she stands up and turns away, he grabs her braid, gently pulls her back to sit on his upper legs, leans her back, and kisses her for all he's worth. When he sits up to breathe and sits her upright, she looks at him for a little while. A couple of moments later, she pushes his hands down to his sides, leans back and sideways to the table, swings her right leg across just in front of his face, then sits up, straddles his legs, clamps his hands to his side with her knees, grabs his face with both hands, and kisses him breathless before she tells him, "Thank you for showing me your desire. I didn't think it would be so soon."

Although he wants to believe he made a sincere effort, he's really not sure how sincere he was or can make it sound, so he hesitates to say, "I tried to resist."

"What overcame your resistance?"

He hesitates even longer before he admits, "You bending over . . . to dry the table."

Even as she slightly blushes as she remembers what he's said about her bending over in front of him, she explains her own action, "I wanted to be close to you, but I forgot about the bending over part. In that case, I'm surprised you didn't touch me when I was bent over."

"I almost did. . . . I tried to resist that much longer. . . . I didn't want to distract you."

"You mean because Klara wants us to review those papers?"

George nods his head.

Sharlene looks at him a little longer, then she spreads her legs to release his hands, pulls herself tightly to him, leans her head forward to nibble on an ear, and whispers, "It won't take that long to review the papers." As she begins to rub her torso on his, his hands start to caress her inner thighs which are spread out on either side of him. Her pleasure quickly builds and interrupts her kisses which allows him to start kissing her face, her ears, and her neck. As his hands move up and down the insides of her thighs, her pleasure becomes almost overwhelming, until his hands slide up her thighs almost to the junction with her torso and his thumbs dive down the insides of her legs barely an inch from her pubic area and she cries out with her climax.

He pauses to let her breathing settle a little then he reaches up to begin to caress her breasts through her shirt. She gasps in pleasure and with what seems like the greatest of efforts, she puts her hands on top of his and pulls them away. She sets his hands on her thighs, but quickly removes them. Finally, she turns them, puts his hands on his chest, holds them there, and requests, "A moment, please." It takes more than a moment for the waves of pleasure to stop rolling through her. Half a dozen times she almost forgets why she stopped him and is ready to urge him on. When her breathing has settled and her pleasure has receded to a dull roar, she asks, "George, have you had a sexual release today?"

"No."

"Then it's time I concentrated on giving you pleasure for once." She stops his objection then says, "Besides, I need another semen sample. The first sample was shortly after a previous release and you might not have had time to grow anymore of the 'little buggers'. This time, it should have been long enough for your body to grow a few more sperm."

"What do you want the sample put in? I'll see if I can get a sample and bring it to you."

She shakes her head as tells him, "Oh, no, you don't. I'm helping with this process every step of the way."

He looks at her in great surprise and asks, "What!?!"

"If you were going to do it on your own and turn in a sample, you could have done that with the doctor's office. George, isn't the whole idea of checking your sperm count to help you feel comfortable that you aren't able to make me pregnant?"

"And you."

"One question at a time, isn't it to give you peace of mind that when we make love you are unable to make me pregnant?"

"Yes."

"Then you're doing it for my benefit, to protect me from getting pregnant, right?"

He hesitates then says, "Yes."

"Then I'm going to help you produce a semen sample."

"You're willing to touch me to get a semen sample?"

"George, my love. I'm more than willing to touch you because I want to touch you, period. By combining getting a sample for a sperm count with my desire to touch you, hopefully, it will be more acceptable to you. I want you, old man, I've touched you before, why the objections?"

"I . . . I'm not sure."

"Lover, you need a sexual release. I love all of your touching, but you're having trouble controlling yourself. I'm more than willing to make love to you, but I don't want you to feel guilty afterwards, which you will if we jump that far ahead in the journey. Am I right?"

He hesitates before he admits, "You're right."

"Don't you want me touching you?"

"Very much so."

"Then what's the problem?"

"I should be giving you pleasure."

Sharlene looks at him in disbelief for awhile before she can respond, "George, lover, you've given me so much pleasure that I've already had a sexual release multiple times today and the day's barely half over. It's more than past your turn. When you touch me and give me pleasure, I get lost in the pleasure and forget about pleasing you. If you're going to receive any pleasure without it being a by-product of my pleasure, then I need to be able to concentrate on pleasing you without being distracted by my own pleasure."

"Are you sure?"

"Stop being so selfish. It's very clear you can give me pleasure. When do I get a turn at giving you pleasure? And how am I going to learn to give you pleasure if I'm not given the opportunity to practice?"

His open-mouthed stare turns into a guilty grin before he admits, "I guess you have a point there."

"Thank you. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to sound so harsh."

"Don't be sorry, sometimes it takes some harshness to get though my ossified brain cells. Where do you want me?"

"I would be inclined to do it right here," she scoots back a little and reaches a hand down to caress him between his legs which causes him to groan with pleasure, "but for the sake of getting a semen sample, it would be better to have you lay on the bed."

"Lead on."

* * * * *

2147-09-09 (a3)

Sharlene gets off of him, pulls him to his feet, tightly takes his hand, and leads him first to get a sample dish from the microscope case, explains, "I don't want any of them to escape off of a slide," then leads him to the bedroom. She puts the sample dish down, throws back the covers and turns back to him, and sees how unsure he is about proceeding because he fumbles with his belt buckle.

Since she feels sympathy for him rather than being upset with his uncertainty, she steps close, moves his hands from his belt to her waist and proceeds to unbuckle then unzip his pants. After she pushes them down over his hips, she kneels to pull his pants all of the way down then holds them open so he can step back out of them. She shoves them aside. As she stands back up, she slides her hands up the front of his legs and is pleased to hear him gasp then groan. When she's standing up, she slides the back of a finger slowly up and down the bulge in his underwear, looks up at him, and says, "Your body is ready."

He nods his head.

"Are you ready?"

He hesitates then nods his head again. A moment later, she pulls the elastic waistband of his underwear away from his body then pulls them down. She pauses a moment to stroke his erect penis, then pushes his underwear down his legs, kneels, holds them open for him to step out of them, and puts them on top of his pants. She slides the back of her hands up the insides of his legs which spread wider while his breathing becomes more rapid. When her hands reach the top of his legs, they cup and gently knead his scrotum. He groans deeply and hugs her tightly to him. She has to stop touching him so she can get him to release his hug and get on the bed.

As he lays down, he watches as she grabs the sample dish. She holds it in between the thumb and little finger of her left hand, positions it in front of his penis then begins to 'tickle' the head of his penis with the tips of her other fingers. He groans and his eyes close as he throws his head back. A moment later, she reaches down with her right hand and slowly slides her hand up the inside of one of his legs in a zigzag pattern as he's done so wonderfully to her. She feels her own excitement grow, not only from remembering, but from feeling his excitement grow.

When her hand is almost to his pubic area she moves it to the other leg and gives it the same enjoyable treatment. This time when her hand reaches the top of his leg, she again cups and gently fondles his scrotum for awhile, then she slowly slides her open palm up the front of his penis then back down. The second time she slides her palm up, she feels his hips lift off of the bed, she circles his penis with her hand and in a few short strokes, she's rewarded with his pulsing penis and spurts of milky fluid going into the sample dish.

When his hips slump to the bed, she removes the sample dish, goes to the bathroom, gets a warm wet wash cloth and a towel to clean up the residue, covers him up past his waist, kisses him briefly, and tells him, "Thank you, my love, you did well. Rest now."

He sleepily smiles as he responds, "Thank you."

She looks at him for a little while and barely resists the temptation to crawl into bed with him for more pleasure. Reluctantly, she retreats to the bathroom, grabs the sample dish and goes to the kitchen where she sets up the microscope, thoroughly examines the sample, and is unable to find any swimming sperm. After she steps back and rests her eyes for awhile, she gets a drink, re-examines the sample, and still finds nothing moving. When she feels satisfied with the results of her examination, she cleans up the sample dish and puts it away with the microscope.

Sharlene briefly looks over the papers Klara left and decides it would be better to go over them with him. She walks to the bedroom, stands next to George, and gazes down at his dozing face. Yes, he is most definitely an old man and not attractive by any of society's standards. Yet the inner man, so full of kindness, gentleness, and comfort is like a fairy tale prince of incredible beauty or a knight in shining armor come to rescue her and protect her. Sometimes she has to wonder which one is the illusion and which one is the reality.

She sighs and decides that, in either case, it's time to wake him up. As she continues to stand next to the bed, she feels a little mischievous so she turns, stretches over him to brace her left hand on top of the covers next to his waist on his left side and slips her right hand under the covers and finds to her delight that his penis is softly flaccid. She doesn't understand why, but it's fun to touch him when his penis is so soft and then feel it grow under her touch.

While she intently plays with him, she gasps in surprised pleasure when his right hand slips between her legs above her knees and begins to move up the inside of her left leg. As she tries to spread her legs, she quickly discovers that her left knee is tightly pressed to the side of the bed, so she lifts her knee to put it on the bed next to his chest and as her pleasure climbs with his hands, she drops her head to his blanket covered left leg and lets the pleasure flow and grow, then she snugly grips his penis as she cries out with her climax.

When her breathing settles and the waves of pleasure diminish enough for a rational thought or two to slip through, she becomes aware of how awkward her position is. After she reluctantly releases his penis, she places her right hand between his legs with her wrist snugly touching his scrotum which causes him to gasp with the increase of pleasure. She braces herself on her right hand and lifts her left leg over him to kneel on his other side then she lifts her right leg to kneel where her left knee had been so her head is facing his feet.

As she uses her left hand to again brace herself, and is apparently unaware of how her position appears to him, she takes her weight off of her right hand and begins to caresses the inside of his thighs, his scrotum, his lower abdomen, and his erect penis. He stares in wonder and disbelief at the junction of her legs which is right in front of him, until he gasps as her caressing hand brings him more intense pleasure than he ever remembers receiving before. While the pleasure begins to pound through him, and since his upper arms are trapped between her knees, it takes him awhile to figure out how to touch her.

He turns his torso to the left which causes his upper right arm to slide up the inside of her right leg and when his right hand pushes her left knee higher along his body, her pubic area rests on his upper arm. However, it's there only long enough for the pleasure to rocket through her and almost take her to climax, but not long enough for her to take advantage of the position. A moment later, his arm is sliding back down her inner right thigh.

When his upper body is laying flat on the bed, he again stares at the juncture of her legs and torso for a little longer before he turns his torso to the right. As his upper left arm slides up the inside of her left leg, her pleasure almost overwhelms her quickly devised plan, but when his left hand tries to push her right knee up higher, she moves her body to rub her pubic area on his shoulder just a couple of times before she climaxes with a cry of pleasure.

He almost comes unglued when he sees and feels her rub herself on him, but as she relaxes after her climax and lays her head on his blanket covered hip, he gathers his disintegrating control back to him, pushes her right knee up higher, and lays back. This time, he closes his eyes to the tempting sight in front of him and tries to catch his own breath. In a little while, he reaches up with his hands, soon finds her erect nipples through her shirt, and caresses around and over them. Since his touch builds on the pleasure which is already racing through her, she wants to move with it, but there's no specific direction, so she squirms her upper torso on his pleasure giving hands.

Her pleasure seems unrelenting as it grows, until she almost painfully clasps the bottom of his penis and testicles and cries out. He pulls his hands away as her chest slumps down on his upper abdomen. He keeps his eyes closed to what he knows is right above him while he feels astounded not only at her willingness to touch him, but at her desire to be touched.

The moments stretch and George begins to think that maybe she's satiated. Just before he reaches up to roll her off of him, he freezes as Sharlene begins to stroke his penis and with each stoke, the increasing surges of pleasure nearly bowls him over. With a great effort, he moves his hands to cross at his chest and as they close on her inner thighs, she gasps then groans as his hands slowly move up the insides of her legs.

As her pleasure climbs higher and higher with the movement of his hands, her panting becomes more rapid, as does her strokes on his penis, his hands along her high inner thighs catch the same rhythm until his little fingers slide along the juncture of her legs and pubic area and she cries out long and loud while his hips arch upwards towards her body and his penis pulses under her gripping hand. They hold the tension of pleasure for a long moment until she collapses on him and he slumps to the bed, exhausted.

A little while later, he starts to move, but when he recognizes that her hand is still gripping his penis, he guesses that if he moves her, it could have painful results for him. He decides he had better wait until she relaxes her grip, so he forces himself to relax and is soon asleep.

Slowly, Sharlene becomes aware of her surroundings and momentarily wonders how she got to be here. As she realizes what her right hand is gripping and the position of her body, she remembers what happened and with the memory of the event comes the memory of the pleasure and she almost cries out in climax with the power of it. It takes quite awhile for her to calm down. The first thing she does after that is to relax her grip on his penis and gently pats it in apology.

As she starts to carefully move, she becomes more fully aware of her body's position and blushes at the show she must have put on for George. She stops and wonders to herself, "Why should I be blushing?" The whole journey is about intimate pleasure and as both Aunt Paula and George have pointed out, there's nothing 'bad' about anything intimate partners agree to do. George has already told her that seeing her bent over excites him, so as long as she doesn't mind him becoming excited, which she surely doesn't mind, then there's nothing to blush about her position other than the timing and how it might tempt him beyond his control.

As she thinks about how tempting he would say she was, she can only shake her head in amazement that he still hasn't touched her any more, well barely any more than he had before. Since she believes she knows him well enough, she's sure that how he touched her this time was as far as he had intended to touch her a couple of days ago and since, but he had previously left an inch or so of cushion in his touching. Carefully, she gets up and as she remembers his pulsing penis just before she passed out, she gets a washcloth and towel from the bathroom, washes him up, and covers him back up. Then she washes herself and changes her panty before she goes back to the bed, sits down cross-legged, holds his left hand, and watches him.

* * * * *

2147-09-09 (a4)

Some unnoticed amount of time later, George begins to stir and when he discovers that his left hand won't move, he turns his head, opens his eyes, sees her smiling face, and almost cries out at her beauty. I takes him a few more moments to express himself in words, "You're so beautiful."

Before he can provide the contrasting statement regarding himself, Sharlene leans over, covers his mouth with gentle fingers and tells him, "So are you."

His eyes open wide in surprise.

"Okay, maybe your external appearance doesn't meet society's standards. I don't care about society's standards. You're the most beautiful person I've ever known. You're so kind, so gentle, so generous, so patient, and you bring me more pleasure than I could have imagined was possible. I know you had a sexual release, but did you receive pleasure a little while ago?"

He just stares at her for so long that she begins to think she did something wrong.

"Sharlene," he swallows nervously then tries again, "Sharlene, for someone with no experience in sexual activities, you're amazing. . . . I've never had any woman touch me and give me as much pleasure as you gave me a few minutes ago."

That surprises her so she asks, "Never?"

"Never."

"But I thought I was only giving you back a little of what you've been giving me."

"I don't know about that. I just know that I've never been touched so wonderfully and thoroughly before."

"Oh. My poor man. I would have gladly touched you more if I hadn't have let the pleasure you were giving me distract me. . . . George, it wasn't until afterwards that I became aware of my body's position and thought about what you've told me. Did it bother you to see me like that?"

"Bother me? Only in the sense of being overwhelmingly tempting."

"That's what I meant. You've made it very clear you like to look at me any way you can. I hadn't meant to tempt you past your control. . . . Yet, I very much want to encourage you to express your desire."

Although he knows she's said it before, it still surprises him, so he asks, "You do? Why?"

"Because the expression of your desire is to give me pleasure and I very much want to receive the pleasure you so willingly give me. I'm terribly selfish about that. So, how am I to know where the line is between encouraging you to express your desire and tempting you beyond your control?"

"I'm afraid, dear lady, there is no clear line. What I can manage one time may drive me out of control the next time. I don't even know where the line is myself until it's right there in front of me or until I've already stepped over it."

"Then I guess I'll continue to encourage you to express your desire for me, and if I happen to push you over the line, then I'll just have to enjoy the consequences."

"But I might hurt you."

She leans over to caress his face as she tells him, "I seriously doubt that you'll hurt me. Even if you slightly did, I'm positive the pleasure you give me will overwhelm any pain." She kisses him thoroughly in order to stop any immediate protests. When she lets him breathe, she lays on him and then moves her hand down to fondle him through the blankets.

He reaches down and pulls her hand away, then says between panted breaths, "Are you trying to get me started again?"

"No, I just like to touch you."

"That touching is liable to start me."

"Then, my love, I start you again." Sharlene leans up to see him just stare at her. "George, I don't understand it any more than you do. I want you. I want to touch you. I want you to touch me. I want to receive pleasure from you. I want to give you pleasure. It's as though nothing else matters. I work on getting the company started because Klara and Mariam expect it of me. They could easily get the company started and run it without me."

"Except that you have the best emotional recordings they've seen."

"So far. Surely there are others who can produce as good or better emotional recordings than I can. Even if there isn't anyone else, that's my only contribution to the company and I only achieve that because of how you give me pleasure. So the only unique contribution I can make to the company is to receive pleasure from you. Which brings us full circle back to where I started, I want you."

George shakes his head then says, "I don't understand you, but I can't argue with you."

"Good. I don't want your argument, I want your acceptance, even without the understanding."

He lays there for awhile and just looks at her beautiful smiling face. Finally he starts to grin then says, "Well, my lady, there is one thing that I really do understand."

"What's that?"

He firmly, but gently, shoves her off of him as he says, "If I don't get out of bed, it's going to be wet," and he dashes to the bathroom.

She just lays back and laughs. When he comes back to the bedroom, she's sitting on the edge of the bed and requests, "Come here, George."

He stops a full pace away.

"Oh come closer, I'm not going to bite."

Reluctantly, he takes a half step closer. She reaches out, grabs his penis and pulls him closer. She holds his penis in both hands while she gently touches and fondles it then she looks up at him and says, "Thank you for not covering it up."

"I would have if my bladder hadn't been so insistent. Why do you thank me? You want me to run around without my pants on?"

"Wouldn't you want to see me run around without my pants on?"

"That's different."

"That's a discriminatory statement."

He stares at her for a moment then says, "I'm sorry, you're right."

"No, I'm not suggesting that you run around without your pants, but if you would like to see me without my pants, they give me the same freedom to enjoy seeing you without your pants. George, when I say I want you, that means I want all of you, including my little friend here. I know you want me and I know you mean every square inch of me. If it would seem more fair to you, I would gladly take off my pants and let you hold me."

His eyes almost pop out of his head at that suggestion. Finally, he shakes his head, swallows nervously and says, "Not yet, my lady."

"Thank you for sharing with me. I look forward to when I can hold my little friend with a different part of me."

Reluctantly, Sharlene releases his penis and George quickly gets dressed while she watches him. Although he's embarrassed at her interest, he has to acknowledge that he would stare even more intently if their roles were reversed. She stands up and when he's finished dressing, she hugs him tightly, kisses him thoroughly, then takes his hand and leads him to the dining room table, where they review the documents Klara had left for them with fresh drinks.

* * * * *

A couple of hours later, Sharlene and George have finished going over the proposal and the rental options as thoroughly as they know how. She's beginning to wonder how many to fix dinner for when Klara calls and says that she and Mariam will be over in an hour or so and will bring dinner with them.

Sharlene decides to fix something for dessert and with George's help they soon have a small cake in the oven. She's starting to rinse off the last of the cooking utensils before putting them in the dishwasher when he steps up behind her and reaches around her to wash his hands then asks her, "Towel?"

"It's hanging on the front of the stove."

"That's too far," and he starts to dry his hands on her shirt right over her breasts. She freezes and feels stunned at what he did. He pulls the bottom of her shirt out of her pants to finish drying his hands then he moves his hands back up to her breasts and begins to caress her. He leans over, nibbles on her ear, and proclaims, "This is much better than a boring old towel." All she can do is lean back on him as the pleasure washes through her. A couple of moments later, he reaches over, turns the faucet off, turns her around, lifts her onto the counter, steps close, hugs her tight, and attempts to kiss her breathless. He doesn't succeed.

She asks, "Are you trying to get me to take my shirt off?"

"Yes . . . no . . . not yet."

"Can't make up your mind?"

He nods his head, shakes his head, and rolls it in circles.

She laughs, grabs his head with both hands and kisses him. "You delightful man," and she hugs him tightly. When his breathing has settled, she has to ask, "What gave you the idea to dry your hands on my shirt?"

"I don't know. It just seemed like the fun thing to do at the moment. I warned you that you released a monster when you finally got it through my thick skull that you want me and want me to touch you."

"Oh, George, if this is the kind of monster I released, then I'll definitely keep it. It startled me, but what a fun spontaneous thing to do. How many more of those ideas do you have in that wonderful head of yours?"

"I have no idea. Very seldom are they anything but a spur of the moment thought. Sometimes, it's the particular situation which says 'now.' . . . You didn't mind me drying my hands on your shirt?"

"No, lover. I suppose if you did it every time we were in the kitchen, the joke would become stale. If we were further along in the journey, it would be a creative way to get me to take my shirt off."

"Mmm, I'll have to remember that."

Sharlene laughs then says, "As though you'll forget it."

He just grins at her in response.

"I'd better go change my shirt before Klara and Mariam get here. And if you offer to help," she watches as his eyes widen, "I'll insist that you follow through."

He pauses then shakes his head and reluctantly says, "Not yet." After he lifts her off of the counter, she hugs him tight, kisses him breathless, then walks down the hall as she shakes her head and chuckles. While he watches her walk away, he wonders how much longer he can resist her.

* * * * *

2147-09-09 (e1)

When she returns to the kitchen, she sees that he finished rinsing the cooking utensils, put them in the dishwasher, and is sitting on the love seat with his book. Since she doesn't find anything else which needs to be done, she sits down on the love seat next to him and asks, "What's the book about?"

He closes it, sets it down, and answers, "I don't know."

"Why not?"

He picks up her left hand, kisses it, and answers, "I can't seem to think of anything but you. I've started reading that book at least a half dozen times. I've read others by the same author and enjoyed them. Even if I read a couple of chapters, when I go back to it, it's like I remember nothing about it. Sharlene, being with you has been more fantastic than any fantasy book I've ever read. You're truly a dream come true."

He leans towards her and kisses her long, a kiss which is somehow full of warmth and longing rather than passion. When he leans back to breathe, she slips onto his upper legs and snuggles up to him. A couple of times she thinks of a verbal response, but they never seem quite adequate compared to tightly holding his arms around her.

Later, the doorbell rings and right after Sharlene opens the door, Mariam comes dancing in doing some sort of a jig, but instead of holding her hands gracefully high, she holds a couple of pizza boxes high and remarkably steady. Klara comes in behind Mariam with a grin while she shakes her head. Mariam dances to the kitchen counter, sets the pizza boxes down, dances back to sweep Sharlene into the dance for a little while before she stops to breathe, hugs and kisses Sharlene and with an arm around her shoulders, Mariam goes to the love seat, gives George a hand up, a big hug, a brief kiss, then turns them to face Klara. She pauses a moment to take a deep breath then proclaims, "Lady and gentleman, may I present Klara the clairvoyant, the magnificent, the awesome attorney, the counselor without compare, the lawyer . . . sorry, I couldn't think of something to go with that."

Klara can't hide her grin of satisfaction even as she says, "Knock it off, Mariam."

Sharlene asks, "I assume things went well?"

"More like great."

"Tell."

Mariam insists, "Wine and food first, please. The results may have been to our satisfaction, but it was thirsty work nonetheless."

With George's help, they soon have food and drink in front of them and are seated at the kitchen table. After a few bites, Mariam turns to Sharlene and asks, "Weren't you wearing a different shirt at lunch?"

She starts to blush and say, "Well . . ."

George jumps in to explain, "It was my fault. We were cleaning up in the kitchen and I splashed water on her."

Sharlene nods her head, so Mariam takes it as something not to be told or to be told in private, so she nods back and drops the subject.

As they near the end of the meal, the timer dings, Sharlene gets up, pulls something out of the oven, checks it, puts in on the counter, then closes and turns off the oven.

Mariam asks, "What's that?"

"A small cake. When Klara called, it sounded like good news so we made a cake to help celebrate."

When everyone has their fill, the leftover pizza goes into the fridge, the drinks are refilled, the table is cleared, bathroom trips are made, and as they all sit back down at the table, they look at Klara.

She takes a sip of wine then takes a moment longer to gather her thoughts. "As I mentioned at lunch, we had an appointment with the judge who the police lieutenant had recommended. After we greeted the judge, I gave her a brief synopsis of the situation and gave her a copy of the lawsuit which I intended to file. She asked if I could support the allegations, I gave her a copy of the transcript from the recording.

"When she asked how I had a copy of the recording, I could only reply that it was freely given by a highly reliable source. She understood and when she asked what we wanted, I said I wanted independent confirmation that I had an adequate case and requested any suggestions for improvement. She chuckled and said it was more than adequate, and wondered about the corporate espionage element. I said we were already working on that with the local police lieutenant.

"She re-read the proposed lawsuit and said the only thing she would suggest adding would be the victim's statement which I handed to her. She addressed a couple of questions to Mariam who was able to answer them quite easily. When the judge asked if there was anything else, I handed her a subpoena to acquire official copies of the conference room recordings which dealt with Mariam, and the judge signed that without hesitation.

"After the official business was done, we chatted for a few minutes about mutual acquaintances. When we left, I filed the lawsuit with the court clerk and while they were making an official copy, I contacted the Institute and demanded a meeting with the directors in an hour and strongly suggested they have legal representation with them.

"We arrived at the Institute before the hour and were warmly greeted by the security guard, indeed, by all who saw Mariam on the way, until we got to the conference room. When we walked in, one of the directors pointed at Mariam and asked, 'What's she doing her?' Instead of answering, I introduced myself by name and as an attorney and said I knew the conversations in the conference room were being recorded and that I wanted a copy of the recording of our conversation before I left. That created quite a stir because apparently some of them knew and some of them didn't know about the recordings.

"The hubbub finally died down and the Institute director said of course the conversations were recorded because they had to protect themselves. A couple of the other directors, Mariam identified them later, went rather pale at that announcement. After a pause, one man stood up, introduced himself by name and as the Institute's legal advisor. He said he didn't know the conversations were recorded in the room, and had he known that was the case he would have made it clear that such recordings were illegal unless all parties in the room had been advised of the recordings at the beginning of each meeting. Another stir ensued while a couple of other people's faces turned rather pale.

"When the conversations died down, the Institute director asked what I wanted besides a recording of the current conversation. I stepped over to their legal advisor and handed over the subpoena, described what it was, and said I would wait for the recordings. The legal advisor read it over then announced that it was legitimate and signed by a sector circuit court judge. The Institute director asked if I wanted transcripts to go with them, I told him 'No, thank you,' that I could supply my own. He told the legal advisor to get the recordings in question.

"When the legal advisor left the room, the Institute director asked me if I had been the one at the presentation last week with a certain 'Mr. G'. I told him I had the privilege of having the acquaintance of the gentleman and had attended him on the night in question. Then he asked if 'Mr. G' really had a five thousand square foot cabin in the woods. I asked if he had seen the video which Miss N'gambu had brought back. He said he had then complained that it didn't show much as he glared at Mariam. I said it was in the woods, but that I wouldn't call it a cabin considering it's large size and that 'Mr. G' had actually offered to get out the architectural blueprints or a tape measure and help me to measure it if I wanted to verify the size.

"One of the other directors spoke up and asked about the little tart who was with 'Mr. G' at the presentation. Before I could speak, one of them said, 'Shut up Roland. I'm glad I wasn't at the presentation, but I understand from talking to some who were there that the person you so ignorantly called a 'little tart' happens to be Doctor Sharlene Schmidt who used to work for this so-called fine Institute until she found out how thoroughly we had lied to her and the world about the brain scan study.'

"He briefly paused then continued, 'It's a wonder she hasn't sued us for breach of contract. Doctor Schmidt is a board certified neuropsychiatrist as well as a neurosurgeon and has the traits to become a top notch research scientist. Before you start making slurs about a person's character, I suggest you do some research as a proper scientist should.'

"He turned to me and said, 'Ms. Sohkohlov, I assume that you're acquainted with Doctor Schmidt.' I replied, 'Yes, sir, you may. And for the benefit of any others who may think to disparage Doctor Schmidt, I can honestly say that I've known her since the day she was born.' After a glare at 'Roland', he turned back to me and said, 'Thank you, Ms. Sohkohlov for that additional information. If I may ask, how is Doctor Schmidt doing?' I answered, 'She is doing well. Thank you, sir, for you kind inquiry into her wellbeing.'

"There was a pause then another asked, 'What's this I hear about Doctor Schmidt being Mr. G's personal physician?' I responded, 'Excuse me, sir, but since I have no idea what you heard, I am unable to answer your question.' There were some chuckles at that while the questioner glared around him before he rephrased his question, 'Is Doctor Schmidt, Mr. G's personal physician?'

"I paused for a little while before I answered, 'I suppose no real confidences would be revealed if I answered the question. In a strictly legal sense, no, she isn't his personal physician because no contract has been legally established. However, in a very practical sense, Doctor Schmidt is Mr. G's personal physician. She's personally monitoring his care after he recently suffered a heart attack and he's the only patient she has. Mr. G has also promised, in my hearing, to support her as long as he lives and even beyond and he's a man of his word.'

"My apparent confirmation of the idea that Mr. G could afford to support a personal physician seem to stun them. Another one asked, 'If she's a neuropsychiatrist, how is she able to treat a cardiology patient?' I paused awhile longer then said, 'Doctor Schmidt happened to be the first physician on the scene of his heart attack and since she was unemployed, she decided to expand her medical knowledge and follow the case. Although she's not a cardiologist by specialty, Doctor Schmidt is well acquainted with a new cardiology treatment and an experimental drug which the emergency room physician at the University Medical Center had only recently learned about and both were instrumental in saving Mr. G's life.' Sharlene, I hope I didn't step over the line with what I said."

* * * * *

2147-09-09 (e2)

Sharlene responds, "No, Klara, that's a technically correct statement."

"Thank you. On with the story. At about that time, the legal advisor returned and handed me a mini-drive. I asked if they were the recordings from the sessions listed on the subpoena. He assured me that they were. I looked at the Institute director and assured him that I would validate them. He returned my look and asked me if there was anything else I wanted.

"I turned to the one who had pointed at Mariam and said, 'Excuse me sir, you asked why Miss N'gambu is here. She has a complaint to register against the Institute and I'm her legal representative.' The Institute director asked what the complaint was. I handed a copy of the lawsuit, as filed with the court, to their legal advisor and said sexual harassment and illegal treatment of an employee and named chapter and verse of the applicable legal code.

"All were quiet as they watched their legal advisor read the lawsuit and grow paler. He asked if I could validate the accusations, I held up the mini-drive he had just given me. He sat for a couple of minutes longer before he slowly stood up. He pointed out that under his contract with the Institute, he could not represent the Institute in this matter because it involved illegal behavior by the management of the Institute. As a legal advisor, he advised them to plead guilty to all charges when the lawsuit goes to court.

"He started to walk towards the door then he stopped and turned around and waited for the noise to die down. The Institute director told him that if he wasn't going to do what he was hired for, then they would get another lawyer. The legal advisor said that was fine, but said it wouldn't do any good."

Mariam asks, "Klara, can I tell the next part?"

"Oh, okay," she responds with a pleased smile.

"The legal advisor stepped up beside Klara and said that in legal circles she was known as 'Klara the clairvoyant' because she always made sure of her facts before she presented them in court and always seem to know where to find the facts. He paused then told them that by recording the conversations in the room they had set up a clear cut, open and shut case against themselves. He turned to Klara and asked her to come with him to get the recording of the current conversation. He headed towards the door while Klara paused a moment and looked at each of the directors with a big grin then turned and followed him out of the door. I'll let you finish."

Klara continues, "When we arrived at the legal advisor's office, I asked him if he was related to a judge with the same surname. He said the judge was his father, so we chatted for a little while about his father's career and about his own legal career. After we talked for awhile I said that I was ready for the recording of our conversation in the conference room. He acquired the recording and winked as he handed it to me. We thanked him and left.

"A number of people stopped Mariam on the way out and offered their support and encouragement. We went back to the court and delivered the recordings requested in the subpoena and requested official copies. We took one of the official copies over to the police department and gave it to the lieutenant who is handling the criminal espionage case. We picked up a couple of pizzas on the way and here we are."

Sharlene's eyes are wide as she says, "Wow. So the Institute doesn't have a leg to stand on in regards to what they did to Mariam."

Klara shakes her head as she confirms, "None whatsoever. The law is very clear and the conversations were very clear. If any judge dismisses the case or rules against Mariam, they would be under immediate suspicion of bribery. As I told Mariam, she shouldn't expect any sort of a large financial settlement. But it will be a big vindication for her and when word gets out, other companies will have to think twice about how they treat their employees, especially their female employees."

Sharlene hesitates some then asks, "Will this impact our proposal for the Project?"

"Simply put, no. I forwarded a court copy of the lawsuit along with the recordings to the government investigator who is overseeing the removal of the Project from the Institute and advised them that it's on the way. They'll make sure that the proposals are fairly evaluated. One of the stipulations in the request for proposals is that after the winner is announced, all proposals will be available for review to all who submitted proposals. It's possible that two proposals could be almost identical and some unidentified incentive could tip the scales one way or the other, but that's extremely rare."

Sharlene says, "Klara, I'm so glad you were here. Even if we don't get the Project, for you to be able to help Mariam is worth more than everything else we've done."

"Thank you, I've been more than happy to help."

After she pauses for a few moments to try to clearly understand what was said, Mariam asks, "Sharlene, do you mean that if there was a choice between my vindication and securing the Project, you would choose my vindication?"

She reaches across the table to grab Mariam's hand and says, "Of course, I would. You're my friend."

Mariam drops her head and when she lifts it, her eyes are brimming with tears as she whispers, "Thank you."

In a flash, Sharlene is around the table and hugs her. Mariam recovers fairly quickly and gladly accepts the tissues Sharlene hands to her which she had received from George. While she's still hugging Sharlene with her left arm, Mariam reaches out her right hand to clasp Klara's hand and tells her, "Thank you, Klara. I really appreciate it. However, I can repay you, I'll do it."

Klara assures her, "Forget about it. I wanted to help and I was glad to help because such issues are important to me. I also wanted to help because I would like to think of you as my friend. Besides, my time here is to help you guys acquire the Project and I think that helping you in this situation will be most beneficial to that cause."

Mariam's eyes brim up again as she speechlessly pulls Klara into a three way hug. After awhile, Mariam releases them and reaches for the tissues. When her eyes are dry, she deliberately puts on a little girl pout, looks across the table, and as Klara and Sharlene grin in amusement, she 'accuses' him, "George, you didn't join us."

"It warmed my heart to see you three share. Besides, there wasn't room for me to join you, unless I laid on the table to reach you."

The ladies laugh at the image while he just shrugs and grins. Mariam reaches across the table, grabs his hand, kisses it, and caresses it, "George, thank you for letting Sharlene remain my friend."

Since he's genuinely puzzled by her comment, he asks, "Why wouldn't I?"

"Just thank you."

"You're welcome."

Mariam leans back, gives Sharlene another hug, and shoos her off to her chair.

Before she sits down, Sharlene asks, "Is anyone interested in dessert?" They respond positively, so they take a break, make bathroom trips, refresh their drinks, and enjoy the cake.

As Sharlene sits back down after they're done with their snack, she asks, "So, Klara, what's next?"

"Did you and George have a chance to re-review the proposal and the rental choices?"

"Yes." Sharlene gets up, picks up the papers from the counter where she had put them, and hands them to Klara. She sits back down as she says, "We did have a couple of other questions we wrote down, more for our own understanding."

Klara takes a couple of minutes to read over their questions and answers them, then hands the proposal to Mariam to read while she looks over their revised assessment of the rental choices. When Mariam is done reading the proposal, Klara asks her if she as any questions about it.

Without answering Klara's question, she asks her own, "Should I have read this now?"
"Why not? You no longer work for the Institute, so there's no conflict of interest."

"You're right. That's going to take some time to get used to. May I read it again?"

"As many times as you want."

Mariam reads the proposal again, asks several questions and even makes a couple of suggestions for change based on more obscure knowledge of the Project which Klara quickly incorporates.

When Mariam is done, Klara reads it over again and proclaims, "Excellent. Thank you, all of you, even you, old man. I think we have a winner here. There are, of course, no guarantees, but I think this is one of the better proposals I've had the privilege to put together. You've each contributed valuable thoughts and insights which I normally don't have available. Thank you."

Sharlene reaches across the table and grabs one of her hands and tells her, "Klara, thank you. We never could have done it without you. I can't express how grateful I am that you took your personal time to come and help us and guide us through this process."

"Sharlene, it's been my pleasure. Of course, I could always say, wait until you see my bill."

"The investor better not bat an eye at your bill or I'll have to pass the word through Dad how you've gone above and beyond what was originally requested of you."

Klara assures her, "I don't think we have to worry about that. As far as the next step goes, I'll write up a final proposal and submit it tomorrow. I'll also see if we can sign a rental agreement tomorrow. Then there's not much else we can do in regards to the Project. Oh, Mariam, did you ever get that list of equipment and supplies used by the Project?"

"No, I totally forgot about that."

"That's quite understandable. I'll make a note and see if I can pick it up when I turn in the proposal. I think I'm ready to call it a day. Mariam, did you want to stay later?"

"Want, yes. Keep my eyes open, no. If you don't mind, can you drop me off at my place?"

"Of course. Do you think these two can manage without us to entertain them?"

* * * * *

2147-09-09 (e3)

Mariam shakes her head as she answers, "I don't know, Klara. With their age differences, what could they possibly have in common?"

George 'informs' them, "I'll have you young ladies know, that it's just about time for my favorite television show, 'Archeology Revealed'. Sharlene has found it quite enjoyable for me to explain how the so-called archeology experts have got it all wrong. Why, it was only a couple of weeks ago I was telling her about how one night when Marc Antony was feeling a bit maudlin after drinking more than usual, he confessed to me that he was more interested in Cleopatra's jeweled necklace than he was in her neck or any other part of her anatomy."

Sharlene nods her head, "That's right, and he was wondering when I left Egypt and gave up on being a pretty little maid in the castle."

Briefly, Klara and Mariam just stare at them and then burst into laughter. Klara finally manages to reduce her laughter to chuckles in order to say, "I suppose you were one of Marc Antony's officers."

"Are you kidding? I was waiting for the drunken sot to finish, so I could clean the table and get to sleep in the stable before the damn roosters started making all of that racket in the morning."

They laugh so hard, tears come to their eyes. It's a couple of minutes later before Klara can ask, "So, oh ancient one, are there any other interesting characters you've met?"

He drops his head in an embarrassed manner, and says, "Well, I had to confess to my lady here, that when I was a lot younger, I had quite a crush on Rapunzel with all of that long beautiful hair," as he makes a deliberate show of playing in Sharlene's hair, "but I soon realized it would have never worked out between us since I couldn't afford her shampoo bill." He sighs heavily, "Fate decreed it was to be love at long distance."

The laughter resumes, although it doesn't last as long.

Klara 'accuses' her, "Sharlene, you kept telling me he was a boring old man."

"That's what he and Aunt Paula kept telling me. I've certainly found out differently."

"Young lady, you made the difference. Without you, I am a boring old man."

Klara tugs on Mariam's arm as she says, "Come on, the argument may be interesting, but I don't want to stick around for the kiss and make up scene."

Sharlene protests, "But, Klara, that's the best part."

"Maybe it is for you two."

They share a quick laugh, longer hugs, and in a little while, Klara and Mariam are walking out of the door while they're still chuckling.

Sharlene closes and locks the door, turns out the porch light, leans back into his welcoming arms, and asks, "So, my not so boring old man, what's on the entertainment calendar for this evening?"

He hesitates before he suggests, "Television?"

"I'm sure you can think of something more interesting than that."

As he leans over to nuzzle her ear, George starts to slide his hands back and forth across the front of her shirt and slowly moves his hands higher with each stroke then he asks, "Do you really think so?"

"I know (gasp) so," as his hands slide across her breasts. She's a little surprised to feel his hands keep going up and don't stay to caress her breasts. Instead, they caress her neck, each hand up its own side, to briefly play with her ears then back down to her neck, cross in front of her to slide up her neck and briefly play with her ears again. It's a gentle pleasure which she's more than happy to lean back on him and enjoy.

A moment later, she gasps again as his right hand slides across her bare skin under her shirt collar and almost follows the outline of her bra. When his right hand comes out from under her shirt, his left hand repeats the movement on the other side of her upper chest. With the significant increase in pleasure which flows through her, she lifts her arms out of the way and clasps them behind his neck as she eagerly anticipates what he'll do next.

She's not disappointed when his hands start to move back down her torso, but instead of slowly moving straight down or zigzagging, his hands go slowly down while his fingertips dart in between her buttons to briefly touch her skin. When his hands reach her waist, his left hand begins to move in seemingly random patterns across the whole front of her shirt while the fingertips of his right hand slip between the lowest set of buttons on her shirt above her waist to caress her skin in a spiral which very slowly moves up her body and pulls her shirt bottom out of the front of her pants. Once the bottom of her shirt is just out of the waistband of her pants, both of his hands slip partially under the bottom of her shirt and slowly move in opposite directions along her waist to pull her shirt all of the way out of her pants.

His hands reverse direction and slowly caress her skin just above her waist until they meet in front and begin to slowly undo her shirt buttons. As each button is undone, he moves to the next one up and her excitement begins to grow as his hands move higher. When his hands slowly unbutton the button right in front of her bra hook, he briefly pauses while his wrists rub her swiftly hardening nipples and she barely avoids crying out as she tries to hold onto the pleasure.

His hands keep unbuttoning her buttons until her shirt is open which produces another leap in her excitement. He crosses his hands again and slowly caresses her skin going down her body and when he pauses to caress her bra covered breasts, she does cry out in pleasure. His hands continue to slowly caress down her body and as they reach her waist, they uncross and caress her skin from her waist to her bra and from side to side.

Shortly after his hands meet in front right under her bra hook, they move towards her sides a little and his thumbs reach up and gently rub her nipples though the thin fabric of her bra. Her pleasure begins to leap back up the mountain and doesn't have time to diminish before he slides his hands around her sides, pushes her just a little ways away from him so his hands can meet at the small of her back just above her pants waistband. He pauses a moment, then slowly slides his hands back towards her front.

His fingertips barely slip under the waistband of her pants at her side, but as they move towards her front, they slip just a little bit more under her waistband. It feels like so much more to her so that when his hands meet in front, she cries out since it feels like his fingers are much more than just two inches under her waistband. He pulls his hands out from under her waistband and gently caresses the skin of her upper abdomen while he revels in its silky smoothness which provides her with an opportunity to catch her breath.

In a little while, he crosses his arms in front of her, bends over her slightly, and with gently firmness, he grips her sides and lifts her just off of the floor. He leans back slightly to pull her weight closer to his center of gravity, carries her to the love seat, backs up, sits down, and pulls her onto his upper legs. When he releases the grip of his right hand from her side, he slides his hand over her hip and partway down the outside of her leg, resumes his grip, and turns her body ninety degrees to their right, leans her back with his left hand, bends over, and kisses her hungrily.

She immediately responds just as hungrily, but as the kiss goes on, it becomes harder for her to keep the kiss going, because his right hand is sliding, caressing, and tantalizing her all over from her waist to her neck with special attention to her breasts and their erect nipples. He breaks the kiss to breathe and a moment later she cries out as her pleasure hits the mountain peak when his fingertips gently rub a bra covered nipple.

He sits back with his eyes closed to wait for his breathing to settle while she sits up and leans on him for the same reason. When their breathing is almost normal, she pulls his head down and kisses him breathless again before she tells him, "Thank you, thank you, thank you." This time she lets his breathing fully return to normal while she turns to face him, kneels on the love seat, straddles his legs, and sits on his legs just above his knees. She leans forward and supports herself on her left arm while her right hand unbuttons his shirt then she kisses him breathless again.

As his breathing settles, he opens his eyes to optically savor the expanse of her smooth medium brown skin, broken only by her bra which draws his attention to her feminine charms barely concealed by the thin fabric of her opaque bra. Gingerly, tenderly, he touches her exposed skin, the shape of her almost flat breasts, and her very obvious nipples. For some reason, the eager look in his eyes only adds to the pleasure which his hands are generously bestowing on her skin.

Even while she tries to pay attention to her hands which are caressing his chest, she's much more aware of him touching her chest. Soon, she can only lean closer to him and groan with closed eyes and seemingly inflamed nerves. When he leans closer and begins to kiss her just above her bra, that small increase sends her pleasure over the peak as she climaxes with a cry.

There's barely a pause in time before he pulls her up and begins to kiss her just under her bra while his nose and forehead brush across her taunt nipples. At the same time, his hands slide down over her hips, partway down her legs, then slide up the backs of her legs almost to her buttocks and she almost cries out before his hands reverse direction. His hands move up the backs of her legs again and as they reach and then linger just below her buttocks to slide back and forth and move a little deeper between her legs with each stroke, her groans match the strokes of his hands, his hips rise to meet her and as her cry of pleasure goes on, his voiceless cry joins hers until the pleasure overwhelms her and she collapses on him as he slumps back on the love seat.

It's awhile before either of them stir and this time it's Sharlene, but only long enough to partially sit up, stretch her legs out along the outsides of his legs, and lay on him before she falls back asleep. A little later, George wakes up, but he lays still while he thoroughly enjoys the new sensation of her mostly bare skin laying on the bare skin of his chest. He finds it unbelievable that she not only let him unbutton her shirt, but that she encouraged him to do so and further encouraged him to touch all of her silky smooth skin, and her breasts! . . . and her nipples!!!

He holds still since he knows she needs time to recover, but without being consciously aware, he starts to caress the bare skin of her back under her shirt. Only when he hears her sleepy, "Mmm," of pleasure, does he realize he's caressing her. Since he's clearly not causing her distress, he selfishly continues his gentle caresses.

* * * * *

2147-09-09 (e4)

Awhile later, Sharlene moves slightly, lays her head next to George's, and briefly nibbles on his ear before she says, "I think I'm beginning to understand your statement of 'what a way to go'. Your touching is mind-blowingly wonderful. If my emotional recording comes across anywhere near what your touch feels like in real life, we're not going to have a fad or a trend on our hands, we're going to have an addiction of the most exciting variety. I can barely get my eyes open, yet all I want to do is ask for more."

"I'm not sure I have the energy to give you more regardless of what my lips and hands want to do. Touching you and giving you pleasure has been more enjoyable than anything else I've ever done."

Sharlene lifts herself slightly to look at him in surprise and asks, "Even better than making love?"

"Without a doubt."

"Then what do you have to look forward to?"

"Making love to you."

"I must be half asleep."

"Touching you is more enjoyable that what I've done in the past, making love to you is in the future, which promises to be even more enjoyable and exciting."

Her eyes open wide in further surprise as she exclaims, "Oh!" After a brief pause, she asks, "So why is touching me more enjoyable?"

"I could name several probable factors, but the key factor to me is that you sincerely and clearly want me to touch you. You so warmly invite me to touch you and that gets me excited before I barely have a chance to touch you. Weeks ago, you made it clear you wanted me to touch you, but I couldn't allow myself to accept such a priceless and unique gift. I still don't understand that you want me, but I'm beginning to accept it, probably because you frequently make it very clear."

"I've been told that persistence is one of my strengths."

George nods his head as he responds, "You certainly needed it to get through to me. And I, for one, am very glad you did. Especially since I think I'm receiving the greatest benefit of this relationship."

"I'll argue with that. Nothing can be better than how you touch me."

"I'm sure there are others who could touch you as well and probably much better, but I have a long history to validate that no one else wants to touch me or to be touched by me. Only you, Sharlene, are crazy enough to give me such an unfathomable gift."

She hesitates before she admits, "I suppose from your perspective, that's true. I never thought of myself as crazy. Just as less distracted by the external appearance and willing to take a look at what makes up the real person."

"Well, in our society that makes you crazy, since external appearance is all that seems to matter."

"You seem to appreciate my external appearance."

George nods his head as he responds, "Very much so. But without your warm inviting smile and arms, your external appearance would be a pain rather than a joy."

Although she guesses at the reason, Sharlene still asks, "Because you know you wouldn't be allowed to enjoy it?"

"That's one way to put it."

"Humm. Well, my old man, that's in your past. I intend to be in your future."

"Young lady, you are my future."

"Enough. George, I'm not some paragon of virtue, nor are you some pariah to be rejected. You say I'm your future and that I've given you a priceless gift. From my perspective, you're my future and have given me a priceless gift. Maybe, from a theoretical calculation of the odds, just maybe, I might more easily find someone to give me what you give me, compared to you finding someone to give you what I give you.

"Frankly, I don't agree with the odds. I can't imagine how many men I would have to take the time to get to know before I could find someone who I was as comfortable to be with as I am with you, and then for them to be as kind, gentle, generous, and patient as you? No way. I have no interest in going through all of that. As much as I enjoy the overwhelming pleasure you've been giving me, I would rather go without than search for a replacement for you."

He looks at her in surprise before he asks, "You're serious?!?"

Sharlene nods her head and assures him, "Very much so. I know you have a hard time accepting it, but you're wonderfully unique and very special to me. And . . . I can't even express myself. . . . George, to put it as simply as I can, I'll have you or I'll have no one." Her kiss is as demonstrative of that as she can make it.

When she lets him breathe, he can only lay there stunned . . . and hug her as tightly as he dares, even while she kisses his face, his ears, his neck, and back around and all over. Once his breathing is somewhat settled, he catches her lips with his and tries to kiss her as thoroughly as she kisses him.

After awhile and although she's not as out of breath as he is, she still finds that she's tired and quite willing to just lay on him and soak in his love for her. Even as he's been quite hesitant to use the term, that condition which often contains the highest meaning of the four letter word 'love' is what she believes he thoroughly demonstrates towards her. Even if there was another applicable word, it would have been just as completely misused and abused throughout the world and throughout the millennia.

"I'm sorry, lovely lady, but I'm going to have to ask you to move. Some internal parts of my body just aren't as willing to set all else aside to stay close to you."

"I understand." She gets up and gives him a helping hand then asks, "Are you thinking of going to bed?"

As they walk together towards the bathrooms, he answers, "No. I'm tired, but I don't think I'm tired enough to go to sleep. I think I would enjoy some quiet time holding you, while doing something which might slightly distract me."

"I know what you mean, maybe some television after all."

"That's probably about the right level of mental functioning I'm capable of achieving right now."

Sharlene chuckles as he gets his sweat suit out of his luggage then she gives him a good kiss, and watches him disappear into the guest bathroom. She gazes after him a moment longer, then takes care of her own flag waving bladder, washes up, and gets into her pajamas.

When they meet in the kitchen to get drinks, he raises his eyebrows at seeing her in her pajamas, but he doesn't say anything. Soon, they're on the love seat with her sitting on his upper legs while they flip through a few channels to find something semi-interesting. A few minutes later, he squirms a little, settles, then squirms some more.

She asks, "What's the matter?"

He briefly hesitates then admits, "A certain part of my anatomy has gotten itself into an uncomfortable position." She scoots down his legs a few inches and before he can take care of it himself, or object, she slips her hand into his sweat pants and straightens out his semi-flaccid penis. He responds, "Ahhh, better, thank you," and in a few gentle strokes, she has it standing mostly upright as he responds, "Mmm."

She scoots back close to him and reluctantly removes her hand.

"Thank you, my lady."

"It was my pleasure, old man."

He just stares at her a moment longer then shakes his head in disbelief.

"Yes, old man, my pleasure." She slides her hand back into his sweat pants and gently runs the tips of her fingers around and over the head of his penis. He can only groan in pleasure. She soon stops because she doesn't want him to get too excited, yet. At the same time, she's beginning to wonder if she needs to work harder to keep her own excitement down.

They flip through a few more channels on the television and find something which partially distracts them. She turns ninety degrees to the left to more easily see the program and lays with her back on his chest and pulls his arms around her upper abdomen. During a break in the show, he gently pushes her forward a little and begins to undo her braid and finger combs her hair and slowly works his way up through her long hair. It's not exciting, but it's so homey and right, she soaks in the comfortable pleasure.

When he's done finger combing out her braid, he runs his hands down the middle of her head, is careful not to disturb her headband, and splits her hair into two groups which he drapes over her shoulders on either side then he leans her back to him and hugs her snugly. After awhile, he relaxes his hug and begins to play with her hair by running his hands through it, brushing the tips across her cheeks, pulling it out away from her and letting it drift through his fingers, almost anything he can think of to do to touch her hair and help distract him from touching other parts of her. While he's in a daze of gentle pleasure, it's awhile before he realizes that he's also caressing her arms and torso, sometimes with her hair and sometimes without, yet he somehow seems to be able to avoid touching her breasts.

She floats in her own daze of gentle pleasure as she enjoys every touch, every move, and every caress of his hands. Then his lips add to the pleasure when he leans his head close to hers and begins to nuzzle one ear then the other, kisses along the top of her shoulders, across the back of her neck, and, occasionally, briefly sucks on one or the other of her earlobes. As the pleasure slowly grows, she forgets about the television, as he apparently has already done, and relaxes into the pleasure as she lets it wash over her.

His hands begin to occasionally circle her breasts or his fingertips slide between them which causes her to softly moan with pleasure. She turns her head, reaches up, pulls his head to hers, and they kiss. It's not a continuous kiss, but one interspersed with brief breaks as each uses their mouth to play with the other's mouth as they catch, lick, kiss, and suck on lips or tongues.

Her moans deepen to occasional groans as his hands more frequently circle not only her breasts, but sometimes move in closer to circle her nipples. Her almost cry gasp of pleasure when his hands slide over her nipples startles him to awareness. He almost feels ashamed at not being able to keep his hands off of her, but then he realizes she hasn't stopped, dissuaded, or even discouraged his touching. She has only encouraged him to touch her.

While his mind is lost in contemplation, it takes him a moment to realize that his fingertips are playing with her erect nipples through her pajama top accompanied by her deep groans rather than cries of pleasure. Finally, he realizes she must be just as tired as he is, so he starts to slowly reverse the level of his touching, to bring her gently down the mountain side of pleasure. Sometime after he's stopped caressing her and is just hugging her, one of them twitches and partially wakes them both from a doze.

Sharlene turns ninety degrees to the right so she can more easily look into his eyes and tell him, "George, that was absolutely marvelously wonderful. Thank you so very much." She kisses him breathless then cuddles close while his breathing settles.

Even though she's well aware of the necessity, she still rather reluctantly gets up then gives him a hand up. Together, they check the doors and turn out the lights then separate to get ready for bed. A couple of minutes later, he sees that she's already in bed with the covers turned back and with a very warm inviting smile on her face. Almost before he can lay down, she snuggles close to him, partially lays on him, and pulls up the covers. They share a long warm kiss and almost before it's over, they're asleep.

* * * * *

2147-09-10 (m1)

While she seems to be only half awake, Sharlene wonders why her big teddy bear she's cuddling isn't as soft and furry as it should be. She wakes up a little more and smiles when she realizes that her new teddy bear may not be as soft, but he's just as comfortable and a whole lot more pleasurable. That reminds her of the many times George gave her pleasure to the point of her being able to experience sexual release or, what was the other word he used? Oh yeah, climax. And that was just yesterday. For someone who gave up their interest of sexual matters as a teenager, she's astounded at how interested she's become. Even while she's just thinking about it, it's all she can do to not wake him up for more. After yesterday, she would have thought she might be satisfied for awhile.

Reluctantly, she gets up and attends to her bladder then goes to the front room to practice tai-chi while she concentrates on making her moves smooth and graceful. She's so lost in her concentration that it's not until she stops that she sees him leaning on the wall while he just stares at her. The quiet stretches until she hears him mutter, "So beautiful." A couple of moments later in somewhat closer to his normal voice he says, "Sharlene, that was incredibly beautiful."

She smiles, gracefully curtsies to him, then dashes into his arms and kisses him. When she lets him breathe, she hugs him tighter. Even after his breathing has settled, she hugs him longer. She leans back a little, reaches up, and brushes his face with a handful of her hair as she asks, "Do you feel up to practicing tai-chi?"

"Yeah. Maybe it will distract me some from what my body feels up to."

She lightly brushes her hand against the front of his pants then without a word, she leads him to the center of the room where he follows her lead as she guides him through what he's learned while she gives him minor corrections and lots of encouragement.

They have a light breakfast then clean up and while she gets dressed in her usual 'weekend' attire of long sleeved shirt, jeans, and sports shoes, he gives his handgun a thorough inspection before he holsters it. She comes back in the room just as he finishes and smiles at his protective nature then asks, "Are you expecting trouble?"

"No. But since Klara said something about going to get a rental, that means we'll be out and I remember you said you felt like you were followed the other day, so I thought I would be prepared."

"Thank you." She kisses him soundly then asks, "Pleasure and protection, what more could a girl ask for?"

"Most women want a whole lot more. That's something else I appreciate about you. You don't keep going on about 'buy me this' or 'buy me that' or 'how come you don't take me out or bring me presents or flowers', etcetera. In fact, I don't think I've ever heard you ask me to change who I am other than to encourage me to more freely express myself. That makes you rather unique for a female of the human species."

"I never thought much about it, but those lines do seem to be a common thread of women's complaints. Frankly, if I want something, I'll go out and buy it. If I want flowers, I'll buy the kind I want rather than hope somebody else was able to rightly guess what I wanted. Actually, I would rather grow them than buy them. Sure, I like presents, but I prefer presents I can't get for myself. Hugging myself or touching myself isn't the same as when you do it, so that's the kind of present I prefer.

"As far as changing you goes, I like you just the way you are. Besides, if I can expect you to change to suit me, then you would have every right to expect me to change to suit you, and if those changes are mutually contradictory, then what? If I can't accept who you are, then I should find someone else to have a relationship with rather than try to change you in ways which may be completely unsuitable to you."

George shakes his head before he says, "Sharlene, you are a marvel. In spite of all of my years of observing and trying to understand people, you continue to surprise me. You're so obviously female that I keep expecting typical feminine responses from you. I'm sorry I can't seem to avoid the stereotypical preconceptions and just let you be yourself."

"But you do let me be myself. Even when I don't respond as you expect me to, you've proven yourself more than willing to set aside your expectations and accept my actions and responses at face value. I appreciate that. Even in my limited experience, I've met men who couldn't deal with the idea that I don't respond as a typical woman."

She chuckles then explains, "I remember one of my medical school classmates gave me a bouquet of flowers once. I looked at them and asked him what they were for. He stared at me for a moment then said they were an expression of his affection for me. I asked him if he had grown them. He stared at me for awhile longer and said no, that he had bought them, which would have been pocket change to him. I told him he didn't put much effort into expressing his affection, handed the flowers back, said 'No, thank you' and walked away."

He laughs then proclaims, "That's excellent, Sharlene, simply excellent. Did he make any other attempts?"

"No. In fact, he did his best to avoid me and when he did see me, he looked at me as though I was some sort of alien. Actually, his attempt ended up being a blessing in disguise because he made sure other people knew what I had done and after that I was pretty much left alone."

"Were you lonely?"

"Not particularly. I was never much interested in the social scene and I preferred to concentrate my attention on my studies. I did miss having a close friend to talk to, but I managed. Sometimes I would save up all of my wanting to talk and during a school term break, I would stay up all night talking to Dad or to one of my friends from home."

The doorbell rings.

Sharlene gives him a quick kiss, then goes to answer the door as she says, "I wonder who that could be? Klara didn't call to say she was coming, did she?"

"No." George slowly trails behind her.

She partially opens the door, "Yes?"

"This is Officer Adams, I'm Officer Baker. Are you Sharlene Schmidt?"

"Yes. What's this about?"

"You're under arrest for the murder of Richard Rodgers."

"Who?!?"

"He was also known as 'Hektor'. Please come with us."

Since she's surprised at that response, Sharlene turns and yells, "George!!"

'Officer Baker' grabs her arm, pulls her out of the house and shoves her towards 'Officer Adams' who wraps his arms around her waist. This breaks her surprise and as 'Officer Baker' turns towards her, Sharlene slaps his face hard enough to snap his head to the side. As he turns back with anger, he says, "Hold her, damn it," then screams, clutches his genitals where she had kicked him as hard as she could, drops like a wet bag of cement, and vomits.

Before 'Officer Adams' can react, George firmly sticks the muzzle of his handgun into the ear of 'Officer Adams' and growls, "Let her go!" Although he had never had a handgun stuck in his ear before, he instinctively knows what it is and very carefully moves his hands away from her. Sharlene quickly scurries around behind George and leans on his back as he asks, "Are you okay, love?"

"Yes. Just scared, startled, and mad. Who do they think they are?"

"I'm just a cop trying to do his job."

George responds, "No way, shit for brains, real cops don't operate that way. Now, very carefully, undo your gun belt and drop it. No funny business, because I can pull this trigger and blow your brains all over the neighborhood faster than you can sneeze."

After he saw what happened to his partner and since he doesn't want something worse to happen to him, 'Officer Adams' unbuckles his gun belt and drops it.

"Shove it to the side with your left foot."

He does so.

George demands, "Kneel down."

'Officer Adams' does while he trembles and asks, "What are you going to do?"

"Does it matter? I have every right under the law to pull this trigger and do away with scum like you. Sharlene, take the gun, if he moves, blow him away."

"Gladly."

As he kneels there, 'Officer Adams' is more afraid of the cold anger in her voice than he is of the hot anger in George's voice. A moment later, he feels his hands pulled behind him and handcuffed to his belt.

"Lay down."

"I can't, I'll fall."

"What do I care?" But George grabs the back of his shirt and lowers him to the ground. He then goes to 'Officer Baker' and roughly removes his gun belt and handcuffs his hands behind him to his belt.

"Okay, love, I'll take the gun and watch them."

Since she's feeling more angry and thinks it might encourage their behavior, she suggests, "Ah, George. Can't I just put one hole in each of them?"

"Maybe later, love. Why don't you call the real cops, if you think you can trust them, and then call Klara? If you want to put a hole in them, I would rather do it somewhere else, rather than mess up your front yard."

Because he knows how easy it is to dispose of a body in the desert, 'Officer Adams' pees his pants in fear.

* * * * *

2147-09-10 (m2)

A few minutes later, the real police are there. When they see an armed man standing over what appears to be two fellow police officers, they draw their weapons and tell George to drop his.

George responds, "Not until you take care of these two fakes. Or do I take care of them for you?" He deliberately aims at one of them on the ground.

"Whoa. Hold on. What do you mean fakes?"

"If these two are representatives of the local police, then be prepared for being sued for assault and battery. And rest assured, my attorney is already on the way."

One of the officers notices her standing slightly behind George and calls out, "Sharlene?"

"Glenda? It's okay. George, here, is protecting me."

"Okay, people, stand down."

"What do you mean, 'stand down'? He's ready to blow away a couple of fellow officers."

"Listen, bird brain, I live right there. Sharlene is my neighbor. If she says the armed man is protecting her, then he's protecting her. And if they're 'fellow officers', they're going to wish he had shot them. Now, stand down!" Glenda holsters her weapon and the others lower theirs as she walks over to Sharlene. George relaxes his stance, but clearly doesn't holster his weapon. Glenda asks, "Sharlene, what's going on?"

George suggests, "Can you wait a second, love? Klara just pulled up. There's no sense in telling it twice."

"Glenda, this is my friend, George Greyson. George, this is Glenda Johnson, my neighbor."

George extends his left hand to shake, keeps his handgun in his right hand, and says, "It's nice to meet you."

Glenda shakes his left hand as she responds, "I don't know about 'nice' when you haven't holstered your weapon."

"Sorry, ma'am, but until everyone is satisfied that these two," he points at the two on the ground, "aren't a part of your department and you want to defend them, then I'll do anything necessary to protect my lady."

Just then, Klara comes up and asks, "Sharlene? George?"

Sharlene provides the introductions, "Klara, this is Glenda Johnson, my neighbor. Glenda, this is Klara Sohkohlov, my attorney and friend." They greet each other.

"Ladies? Recording equipment?" George reminds them. They're soon prepared and Sharlene tells what happened. Then George gives his account.

Klara sums up, "That's definitely kidnapping as well as assault and battery with George here clearly defending his companion and himself. If these two are from your department, whether or not they're on official business, it's not going to be pretty."

By then the police department's internal investigator has arrived on the scene. First, the investigator video records the scene, then has the two on the ground rolled over. He video records them and then looks at each intently for a moment. "No. They're not from our department. Either they're impersonating police officers which is quite illegal or they're operating outside of their jurisdiction which has its own penalties."

In a flash, the mood of the other officers changes and as they holster their weapons, George follows suit.

Klara steps forward and says, "In that case, I invoke the interrogation clause of the law against kidnapping."

"And you are?"

"The victims' attorney."

The investigator looks puzzled and asks, "Why the interrogation clause?"

"Somebody put these two up to assaulting my clients because they were involved in a self-defense situation a week and a half ago where the perpetrator committed suicide. I want to find out who that somebody is because they were the motivating force who was extorting and abusing other clients of mine."

"Okay. So noted and recorded."

"I suspect you may want to move quickly on this one. I'm sure their boss is waiting for a report back and if he or she suspects something went wrong, they'll probably be inclined to destroy evidence."

"Good point." The investigator looks at 'Officer Baker' and asks, "Do you have anything to say?"

"She kicked me."

"You're lucky her friend didn't shoot you."

"That would be better than when the boss finds out we failed."

The investigator turns to 'Officer Adams', "What about you?"

"We weren't going to hurt her, we were just supposed to scare her."

"Shut up!" his partner yells.

"Why? We're dead meat anyway. When the boss finds out, we'll be like that Tortino guy from last month."

"Shut up!!!"

The investigator looks at Klara who just nods. With a police recorder catching every word, the two are carried to a detention vehicle and taken to the police station when they reveal what they know as fast as they can talk, willingly or not. The investigator shakes hands all around, exchanges business cards with Klara, and leaves to deepen his investigation. As the other officers leave, Sharlene hugs Glenda and thanks her for believing what she said about George.

Glenda shakes right hands with George this time, although she holds his hand while she briefly looks intently at him then says, "I'm glad you were here to protect her."

"She almost had the problem solved before I could help."

Glenda smiles and says, "I understand that. Did she show you the video of the time some guy tried to assault her in her own driveway?"

George nods his head, says, "Yeah," and winks at Glenda so Sharlene can see, "It made me think twice about wanting to spend time with the little lady."

They share a brief laugh over the obvious lie. Glenda asks, "So what brought this on?"

As George hugs Sharlene, he gives a brief review of the event at Maria's.

Glenda asks, "So the judge declared it self-defense?"

Klara confirms, "With the multitude of statements as well as recordings, it was hard not to."

"Audio or video recordings?"

"Both, actually. The sheriff's office did a good job of putting together a composite from the various recordings."

"When the court case is over, can you send me a copy?"

"I don't see why not. Let me have your email address. Is there a particular reason you want a copy?"

Glenda explains, "I do some presentations to civic groups as well as teach a class at a local community college on the criminal justice system. I like to give examples of how the self-defense laws work and enable the average person to protect themselves. I love those laws since it makes my job so much easier."

They exchange business cards and after shaking hands again with Klara and George and accepting another hug from Sharlene, Glenda is on her way.

In the house and with the door locked, George asks Klara to get them drinks. She gives him a puzzled look while he leads Sharlene to the love seat, pulls out his holstered handgun, sets it aside, sits down, pulls her onto his upper legs, and hugs her tightly. A moment later, Sharlene clings to him and bursts into tears. Klara nods her head in understanding and gets the drinks.

Sometime later, when Sharlene is mostly calm and has finished her drink, Klara cautiously asks her, "Sharlene, I'm not questioning you, but I would like to understand something. You said you slapped then kicked the one who pulled you out of the house. Is that normally covered in martial arts training?"

"That depends on the teacher. Some teach the martial arts strictly from a class room or tournament approach where you have a chance to size up your opponent, get into position, and take your stance. Other teachers make it clear that life isn't organized or scheduled and teach the martial arts more from a self-defense approach. In those classes, we're taught to use anything available. Since I don't have the strength or the mass to use against an opponent, I need to use momentum to have the same power and that means room and freedom to move.

"Since I was being held, I wasn't able to use my usual martial arts moves effectively. I didn't consciously think of the moves ahead of time, but as I look back, I guess my reasoning for slapping the first guy was to make him angry which would increase the chance for him to make a mistake. Then I used the second guy who was holding me as a balance so I was able to swing my leg forward with more force than if I was maintaining my own balance. I don't know what I would have done to escape from the second guy, but George took care of him so I didn't have to worry about it." She reaches up to caress his face.

George asks, "So, Klara, what happens next?"

"If I don't hear from the investigator by early this afternoon, I'll contact him to see what they've learned. If they can identify this 'boss' the perpetrators mentioned, then I'll need to put together a quick lawsuit based on the victim's compensation law. The important thing is to get the initial suit filed as quickly as possible. It can always be amended later."

Sharlene asks, "What about the proposal for the Project?"

"I was just finishing that up when you called. Basically, I was just doing a final proof-reading and then I'll be ready to submit it. Are you going to be okay?"

"Yes, with George here. He's a good comforter."

"In that case, maybe I'll go finish the Project proposal and get that taken care of so I'll be able to concentrate on the victim's compensation lawsuit."

"Do you want to try to rent an office this afternoon?"

"George, the rental can wait if need be. That's the least of our worries. The market isn't going to change that fast even if we wait a couple of weeks."

"Okay. I'd been thinking that if you guys were able to get a place to rent, maybe I could help get it ready to move in. Things like paint, move furniture, and check the plumbing and electrical."

"It never occurred to me that you would be inclined to do that sort of thing. I just figured on hiring people to do what needed to be done."

"I'm certainly no expert, but I can check the electrical outlets, change light bulbs, clean out sink drains, that sort of thing. If I do find a problem, you can hire someone to fix it, but there's no sense in paying an electrician to change a light bulb."

"That's a good point. Of course, we'll have to make sure the rental contract will allow that sort of repair. Some require that any maintenance is accomplished by the facility management."

"I forgot about that possibility."

"That's okay, George, we share our strengths to overcome our weaknesses."

Sharlene proclaims, "Klara, that's a good motto."

"Really? Well, if you like it, feel free to use it. When I find out something, I'll let you know. In the meantime, you two relax and recover and I'll go see if I can't get the Project proposal done and turned in before I hear from the police investigator."

She gives them both hugs and when Sharlene starts to get up, Klara pushes her back down and says, "Stay. I can see myself out the door and lock it behind me. Bye."

"Bye, Klara," they say in stereo.

* * * * *

2147-09-10 (m3)

After they hear the door close behind Klara, George asks, "How are you really feeling, love?"

Sharlene briefly kisses him then answers, "Safe in your arms. When he first grabbed me, I was more startled than scared and then I was angry. When we came in the house and sat down, I felt scared about what might have happened and then angry about what did happen. I'm not sure which bothered me more, being scared or being angry. I've never liked being angry, probably because I don't like to be scared. And if I don't like to be scared, then I don't want others to be scared of me if I'm angry. Does that make any sense?"

George nods his head as he answers, "It makes perfect sense. I feel much the same way. Only occasionally do I feel otherwise and that's when I'm responding to a criminal type who's infringing on mine or someone else's rights."

"I know that feeling. I really didn't want to put a hole in them, but it wouldn't have taken much to push me that little bit further to pull the trigger. I would have been horribly upset afterwards if I did. I'm supposed to be a doctor who is dedicated to saving lives not taking them."

"Sharlene, just as some cells of a body need to be removed for the benefit of the whole body as in the case of appendicitis or cancer, so some bodies need to be removed from society for the benefit of the whole, starting with those who disregard the rights and dignity of others. That's the very reason for the anti-discrimination, self-defense, and victim compensation laws."

"You're right. We didn't ask for the trouble, but if we don't do our part to stop it, then in a way, we'll allow someone else down the road to be victimized."

"I understand what you're saying, but be careful on that road or you'll make yourself out to be the guilty party without doing anything wrong."

"Yeah. Then it would be easy to go from being the crusader who protects some people's rights to being the bully who steps on other people's rights."

"That's right."

They hold each other in peaceful comfort for a long time.

George says, "I just thought of something else."

"What's that?"

"As a physician, you would have known where to put a hole in those bullies which wouldn't have done any real damage, but would have taught them a lesson."

"Maybe if I had a .22 or something, but with hollow points in a .45 like you carry? No way. No matter how well I aimed, I would have still made a mess."

"True. I guess that's part of the reason for why I carry what I carry."

Sharlene stares at him for a moment before she says, "Of course it is and you know it."

He just grins at her.

"Oh, George, thank you."

"What for?"

"For . . . everything. For distracting me, for loving me, for protecting me, for comforting me, for making me laugh. I never knew what life was like until you made me complete."

"I think you have it backwards, lovely lady. I was an empty shell until you came along and filled me with acceptance, value, and purpose."

"Then I guess we're just right for each other since each of us fills the hole the other person had." Before he can object, Sharlene kisses him breathless.

As he waits for his breathing to settle, he caresses her face as she looks him intently in the eyes and he asks, "Where . . . how?"

She puts all of the sincerity in her voice and expression she's able to as she answers, "Anywhere, everywhere, and as much as you're willing."

His eyes open wide at the essentially blank check she signed for him, she nods her head, her smile broadens to one of the warmest most inviting smiles he's seen on her, and her hungry kiss dispels all doubt. It takes him a moment, but he's soon responding almost as hungrily. When he has to sit back to breathe, his hands pull her shirt out of her pants and his left hand slips under the bottom of her shirt and begins to caress her back while the fingers of his right hand walk up her buttons right between her breasts to caress her neck, stroke her face, and play with her ears.

Every move of his hands seems to inflame her desire and stoke the furnace of her pleasure even higher. As his breathing settles, his lips join in to increase her pleasure as he kisses her lips, her face, her neck, and her ears. Her panting breaths interfere with her groans of pleasure until she cries out as his hand caresses her breasts through her shirt.

When he hears her mutter, "More . . . please," his right hand is already sliding down her torso and at her waist his hand spreads, his thumb one way and his fingers the other way to go on either side of her pubic area and down her legs, as close to the fronts of her legs as his hand can spread. At her knees, his hand partially closes and goes up her legs somewhat along the insides of her legs. As her pleasure approaches the mountain peak, her legs start to spread in invitation, then stop as she realizes that one of her legs or the other will miss out on his touch if she spreads them any wider.

She barely holds onto the immense pleasure which is filling her up when his hand comes to within an inch of her pubic area and reverses direction to go back to her knees. At her knees, his hand reverses direction again and slips fully down to the insides of her thighs before it slowly moves up her legs. As his hand goes past the middle of her thighs, his hand begins to zigzag up the insides of her thighs with each stroke growing slightly longer the further his hand moves up her leg. She can no longer contain the pleasure and she climaxes with a cry when his hand caresses the insides of her thighs less than an inch from her public area.

When he removes his hand from between her legs, her right hand slips between their bodies and between his legs to sporadically stroke him. His right hand spreads then moves around her pubic area, over the front of her hips and to her waist where his thumb and fingers move together to begin unbuttoning her shirt from the bottom. Her groans of pleasure almost turn into a cry of anticipation and remembered pleasure.

Her pleasure grows with each button he undoes as his fingertips slide up her bare skin from one button to the next one to be undone. His right hand unbuttons the button in front of her bra while his left hand slips under her back bra strap to caress her skin while she deeply groans. Then his left hand slides further up her back while his right hand finds the next higher button to undo.

Once her shirt buttons are undone, he spreads her open shirt wide then lays his right hand flat on her upper chest with his fingers splayed. As he moves his right hand back and forth in a waving motion, while his left hand follows suit on her back in the opposite direction, he moves them slowly down her body and as his right hand moves over her bra and just touches the insides of her nipples, she cries out. When his waving hands reach her waist, his left hand slides up the bare skin of her back to slip under her back bra strap to support her while his right hand begins to caress her upper abdomen from side to side and from her waist to her neck.

Every time his hand slides along the edge of one of her breasts or between them, she gasps as her pleasure takes a step higher. That becomes more frequent as his caressing hand centers, then remains on her breasts while it moves tighter around her nipples. He spreads his fingers and thumb and as he gently rubs both of her nipples at the same time, her cry of pleasure drowns out his groan of climax. While he holds onto her collapsing body, he moves the love seat to recline, pulls her tighter to him, and joins her descend into unconsciousness.

Sometime later, Sharlene stirs, turns from her side to lay on him, buries her head in his neck, and returns to dreamland. With the adrenaline rush of fear and anger from earlier, followed by the relaxation from sexual climax, they sleep longer than they ever have after sharing pleasure during the day. When they finally wake up, it's to insistent bladders. Only a quick kiss slows their steps to the bathrooms where they satisfy their bladders, wash up, and change their underwear. He arrives in the kitchen shortly after her and gladly accepts the drink she hands him.

They consider having an early lunch when the doorbell rings. Cautioning her to wait a moment, he grabs his handgun from where he set it down by the love seat earlier. When he's standing by the door with his handgun leveled, he nods and she opens the door. Since she's surprised at who's there, it takes her a moment to ask, "Martin? Won't you come in?" She unlocks the screened security door and gently pushes it open and steps back.

"Okay." As he steps over the threshold, he sees George with the handgun, backs up to the door jamb, raises his hands, and says, "Please, don't shoot."

"George, it's okay. Martin's my neighbor."

George holsters his handgun.

"Martin, this is my friend, George Greyson. George, this is Martin, my neighbor from across the street."

They cautiously shake hands.

"Martin, I'm sorry, I never learned your last name."

"It's Mowlinski."

"What can I do for you?"

Martin shoves a mini-drive at her, "Here."

Sharlene is puzzled by his action so she asks, "What's this?"

"From this morning."

"You video recorded it?"

Martin nods his head as he answers, "Yes."

George realizes, "You have a video recorder watching her door."

Martin looks up with a startled and fearful expression then drops his head as he says, "Please, kind sir, I mean no harm. She's so pretty, I not resist seeing her more."

George tries to control his anger while he asks, "Have you given, sold, or shared your videos or pictures of Sharlene with anyone?"

Martin quickly shakes his head as he answers, "Oh, no, I keep only for myself."

George pauses for awhile longer then relaxes and winks at Sharlene who looks at him with a puzzled expression.

"Mr. Mowlinski, please calm down. You meant no harm, we mean you no harm. To tell you the truth, I've wanted to video record Sharlene myself. Were you the one who video recorded her when the bully tried to grab her in the driveway and she broke his arm."

"Yes, yes, that was me."

"You actually did Sharlene a big favor when you gave her a copy of that."

"I did?"

"I understand that the bully was almost laughed out of court when they showed your video of this little lady beating the bully."

"That's right, I'd forgotten. I've watched it so many times I can replay it in my mind. Did you see how she moved?"

"Like beauty in motion."

"Yes! That's it! What a wonderful title. I go write it down before I forget. Thank you, kind sir. Thank you, pretty lady."

Martin scurries out of the door and towards home.

* * * * *

2147-09-10 (m4)

George reaches out, closes and locks the security door then Sharlene closes the front door and asks, "What was that all about?"

"An ally. A resource. It's not right that he video records you without your permission, but since it occurs in the open across a public thoroughfare, any court action against him would be an ugly mess of accusations and would alienate him. Now if he was trying to plant a video recorder in your bedroom that would be a whole different story. I think it would be better to allow his harmless voyeurism, which, I strongly suspect, will go no further than recording you coming and going from your front door. His early video recording of you with the bully was strongly to your advantage. The one he just gave you may be also."

Sharlene thinks for a moment then says, "That all makes sense. I guess I was surprised at how quickly you responded to calm him down and encourage him."

"When I figured out he had a video recorder aimed at your door, I was upset, but then it dawned on me that there was a more positive way to approach the issue."

"Well, it sure seemed to work."

"You know, I still think a video recording of you doing tai-chi would greatly enhance an emotional recording of peace or contentment. If nothing else, Martin would be thrilled to give advice on the proper type of video recorder to use."

"I don't know, George. I don't like the idea of being in the lime light like that."

"It doesn't have to be a video recording of you, even though that's what I would selfishly want. It wouldn't surprise me if we could find some young lady who was an aspiring actress or dancer who would jump at the opportunity or even a tai-chi teacher who was willing to promote the exercise."

"I could live with that a lot easier. In fact, by taking me out of that equation it sheds a whole new light on the possibility of a video recording to go with the therapeutic side of the emotional recordings. You remember how hard we laughed at the video recording of Molly playing with the futball. Connect that with an emotional recording of joy and the combination might get through to even the most depressed person and give them maybe a few minutes of joy."

"There you go."

"It's something else to go into the ideas file." Sharlene shakes her head then says, "I'm getting tired of coming up with ideas and thoughts and not be able to discuss them with the right people.

"I know, love, have a little more patience. Come, sit down." George leads her to the love seat, sits down, pulls her onto his upper legs, hugs her close, and a moment later almost grunts, "Mmphf. Just a second."

George pushes her down his legs just enough to pull his holstered handgun out of his pants and set it on the table beside the love seat. As he sits back up, Sharlene gives him a saucy smile and slips her right hand between his legs as she asks, "Do you need anything else to be taken out of your pants?"

He gently removes her hand as he says, "Not yet, my temptress."

She gives him an exaggerated pout and says, "But, George, I haven't had a chance to play with my little friend for hooouuurs?"

He just stares at her.

She reaches up to caress his face, "My poor man, you still can't really accept that I want you, not only for you to touch me, but for me to touch you. I really do like to play with your genitals just as I'm sure you want to play with mine. It does bother me that I become so selfishly wrapped up in the pleasure you give me that I can't see past it to give you pleasure."

"Shhh, lady, no guilt. You don't know how wonderful it is for me to be accepted by you and allowed to touch you and give you pleasure. That you want to touch me and give me pleasure is beyond anything I could have imagined. Please give me a little more time to be able to accept that level of your generosity."

"Okay. Just to be clear, my patience is not unlimited."

"Yes, my lady."

"Now, what did you bring me over here to tell me or did you just want to cuddle?"

"I always want to cuddle with you, but I did want to ask you if you had considered what you'll do if you aren't able to take over the Project."

"Yes. I'll take you up on your offer, move in with you, and make love with you whenever I can."

"I'm serious."

"So am I, old man."

He can only stare at her.

"George, I want you. It's that simple. I suppose I could start my own medical practice or join some clinic, but if I stick with my specialty, I would have to stay in the city. I suppose I could get involved in a variety of volunteer activities. I suppose I could operate the cash register at Aunt Paula's store. But none of those are interesting enough to excite me. Only you do that.

"I used to be excited about my education, now I'm excited to be with you as fully as possible. You've not only affected me, it's like you've infected me and before you start making incorrect analogies, it's all to the good. I do want us to win the Project because I think we can re-direct it to help a lot of people. But for me to speak from a strictly selfish perspective, it wouldn't hurt me to not win the Project because then I would be free to spend more time with you."

The tears begin to roll down his cheeks which she alternately wipes and kisses away while he tries to express himself, "I . . . I'm sorry . . . your generosity is overwhelming."

"Oh, George, it's not generosity on my part, it's pure selfishness. At first, I found you to be the only man I was truly comfortable with. Then I figured out that you're the only man for me. I could search for a thousand years and never find a better man. When I told Klara and Mariam about my overwhelming desire for you, they naturally wondered if it was due to my late interest in a sexual relationship. They asked me if I viewed any other man with sexual interest. I shuddered in revulsion. The very idea is abhorrent to me. Yet when I think about you, all I want to do is be in your arms . . . and more."

He hesitates before he asks, "You really mean that?"

"Of course I do. I have no reason to lie to you. And I certainly wouldn't tease you or anyone else about something so important. I want you, all of you. I would gladly give you my body right here, right now, to demonstrate how much I want you except that I don't want you to feel guilty about ending the journey so soon."

"Oh, Sharlene, thank you." He pulls her head to his and kisses her with all of the thankfulness and gratitude which is overflowing from his heart to her. When he has to stop the kiss in order to breathe, he hugs her as tightly as he dares, caresses her face, and murmurs, "Thank you . . . thank you . . . thank you . . . ."

She marvels that the little love and acceptance she's given him can affect him so strongly until she remembers what he's said about his past and realizes that in the desert, only a little rain will be enough to get the flowers to bloom. As she senses that he's calming down, she's about to kiss him when her phone rings and she answers it, "Hello? . . . Hi, Klara. . . . Sure, no problem. . . . Okay. . . . We'll see you then. . . . Bye." She puts her phone away, "That was Klara. She'll be over in a little while for lunch."

Sharlene pushes away a little to turn towards him, grabs his head with both of her hands, looks intently into his eyes, and tells him, "George, I want you, all of you. This is only a small token of how much I want you." Her kiss is so full of desire and longing that it takes his breath away long before she kisses him breathless. When she finally lets him breathe, she again looks intently into his eyes, and declares, "A small token only," and holds his eyes with hers until he nods his head in acceptance. Her smile broadens to one of her warmest inviting smiles which just makes him want to melt before she tells him, "Good. You rest while I start to prepare some lunch."

* * * * *

2147-09-10 (a1)

A few minutes later, the doorbell rings and Sharlene asks, "George, can you answer that please?"

"Sure." As he opens the door, he sees that it's Klara, so he unlocks the security screen door, bows her in, and says, "Welcome, my lady, to the humble abode of the beauty and her beast."

When he stands up, Klara lays a hand on his cheek and says, "George, whatever else she may call you, you're not a beast."

"Thank you." As Klara goes to the kitchen, he shakes his head, closes and locks the doors, and follows.

When he steps into the kitchen, Sharlene releases her hug with Klara, grabs his face, looks into his eyes, and tells him, "I heard you and you're not a beast."

"I'm sorry, but compared to your beauty, I feel like a beast."

"Oh, George. I know I'm blowing away many of your long standing conceptions of yourself. It may be hard for you to think of yourself as such, but you really are my lover and my heart's desire."

"Thank you." He hugs her as she wipes away the tears which escape his moist eyes.

Sharlene pulls his head down, requests, "Close your eyes." When he does, she licks the tears from his cheeks and eyes then proclaims, "Too salty. You're going to have to give us something else to drink."

He gives her a little grin of gratitude, a fierce hug, a kiss on the forehead, says, "Thank you," then gets the drinks as she requested.

Klara can only watch in amazement at how well they mesh in spite of substantially different backgrounds and self-images.

When they're done eating, George puts a hand on Sharlene's shoulder to keep her from getting up and says, "I'll clean up."

Sharlene strokes his hand, says, "Thank you, lover." then turns and asks, "What's up, Klara?"

Klara reaches over, gets into her briefcase, hands some papers to Sharlene, and explains, "Here's a copy of the Project proposal I turned in as well as a copy of the receipt. I've also sent a copy of each to the government agency which is overseeing the Project disbursement. Here's a copy of the list of equipment the Project used. As I told Mariam when I gave her a copy, I would recommend holding off on buying anything yet, but at least we have an idea of what kind of software and hardware we might need. That's the current status of the Project to the best of my knowledge.

"The police investigator called me a little while ago and said he had some information for me and wants to meet in just under an hour. I wouldn't want to play poker with him. I couldn't make any guess as to whether the information he had was good or bad or a new recipe for chocolate chip cookies."

"I guess you'll just have to wait and find out."

Klara nods her head as she says, "It makes it hard when I don't have a clue. I much prefer a position of strength and knowledge. It almost always unsettles an opponent if they try to spring a surprise on me and I already know about it."

"I can imagine."

George asks, "What about Martin's mini-drive?"

"Oh, thank you. I forgot about that." Sharlene turns to Klara and explains, "Apparently, Martin, my neighbor across the street, video recorded this morning's event and brought over a copy. We haven't even looked at it yet."

Klara's eyes light up as she exclaims, "Really! Let's see it."

Sharlene gets her computer, connects it to the television and they watch it. Soon, Sharlene stops the recording, backs it up, and says, "That's what I was missing. I couldn't figure out how they pulled me out of the house when I knew I hadn't unlocked the security screen door."

"Breaking and entering, that's another crime to add to the list, but rather minor compared to kidnapping."

They watch the rest of the video, but there are no more surprises.

Klara asks, "How did he happen to catch it on video?"

George answers, "Apparently he has a video recorder aimed at Sharlene's front door to see the 'pretty lady', as he calls her, when she comes and goes."

Klara proclaims, "But that's illegal."

"That's what I thought, but it would be hard to prove since he could claim he was video recording his driveway while Sharlene's door just happened to be in line with it. Compared to what he recorded and provided, I'm inclined to overlook why he happened to be recording it."

"That's a good point. Sharlene, how do you feel about it?"

"I don't like the idea of being recorded by anyone, but I have to agree with George. Martin is somewhat eccentric, but I don't think he means me any harm. When George questioned him, Martin assured him that he hadn't let anyone else see the recordings he's been making, even though that would be hard to prove or disprove."

"Okay. From what you say, my guess is that he'll be even more cautious about his recordings now that he knows you're aware of them. Can I get a copy of that and take it to the police investigator? I'm sure he'll be quite interested in seeing that. I guess I'll have my own surprise for him."

"Let me put a copy on my computer, then you can take the copy I was given." Sharlene soon hands the mini-drive to Klara.

"Between you and Mariam, these lawsuits are child's play with such clear evidence, even date and time stamped for our convenience."

With a big grin to show he's teasing, George suggests, "We thought we would make it easier on you to help your transition into retirement life."

"Watch it old man, or I'll convince Sharlene to pull you OUT of retirement and make you work at Digital Empathy."

They laugh with each other.

"Okay, KIDS, I need to run and see what the police investigator has for me. I don't know if I'll be over later or not. In either case, I'll call ahead." Klara gives them both a hug and is out of the door which they close and lock behind her.

As they walk towards the love seat, he asks, "So, lovely lady, now that Klara has filed the proposal for the Project, I don't know what else can be done towards that, other than securing the rental. Have you thought about what to do until the Project award is announced?"

"That depends on what Klara finds out about this morning's event, but my first response is to go to your place."

"Wouldn't you rather stay in your own place?"

After George sits down, Sharlene settles on his upper legs, leans on his chest, and tells him, "Let me be blunt. I feel more comfortable at your place than here. And I felt that way long before this morning. Even though this house is mine, it has always felt more like a place to temporarily 'hang my hat', rather than a place to call home."

He assures her, "You're certainly welcome in my home as long and as often as you want. I would be privileged if you would consider it your own no matter how much or little you can be there. If there's anything I can do to make it more comfortable for you, please let me know."

"What's most comfortable about your home is you and I don't want you to change. For the week I was there, the only thing I thought of which might make it easier for me to function in your home would be a small step ladder to reach your upper cupboards and book shelves."

"I'll pick up a couple then, one for the kitchen and one for the library. Are you interested in any particular size or color?"

She shakes her head as she answers, "No. As long as they work and aren't too heavy to cart around, I don't care what size or color. Instead of making you pick them up, why don't we go out now and see what we can find."

"I'm game. Is there any particular reason for doing it now?"

"Two. We haven't got anything we need to do this afternoon and I need a major distraction or you're going to find yourself without clothes."

He hesitates before he admits, "I would be half tempted to test the second possibility if I wasn't so very aware of how strong a possibility it is from my own perspective."

"You're that tempted?"

"I'm always tempted with you, Sharlene. As I warned you, you've released a monster. The more I touch you and become convinced of your willingness to touch and be touched, the more I want to touch you, both more frequently and extensively."

"I'm very happy there isn't much more extensiveness available for you to touch me. And I very much look forward to your future and fuller explorations. Not that I want you to give up your less extensive touching of me. Damn!"

"What?"

"Either we go look at step ladders soon, or I'm going to insist on your fuller explorations occurring in the present rather than the future. Just talking about my desire for you is getting me all wound up."

He gently pushes her off of him, stands up, and proclaims, "Onward, my lady, to explore the universe of step ladders."

"Yes sir, my trusted leader and guide."

"While we're out, are we going to need to pick up anything else from the grocery store if Klara and/or Mariam come over for dinner?"

"I'll have to come up with something to serve first."

They're soon on their way. For two hours or so, they check out step ladders in a few stores. Once they have a list of step ladder features and prices, they pick up a couple of ice cream cones, go to a nearby park, and eat their ice cream while they discuss the pros and cons of the various step ladders. They go back to the appropriate store, pick up a couple of step ladders, stop by the post office to check her mail and even the company postal box, there's nothing there yet, then on to the grocery store to pick up a few more ingredients to make a stir fry which will provide enough for guests or be good for leftovers if it's just the two of them.

After most of their purchases are in the house and the groceries are put away, she grabs him, hugs him, and kisses him breathless. When she has enough breath, she says, "Thank you for the distraction. Now, George, please, touch me!"

"How . . . and where?"

"Anywhere and anyhow!"

He lifts Sharlene up onto the kitchen counter with her very active cooperation, steps closer, grabs her head with his hands, and begins to rain kisses on her face, her neck, her ears, pauses a moment to take a deep breath, and moves his lips to her mouth, lips, and tongue. When he needs to take some time to catch his breath, he reaches behind him to unhook her legs which she had already wrapped around his waist. She wonders at this since they usually want to be closer, but she assumes he has a new idea.

* * * * *

2147-09-10 (a2)

George turns slightly, picks up one of her feet with a gleam in his eye, almost knocks Sharlene over onto the counter, and begins to kiss and nibble the top of her foot, her ankle, and just a little ways up her leg, but the legs of her pants keep him from going further up her bare skin. While he holds her heel with one hand, his other hand begins to caress her lower leg up to her knee through her pants, along the inside, outside, front, and back. It may not provide her with mind-blowing pleasure, but it feels good and it certainly encourages her to anticipate what might be coming.

When he gently lowers her foot, and turns to pick up her other foot to give it the same treatment, she just knows it's going to get better. After he spends just as much time with her second foot, as least as far as she can tell, he gently lowers it, turns back towards her, hugs her gently, and releases her slightly so he can play with her lips using his own. In a little while, the lip play becomes a kiss which grows deeper and hungrier while his hug grows tighter. She enthusiastically responds as she wraps her legs around him and hugs him tighter, while she controls her response just enough to stay a response and not take the lead since she's excitedly curious about where he's leading her.

When he has to stop kissing her in order to start breathing, he looks at her for a moment, shakes his head, and proclaims, "Wow! . . . lady," which sends a shiver of excitement through her. Again, he curiously reaches behind him to unhook her legs, then even more curiously, he puts his hands on the front of her hips and pushes her across the counter top away from him until her knees are at the edge of the counter.

He puts a hand on each of her knees, bends his knees slightly down and out and leans on her lower legs to gently trap them between his legs and the front of the cabinet doors under the counter top. A moment later, he reaches up with his right hand, briefly caresses her face, then he gently grabs her jaw and pulls her face forward towards his face which is leaning towards hers so his lips can again play with her lips. Soon, he drops his right hand and it joins his left hand in beginning to caress her legs along the fronts and outsides of her legs all the way around to meet at the back of her buttocks, then up slightly, across her hips and down the fronts of her legs.

Her pleasure increases as he slowly slides his hands up the outsides of her legs to again meet before they gently squeeze the back of her buttocks as she gasps with pleasure in response before his hands reverse direction to caresses along the outsides of her legs. When his hands reach her knees, they slide to the fronts of her legs and along the front lengths of her thighs. Rather than go up the front of her hips, his hands turn and caress her across the sides of her hips to again meet in the back and slide up and down. It takes her a moment to realize that his fingertips are sliding up and down along both sides of the rear seam of her jeans and she wants to lift herself up so his fingers can follow the seam further.

He pulls his hands away from her buttocks to slide them along the outsides of her legs until they reach her knees and move across her legs to caress back up the fronts of her legs with his thumbs trailing along the insides of her legs. She tries to spread her legs in invitation to his caressing hands, but since his legs hold hers in place, she's unable to spread her legs which has a positive result as she soon finds the pleasure growing even faster since each of her legs receive twice as much touching. When his thumbs slow to a halt just an inch or so from her hips, they pause a moment, then slip way down between her legs which pulls his hands down so they almost touch her pubic area as she gasps with excitement in response. A moment later, his hands slide out from between her legs and caress her up across the fronts and down the outsides of her legs.

At her knees, his hands turn palm out and then slip between her legs and while they move in and out, his hands slowly caress up the insides of her legs. His hands have to gently force their way between her legs, but that only adds to the pleasure since the increased pressure his hands exert further stimulates the nerves up the insides of her legs. As his hands stroke the insides of her thighs less than an inch from her pubic area, her pleasure overwhelms her efforts to hold on to it and she cries out with her climax.

While he allows her some time to catch her breath, he steps back a little to release her gently trapped legs, then steps forward again to begin kissing her neck, her ears, her face, and her lips to which she hungrily responds. It's not long before they both have to break the kiss to breathe. Her pleasure of anticipation jumps higher when he starts to pull her shirt out of her jeans all of the way around and begins to caress her bare skin just above her waist. A little later, he moves his hands around to her front and slowly begins to unbutton her shirt from the bottom.

As she becomes aware of an opportunity, she reaches forward to begin unbuttoning his shirt from the top. When their hands reach the buttons near the middle of each other's shirt, their arms begin to get in each other's way, so they make a brief game out of unbuttoning the other's shirt while their elbows try to ward off the other's hands from unbuttoning their own shirt. At some point, she becomes aware that her legs are free and she slips them around to the back of his legs. She slides her heels a few inches up and down the backs of his upper legs which causes him to pause and groan in pleasure to her delight.

Soon, both of their shirts are open and their hands and eyes are exploring each other's torsos. Her pleasure grows with his touching and distracts her from trying to give him some pleasure, then her pleasure blocks out all other thoughts and she moves her hands from his chest to slightly behind her on the counter in order to brace herself then she arches her back and lifts her breasts in clear invitation. He gladly accepts the invitation to caress and fondle her breasts through the thin fabric of her bra. When he senses that her excitement is reaching the peak, his hands move away from her breasts to caress her upper chest, her back, and her upper abdomen.

A little later, his hands work their way back to her breasts to build up her pleasure, then move away for a little while. After the third round of playing near her breasts and their erect nipples, his hands slide up to caress her upper chest, her neck, her shoulders, and without specifically intending to, his hands push her shirt off of her shoulders so it slides down her arms to lay on the counter. He stops to stare in amazement at all of the smooth skin of her almost naked torso.

Somehow, now that her shirt is off of her, it seems as though so much more of her is revealed than when her shirt was fully open. Slowly, gently, he moves his fingertips over her torso and avidly looks at what he's doing. His intense interest only excites her more so that when his fingers reach her breasts! . . . then her nipples!!! . . . she joyously cries out in a climax of intense pleasure.

She lays back on the counter top to rest for a little while in order to catch her breath and to relieve her trembling arms. When she's ready to sit back up, in an attempt to brace herself, she slides her heels up the back of his legs to right under his buttocks which causes him to brace himself on the counter and groan deeply in pleasure. She's surprised at his reaction so she pauses prior to making the next move to sit up. However, before she can sit up, he snugly grips her hips and slides her buttocks across the counter towards him.

As she notices that their pubic areas are on a collision course, she almost cries out in anticipated pleasure. Instead, she spreads her legs and drops her knees and as their bodies come together, George moves her hips from side to side in order to rub their pubic areas together. She bites her lip in an effort to absorb as much pleasure as she can contain then she arches her back slightly so her hands can reach out to grip the edge of the counter while her legs pull her even closer to him. In just a few more side to side moves of her hips, he pulls her tighter to him and groans in climax while she cries out in intense pleasure . . . then collapses.

He has to brace himself on the counter to keep from collapsing on top of her or from slipping to the floor. When he thinks he can, he pushes her back a little on the counter so her limp legs don't try to pull her off of the counter. Since he's too tired to do anything more, he lays his head down on her while he trembles, whether from exhaustion or from being able to touch the bare skin of such a beautiful woman, he's not sure and guesses that it's probably a combination of both.

Sometime later, when his breathing has settled and he feels a little strength return to his limbs, he stands up and just looks at her intently while he tries to memorize every square inch of her. At the same time, he feels amazed that he's allowed and even invited to see such an incredibly beautiful woman so close with his own eyes. He could give her pleasure from now until doomsday and it could never repay the gift she's already given to him. Since he feels overwhelmed by the sight of her silky smooth skin laid out in from of him, he bends over and kisses it, from her waist to her bra and from side to side, all that exists in his world for awhile is her skin.

She awakes to pleasure and it takes her some time to recognize that the cause is his lips and tongue which are tantalizing her upper abdomen. Soon, she lifts her hands and caresses his head in encouragement. A little later, she feels like she wants to run her fingers through his hair, so she pulls out his ponytail maker and finger combs his hair.

As she lets his hair drift through her fingertips, she feels it fall and brush along the skin of her upper abdomen. She notices the soft feel of his thin fine hair on her skin then becomes aware of the slightly courser hair of his beard on her skin which somewhat frames his soft lips and the combination feels so wonderful, her pleasure soars. Although the pleasure doesn't take her to a climax, she ends up drifting back into oblivion in a state of bliss.

Eventually, he becomes aware of pain, more specifically, pain in his lower back. He slowly opens his eyes and all he sees is her rich brown skin in front of him and remembers kissing it. As he lifts his eyes, he sees the bottom of her bra and her erect nipples shoving up on the thin fabric. He almost comes unglued at the sight, only the pain in his back distracts him enough. As he slowly stands up with a groan, he has to close his eyes to resist her beauty. Even as he bends backwards to relieve some of the tension in his back muscles, he's aware that her legs are resting along the outsides of his own legs.

Once the pain is reduced in his back, he leans forward, cups his left hand behind her head, slips his right hand behind her back and gently lifts her into a sitting position in such a way that her head rests on his chest. As he uses one hand at a time to hold her in place, he uses his other hand to pull her shirt up her arms and over her shoulders. He pauses for a little while to think through how to safely get her off of the counter.

He moves his right hand to her left hip and his left hand to behind her shoulders then he steps back and to his left so her legs are in front of him. As he pulls her off of the counter, he turns her so her back is snugly pressed to his chest while he holds her tight with his right arm and keeps her upright with his left arm sliding across her upper chest to grip her right shoulder. He holds her feet off of the floor, walks the few steps to the love seat, sits with her on his upper legs, and leans the recliner back while he holds her snugly tight to him. He clumsily pulls her shirt back together and buttons it. When he feels like she's as safe as he can manage, he gives into his exhaustion and falls asleep.

* * * * *

An insistent noise partially wakes her. Sharlene grabs her phone, answers it, "Hello? . . . Yeah. . . . Nap. . . . 'k. . . . bye," and drifts back to sleep. Later, Sharlene slowly wakes up and feels safe, secure, loved, and desired with his arms snugly around her. When she starts to move George's arms, they briefly tighten their grip in an automatic response then relax. She reluctantly gets up, turns, and looks at him with so much love or desire or some similar emotion, it makes her ache for him, but she knows there's something which needs to be done. After she covers him with a light blanket, she stands there for awhile as she wonders what it was she has to do when the doorbell rings.

* * * * *

2147-09-10 (e1)

Sharlene quickly glances around, sees his holstered handgun on the counter where George put it, pulls the handgun out, and goes to open the door. When she recognizes that it's Klara, she unlocks the security screen door, invites her in, steps back, puts the handgun in her jeans waistband, closes and locks the door, then hugs her.

Klara leans back in the hug, gives her a good looking over, and asks, "Is he turning you into some wild woman? Opening the door with a handgun, your shirt not tucked in," then she looks closer and says, "and not even buttoned properly."

Sharlene glances down at her shirt and as she blushes, she blurts out, "He must have missed a button."

While her eyebrows rise in surprise, Klara asks, "Is George dressing you now?"

It's hard to tell on her chocolate brown skin, but she blushes more then stammers, "No . . . uh, yes, . . . uh . . ."

"Sharlene, it's okay. I don't mean to pry. Just to be sure of your own safety, he isn't forcing you or otherwise coercing you, is he?"

"George? No way. He's so kind and gentle. If there's any force or coercion going on in our relationship, I'm the one who is doing it. The only way you could say he was coercing me is by giving me so much pleasure I want more."

"That's what I thought, but I just want to make sure."

As they walk towards the kitchen, Sharlene asks, "How did it go this afternoon with the police investigator?"

"Very well. He had some very good news and was extremely pleased with the mini-drive recording I gave him." Klara sees George laying back on the love seat with a blanket over him and suggests, "If you can wait awhile, I would prefer to tell you both at once."

"I can wait." Sharlene pulls the handgun out of her jeans and puts it back in the holster on the counter.

"Can you use that? It seems mighty big for you."

"It is big and somewhat hard to handle, but I can use it. George gave me a smaller one which is more comfortable to use, but it's in my bedroom and I didn't want to run down there and back before I opened the door."

"That makes sense. Did you want to wake George or let him rest for awhile longer?"

As she looks towards him, Sharlene's face takes on a dreamy smile before she responds, "Let him rest awhile longer." A moment later, she glances at the clock then asks Klara, "Would you be willing to help me make dinner?"

"Sure. I don't mind helping in the kitchen sometimes, it's just one area I'm not particularly keen on taking the lead."

"Give me a couple of minutes to straighten myself up and we'll get started."

"That's not a problem. I need to make a trip down the hall myself."

Sharlene quickly goes to her bedroom, washes, changes her panty, and as she unbuttons her shirt before she re-buttons it, she slows and tries to think of when he must have buttoned up her shirt and then she starts to remember all of the pleasure which proceeded it. As she reminds herself that Klara is here, she clamps down on the memory, as well as the pleasure and desire which is starting to flow through her, finishes dressing, and goes out to the kitchen.

Klara is already getting herself a drink and says, "I hope you don't mind?"

"Not at all. I'm glad to see you feel comfortable enough to make yourself at home here."

In a matter of moments, they're chopping vegetables and meat to make a stir-fry while Sharlene takes the opportunity to ask questions about her biological parents. Now and then she has to stop to dry her eyes at the thought of the lost opportunity of ever knowing the wonderful people who Klara describes. While Klara competently does the final cooking, Sharlene goes over to wake George.

As he opens his eyes, he sees that hers are moist and her cheeks are damp. While he lifts one of his hands to dry her cheeks, he asks, "What's the matter, love?"

"Klara was telling me about my parents and I'm feeling sad that I was never able to know them." When she notices his puzzled expression, Sharlene explains, "My biological parents."

"Oh, I'm sorry. Sometimes I forget you were orphaned. You never did know them, did you?"

"No, I was born when my mother died." His look of pain which shows his concern, warms her.

"That must have been difficult for you while you were growing up."

"Actually, I didn't understand it until I was in my early teens. When I was younger and the family would talk about them, it was as though they were talking about some distant cousins I had never met. I was lucky to have someone in the family who was willing to raise me as their own child, so I never really knew what it meant to be an orphan. Enough about that. Dinner's almost ready and I wanted to give you some time to get ready."

"Thank you, love." He gently pulls her head down to kiss her while both of them work to keep it warm and friendly rather than letting it become hot and passionate as they both want to do. George gets up, folds up the blanket and goes down the hall to wash up and empty his bladder. He returns to the kitchen just as Klara is about to serve the food. They enjoy the food and he listens while Klara answers more questions about Sharlene's parents, both biological and adoptive.

Klara starts to help clear the table and clean up, but she gets a phone call and steps into the other room to answer it. They can't hear what she says, but it's obviously good news when she steps back into the kitchen with a big grin and asks, "Are you done?"

Sharlene answers, "I just need to put a couple of things into the dishwasher."

"Let George do that. Turn on the television for the news, channel six." After the television is on and the last of the eating and cooking utensils are in the dishwasher, they're seated on the love seat with Sharlene on George's upper legs and Klara sitting next to them. After yet another inane commercial, Sharlene turns on the audio portion of the broadcast.

"Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the channel six news at the top of the hour. Your best source of what's happening in the world, the sector, the quadrant, and your own neighborhood. I'm Jessica Smithers."

"And I'm Bill Anderson. Our top story this evening is the arrest of former Senator 'Big' Ed Mulligan on charges of kidnapping and extortion, other charges may follow. Simultaneous with his arrest, his home and office were quarantined in the search for further evidence. Police are keeping the details quiet for the present other than for the kidnapping charge. They have confessions as well as video evidence of two of former Senator Mulligan's employees kidnapping a young woman this morning. The employees made it clear they were acting at the direction of former Senator Mulligan. This was confirmed when they were examined under the interrogation clause which was invoked by the lawyer for the young woman. Under the law, as the instigator of the kidnapping, former Senator Mulligan is subject to the forfeiture of all of his assets as well as a possible death sentence."

"That's right, Bill. In a strange twist of fate, former Senator Mulligan was one of the authors of the anti-kidnapping law after his own daughter was kidnapped and abused in an attempt to coerce him to vote against some legislation. This morning, the kidnapping didn't get that far when the young woman resisted and was able to incapacitate one of the kidnappers while her armed companion was able to subdue the second. The two employees are not only being charged with kidnapping and assault and battery on the young woman, they're also being charged with breaking and entering and impersonating police officers. That caused some confusion when the police arrived after being called by the young woman and found an armed man holding what appeared to be two police officers at gun point. It was sorted out when a police sergeant arrived who happens to be the young woman's neighbor and when a police investigator arrived who confirmed the two being held were not local police officers."

"Thank you, Jessica. For the latest on the story, let's go to our reporter James Youngston on the scene at Police Headquarters. James?"

"Bill, I just talked to the police investigator in charge of this case about the video recording of the kidnapping. They won't release the video since it's evidence to be used in court. The court will decide later if the recording can be released. The police have said the video recording very clearly shows the two kidnappers pick the lock on the young woman's security screen door and then pull her out of her house. That was all they said about the video recording because that was all which was needed to establish a case of kidnapping.

"Informally, the police investigator made the following statement, 'The victim and her companion are to be congratulated for quick thinking and action in preventing the kidnapping from going further. Everything they did to protect themselves was completely within their rights under the self-defense laws. Not only did they subdue a couple of criminals, they enabled us to find the perpetrator of the crime and for that we thank them.' That's the latest from Police Headquarters. This is James Youngston reporting live for channel six news. Back to you, Bill and Jessica."

"Thank you, James. As we find out more about the kidnapping and the case against former Senator Mulligan, we'll keep you informed. For the most complete news coverage, stay with channel six. In other news this evening, we have found out that . . ."

Sharlene mutes the audio.

* * * * *

2147-09-10 (e2)

George says, "So that's who Paul saw on the video recording from Maria's."

Klara asks, "Who, the former senator?"

"No, his kid, Ed Junior, otherwise known as 'Little Ed'. A rotten apple if there ever was one. I've heard about him, but had no idea what he looked like. So, what else is going on? Are they going to release Sharlene's name so she can be harassed by news reporters?"

"No, the police won't release either of your names. Your names may have to be revealed in court, but if there are more serious crimes against the former senator, then you two will probably be ignored."

Sharlene asks, "More serious than kidnapping?"

Klara nods her head as she answers, "Yes. I received the impression that the police are looking at a couple of murder charges against the former senator."

"That is serious. As George asked, what else is going on?"

"Based on the confirmation which the interrogation provided, I filed a civil lawsuit against the former senator and his two employees on your behalf as a victim of kidnapping. I also filed a civil lawsuit to freeze the former senator's assets pending the criminal and civil cases against him. Thirdly, I filed a civil lawsuit against the former senator and his son on behalf of the extortion and abuse victims we met at Maria's on the basis that Hektor was acting under the former senator's guidance and with his protection. I've had Mariam going through the diary which Rebeka gave us and the connection is clearly there."

"Wow, you've been busy. How's Mariam dealing with going through Rebeka's diary?"

"Not easily. She had been going through the diary this morning and when I dragged her with me to type up and file the lawsuits, she was rather subdued. I invited her to come for dinner, but she didn't want to spoil the mood. She said she would rather pay attention to a wine bottle than face other people this evening."

"Mariam! Should we go to her?"

Klara shakes her head as she says, "No. She's an intelligent and strong young woman. She knows what she needs to do to handle herself in various situations. I suspect she might be bothered by seeing you and knowing how happy you are with George. As she was reading about what happened to Rebeka, it opened her eyes to what her own relationships have been like. One comment she let slip was that her relationships with men were almost more like mutual rape rather than the love, care, and desire which should be there, like she sees between you and George. Give her some time. I think in a few days, she'll be more like her usual self."

"Okay. I just find it hard to think of her finding solace in a wine bottle."

"I understand, but it's better for her than trying to find solace in the arms of a strange man. That would just perpetuate her awareness that she's not in a loving relationship."

"Oh. I hadn't thought about it from that perspective."

Klara assures her, "That's okay. Enjoy your relationship with this old man. I don't want you to feel guilty, but at the same time consider yourself very lucky that your first relationship with a man is with one who is kind and gentle and thinks more of you than he does of himself."

"I do feel lucky with George. But I also want to be reminded of how very special he is so I never begin to take him for granted."

He suggests, "You two better be careful or I'll get a swelled head and start strutting around like a moronic macho rooster in a barnyard full of cute chickens."

They laugh at the image of him strutting around.

Klara suggests, "George, we could fill you with so much praise it would feel like your head was filled with helium and place you in a room full of lonely women and you would still find a corner to sit in and look at them rather than strut around to get their attention."

He barely pauses before he admits, "You're probably right. However," he caresses the back of Sharlene's head, "with this young lady's continual praise, acceptance, and love, I may surprise us all. After all, if the most beautiful woman in the world wants me, shouldn't every other woman."

"Talk on, Mr. Hot Air. Sharlene, you'd better keep an eye on him, you may have created a monster."

"He's already warned me of that. I told him that was good because I've always wanted my own monster."

Klara chuckles then says, "You two are crazy enough to deserve each other. Sharlene, I thought I knew you, but around George you're a different person. I've never seen you laugh and giggle and cry and be embarrassed so much. What happened?"

"I don't know. I'm guessing that before, I always felt like I had to fill a role, dutiful daughter, excellent student, professional physician, competent employee, and on and on. I somewhat felt free around Grandma Running Deer and Aunt Paula, probably because they didn't care much for societal standards, but there was still at least a small expectation of fulfilling a role. With this old man," she pulls his arms tighter around her, "I don't have a role to play. He lets me be myself, whoever that may be.

"In a way, it's quite humbling, but at the same time it's an immense freedom. For so many years, I felt like I had to bottle up my emotions, good or bad, to properly fit whatever role was expected of me at the moment. Now, if I'm sad or upset, I cry. If I'm happy, I laugh. If I want to be foolish and try to chase and wrestle with a canine who weighs as much as I do, I do it. . . . Does that make any sense?"

Klara nods her head as she answers, "It makes a lot of sense. We all need someone with whom we can let our hair down. Or even to let out a hidden side of our personality. I've kind of wondered if that might not have contributed to your interest in this journey of touching which he's leading you on."

Sharlene is puzzled by that statement so she asks, "Why do you say that?"

"Do you remember just before you started college, you were asking what was going to happen to your body as you matured?"

"Yes."

"From what I understand, when you finally found someone to answer your questions, namely Paula and Running Deer, you were also asking some rather pointed and detailed questions about sexual matters. Because of who they are, they answered your questions and figured you were becoming interested in that type of a relationship. They both knew you couldn't talk to your mom about such matters and it was inappropriate to talk to your dad, so they told me some of what you had been asking about because I was more local and could keep a closer eye on you. All through college and medical school, I watched you and we all wondered when your interest would be expressed. As the years went by, we figured it must have more curiosity which prompted your questions rather than interest. Apparently, you had buried your interest until you found someone with whom you felt free to express it."

Sharlene nods her head as she responds, "You're right, I had buried my interest in sexual matters to the point where I had forgotten my interest. And what I had learned and overheard from others in college and medical school about their negative experiences only encouraged me to bury that interest even further. Frankly, by the time I was partway through medical school I wasn't just uninterested, I was negatively interested not only with sexual matters, but with men in general other than on a professional or educational basis.

"When Aunt Paula said that my tour guide to the local wildlife area was a man, I almost threw a fit. She gave me a number of reasons why I could trust George. So I went with him even though I had some concern that maybe Aunt Paula didn't know him as well as she thought. But other than a few words when we were introduced and then got into his pickup, nothing else was said. He ignored me for the entire trip. It was an astounding experience. I had never been ignored by a man before. At the time, I didn't understand why, but wherever I was, the men in the area always seem to gravitate towards me and wanted to talk. I got to where I did my best to avoid those situations.

"So, here I am in a pickup with this old man and Molly and he ignores me. At first I was upset then I wondered if there was something wrong with him, but it wasn't long before I realized the freedom of the situation. He wasn't trying to impress me, he showed no interest in me whatsoever. I didn't have to play any role. I could just sit there and be myself. We were neither male nor female, young nor old, we were just two people who happened to be in a pickup together going to the same destination. By the time we reached our destination, I was more comfortable and relaxed than I had been in years.

"He was going to back in the last little distance, but before he did, he politely asked me to move my leg so he could put the gear shift into reverse. He didn't ask me in a manner which suggested I was either of a higher or lower social standing than him. He asked me as though I was a human being worthy of respect, no more and no less. That only reinforced the feeling of comfort and freedom I was feeling. I'm sorry, I don't mean to keep babbling and bore you."

Klara assures her, "You aren't boring me. You're helping me to understand a number of things I've wondered about. I think there's more to the story, but if it makes you uncomfortable to tell, then don't."

"I was more concerned about boring you or keeping you up late."

"I'm willing to listen if you're willing to tell. The only plans I have for tomorrow are maybe signing a rental agreement and then flying home. My flight is a late one and can easily be changed, so my time is yours."

"George?"

"It's your story, love. I'm interested in hearing it from your perspective, but before I do, I need to make a trip down the hall."

Sharlene gives him a quick kiss before she gets off of his upper legs and gives him a hand up. When they hear the bathroom door close, Klara mutters, "Comfortable." She turns to Sharlene and in her normal voice she says, "You know, I've heard about a lot of relationships and what initiated the first spark of interest, things like handsome, beautiful, smart, witty, rich, friendly, funny, but this is the first time I can remember hearing of a relationship which began because one person felt comfortable with the other person. It makes a lot of sense from your background as well as being one of the better reasons for a relationship."

Sharlene nods hers head as she responds, "It's stumped George also. He's made it very clear he considers me beautiful and it's been very hard for him to understand why I, a beautiful young woman in his opinion, would be interested in an unattractive out-of-shape old man. I keep telling him that it started because I felt comfortable with him and it's grown from there."

The quiet extends until he returns and asks if they would like their drinks refilled.

* * * * *

2147-09-10 (e3)

After fresh drinks are poured, George sits down on the love seat and Sharlene quickly settles herself on his upper legs.

Klara looks at them for a moment before she remarks, "One would think you like to sit on his lap."

"It's the best seat in the house," Sharlene says as she snuggles closer to him. "Now, where was I?"

"George asked you to move your leg so he could back up."

"Oh yeah. Anyway, he started to back up then stopped . . . ." Sharlene describes what happened to her on that third-day and then two days later on fifth-day. She takes a drink before she continues, "That evening, I talked to Aunt Paula and told her what happened and said I was glad George hadn't noticed. She laughed at me and said George had noticed and had quietly cheered me on. We talked a long time that evening. After I went to bed, I don't know how much I slept while I thought about what she had said and what I was starting to feel."

She then describes what happened on sixth day and finishes that portion of her story with, "The more the conversation went back and forth, the more confused I became. Here he was, the first man I felt comfortable with, yet he was weeping at the mere thought of causing me pain or disappointment then he was telling me to leave and insisted that I forget about him. I didn't know what to think. I kissed him one more time and ran off.

"For the next couple of weeks, I still didn't know what to think. I talked on the phone with Aunt Paula and even went back up the next weekend to talk to her while I was trying to sort out what I was thinking and feeling. I also talked with Mariam on several evenings. After a few misunderstandings were cleared up, Mariam was surprised at how my first sexual experience had come about and was simply incredulous that George hadn't taken advantage of me.

"At about the same time, I figured out that not only had George cheered me on with my sexual experiences in his pickup as Aunt Paula had said, he had actually gone slower each time so I could enjoy it longer. Through all of the talking and thinking, I more or less arrived at the conclusion that George was a uniquely wonderful man, kind, gentle, considerate, as well as unwilling to hurt me or take advantage of me. But the wise thing would be to try to find a young man with George's positive qualities who I could spend my life with."

Sharlene takes another drink before she goes on, "When I quit my job and spent a few days with Aunt Paula, I was doing my best to think of George as only a kind friend to my aunt and uncle. One day, Aunt Paula ran into the house from the store yelling that Molly said something was wrong with George. I grabbed my medical kit, we jumped into her vehicle, and raced up to his place. Just as Aunt Paula slid to a stop, we saw him collapse. Something snapped inside of me, I threw open the door, screamed his name, and ran to him. As I was pounding on his chest in order to keep his heart pumping while we were waiting for the emergency vehicle, I told him that he had better not die on me because he hadn't touched me yet."

He looks at her in surprise and asks, "You did?"

"Yes, I did, lover. And I meant every bit of it. After he was safely out of surgery, I still tried to think of him as my aunt and uncle's friend, but I was being dishonest with myself. I wanted him to be my friend, and more than a friend. I didn't want to take who knows how long to find a younger man with George's qualities, especially when the man with all of the right qualities was laying right there in front of me. The only quality he was missing was youth and that seemed somewhat minor compared to kindness and gentleness and someone who I was comfortable with. So here we are. The biggest problem has been convincing this marvel of manhood that I really do want him."

"I'm sorry, Sharlene, I don't mean to make it so difficult for you."

"Oh, hush, old man. I would much prefer to take the time to convince you that I want you, than to have to try to teach you how to be kind and gentle. So, Klara, that's the basic story."

Klara looks back and forth between them before she says, "Thank you both very much for sharing that. It clears up a number of questions and concerns I had. Sharlene, I think if I had been in a similar situation, I would have had to make the same choice. No relationship is perfect and no person can meet all of our perceived needs or wants, most of which are unrealistic anyway. Do you have anything to add to the story, George?"

"I can't speak about my lady's feelings or thoughts, but the events she described are as accurate as I can remember. I just don't see myself as so unique that she can't find a younger man with whom to spend her life. Don't get me wrong, I'm selfish enough to want her to stay in my life, but am I the best person for her?"

Klara nods her head as she says, "Yes, George, you are."

"Huh?" he grunts in surprise.

Sharlene is equally surprised at her admission and asks, "Klara?"

She explains, "George, I've been intensely watching you for the last week and a half. Yes, I came to set up Digital Empathy and submit a proposal for the Project. I've also used some of my time to submit the other lawsuits. But the most important reason for my visit, in my own mind, has been to see how you were treating Sharlene and to understand how she felt about you. You've convinced me that you're the best person for Sharlene, whom I think of as my own little girl.

"You may not think so, George, but you are unique, or at least close enough. I've neither known nor heard of another man who wouldn't have taken advantage of Sharlene's beautiful body if they had been given half of the opportunities you've received. You two have been sharing the same bed for a few weeks now. Have you, ever once, touched her more when she was asleep than when she was awake and could refuse you?"

"No."

"That's unique, old man. What about when you've given her so much pleasure that she passes out? Have you touched her more then?"

"No."

"That's unique. There are millions of other men who I'm sure would desire Sharlene, but is she comfortable with them? No. Maybe there's another man out there she could be comfortable with, or even a dozen, but where are they? How long would it take her to find them? And even if she found another, the odds are high they already have a partner. What does she do then?"

Sharlene sits up. He turns to look at her and sees her moist eyes full of desire for him. She nods her head. He kisses her and they momentarily forget that Klara is sitting next to them. He remembers, breaks the kiss, drops his head, and says, "I'm sorry, Klara."

She assures him, "Don't be sorry. I'm very happy Sharlene has someone who is genuinely affectionate towards her rather than simply lusting after her body. As she was going through college and medical school, I hoped she had lost all interest in sexual matters and a female-male relationship because that would make her life so much easier and much less at risk of being hurt either physically or more importantly, emotionally. Now that the interest has been reawakened in her, she couldn't have found a better man to share it with than you. No feeling guilty, no feeling inadequate, enjoy the kisses, enjoy the touching, and enjoy the relationship."

As he sits there, stunned by what he's heard, Sharlene leans over, hugs Klara, and tells her, "Thank you for your vote of confidence."

"I just called it as I saw it."

He comes partially out of his stun, reaches his right arm around Klara's shoulders, hugs her, and says, "Thank you, Klara."

"George, maybe you ought to thank yourself. I know you didn't try to impress me or convince me that you're the right man for Sharlene. I think if you and I had more time to talk, you would try to convince me of the opposite. The fact of the matter is that your treatment of Sharlene has convinced me. I'm going to be very interested in watching your relationship grow and develop.

"There will be a number of challenges you'll undoubtedly have to face, but I also think that you two can be an example to others of what a good relationship can be and it's unusual enough that maybe others will look beyond the surface. With that being said and before I get on my soapbox, I'll make my exit. When I figure out the plan for tomorrow, I'll call and let you know." They get up with her and share a round of hugs. "George, Sharlene can see me to the door since I have something I want to say to her."

He nods his head as he responds, "That's fine. I need to make a trip down the hall anyway." He gives Klara another hug and boldly kisses her forehead then steps away and walks down the hall.

The ladies walk to the front door while Klara says, "Sharlene, I don't know how to say this any other way than bluntly. George is going to involuntarily find himself the center of other women's attention. As they see you two together, men will be jealous of him and probably consider you to be a gold digger. Women, on the other hand, will want to find out what you find so special about him, like Mariam has expressed.

"I'm ashamed to admit it and hate to say it, but even I want to experience some of his specialness for myself. I'm quite sure you can trust George, but there may come a time when he's overwhelmed and finds himself in a compromising position. Most likely, he won't have caused the situation, but you'll probably have to work hard to convince him that he didn't cause the situation and that he didn't hurt or betray you."

"Thank you for the warning. The idea had only begun to bounce around in the back of my head when I realized that Mariam had significantly changed her tune about him. I didn't realize he affected you."

Klara nods her head as she reluctantly says, "Yes. I certainly don't like to admit it. I'm with Paula, I could fall for him and enjoy him, but I couldn't live with him, he would drive me batty. I have no idea of what to say in the way of advice, except maybe lock him away and not let others become curious about him. You'll figure out something. I'll call you tomorrow. Bye."

"Thank you, Klara. Good night."

* * * * *

2147-09-10 (e4)

After she closes and locks the doors and turns out the porch light as Klara drives down the road, Sharlene leans on the back of the door and ponders what Klara said. Since there is no obvious simple answer, she goes back towards the love seat, sees that he hasn't returned, goes down the hall, and finds him sitting on the end of her bed, and asks, "George?" As he sees her come into the bedroom, he starts to get up, but she waves at him to stay seated.

He explains, "Klara had something to say to you in private, so I thought I would stay here for awhile and not interrupt."

She puts her hands on his shoulders, leans over, and kisses him breathless. A little later, she tells him, "Thank you, my courteous man." She braces herself with her hands on his shoulders, swings her left leg onto the bed beside his right leg, sits on his knees, swings her right leg onto the bed beside his left leg, scoots forward, wraps her legs around his waist, puts her heels behind him, pulls herself close to him, wraps her arms around his torso, and hugs him as tightly as she can to which he's quick to respond. After awhile, she relaxes her grip, leans back in his arms to look at his face, and asks, "Aren't you curious about what Klara wanted to tell me?"

"Curious, but since she wanted to tell you in private, then I figured it was none of my business."

"I think it is. She warned me that other women may wonder what I find special about you and may express an interest in you."

He hesitates a moment before he asks, "You mean like you've said Mariam has?"

"I suspect she meant worse than that. Mariam, at least, is my friend and wouldn't intentionally hurt me. Other women won't give that a thought."

"What were you saying about going to a tropical island and being a beach bum? Can we find a deserted one for just the two of us?"

Sharlene smiles at him then says, "I like that idea, but it's probably rather impractical since there won't be a grocery store. I don't know about you, but I'm not inclined to want to clean a fish every time I want to eat."

"Neither am I."

"Don't you want your own harem of beautiful women to meet your every desire?"

"No." He pauses then modifies his answer, "Well, if I was only thinking like a man with hormones, I would say bring them on, the more the merrier, whether or not I had the energy to do anything or not. As George Greyson, I say 'no'. You're my only desire. I'm already overwhelmed at the idea that you want me."

"Thank you," and she kisses him breathless again. As she lets him catch his breath, she leans back in his arms and unbuttons his shirt then pulls the front of his shirt out of his pants, spreads it wide, and begins to caress his chest. He tries to support her back with his left arm and move his right hand to unbutton her shirt, but, each time, she turns her torso and begins to fall backwards and he automatically moves his right hand back to catch her. He even changes the roles of his hands, but with no success. Finally, he gives up, just holds her, and enjoys her caresses.

It's an unusual role for him to receive the pleasure and he's not sure how to be mentally comfortable with it. When her caressing hands slide along his waist, her fingertips slip under the waistband of his jeans. Although his jeans are too snug to comfortably admit more than her fingertips in their current position, just the idea of her hands reaching there is exciting to him. When her fingers spread the touch further then slip down the front of his pants to stroke him through his pants, he tightens his hug on her.

When he no longer has to support her weight on his hands, he moves his left arm up almost to her arm pit so his left hand can grip her left side while his right arm moves down lower across her back so his right hand holds onto the back of her right leg just below her buttocks. He begins to lift her torso up and down while he snugly holds her to his body so her spread pubic area slides up and down along her right arm which holds the bulge in his pants and that causes her pleasure to rapidly grow and breaks her concentration of stroking him.

Each up and down movement of her pubic area along her arm increases her pleasure and threatens to and then overwhelms her ability to contain it. As she cries out in climax, he continues the movement which intensifies her climax while her vocal response increases in volume. A few moments later, he stops moving her, gently pulls her arm from between their legs, and lowers her head onto his shoulder which gives her a chance to calm her rapid breathing.

When she's breathing more normally, she lifts her head, wraps her arms around his neck, and hungrily kisses him. A little later, she lifts herself up a little off of his legs and begins to rock her torso so her spread legs slide across his lower abdomen. Since her arms are around his neck and are able to support her weight, his hands pull her shirt out of her jeans and slip under the bottom of her shirt. They slide over her bare skin towards her breasts which skyrockets her pleasure, then she cries out with her climax when his hands cup her breasts and his fingertips glide across the thin fabric of her bra to gently squeeze her nipples.

As she pants for breath, his hands slip away from her breasts to her back in order to keep her from falling over. A little while later, when she feels somewhat recovered, she lifts her head, nibbles on his earlobe, and huskily whispers, "More!!"

"Are you sure?"

"Knock me out."

Although he's not sure how to comply with that request, he turns his head to meet hers and hungrily kisses her while he slides his left hand further up her back under her shirt to cup her neck while his right hand slips back around to her front to briefly fondle her breasts. As his right hand moves from one of her breasts to the other to lightly touch them, her gasps of pleasure break the concentration of her kiss. When she leans her head back, his kisses move down her throat then back and forth across her neck.

He pulls his right hand out from under her shirt and glides it up the front of her shirt over a breast as she gasps at the spike of pleasure then he begins to unbutton her shirt from the top and opens up more of her upper chest to his lips and tongue. Once her shirt is unbuttoned, he opens it wide which allows his right hand to caress her bare upper abdomen from side to side while his hand slowly moves up from her waist at the same time as his lips move lower down her upper chest. As the tip of his tongue traces the top outline of her bra and the spread fingers of his right hand rub both nipples at the same time, she cries out with her climax which continues until he moves his hand away.

Gently, he lowers her torso to rest on the top of his legs, then he braces himself on his arms and lifts himself in order to move backwards on the bed so her head isn't dangling over the edge of the bed, but is supported by his slightly bent knees. As he rests a little while, she unwraps her legs from around his waist, puts her feet flat on the bed with her heels next to his buttocks and her knees bent by his side. After a brief pause, she braces her shoulders on his knees and begins to move her hips up and down and from side to side.

For her to see him clearly framed between her legs only adds to her excitement as his hands caress her upper abdomen, then his hands push the pleasure higher when they move up to play with her breasts and nipples. As she groans with her growing pleasure, she slows the movement of her hips, but increases the tightness of her body to his. She becomes even more excited when she recognizes that his breathing is speeding up with his own excitement.

His hands slide down her torso to hold her hips and pull her even tighter to him. She almost climaxes when his hands move on her hips and his fingertips slip under her waistband as though he's going to pull her pants off! His right hand slips out from under her waistband and glides across her skin towards her breasts. The fingertips of his left hand slide just under her waistband across her skin to the front of her pants. As his right hand rubs her nipples, his left hand, with his fingers halfway under her waistband, pulls the front of her jeans towards him in rhythm with her hips. She cries out with her climax then relaxes into unconsciousness as he groans with his own climax.

He starts to slump back onto the bed until he feels her feet partially behind his buttocks. He forces himself to partially sit back up, braces himself on his arms, pulls his knees up and turns to the right so she falls onto the bed on her left side. A moment later, he pulls her left leg out from under him and her right leg over him, lays down with his thighs supporting her back, uses her left calf as his pillow, her right leg as his blanket, and is soon fast asleep.

When she slowly becomes aware out of a daze of pleasure, Sharlene sees him and her heart aches for him. It's so hard for him to receive pleasure, yet he's so willing to give pleasure to her seemingly beyond measure. As she becomes more fully aware of their relative positions, she gasps as she realizes how easily he could be giving her pleasure more intimately if only they didn't have clothes on. Then she groans as she remembers the multiple mountain peaks of pleasure his touching has led her up. Soon, she has to bite her lip and work hard at controlling her desire for more, in spite of how tired she feels while she's sure he has even less energy.

As she moves slowly and carefully, she removes her right leg from on top of him. A couple of moments later, she scoots her torso closer to her left leg, gently releases his left arm which is holding her leg, and then she almost climaxes when she slides his arm between her legs high along the inside of her thigh so it's out of the way. She lays there for awhile as she tries to get her feelings under control before she stretches to grab a pillow and substitutes it for her left calf. Once she's 'freed' from his embrace, she has to clamp down on her imagination of being in the position she woke up in with him awake and touching her.

She gets out of bed, covers George up, washes herself, and puts her pajamas on. In the kitchen, she turns on the tea kettle then gets her computer, and turns it on. After she fixes a cup of tea, she sips it while she downloads her emotional recordings, verifies their correct transfer, deletes them from the mini-drive, and reinstalls the mini-drive into her headband. She looks at the last recordings then she has to bite her lip in an effort to control her emotions because she easily remembers what kind of touching most of the peaks represent. While she does a quick scan of her most recent recordings, Sharlene is surprised at how many peaks there are and, she checks the dates, only in three days?

As she makes notes, it takes her some time to try to remember what was happening at each of the significant events. The date and time function greatly help her sort out which recorded event represents which touching episode. Even while she does her best to look at the recordings as an impartial scientist, it barely reduces the impact of knowing the intense pleasure which each of those recorded events represent, all at the hands of a wonderful man. Tears of desire and gratitude threaten to overwhelm her as she turns off her computer and finishes her tea.

After she checks the doors and turns off the lights, she goes back to the bedroom and finds that he's just beginning to stir. Since he's still half asleep, he doesn't protest when she washes him up and helps him change into his pajamas. He wakes up just enough more to take care of his teeth and go to the bathroom and is barely laying down on the bed before he falls asleep. Sharlene takes care of her own bathroom needs, gets in bed, and snuggles up to his side.

When she pulls his left arm around her, his arm tightens slightly around her back as though he instinctively hugs her closer. After the covers are snugly tucked in around them, she lays there for awhile and soaks in the feeling of how comfortable he is to be with. As she considers how wonderfully kind and gentle he treats her, she feels at a loss as to how to express to him how much he means to her. There's no way to validate it, but she feels like never in a million years could she find a man better suited to her. As the tears of gratitude leak from her eyes, she falls asleep.

* * * * *

2147-09-11 (n>m1)

In the late hours of the night, George wakes up and gently slips out of her embrace to relieve his insistent bladder. As he starts to get back in bed, he's surprised to see Sharlene hold the covers up for him. He lays down, she moves to lay on him long enough to kiss him breathless then she slips out of bed to attend to her own bladder. Just as his breathing is beginning to settle, she slips back into bed, lays back on top of him, pulls the covers up, kisses him breathless again, and as he gratefully hugs her, they fall asleep.

* * * * *

In the morning, Sharlene wakes up and enjoys laying on George with the warmth of his body and his arms around her. After awhile, she begins to feel a little restless, but she doesn't want to disturb his sleep so she carefully gets out of bed, restricts herself to just a couple of strokes of his erect penis, a kiss to his cheek, and a whisper in his ear, "Sleep, lover boy," to which he hums in pleasure and dreamily smiles. She almost reverses direction at seeing the pleasure expressed by his toothless smile.

As she begins doing a few stretches then moves into a martial arts workout, she has to wonder which is the more illogical response, that she finds a certain charm to his toothless condition or that most women would find it disgusting. Probably neither could really be considered logical or illogical, unless one decides that societal views are to be deemed 'logical' whether they are or not. His kisses are slightly different depending on whether or not his false teeth are in. She smiles as she realizes that gives her twice the variety of kisses which others might enjoy. Once that thought is complete, she turns her concentration to her workout.

After she cools down with her tai-chi routine, she gets a shower and puts on a shirt and a below the knee length full skirt. As she looks in the mirror, she admits to herself that the reason for the skirt instead of her typical pants, is for his enjoyment as well as her own. She allows herself a little time to remember the pleasure of his hands sneaking under her skirt to caresses her legs. Quickly, she clamps down on that memory before she becomes too excited then goes to the bedroom to gently kiss him awake. He makes a quick bathroom trip then gladly sits on the bed to comb out her hair while she sits on his legs.

She has to force herself to get up and put her brush and comb in the bathroom then she goes back to the bed, holds out her hands, and wordlessly takes him to the front room. As she holds his hands at his side, she stands on tip-toe, hungrily kisses him briefly, and while she continues to hold his hands, she leads him through the tai-chi moves he's learned. He had thought that watching her had been exciting, but feeling her doing tai-chi is almost overwhelming. A couple of times he almost stumbles as their moves bring them very close together and tangle his legs in her skirt.

His concentration for tai-chi is severely tasked with her closeness, her flowing hair, and her touch. The next move requires them to step forward and pause and when they do, their legs are between each other's, she reaches her right hand up to the back of his neck, pulls his head down for a very hungry kiss while her left hand grips and caresses his erect penis through his pajamas. After just a few strokes by her, he feels like he explodes in climax. She releases the kiss and tightens her hug to help hold him up and keep him from falling over.

As he's rapidly panting for breath, his eyes open wide to see her full smile, and then he realizes she had planned it all along. He has to wait for awhile in order to have enough breath to ask, "Why?"

"To give you pleasure, my hero. If it's so hard for you to accept that I want to touch you and please you openly, then I'll be sneaky about giving you pleasure. But I'll tell you all about it afterwards, so there can be no doubt in your mind that I do want to touch you and please you."

He stares at her for awhile, then drops his head as he says, "I'm sorry."

Sharlene lifts his head with her right hand to look into his eyes as she tells him, "George, I don't want you sorry. I want you accepting and enjoying." As her smile widens, he realizes that her left hand has slid down a little to fondle his testicles. He has to grip her shoulders to steady himself, while his eyes open wide, then half close as the pleasure surges through him. She drops her right hand and then slides it under the back of his pajama top to steady him as well as to caress his back.

After a little while, she turns sideways, pulls his left arm across the back of her shoulders with her left hand, holds him across the back with her right arm and guides him back towards the bedroom as she tells him, "Come on, old man, let's get you washed up and dressed."

He starts to come out of his daze by the time they reach the bedroom and he sits on the bed. A little later he half stumbles over his words, "Um . . . I think I probably ought to get a shower."

"Are you going to be able to do it on your own?"

He hesitates a moment, then nods his head, "I think so."

"I don't want any false bravado."

"If I sit here for a little while to get over my shock, I should be okay."

"Was it that shocking to you for me to want to, plan it out, and give you pleasure?"

He pauses then says, "Maybe surprising is a better word. What a marvel you are, young lady."

"Less marvelous than you are for giving me so much pleasure I forget about anything else. I want to give you pleasure and I want to give you pleasure when you're awake and can enjoy it instead of when you're asleep and only your dreams know about it." As he eyes open wide in surprise, she smiles warmly, "Yes, lover boy. More than once I've touched you while you were asleep to give you pleasure and sexual release. And I had fun doing it."

In a somewhat awed voice, George exclaims, "You do want to touch me!"

Sharlene nods her head with one of her big beautiful smiles.

"Oh my. I thought you only wanted to touch me to make our pleasure mutual."

"Of course I want that. But I also want to touch you because I enjoy touching you whether or not I'm climbing the mountain peaks of pleasure you so wonderfully lead me up." As he just stares at her, she clarifies, "George, let me be blunt. I want to touch you because I think it's fun to touch you and to touch your genitals and I especially want to touch you so you can enjoy pleasure and sexual release. That's what you want to do with and for me. Why should I want to do any less for and with you?"

Even though he hesitates in surprise, his words are more stammered than spoken, "Um . . . I . . . uh . . . I guess . . . um . . . I guess I need to quit thinking of you as a typical female."

"Smart man."

"You do know how to turn an old man's understanding of the world upside down."

"Is that so bad?"

"Um . . . noooo . . . . You're right. . . . Here I am so pleased that in many ways you aren't a typical female and yet, in other areas, I keep expecting you to act and respond as a typical female."

She quickly places a finger over his lips as she tells him, "No 'I'm sorry.' George, one of the beautiful things about you is that in many ways you do allow me to be just Sharlene and not a stereotypical female. I greatly appreciate that. Yes, there are a few areas where you still have trouble with that. Give yourself a little time. I know it's not easy to readjust your thinking patterns after decades of practice. I'm not blaming you.

"Fair warning, I'm going to keep working on you and helping you change some of those thinking patterns. I'm not going to do it because I think you need to change who you are, but because some of those thinking patterns are actually in opposition to your basic personality of wanting others to be free to be themselves. So I'm going to keep telling you and demonstrating to you that I do want you and that I do want to touch you and give you pleasure because I want to do it."

With no more warning, she turns, pushes him back onto the bed, and kisses him hungrily, while her left hand plays with his flaccid penis to bring it 'back to life'. His responding kiss falls apart before he's breathless because the surprised pleasure of her touch wipes out any other thoughts he might have. As her kisses cover his face, his ears, and his neck, he starts to reach over to touch her, but he forgets what he's doing as another wave of pleasure rolls through him. He makes what seems to be the greatest effort in order to reach down and capture her left hand before he brings it up to his lips, and kisses it.

After he holds her hand for a little while, he turns his head and is dazzled by her brilliant smile which he has to struggle to partially disregard before he can say, "Thank you, lovely lady," he kisses her hand, ". . . thank you very, very much. . . . It's too soon for me to have a sexual release again . . . but if anyone could take me there . . . it would be you." He releases her left hand, reaches over with his right hand, cups the back of her head, pulls it close, and kisses her as thoroughly as he can.

When he breaks the kiss to breathe, she just smiles at him with an occasional peck of a kiss on his nose or check while she caresses his head before she says, "Thank you, George, for the very nice compliment."

His eyes widen in surprise. After a moment, his head rolls back and he starts to chuckle then laughs out loud. When he gains a little control and even while he continues to chuckle, he turns back to her and says, "I guess you told me."

Sharlene just happily smiles at him and caresses his face some more.

His heart feels like it's going to burst with affection for her. He rolls towards her and kisses her as passionately as he can, but all too soon, he has to roll back to catch his breath. Although she's anxious to answer his passion with her own, she realizes that he's running out of energy and restrains herself.

She gets up, gets a warm washcloth and towel, comes back to the bed, opens his pajama bottoms and washes him. As she takes longer than necessary to wash him, he can only lay back while he hums and moans with the ongoing pleasure. Finally, she dries him and closes his pajama bottoms then rinses out the washcloth.

When she's back at the bed, she slowly sits him up as she tells him, "Come, my lover, food first then you can shower." In a state somewhere between pleasure and exhaustion, he follows her lead as she guides him to the table. Soon, she has a glass of orange juice in his hands which he slowly sips and shortly after that a plate of eggs and toast is in front of each of them.

She cleans up after breakfast then checks his pulse and listens to his heart. Everything is fine there, but with the energy he's expended and the mild shock to his psyche, she doesn't think he's ready to shower on his own, nor is she ready to tempt him by helping him shower. She thinks for a little while then requests, "Come on, George," and gives him a hand out of the chair and down the hall. After she guides him to sit on the bed, she goes to the bathroom and starts the water running into the bathtub.

* * * * *

2147-09-11 (m2)

When Sharlene steps back into the bedroom, George looks at her with concern and asks, "Wha . . . what are you doing?"

"Do you have the energy to take a shower?"

He hesitates then shakes his head, "No."

"Then you can take a bath."
"But . . ."

She kneels in front of him, holds his hands, and tells him, "George, I want you, I care for you, I love you. You've expended a lot of energy for me in the last few days and it will take some time to rebuild it." As she continues to hold his hands with her left hand, she reaches up to caress his face with her right hand, and tells him, "I want to help you. I would gladly get in the shower with you, but I think that would be more of a temptation than a help to you right now."

His eyes open wide before he nods his head in agreement.

"So to give you a bath is a compromise. You get clean and I can help without overly tempting you."

He hesitates, drops his head, then quietly says, "Okay."

She bends over to kiss his hands and as she lifts his chin, she dazzles him with her smile, then suggests, "And no pulling me into the tub with you."

He shows a hint of a grin before he admits, "I don't think I have enough energy."

She gets up, turns off the water, and comes back to help him get his pajamas off. When she stands him up to remove his pajama bottom, he starts to cover himself. Sharlene grabs his hands and pulls them away from each other. Even as she gives him a somewhat stern look, she gently fondles his genitals with her right hand and tells him, "Please don't cover up my little friend. Now, come on into the bathtub. . . . See if the temperature of the water is okay."

While he feels highly embarrassed at being naked in front of the most beautiful woman in the world, he bends over to feel the water and is surprised that it's just how he likes it. His surprise partially overwhelms his embarrassment as he looks at her and declares, "It's just right."

"Good. In you go."

He settles into the water with a sigh. A few moments later, she encourages him to lean back so she can wash and rinse his hair even as she occasionally pauses to look down his body at his physical response to her touch and presence. As he begins to wash his body, she gets a container and rinses him off. Her gentle cooperative action goes a long way to reduce his embarrassment. When he's done washing his chest, upper abdomen, and legs, his embarrassment returns as he contemplates how he's going to wash himself between his legs. She rolls up her sleeves, takes her watch off, takes the wash cloth from him, and scrubs his back to his 'mmm's' of pleasure then she rinses him off.

She suggests, "Lean on the side of the tub."

Without thinking, he follows her direction then groans in pleasure as she slides the washcloth under his buttocks to wash him between his legs. She smiles at finding another way to touch him with pleasure then brings the washcloth back around to the front to wash his penis and the rest of his pubic area. He turns some and spreads his legs and as she washes the insides of his thighs, his groans deepen.

Even though she's sure it's too soon for him to climax, she does spend some extra time touching him and giving him pleasure. After awhile, she sets the washcloth aside, lets the water out, turns the faucet back on, and rinses him with clean water. After his chest and back are rinsed, she has him stand up and partially lean on the wall. She spends some extra time rinsing his pubic area and buttocks while she smiles at his groans of pleasure before she rinses his legs.

She wraps a towel around his waist, hears his sign of relief, and has him sit on the edge of the tub with his feet inside and his back to her. With another towel, she dries his torso and back, then vigorously dries his hair. She drapes the towel over his shoulders, combs out his hair, and puts it in a ponytail. A moment later, she encourages him to stand up, step out of the tub, and support himself on the wall then she steps close and pulls his head down with her right hand to thoroughly kiss him as her left hand caresses his chest and back.

While he stands there gasping for breath, it takes him awhile to realize that she's kissing him down his torso and as she releases the towel from around his hips, her kisses continue down his body then his gasps for breath turn into gasps and groans of pleasure. As she wraps the towel around one leg and dries it, her kisses follow. With a little difficulty, she gets him to lift his foot to dry it. When she moves the towel to his other foot, he lifts it more easily for her to dry, then her kisses proceed the drying towel up his other leg. She takes some extra time and care, along with extra kisses, to dry his buttocks, his pubic area, and between his legs. As his groans of pleasure become deeper and more frequent, she feels a slight tremor begin in his legs.

She guides him to the bed, throws back the covers, helps him lay down, leans over him, and kisses him breathless. While her loose hair slides caressingly over his skin, she gives him a chance to catch his breath as she kisses him down his torso, partially down one leg, and up the other leg. As she kisses her 'little friend', she fondles his scrotum with her right hand.

Almost immediately, his thigh muscles tense, his hips lift, his penis pulses onto the washcloth she had laid on his lower abdomen, and he slumps back to the bed. She smiles in pleasure at her success then she washes him and dries him off. As she kisses him up his torso, she pulls the covers up. After she kisses his sleepy lips breathless again, she tucks him in, and goes to clean up the bathroom.

After Sharlene lets George sleep for a couple of hours, she returns to the bedroom, kneels beside the bed, watches him for awhile, and is happily aware that few others can see the remarkable man inside the unremarkable exterior. She scoots closer to his chest and watches him closely as she slips her right hand under the covers and begins to caress his legs, his lower abdomen, and between his legs.

Slowly, the pleasure wakes him up as it sinks in that this isn't a dream and that the pleasure will be enjoyed more thoroughly if he's awake. When he's finally able to pry his eyes open through the pleasure, he almost weeps at the vision of loveliness before him, especially as he sees her oh-so-warm and inviting smile. He barely whispers as he declares in astonishment, "Sharlene! You do want to touch me!"

"Very much so. It's fun to touch you. It gives me pleasure to touch you and to give you pleasure. I think I now understand better what you've been telling me all along when you say that you derive pleasure when you give me pleasure. Although touching you doesn't send me up the mountain peaks the way your touch does to me, it most definitely gets me 'in the mood'. I'm very close to taking my clothes off and crawling under the covers with you."

"Uh, . . . thank you . . . mmm . . . can you resist . . . oooohhhh . . . a little longer? . . . Maybe you'd better . . . aaaahhh . . . stop touching me . . . oooohhhhh . . . for awhile."

She stops caressing him, but doesn't release her hold on his firm penis. With a tease in her voice she asks, "Don't you like me touching you?"

"My lady, . . . I love it. . . . It's about . . . the best thing . . . in the world." He pauses a little to catch some more of his breath, then declares "Oh Sharlene, I've never been touched so wonderfully before. Thank you, thank you, thank you." It takes him awhile to think about how to say it, "Can you please not touch me for a little while so I can speak a little more clearly? Maybe come up on the bed instead of kneel there?"

He groans as she releases his penis by sliding her hand slowly up it. She briefly pauses to let him partially come back from pleasure land, throws the covers back, and makes it clear that even though her hands aren't touching him at the moment, her eyes are thoroughly caressing his body. Then she lays on him and pulls the covers up to his astonishment.

When he finally finds his voice, he exclaims, "Sharlene, I'm naked!"

"Isn't it wonderful?" Before he can respond, she pulls herself up a little further and kisses him breathless. She pauses a little to let him partially catch his breath, at least enough for him to more easily listen if not to talk then she tells him, "George, my lover, when I say I want to touch you, that means I want to touch you and how better to be able to touch you then when you're naked?" Sharlene places a hand over his mouth to stop his protest before she continues, "I'm trying hard not to throw the rest of the journey out of the window, but I'm also trying hard to get through to you that I really do want to touch you, old man. Have you placed any obligation upon me to touch you?"

He pauses in thought before he answers, "No."

"Have you even asked me to touch you?"

"I don't think so."

"Well, I don't remember any time when you asked me to touch you. Based on that, then, the only reason for me to touch you is because I want to. Earlier this morning, could you have waited to take a bath or a shower until after you had rested and gained some strength?"

"Yes."

"Well, old man, the reason I pushed you to take a bath was not to get you clean, it was so I had an excuse to touch you."

His eyes open wide.

"I know that when it comes to sexual matters, in many ways, I'm naive and very inexperienced. In spite of that, I've figured out a couple of things. One, there's nothing better in this world than you touching me. The second best thing is me touching you. I may not reach the mountain peak ahead of you, but for me to see and feel you get excited is very exciting to me. That's what I'm struggling with right now, I very much want you to touch me as you've allowed me to touch you, but I also don't want to miss out on any of the upcoming steps of the journey. . . . I think you want to touch me like I've been touching you this morning."

"Oh, yes!"

"And I want you to. Can't I have the same desire to touch you?"

He pauses to try to think of an answer then says, "Oh . . . um . . . I . . . uh . . . you caught me being a fool."

"No, George. You're definitely not a fool. This is one area where you've let society's foolish ideas overwhelm your brain and your heart."

"I guess you're right."

"And no 'I'm sorry'."

"Uh . . . yes, my lady."

"Now, before I give into my desires and wear you out even more, we need to get some more food in you." She kisses him breathless, moves the covers back, and slips off of him. Soon, she returns and begins to help him get dressed to his amazement and embarrassment, especially when she interrupts the process from time to time to touch and caress him.

When he starts to touch her, she moves his hand away, "No, George, it's my turn to touch you. Don't worry, it will soon be your turn." Even with her delays, it doesn't take long before he's dressed and she's leading him to the kitchen where she has him sit down at the table while she quickly makes a couple of sandwiches and pours them drinks.

* * * * *

2147-09-11 (a1)

Just before they start to eat, Sharlene scoots her chair as close to George's as possible so that as they eat, they're touching as much as possible without getting in each other's way, too much.

When they finish eating, she scoots his chair back, sits on his upper legs, and kisses him hungrily to his immediate and similar response. While she lets him catch his breath, she cuddles closer, and says, "Thank you for letting me touch you. It was a lot of fun, especially to see you get so excited."

It takes him awhile longer before he can begin to breathe more normally then there's more than a hint of awe in his voice as he says, "Young lady, for someone with no experience, you sure know how to touch this old man."

"I learned from you."

He responds to that with almost shock, "What!?!"

"I know our anatomy is shaped differently, but the nerves are grouped in comparatively similar locations. So I thought, how do I want you to touch me and tried touching you in similar ways and in similar places. For me to see how excited you were when I touched you only increases my desire for you to touch me in the same places." She interrupts his stare of amazement by kissing him breathless.

He hugs her while he waits for his breathing to settle and, at the same time, his mind is almost numb from what she's been telling him and doing to him for the last few hours. As he shakes his head partially in disbelief and partially to dissipate the numbness, he somehow manages to say, "Lovely lady, if that's how you're going to touch me then I'm going to apologize right now for not having enough functioning brains cells left to be mutually touching you."

She sits up to look at him, then shakes her own head and says, "No way, old man, I'm NOT accepting your apology, otherwise I would feel obligated to apologize every time you touch me, because," since she's unable to maintain her stern countenance any longer, her smile shines forth, "when you touch me, nothing else exists except the pleasure you give me." Even though she's sitting on his upper legs, she almost launches herself at him to passionately kiss him. In an effort to maintain some control over her own desires which are bubbling just beneath the surface, she pushes herself away, gets up, clears the table, and cleans up the kitchen.

She washes and dries the table and as she turns away to go back to the kitchen, his right hand grabs the back edge of her skirt, stops her in her tracks, pulls her back a couple of short steps and transfers his grip on her skirt to his left hand. She asks in surprise, "George?" When she turns her head to look at him, Sharlene sees the gleam in his eyes and with an answering smile, her anticipation surges forward as his right hand slips under the front hem of her skirt to start at her right knee and slowly caress her leg in a zigzag motion up the front and outside of her thigh.

He turns himself to be partially behind her and pulls her back just a few more inches until her right buttock is touching the right side of his chest then his left hand drops the hem of her skirt and slides up the back of her left leg on the outside of her skirt. His left hand barely avoids her left buttock as it moves to the outside of her leg, over her hip, and begins to pull the bottom of her shirt out of her skirt waistband.

While his right hand continues to caress her up the bare skin of her right leg under her skirt past the middle of her thigh, her pleasure soon surpasses her anticipation and she encourages him, "Yesss, George," then the pleasure leaps higher as his lips begin to kiss the bare skin of her back and right side. She reaches back to grip his right shoulder with her right hand to support herself then she cries out with her climax as the thumb of his right hand traces the side seam of her panty from her buttock over the side of her leg and almost to her pubic area.

As he slides his right hand down the front of her right leg just a little faster that it went up, he gives her a chance to catch her breath then he turns some more in the chair so her buttocks are resting on his chest and his right knee is between her knees. His right hand retraces its path up her right leg and his left hand slips under the front of her skirt to give her left leg the same treatment of slowly zigzagging up the outside and front of her leg.

She reaches back to grip his left shoulder with her left hand to give herself additional support for the pleasure which is swiftly becoming more intense. She's panting for breath as the pleasure surges through her then she barely keeps from crying out when his thumbs trace the side seams of her panty from her buttocks over the side of her leg and partway down to her pubic area. But when his hands move back across the top of her legs and his thumbs retrace her panty seam, she can no longer hold onto the pleasure and she verbally announces the arrival of her climax.

His hands slowly descend the fronts and outsides of her legs which gives her a chance to catch her breath except that her eager anticipation of the coming pleasure negates most of that chance. She's not disappointed as his hands begin their upward movement while they caress her from the outsides of her legs to the middle of the insides of her legs. As his hands move up past the middle of her thighs, her moans turn into groans which become almost continuous until she cries out as his hands just barely miss brushing her across the front of her panty.

Slowly, his hands move down her legs, even past her knees and then they turn inward to fully cover the insides of her legs as they begin to move back up her legs. She bites her lip as his hands pass the middle of her thighs then she doesn't know whether to stand on her toes to make the pleasure last longer or to try to squat in an effort to get his hands to touch her pubic area. Since she feels like her whole body is awash in pleasure, she can do neither, but lean back on him and soak in every nerve firing with pleasure his hands give her. As his hands slow their upward movement, her pleasure crescendos until she cries out in climax when his fingers are a fraction of an inch away from the bottom of her panty and her pubic area it covers.

Rather than move his hands down her legs, he holds them still to let her slightly catch her breath and then he slides his hands further between her legs to caress the backs of her legs with his thumbs as they follow the bottom seam of her panty below her buttocks. Soon, she's overwhelmed with pleasure and cries out with her orgasm as her legs collapse. He barely moves his hands quickly enough to avoid having them caught between her pubic area and his leg she slumps down onto.

He grabs her around her waist to keep her from falling off of his leg then pauses a little while to think about how to move. While he holds her snugly with his left arm around her waist, he slips his right arm under her knees, turns her, pulls her tightly to him, rests a moment, carefully stands up, carries her the few feet to the love seat, and lays her down with her head on the right hand love seat arm rest. After he rests for awhile, he goes to the bedroom to get a light blanket in order to cover her up. When he returns, he snugly holds her skirt to her legs so he's unable to look under her skirt, gently picks up her legs, slips his body under them to sit on the left side of the love seat, lays her legs across his legs, reclines his side, and in a couple of minutes, he's asleep.

* * * * *

Sometime later, the fogged daze of overwhelming pleasure has dissipated enough for Sharlene to become aware of her surroundings. She's not surprised to find herself lying on the love seat and guesses that he carried her here after she collapsed. She thinks to herself that she's really going to have to take some time to do some research and see if anyone has documented or reported being so overwhelmed by intimate pleasure that they lose consciousness. Or maybe there's something wrong with how her brain functions. Wouldn't that be a joke to find that she had a mental disorder of some kind which she needs to study? If she did have such a problem, what an interesting reason it would be to ask him to touch her and give her so much pleasure.

Again, she comes to the question of whether his touching is so unique and wonderful, or is there something different about her. As she grimaces at the thought, she's beginning to admit that George may be more right when he points out that he only has two hands like most men and that her rare, if not unique, combination of a safe upbringing and burying of her interest until she was in a position to express her interest in a very secure, trusting, and non-obligatory setting has enabled her to experience intimate pleasure so thoroughly with overwhelming results.

Ah, but she can 'blame' him. Yes, he may only have two hands, despite how often it feels like more than twice that many, but he's the one who has provided her with the no obligation, comfortable, and safe setting which enables her to experience the pleasure so wonderfully. Such a thoroughly safe setting that she's willing to bet he didn't even lift her skirt to look at more of her when he had such an easy opportunity to do so without her ever knowing.

Finally, her bladder gets through to her and reminds her that there are other things to think about besides him and pleasure. She gets up, transfers the blanket to cover his sleeping body, and goes to the bathroom to quiet her bladder, wash up, and change her panty. As she thinks about how many times she's changed her panty over the past few days, the thought crosses her mind that instead of getting panties with the days of the week printed on them, maybe she ought to find some which also have 'morning', 'afternoon', and 'evening' printed on them.

* * * * *

2147-09-11 (a2)

She's still chuckling at the idea as she walks down the hall when she's interrupted by the ringing of her phone and answers it, "Hello?"

"Hi, Sharlene. It's Klara."

"Hi, Klara. What's up?"

"Do you have any objection to putting off signing for the rental until after we find out who's awarded the Project?"

"No. Is there any particular reason?"

"I had a couple of things come up to keep me busy today. I talked to the real estate agent and he's had no other interest in the properties we were looking at and since he's going to be on vacation next week, he suggested we might as well wait until he gets back. He sounded anxious to start his vacation."

"I can understand that. I don't have a problem with waiting. If we did get the rental today, I would probably want to spend time putting it together next week rather than have a quiet week with George."

"From what you've been saying and hinting at, I have to question the idea of you having quiet time with George."

Sharlene tries to add some extra innocence to her voice as she says, "Ah, Klara, you wound me. Before you called, we were quietly napping on the love seat. Fully clothed, I'll have you know."

"Humph. I'll bet there's more to the story than you're letting on, but I'll try not to snoop into your private life. Anyway, if it's okay with you, I would like to swing by for dinner before I have to catch my late flight out."

"Sure. Is there anything you do or don't want to eat?"

Klara suggests, "Um, how about I grab a couple of pizzas on my way over? That should tide me over and reduce the temptation to eat what they call food at the airport or on the airplane."

"No complaints from me. How about I make a salad to go with the pizza?"

"That sounds good. Oops, gotten run. See you in a few hours. Bye."

"Goodbye."

As she disconnects the phone call, Sharlene thinks about leaving a note for him to say she went to the grocery store, until she remembers what happened yesterday morning. Was it only yesterday? She shudders at the thought then realizes it's going to take some more time before she'll feel comfortable going out on her own. She decides to let him sleep so she gets out her computer, checks her email, and downloads her emotional recordings.

As she reviews her recordings, she sees no indication that her emotional responses to his touch is weakening. If anything, her responses appear to becoming a little more intense, but the best part is that the length of the experience seems to be getting longer. Oops, maybe that's a premature judgment as she sees a few which are quite a bit shorter. As she starts to look closer at the recordings and the notes she made, it's soon obvious that any clear headed review of her recordings is going to have wait because she feels herself beginning to become excited as she remembers how he touched her which leads her to think about him touching her more until she has to clamp down on those thoughts, with difficulty.

She shuts down her computer and as she puts it away, she sees two mass storage drives which she doesn't immediately recognize. It takes her a moment to remember Mariam handing them to her with the explanation that they contain all of the emotional recordings which had been collected by the Project. She picks up one of the drives and her computer and carries them to the bedroom where she begins to pack her luggage. A couple of moments later, she pauses in her packing because it dawns on her that she wants to go to his place, maybe even leave tonight after Klara goes to the airport. Then she realizes she had better hold off on making plans until she can talk to him.

When she's finished packing except for the last minute things, she checks and sees that he's still asleep. She does a review of the fridge and makes a list of what she needs to buy to make a salad and what to take to his place which won't last a week or so until they return. She does a couple of other minor chores around the house and then decides it's about time to wake him up so they can go to the grocery store and be back before the earliest Klara might show up.

As she kneels on the love seat next to him, Sharlene just looks at him for awhile and tries to see George as the boring old man he insisted he was before she entered his life. She even tries to see him as the undesirable old man which the vast majority of women would consider him. Since she's seen his home and especially his recliner set up in his library, she can picture him spending hours reading with a glass of iced tea nearby and occasionally popping chocolate candies. But she can't set aside her view of him as comfortable and trustable in order to see him as undesirable. The more time she spends with him, the more she's comfortable with him, the more she trusts him, and, shocking as it would be to most people, the more she desires him.

As she remembers the question her aunt asked her some time ago about whether she saw George as an object of sexual desire, she's still uncertain what that means. Assuming that it refers to someone with whom a person desires to have sex, then, oh my, yes, that's George. Whether it's his expertise or her unique circumstances, she isn't sure, but what matters is that he's the one who rings her bells. And if she doesn't wake him up to go with her to the store, she's going to want to wake him up to have him lead her up the mountain peaks of pleasure.

She leans over him and begins to kiss and caress his face. Soon, his dreamy smile grows bigger and his head turns as his lips seek hers and latch on with a hunger which she's only too willing to match and even increase. When she lets him catch his breath, she watches his eyes slowly open and is thrilled at the desire which blazes forth from his eyes that see only hers. How he can control such desire is beyond her understanding, but both the desire and the control make him even more desirable to her.

While she resists her own desire to dive back down to his lips, she gives him the latest status, "Klara called and will be coming over for dinner. She said she would bring pizza and I agreed to make a salad to go with it. I need to pick up a couple of things from the grocery store to make the salad and I'm not quite feeling comfortable enough to go out on my own yet. Will you go with me?"

His right hand reaches up to gently pull her head down and huskily whisper, "I'll go with you almost anywhere," then he kisses her even more hungrily.

She responds just as hungrily and almost forgets her stated reason for waking him up. When she has enough breath, she tells him, "If you keep that up old man, you're going to be wondering what happened to your clothes."

His initial huge grin dissipates into a shy smile.

"And, no 'I'm sorry'. . . . So, where is one of the places you wouldn't want to go with me?"

He drops his head in embarrassment, but after a little while he slowly raises it to look at her and says, "The only thing I thought of at the moment was the toilet. As my reasoning ability wakes up, a few other places come to mind more as a 'not yet'."

"Your reasoning ability wasn't totally asleep to think of that and I'm going to resist suggesting some of the 'not yet' places become 'sooner' rather than 'later'."

"That was a rather poor resistance to making a suggestion."

She points out, "Well, technically it wasn't, because I didn't actually suggest anything." He pulls her head back down and while their lips are locked, he begins to tickle her. After she laughs for awhile, she squeaks out, "Whoa." He immediately stops tickling her and snugly holds her. When her breathing has settled, she turns and kisses him breathless then tells him, "You marvelous man. Let's get you up and go to the store before I look back on this afternoon with regret for jumping over steps to end the journey early."

Since he has very similar thoughts, he releases her with reluctance before he gets up and gets ready to go. In a few minutes, they're out of the door and on the way to the grocery store. In the store, he follows her with the grocery cart as she checks the general merchandise section of the store. She puts something into the cart then happens to look across the aisle and starts to chuckle.

When he looks at her quizzically, she points to a package of panties which have the days of the week printed on them. She pulls his head down to whisper in his ear, "This morning I thought I ought to get some printed with 'morning', 'afternoon', and 'evening', for how often I need to change my damp panty after you get me all excited." As he just stares at her with wide eyes, she nods her head with a big grin.

Slowly, he starts to grin in response then leans over and whispers, "Poor lady, doesn't your boyfriend give you enough pleasure? Maybe you ought to try Emotique."

Her jaw drops down, her eyes pop open, and then she laughs out loud, somewhat to the consternation of a couple of nearby shoppers. To their shock, Sharlene boldly kisses him. As he follows her down the aisle, he gets a dirty look from the other shoppers. When he walks past them, George directs his softened voice towards them, "It's the false teeth, it drives them wild." Sharlene has to grab the side of the cart and cover her mouth to keep from collapsing on the floor with laughter.

Eventually, they make it to the produce section, make their selections, and go check out while they grin the whole time in an effort to not start laughing again. After they put the groceries in her vehicle, they get in, and can no longer hold the laughter in and it continues until tears roll down their cheeks. When their laughter has mostly diminished, she looks at him with a big grin and asks, "What is it about false teeth that's supposed to drive me wild?"

He reaches in, pulls out his lower plate and hands it to her. She stares at it, dumbfounded for a moment, then grins and almost launches herself at him to kiss him breathless. Between pants as he tries to catch his breath, he manages to say, "See?" She can only briefly kiss his lips before she has to transfer her kisses to the rest of his face instead of having him pass out from a lack of air.

They eventually settle down, she hands him back his lower plate and as he puts it back into his mouth, she deliberately dries her hand on the front of his shirt and gets a grin in return. While they drive back to her house, with a brief stop by the post office to check her mail, occasionally one of them will begin to chuckle while the other grins in response.

Once the groceries are put away, George leans back on the kitchen counter while Sharlene leans on him and enjoys his hug. After a little while, he says, "You know, I never did say what kind of 'wild' my false teeth drives people. I could have meant that they drive people wild with revulsion."

"Ah, but it's so much more fun to have them think 'wild with passion'."

"You don't seem to be bothered by them."

"Why, should I be? They're a part of who you are. Am I supposed to break up the relationship just because I found out you have false teeth? That's ridiculous."

"Some people would."

"Then it wasn't much of a relationship to begin with. I know most people would be bothered by their partner having false teeth, but when I thought about it earlier, your kisses are a little different if your teeth are in compared to when they're out. It clicked with me that means I have twice as much variety in my kisses with you than other people have with their partner. And if you have only one plate in at a time, that means four times as much variety for me with the same kiss."

* * * * *

2147-09-11 (a3)

George gives Sharlene a brief stare before he hugs her tight and laughs. When he calms down some, he asks, "So, my unconventional young lady, what's next on the agenda?"

"Well, I would like a repeat of you touching my legs under my skirt, but I don't want it to be interrupted by the doorbell. Since I don't know when Klara is going to be here, I'm going to have to come up with some distraction."

"Mmm, I know what you mean about not wanting to be interrupted. You like me touching your legs under your skirt?"

"Very much. Not only for your hands to be on my bare skin, but also because of the idea that to have your hands 'sneak up' under my skirt adds a bit of risque pleasure to the experience. No more talking about it or I will leave Klara standing on the doorstep. Now, why don't you go see how much you can get packed while I start working on the salad."

"Packed?"

"Didn't we talk a couple of days ago about going to your place while we wait for the Project to be awarded?"

"Yes."

"Well, if it's not too late when Klara leaves for the airport, I would like to go to your place tonight, unless you have any objections."

"No, I don't have any objection. I guess I'm just a little surprised you would want to go tonight, instead of waiting for the morning."

She hugs him tighter, "I know it doesn't make logical sense, but I feel more freedom at your place. There it's more like I can let my hair down, be who I want to be, and only concern myself with pleasing and being pleased by my lover. Here, I feel like I'm on call, like I have to be ready to drop whatever I'm doing to meet someone else's needs."

"I didn't intend to put you on the spot and make you explain. I was more concerned about you being comfortable rather than feeling some sort of obligation to meet what you might have perceived as my comfort."

"Don't you prefer to be at your place?"

"I prefer to be with you. With all other factors being equal, then I prefer to be at my place."

"Then the more we can be at your place together, the more we both get to enjoy our preferences."

"You've made your point. I guess I'll go check my luggage. Kiss first?"

"I thought you'd never offer," and she kisses him breathless. She snuggles closer to him while his breathing settles then after another brief kiss, she sends him on his way.

She's just started to chop vegetables for the salad when he returns, leans on the counter a couple of feet away from her and watches her. She pauses to look at him and says, "That was quick."

"My stuff was already mostly packed."

"I should have figured that out."

After a little while, she stops chopping, sets the knife down, turns to him with an exaggerated pout, and asks, "Why are you standing so far away, lover?"

"I didn't want to distract you while you had a knife in your hand."

Sharlene steps close, admits, "That's probably the smart thing to do," thoroughly kisses him, "but not the fun thing to do."

"I'm sorry, my lady, but life isn't always fun."

"Maybe not always, but with you, the percentage of fun is much higher."

"Ah, you took the words out of my mouth. That was going to be my line."

She pushes him back a couple of feet, hops up onto the kitchen counter next to him, pulls him close, wraps her legs around him, reaches up with her right hand, and, to his surprise, she gently pulls his lower plate out of his mouth, sets it on the counter, then kisses him. As she lets him breath, she pulls his upper plate out, sets it on the counter and kisses him again. While she lets him catch his breath, she puts his lower plate back in and kisses him yet again. For the third time, she lets his breathing settle, then she puts his upper plate back in and kisses him a fourth time. As he tries to catch his breath, yet again, she says, "Thank you, lover boy. I never knew being an experimental scientist could be so much fun," and grins at him.

As he opens his eyes wide with surprise, George almost chokes while he tries to laugh and breathe at the same time.

Sharlene is instantly concerned and asks, "Are you okay?"

He nods his head and hugs her tight. After a little while, he nibbles on her ear and tells her, "You just surprised me. So, I'm some specimen of scientific research and experimentation?"

Since she recognizes the humor in his voice she agrees, "And such a willing specimen. As I convince you to touch me more, and allow me to touch you more, I'm going to want to try multiple permutations, because as a proper scientist, it would be remiss of me to ignore any possibility or variation."

While he holds her tight with his left arm, he moves his right hand from her back as he says, "We wouldn't want you to be less than a proper scientist."

She gasps as his right hand slips under the bottom hem of her skirt to slide up the outside of her left thigh with his thumb along the front of her thigh. Although he moves his hand slowly, without zigzagging his hand up her leg, his hand soon arrives at the side seam of her panty and pauses for a moment. She doesn't care whether it's her pleasure or her anticipation which is leading the way, in either case, she moans with pleasure as his fingertips trace her panty seam from the top of her thigh down to where it goes under her buttock sitting on the counter. She moves her arms to be snugly around his neck then tilts herself onto her right leg so the next time he follows her panty seam, his fingertips caress her to where the top of the back of her left leg meets the bottom of her buttock.

Her groan of pleasure soon rises in pitch when his left hand slides from her back, across her side and caresses her right breast through her shirt and thin bra. While his left hand plays near her breast and intermittently but briefly tantalizes her quickly growing nipple, his right hand begins to play with the seam of her panty near her hip, as he slips fingertips under it, pushes it up, pulls it down, pulls it a little ways from her skin to let it snap back into place, rolls the seam up a little ways, and all of it is interspersed with caresses of his hand along the top of her leg while his fingertips follow her panty seam. The second or third time his fingertips follow the seam of her panty over the top of her leg and partway down the inside towards her pubic area, she vocally expresses her climax.

While she waits for her breathing to settle, she sits up and hugs him tighter as his left hand moves around to her back and his right hand moves down her leg to get out from under her skirt then moves up to join his left hand in order to tighten his own hug. Somewhat wistfully, she asks, "Is the show over?"

He reminds her, "You have vegetables sitting on the counter."

"They can wait. Another round, please?"

Since he's unable to resist her request, his left hand moves from her back and is soon going up the outside of her right leg under her skirt. She tilts her body to her left and is rewarded as his right hand moves from her back to caress near her left breast. As his left hand gives her upper right leg a similar treatment to what her left leg enjoyed, his right hand slides the short distance across her upper chest from her breast and begins to undo the buttons of her shirt. She can only groan as the pleasure washes over her, especially when his right hand slips into her partially opened shirt and begins to caress the bare skin of her upper chest.

As his left hand plays with the seam of her panty on her right side, his right hand slips out of her shirt and undoes a few more buttons. When it slides back into her open shirt, his right hand caresses her left breast and tantalizes her nipple through her bra while his left hand follows her panty seam partway down the inside of her leg and she soon cries out again as her pleasure goes over the top. He returns his hands to her back to hug her snugly so she has a chance to catch her breath.

When her breathing has settled, she tells him, "Ohhh, thank you. You touch so wonderfully. How do you keep putting up with my selfish desire to be touched?"

"Easily, because it's consistent with my extremely selfish desire to touch you."

"Don't you selfishly want to be touched?"

"Yes, but my guilt tends to diminish the pleasure. Since you have frequently been making it clear that you do want me to touch you, I can indulge my selfish desire to touch you almost guilt-free."

Since she doesn't understand why he added the qualifier to his statement, Sharlene asks, "Why 'almost' guilt-free?"

"I still have a bit of doubt which crops up now and then and questions whether you want me to touch you." He quickly places a finger over her lips to stop her protest so he can continue, "You've gone to great lengths to make it clear you do want me to touch you. I know you want me to touch you, but I suspect I'll have that little bit of doubt raise its head from time to time no matter how long you allow me to be with you."

"Thank you for clarifying. I suppose as humans, we'll always have various segments of doubt floating around in the backs of our minds."

George hesitates before he asks, "Would you care to share your bits of doubt?"

"Well," she drops her head and looks around before she looks back at him and says, "similar to what you've said on a number of occasions. Our relationship, although unusual as it is, in many ways seems too good to be true. In spite of the typical situation of something sounding too good often being not true, our relationship, at least in my opinion, is only getting better than 'too good'. Other times, when I see and feel how much you give, I wonder when the piper is going to want his pay, but you just keeping giving and giving, more and more. You don't even take advantage of opportunities whether they're obviously given or you're able to sneakily acquire them."

He looks at her quizzically and asks, "What do you mean by 'sneakily acquire'?"

"Earlier, when you gave me so much pleasure that I collapsed and you carried me to the love seat, did you lift up my skirt to look at more of my body?"

"No."

"Don't you want to see what's under my skirt?"

His hands quickly stop hers from lifting the hem of her skirt more than a few inches.

"Of course I do. But to do so when you're unaware deprives you of the freedom to say 'yes' or 'no'."

"That's what I mean by 'sneakily acquire' and what I mean by you keep giving and giving. I don't know how many times you could have looked more, touched more, even taken my clothes off and made love to me without me being aware and yet you haven't. I doubt if there's another man dead, alive, or yet to be conceived who would have passed up as many opportunities as you have, especially considering the desire which blazes out of your eyes towards me. You, my boring old man, are so good that you have to be true and real. Nobody could keep up a pretense as long as you have and bypass so many opportunities."

"Um . . . uh . . . I don't think I'm so good. I . . . uh . . . I just think . . . well, I think you ought to have the freedom to choose and to do that, you need to be aware."

"That conviction is part of what makes you so good. I may not be the greatest judge of people, but I've been with you almost continuously for over five weeks and I've never seen you violate your conviction of allowing me, or anyone else for that matter, the freedom to do as they pleased until it violated someone else's freedom. Even when you played 'Mr. G' to my 'Doctor Doll', you always asked or said 'please', never once did you demand that something be done for you. Oh, George, . . ." as she runs out of words, she hugs him tighter and kisses him breathless.

* * * * *

2147-09-11 (a4)

Without waiting for him to catch his breath, Sharlene pushes George back a little, slips off of the counter, and dashes down the hall to her bedroom. She takes her panty off then almost cries out in pleasure when she washes herself. After she dries herself, she leans on the bathroom counter for a few minutes in order to gain some control.

She's about to open the door to the bedroom and go out without wearing a panty at all, but she decides that would be too much for him, right now. As she looks through the lingerie she brought from his place, but, surprisingly for her, she hasn't sorted or put it away, she finds the type of panty she thought she remembered. She takes off her skirt to try the new panty on and finds that it does cover her front and back, but is cut very high up the front of the side so her front hip bones are exposed. She smiles as she imagines his response to tracing the side seams of this panty.

With her thoughts centered on how delightful his response will be, she almost walks out of the bedroom without her skirt. Again, she has to chastise herself for wanting to push him past what he's ready for. As she walks down the hall to the kitchen with her skirt on over her panty, she can hardly wait for him to give himself the freedom he so readily gives her.

In the kitchen, Sharlene sees that he's just finished chopping the vegetables for the salad. She's about to apologize when she sees George's surprised expression. While she wonders what's wrong with her, she watches him quickly dry his hands, step close, and begin to gently redo the buttons on her shirt. Although she's tempted to interfere, she doesn't, but she does say, "I forgot about my shirt. Are you sure you wouldn't rather leave it open?"

"Luscious lady, if it was my preference, I would be going in the opposite direction. I don't think we need to give Klara any more ideas for her vivid imagination to expand upon."

"I don't know. She's known me all of her life and has been rather shocked at my behavior over the last two weeks."

"Maybe so, but as she comes to terms with what she's observed or with what you've told her, I'm sure her imagination can go faster and further than reality."

"Humm, you're probably right. Thank you for watching over me. Thank you for finishing the vegetable chopping. Most of all, thank you so much for all of the pleasure you give me." She kisses him with such passion, George barely has sufficient brain cells functioning in order to turn and lean on the kitchen counter to avoid falling over, all without breaking the kiss of course. When she finally notices a slight tremor in his legs, she guides him to the love seat while he's trying to catch his breath and has him rest.

She goes back to the kitchen, finishes the salad, cleans up, and in a little while she joins him on the love seat. While she just holds his hand and resists the numerous temptations which cross her mind, it's not long before he falls asleep. She watches him sleep for a little while then she releases his hand, gets up, and goes through her mail.

Once that is done, she feels somewhat restless, but since she doesn't want to disturb his rest, she goes to the front room and spends the time doing tai-chi. She thinks about some more moves to teach him then mentally kicks herself for not making a bigger effort to get a routine going with him. After awhile, she stops in surprise because she realizes that for the last couple of minutes, she's been thinking of moves to do with him, preferably with few, if any, clothes. Even she's surprised at how thoroughly he affects her. Yet, she has no intention of stopping the process or of giving him up.

Before her thoughts can progress any further, the doorbell rings. As she briefly thinks, "Saved by the bell," Sharlene opens the door and warmly greets Klara and Mariam.

Klara senses something in Sharlene's expression so she asks, "Where's George?"

"Sleeping."

After Sharlene closes and locks the doors, they stay close then Klara asks in a quieter voice, "What's the matter, Sharlene?"

"Nothing." When she notices Klara's raised eyebrows, she goes on, "If there's anything the matter, it's with my understanding and acceptance of what a wonderful man George is. You know the saying about something sounding too good to be true. Well, I'm finding that with George, he's SO good, he has to be true and sometimes I find that overwhelming. He so willingly touches me in such wonderful ways, but he resists me touching him."

As she recognizes Klara's expression, Sharlene explains, "There's no doubt he wants me to touch him. A couple of times I've tricked him and all he could do was lay back and enjoy it. No, he doesn't want to get too excited and lose control and have me miss out on any steps of the journey. I've never met or even heard of someone who gives and gives and gives and never asks for anything in return except for the opportunity to keep giving."

Klara gently smiles at her and pulls her into a hug as she tells her, "I'll bet if I asked George, he would say the same thing about you."

"Yeah, he would. He's already said similar things on a number of occasions. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to go all introspective on you, but from time to time something makes me aware and I feel overwhelmed. Thank you, Klara."

"You're welcome. Thank you for being willing to talk to me."

"Mariam," Sharlene hugs her again, "you seem subdued."

"I've been going through Rebeka's diary. Talk about an eye opener. I don't know how she survived it and still had the wits or guts or whatever it took to write it down. Klara made it clear that I needed to get away from it for awhile, even though I don't want to be a wet blanket." She drops her eyes then says "Sharlene, I don't know how to ask this and I know George has difficulty with another woman showing him affection," Mariam lifts her head with moist eyes, "but can you talk him into giving me a long hug?"

Sharlene gives her a tighter hug as she says, "Of course." She leads them towards the kitchen and dining area then goes to kneel on the love seat next to him and gently wakes him. As he starts to wake up, he smiles, which causes him to appear to quickly lose years of age. A moment later, he starts to open his eyes and lifts his right hand. She captures his hand in hers as she whispers, "Klara and Mariam are here."

George sobers some.

"Come, old man, potty trip, then I have a favor to ask." Although he almost frowns, he follows her to her bedroom where she directs him to the toilet room. When he comes out and washes his hands, she steps up and hugs him from behind then tells him, "George, Mariam has been going through Rebeka's diary and it's been very hard for her. She really needs to be held and comforted and she asked if you would hug her."

At first, he looks rather confused then he mentally makes the connection and says, "Oh. Is it bad?"

"Apparently. Mariam's much more worldly wise than I am, and it has her rather disturbed."

"If she thinks she can trust a man, then I'll hold her if she wants, but not more than that."

"I doubt if she'll want any more than that."

"I don't know her well enough to guess, but in similar situations some women will hate all men for the rest of their lives, while other women will throw themselves at any man standing upright."

"Please be calm, my man. Let's not guess at trouble before it comes. Give her a good long comforting hug. If she tries to push it further, we'll deal with the situation then. Okay?"

He hesitates before he responds, "Okay."

"Thank you, my man. If Mariam wasn't hurting right now, I would love to take the time to demonstrate how proud I am of you." She turns him around, gives him a brief but thorough kiss, and tells him, "Come, let's go help our friend."

They return to the other room where George briefly hugs Klara, steps over to Mariam, and asks, "Hug?" She nods and immediately steps forward to be enveloped in his arms. After awhile, he takes a small step back, guides her to the love seat, sits down, and opens his arms again. She swiftly swarms onto his upper legs, curls up tight to him, and, after a pause, she bursts into tears. He hugs her tight, murmurs soft words, kisses the side and top of her head, gently rubs her back, and does it all over again.

In the background, he can hear Klara and Sharlene talk, but is unable to make out their words. Some minutes later, Mariam's crying dissipates, and she just rests in his arms. A little later, she sits up slightly and he hands her tissues to dry her eyes and blow her nose. When she's somewhat recovered and while her head is still lowered, she asks, "George, I don't want to push you, but will you kiss me, please?"

He hesitates for a seemingly long time before he says, "Yes." A moment later, she lifts her head and he gently kisses her upturned lips while he makes the effort to keep his kiss friendly, comforting, warm, and as far from passionate as he can. When she starts to escalate the kiss, he breaks it and gently looks at her. Again, he softly kisses her.

The fourth time he breaks the kiss and looks at her, she quits trying to lead or escalate the kiss, but leans back and lets him kiss her while she responds only to the level with which he kisses her. After what seems like a long time, he breaks the kiss to breathe and hugs her head on his shoulder. She almost falls asleep in the warmth and comfort which his enveloping arms give her.

Awhile later, Sharlene comes over, sits on the love seat, places a hand on Mariam's knee, and asks, "Are you ready to eat something?"

She rouses herself, nods her head, kisses his cheek, and says "Thank you, George." A moment later, she leans over, gives Sharlene a hug, and tells her, "Thank you, sister." Although she's a little unsteady getting up, Mariam waves off Sharlene's helping hand with a smile and soon finds her equilibrium to make it down the hall.

Sharlene slips onto his upper legs, into his arms, their questing lips join, and George more than willingly receives and responds to her hungry kiss. When they break the kiss, they feel a little embarrassed that they forgot Klara was in the room.

Sharlene whispers to him, "Thank you for holding Mariam. I think it helped her. Did she push you?"

"When she started to escalate the kiss, I stopped it and tried to keep it only warm and comforting. I don't know how well I succeeded."

"The important thing is that you tried to comfort her and didn't take advantage of her weakness. For that I'm very proud of you and thank you very much." She cuddles up closer to him and revels in his embrace for awhile before she suggests, "I suppose I ought to let you up so that you can eat too."

After she briefly kisses him, Sharlene is about to get up when she hears Mariam's voice, "Klara, I do declare, whenever I leave the room, those two are at it hammer and tongs."

"What are you complaining about, they didn't even bother waiting until I could leave the room. I wish I had a video recording of them because her daddy will never believe the kind of behavior his innocent little girl has been indulging in."

Although she flushes with embarrassment, Sharlene joins in the laughter while George drops his head and hides his face in her hair because he doesn't know how else to respond. Apparently, Sharlene doesn't notice how uncomfortable he is as she kisses his cheek, gets up, pulls him to his feet, and sends him down the hall. Soon, they're sitting at the table with pizza, salad, and drinks.

* * * * *

2147-09-11 (e1)

George quietly listens to the ladies chit-chat and gossip, while he mentally kicks himself for forgetting such an important element in the equation of their relationship, Sharlene's parents. For all intents and purposes, he doesn't have any family, but she does. Although Paula approves of their relationship, her voice could easily be lost in the hubbub about him robbing the cradle and corrupting their innocent little girl, especially since from all accounts Paula is the rebel in the family.

As Mariam helps Sharlene clear the table and put the leftovers away, Klara receives a phone call and steps into the other room to answer it. George sips his drink in contemplation. After the table is washed and dried, Sharlene leans over him from behind, kisses the top of his head, nibbles his ear and whispers, "What's the matter, old man?"

"I thought of something I shouldn't have forgotten. We can talk about it later."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes." He turns his head to hers and kisses her as though he'll never be able to kiss her again and apparently doesn't care who observes. Although she's rather surprised at the intensity of his kiss, Sharlene quickly and enthusiastically responds.

Klara comes back into the room, glances at them, goes to the television, picks up the remote, and turns it on. As she looks back over her shoulder, she requests, "Mariam, knock those two lovebirds apart."

Mariam heads towards them with a grin and says, "Okay, you two. . . ."

George growls in a low voice, "Don't you dare!"

Mariam takes a step back and stares at him in shock.

Sharlene leans her head back a little to look at him better and asks, "George?"

He sits there for a moment with a scowl, shakes his head, drops it, and proclaims, "I'm sorry." In a more normal voice, he responds, "We're coming." He steps towards Mariam and she almost steps back again when he lifts his hand to softly caress her face. After he gently pulls her head forward a little, he kisses her forehead, says, "I'm sorry," and releases her.

He sits down on the love seat and Sharlene is almost immediately sitting on his upper legs, turns to hold his head with both of her hands, and again asks, "George?"

"Later, my love," he gently smiles at her as he caresses her cheeks. Although she's very curious about what he's thinking, Sharlene knows that now isn't the time to pursue it, so she gives him a brief kiss, turns on his upper legs, lays back on him, wraps his arms around her upper abdomen, and turns her attention to the television to see what has grabbed Klara's attention.

During a few more of the seemingly innumerable commercials, Mariam sits on the love seat next to them with a couple of cautious glances at George, while Klara pulls over a dining room chair and puts it next to the right end of the love seat. In a moment, Klara turns on the sound.

"Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the channel six news at the top of the hour. Your best source of what's happening in the world, the sector, the quadrant, and your own neighborhood. I'm Bill Anderson."

"And I'm Jessica Smithers. Our top story this evening is another blow to the scandal ridden Institute for Psychological Responses. Just over a month ago, we reported on a funding scandal which rocked the Emotional Data Recording Project at the Institute and caused the government to step in, defund the Project, and required the Institute to sell the Project. Since then, other study funders have been taking a much closer look at the Institute. Two days ago, a civil lawsuit was filed against the Institute on behalf of a former female employee claiming sexual harassment and violation of the Employee Protection Act. This afternoon, Charles Kampton, the director of The Institute for Psychological Responses, and Nik Nikkels, the director of the Emotional Data Recording Project, were arrested . . ."

"Yes!" from Mariam.

". . . on a number of charges including illegally recording meetings, violation of the Employee Protection Act, sexual harassment, sabotage, and corporate espionage."

"That's right, Jessica. While the other charges are serious, the laws against corporate espionage are strict and the penalties are severe. What we've been able to piece together is that the former female employee of the Institute for whom the lawsuit was filed, was a close friend of another former female employee of the Institute who has gone on to become a personal physician to a potential investor who was interested in acquiring the rights to the Emotional Data Recording Project. While still an employee at the Institute, she was invited to spend the weekend with her friend. The directors of the Institute insisted she record any conversations over the weekend as well as to offer sexual favors to the investor in the hope of keeping his interest in acquiring the Project. The Institute management went so far as to break into her vehicle in order to plant a tracking and recording device."

"Thank you, Bill. For the latest on the story, let's go to our reporter James Youngston on the scene at Police Headquarters. James?"

"Jessica, I just finished speaking with the police lieutenant who is in charge of the corporate espionage case. He's unable to discuss the details of the case against the Institute management team. Without going into details, he did confirm that, to the best of his knowledge, a civil lawsuit had been filed by the potential investor's lawyer against the Institute claiming corporate espionage. After being unwilling or unable to answer a number of questions about the case, I asked why two of the arrest charges were for sexual harassment and violation of the Employee Protection Act when there had already been a civil lawsuit filed for those same charges.

"The police lieutenant explained that a private citizen is not allowed to charge another citizen or organization with a crime, but can only make a complaint to be settled in court and that often involves one person's word against another. In a criminal case, the penalties are stiffer and more evidence is required. He said, 'After reviewing the evidence, we felt there was a clear violation of the law, so we arrested the alleged perpetrators. It will be up to the courts to decide their guilt and determine any financial penalty or other punishment.' That's the latest from Police Headquarters. This is James Youngston reporting live for channel six news. Back to you, Bill and Jessica."

"Thank you, James. It has come to our attention that after the arrests this afternoon, the Board of Directors for the Institute has been meeting and a number of other managers and directors have been turning in their resignations. As we find out more about the various charges against the Institute for Psychological Responses and its management team, we'll keep you informed. For the most complete news coverage, stay with channel six. In other news this evening . . ."

Klara turns off the television.

"Oh, my." Sharlene asks, "Klara, how is this going to affect the awarding of the Project?"

"It should have little or no effect, primarily because the government is watching the whole process like a hawk. I don't know for sure, but I suspect there will be a downsizing of the Institute, both in terms of personnel and of equipment. Sharlene, no, you can't try to hire all of the people who might be laid off. We'll look at each person critically and carefully, making sure, as much as possible, that they have the right qualifications and the right fit to support Digital Empathy. I don't mean to sound harsh, but the success of Digital Empathy has many more people to help than the few people who work at the Institute."

"You're right. Thank you, Klara."

Mariam voice is subdued as she says, "I didn't mean to sink the ship."

Klara grabs her right hand and tries to assure her, "Don't blame yourself. You didn't cause the Institute's problems. All the lawsuit did was point out the problems which were already there. How many other people have been treated similarly, but had neither the resources nor the knowledge to pursue legal action?"

"Humm, I can think of a couple off the top of my head. You're right, Klara. Thank you."

"Mariam, a forewarning. I suspect someone at the Institute may call you back in to help with the transition of the Project to whoever is awarded the Project. Don't agree and don't disagree. Tell them that they have to contact me and we'll discuss it."

"Okay. I can do that."

"Good. I hate to eat and run, but I do have a flight I would like to catch. Mariam, can I drop you off at your place?"

Sharlene suggests, "Klara, if you want to go directly to the airport, we can take Mariam home."

"Mariam?"

"I would like to stay a little longer." Mariam stands up, pulls Klara to her feet, gives her a big hug, and tells her, "Thank you so much. I never would have survived the last few days without you."

"Don't sell yourself short, young lady. It's been my privilege to get to know you and give you what little help I could. Keep the hope up and I look forward to seeing a successful Digital Empathy." After she releases the hug, Klara steps over to George who has stood up and as she hugs him she tells him, "George, you're a good man. Thank you for being so gentle with Sharlene." She moves her hands from around him, grabs his head with both hands, pulls it down, looks him in the eye, and asks, "I don't mean to push you and I don't want to come between you and my little girl, but will you give me a good-bye kiss?"

He hesitates, nods his head once, and is surprised at how thoroughly she kisses him.

When she lets him breathe, Klara pats his cheek, and proclaims, "Good boy." As she turns to Sharlene, Klara wraps an arm around her shoulder, and says, "Walk me to the door." At the front door, Klara wraps her up in a tight hug as she says, "Sharlene, you make me very proud. I'm also as happy as I can be for you as well as envious as all get out. I agree with Paula, I couldn't live with George, but . . . well . . . I'm not sure what to say about him."

"Why, Klara, I don't think I've ever heard you at a loss for words."

"Disturbing, isn't it? Maybe I can describe him as a teddy bear you don't want to give up and that you always want to keep close to give you comfort, but it's not exciting enough to spend all of your time with."

Sharlene responds, "I guess that's where we think differently, because I do think my teddy bear is exciting enough to spend all of my time with."

"You were never keen on crowds or group activities though, were you?"

"Not at all. I think that's part of why I get along with him so well, we're both strong introverts."

"One more thing, as much as I've grown to like that man over the last two weeks, if he does anything to hurt you, you let me know."

"Yes, ma'am."

"Enough said. Another hug and I'm on my way."

Sharlene hugs her and says, "Klara, thank you so much for coming and helping. And thank you for approving of George."

"Thank you for asking me to get involved. I haven't had so much excitement in a long time. Remember, I'm only a phone call or email away."

"Thank you, Klara." Following a tightening of their hug and a mutual kiss on their cheeks, Klara steps back and out the door. Sharlene waits until Klara's vehicle is out of the driveway and starts down the road before she closes and locks the door and goes back to the other room.

* * * * *

2147-09-11 (e2)

When she notices that George is sitting and simply staring straight ahead while Mariam holds his right hand, Sharlene looks at Mariam quizzically and asks, "What's going on with George?"

"I don't know. After Klara kissed him, he sat down and hasn't moved."

Quickly, Sharlene sits on his upper legs, caresses his cheek, and asks, "George, what's the matter?"

Sharlene is startled when he rips his right hand out of Mariam's grip, throws his arms around her to almost painfully hug her, drops his head to the top of her head, inhales deeply, holds it, then lets it out in an explosive sigh. A moment later, he exclaims, "Oh, thank you, my lady."

"George?"

As he slightly relaxes his grip on her, he answers, "I'm not sure. I agreed to kiss Klara, I remember starting to kiss her and the next thing I know, you're calling my name."

"You responded to her kiss, but I guess she kissed you more thoroughly than you expected, so something inside of you shut down so you wouldn't remember."

"I guess. Why would she want to kiss me?"

Sharlene assures him, "You're a good man and a good kisser. Klara knows she couldn't live with someone like you, but that doesn't mean she can't enjoy your hugs and kisses. Aunt Paula's said the same thing, and you don't object to hugging her?"

"But since she and Paul have gotten back together, she hasn't been asking me to kiss her. A hug is one thing, but a passionate kiss like Klara started is something else."

"George?"

"Yes, Mariam?"

"I don't mean to interrupt, but for most people a kiss is either really kissing or it's a peck on the cheek. Earlier, when you agreed to kiss me, I was surprised you kept stopping the kiss and looking at me. It finally dawned on me that you were keeping the intensity of the kiss down. When I relaxed and only responded to your kiss instead of trying to take over, it was so warm and comforting, I felt like I could have floated there for a long time. For all of the kissing I've done, I've never been kissed like that before. Simply put, it was wonderful. It wasn't passionate, it didn't ring any bells, but it was exactly what I needed and I shall treasure it for a long time."

Sharlene asks, "So, my precious old man, where did you learn to kiss like that?"

He hesitates before he answers, "I don't know. I don't even know if I thought about it. It seemed like Mariam needed friendly warmth and comfort, so that's how I tried to hold her and kiss her."

"Thank you very much for holding me and kissing me to give me warmth and comfort, you certainly succeeded. I hope you won't be offended if I ask for more in the future."

"Um, . . . I don't know, Mariam. . . . I'm just barely beginning to accept that this lovely young lady wants me to touch her. That one woman wants me to touch her is quite contrary to decades of experience. That she has friends who want me to kiss them also, is . . . uh . . . overwhelming."

Mariam suggests, "Sharlene, hold on to him. George, forewarning, I'm going to say something more overwhelming."

Sharlene asks, "Is that wise?"

"Probably not, but I'm a blunt type of person and the setting is appropriate. George, I have no intention of coming between you and Sharlene. Nor do I want to send you into shock, but for that same warmth and comfort with which you kissed me, I'm selfish enough to admit that I want you to take me to bed and make love to me."

He drops his head, tries to bury it in Sharlene's hair, and mutters, "I was afraid of that."

Since she didn't clearly hear his words, Mariam asks, "What did he say?"

Sharlene answers, "He said he was afraid of that."

"Oh. . . . Damn! What am I doing? Sharlene, take me out and shoot me."

"Why?"

Mariam looks at her with wide eyes, "Why!?! Here I am, right in front of you, telling your boyfriend I want him to make love to me. If our roles were reversed, I would have leaped at you and tried to tear you apart with my bare hands. How can you let me tell him such things?"

"Mariam, calm down."

"But . . ."

Sharlene insists, "Calm down! We're adults and we're friends. We should be mature enough to say what we think or feel, however outrageous. . . . Now, George, based on your current level of knowledge, if I told you that I wanted a baby, would you stop me from finding someone to impregnate me?"

"No. I may not like the idea, but you're a grown woman, free to make you own choices."

"Mariam, that's why. Just as George acknowledges me as a free woman to make my own choices, can I do any less for him?"

"But your relationship . . ."

Sharlene nods her head as she responds, "Yes, it's our relationship. And this man is so dear to me that I have a hard time letting him out of my arms, much less my sight. I'm sorry, old man, if I shock you, but I think it would be much more noble for George to make love to you to bring you comfort than for just any man to squirt semen into me in an attempt to get me pregnant."

The uncomfortable silence stretches before Mariam says, "I see you're making the point of freedom for each of you to make your own choices, but I'm having trouble at the moment with your attitude. I need to back up to the practical. George, why would you let someone else try to impregnate Sharlene?"

He deeply sighs then lifts his head to rest his chin on the top of Sharlene's head. He pauses a moment longer then says, "Number one, I've had a vasectomy. Number two, I have a family history of mental disorders which are genetically related. Number three, the odds of a child being born with genetic disorders greatly increase with the age of the father. Number four, I'm an unattractive person and wouldn't want to ruin the beauty this lady would certainly produce."

"Those are practical reasons for not impregnating Sharlene yourself, but there are other methods she could use."

"That would be her choice."

The silence grows again before Mariam speaks, "Sharlene, why do you think it would be more noble for George to make love to me than for another man to do the same for you."

"It's not the biological function which is important, it's the purpose, the intent, the reason which is important. If I was to go to the local mall and take a survey of the men and received honest answers, how many would say they were willing to have sex with me in an attempt to make me pregnant?"

"Probably every one of them."

"Now, if you were to do the same thing only the question was how many would be willing to take you to bed for the purpose of giving you comfort, maybe even pleasure, while setting aside their own desires?"

"If they gave an honest answer, probably none of them." Mariam looks at Sharlene and her eyes grow wide in surprise before she asks, "You mean George would set aside his own desires to touch me and give me comfort and pleasure?"

"Yes."

George responds somewhat harshly, "Sharlene, quit making me out to be some kind of paradigm of virtue."

"I'm sorry, George, I should have said you would try."

When the silence stretches and he doesn't refute her statement, Mariam's eyes open wide in astonishment. It takes her a little longer to be able to ask, "George, you would have set aside your own desires to give me comfort in bed if you thought that was what I needed, like you did with your kiss earlier?"

"No, I would have TRIED and failed. Dammit, woman, I'm a man. I may not have as many hormones as a teenager, but the ones I do have can still rage. You're a beautiful sexy woman. If it wasn't for the fact that I didn't want to hurt Sharlene, I would have gladly taken you to bed the first time you asked. But if it wasn't for Sharlene being interested in me, you would have never looked at me, much less asked me to bed. You have experience, you know what to expect, so I wouldn't have had to set aside my own desires, instead, I would only have to make the effort to increase your desire so that it equaled or exceeded my own desire, then when our desires met, there would be mutual pleasure.

"The only reason I didn't pull Sharlene's panty off earlier today and make love to her, was because she doesn't have experience, she doesn't know what to expect, and I refuse to run the risk of hurting her. I try to touch her only a little more each time so she can stop it when she feels uncomfortable. If and when we finally do make love, I hope that I've kept the process gentle, so she can enjoy it the first time, instead of having to try to forget the pain of the first time like so many other women before they can learn to enjoy it, which some never do. . . . I'm sorry, love, I shouldn't have said all of that."

"No, lover, don't be sorry. Thank you for speaking your mind." Sharlene gently kisses him breathless.

After she goes from opened eyes to opened month during George's monologue, Mariam shakes her head then stares at them while she tries to get a grasp of their interaction and their relationship. As the thoughts race around in Mariam's head, George seems to half fall asleep after Sharlene's kiss, while she snuggles in his embrace with a smile of contentment on her face.

Several minutes later, Mariam asks, "Um, guys, . . . can I change the subject?"

Sharlene responds, "Of course."

"Uh, George?"

"Yes?"

"When Klara turned on the television and sent me over to get you two, you growled, 'Don't you dare!' Did I do something wrong?"

He sighs then says, "No, Mariam, you didn't do anything wrong. I'm sorry I growled at you. I was reminded of something important which I had forgotten and when I'm reminded of another of my failures, I get angry with myself and tend to snap at others around me. I'm sorry I took it out on you. Please forgive me."

"Of course. I just wanted to make sure I hadn't done anything wrong."

"Thank you."

* * * * *

2147-09-11 (e3)

Sharlene says, "George, there's more you're not telling. What did you forget which upset you so much?"

"I'm not sure that now is the time to talk about it."

"Love, we're talking about it. Mariam is like a sister to me and I would like her to have a better understanding of you and our relationship."

He pauses for awhile then says, "Okay. . . . For all intents and purposes, I don't have any family to either approve or disapprove of our relationship. And I know that families can have a powerful effect on a relationship between two people whether or not it's any of their business. I've known Paula for a number of years and now I've met Klara, but they're not your immediate family.

"When Klara made the comment about having a video recording of your behavior and being inconsistent with daddy's innocent little girl, I reacted internally and thought, 'not only have I robbed the cradle, I've corrupted their little girl'. All I could think about is what kind of negative reaction your parents are going to have and what kind of pressure are they going to put on you to break up the relationship. You've already said your mother won't approve . . ."

"My mom, my mother's dead."

". . . oh, yeah, sorry . . ."

Mariam asks, "What do you mean?"

Sharlene answers, "Later, let George finish."

"Okay."

". . . and that your dad might be okay with it, if you can convince him that it's your choice. Then when Klara told you, Mariam, to knock those two lovebirds apart, I reacted and growled at you. All I could think of was that I wasn't going to let anybody interfere in our relationship.

"The only one who can end our relationship before death, is the little lady herself. I'll admit that the more time I spend with her, the harder it will be for me to go when she asks me to leave, but I have no intention of letting anyone else end what I selfishly think of as the best . . . thing that has ever happened to me. I'm sorry, love, I don't mean to suggest that you or our relationship is a 'thing', but I couldn't think of another word at the moment."

"That's quite all right. I'm glad you think of me as the best and that you don't want anyone to separate us. George, please don't worry about my family's response. Dad will accept you, probably sooner rather than later. As far as Mom goes, I doubt if anyone would satisfy her, not because they're not good enough, but because to her, I'm still her little girl and much too young to be thinking about boys."

After a pause, Sharlene starts to chuckle then says, "Actually, old man, Mom may accept you if I introduce you as a friend and she doesn't see us kiss. She'll think you're too old for bedroom games and will protect me from all of those nasty young men who just want to get into a young lady's pants." She leans over to whisper in his left ear, "Or those who want to slip their hands up a young lady's skirts."

He drops his head with a blush and then gives her a shy grin.

Mariam asks, "Secrets?"

Sharlene answers, "Private joke."

"Okay. George, thank you for explaining why you growled at me. I can very much understand your feelings. If I had been in your position, I think I would have bitten the other person's head off. Friends still?

"Yes, Mariam, friends still. If you don't mind running the risk of occasionally being growled at."

"I suppose I can if you apologize by kissing me."

"Can I trust your kisses to be friendly instead of sexually hungry?"

Mariam sees Sharlene's wink and answers, "That's a risk you're going to have to take."

"Sharlene?"

"George, you're a free man. You can kiss whomever you want."

"But I don't want to hurt you."

"You're not going to hurt me by kissing Mariam."

"Are you sure?"

Sharlene asks, "Do you want to kiss Mariam?"

He drops his head, pauses, then nods his head.

"Why?"

"Because I'm a lecherous old man, she's a beautiful young woman, and I like the way she kisses."

"Thank you for being honest, George. Now, please respect my honesty when I say you aren't going to hurt me by kissing Mariam."

"Yes, my lady."

He turns towards Mariam and tentatively begins to kiss her. She quickly escalates the kiss. He just begins to respond when he feels Sharlene nibbling on his left ear and sucking on his earlobe, then she undoes the top couple of buttons on his shirt and slips her left hand in to caress his chest. He soon feels overwhelmed, breaks the kiss to breathe and after several panting breaths, he looks at Sharlene and asks, "Why?"

"Because I wanted to and no more 'whys'. I'm not sure I can explain it to my own satisfaction, much less to your satisfaction. Accept it as a gift. Did you ask anything in return from Mariam for holding her earlier while she cried and even kissed her at her request?"

"No."

"You gave a gift. Accept a gift. Okay?"

"Thank you, love."

Mariam looks back and forth between them before she asks, "Did I miss something?"

"While you were kissing him, I was nibbling on his ear and sucking on his earlobe. I even got in a few caresses on his chest before he ran out of breath."

She looks at Sharlene in surprise then asks, "You were joining in?"

"Sure, why not?"

"Um, no reason. . . . It's just that you keep surprising me. When we first got to know each other, I built a mental image of you as worldly naive and nothing changed that for the months we were friends, until you met this old man. Now I feel somewhat old fashioned and stuck-in-the-mud."

"My image of myself was worse than worldly naive, it was more nun-like, until I met this old man."

"I'm going to have to think about this some more. . . . Changing the subject, Sharlene, when George was saying your mother wouldn't approve of him, you corrected him and said your mom, that your mother was dead. That doesn't make sense."

"I'm sorry, Mariam, I guess that's something we never talked about. The short version is that I was orphaned at birth. My father's brother and his wife adopted me and raised me as their own child. I must have been five or six when I found out I was adopted. To keep the relationships straight, my mom suggested that I call my biological parents mother and father and my adoptive parents mom and dad. It's helped me to keep the relationships straight, but it can be rather confusing for people who are unaware of my history."

"I didn't know. I'm sorry."

"There's nothing to be sorry about. I never knew my biological parents. In fact, it didn't hit me that they were real people until I was a teenager and asked how they died. I regret that I wasn't able to know them because from all accounts they were wonderful people, but I can't say I was treated as anything less than my parents' child simply because I was adopted."

"That's good. I've known a few other people who were adopted by family and they were either treated as barely better than slaves or they were treated better than the natural children in an effort to not treat them as less."

Sharlene nods her head as she responds, "That's what I've heard also."

"I don't know about you. We've been friends for several months, I was fairly confident that I knew who you were, but you keep surprising me. Orphaned, martial arts expert, show no interest in males and then fall for a guy old enough to be your grandfather."

"I'm certainly no martial arts expert, but I suppose two out of three isn't bad."

"Okay, I'll concede that I wouldn't know an expert from a novice. I'm not sure whether to claim you can't surprise me anymore or to be afraid of how you can surprise me."

George suggests, "Mariam, you'd better go with the latter choice. And I'm sure there are a few things she hasn't told me yet."

"Thanks, old man, make me sound like an ogre or something. I think I've told you most of the significant, major, and/or surprising things about me and my family. Of course, there may be things about my family I haven't been told yet."

"Ah, love, you're certainly not on ogre, but do you want Mariam to think that you're a completely sedate, prim, and proper young lady?"

With an exaggerated pout while she flutters her eyelashes, Sharlene asks, "You mean . . . you mean . . . I'm not?"

He captures her lower lip between his, then turns it into a hungry kiss and, a moment later, he starts to tickle her which causes her to break the kiss in order to shriek with laughter. He soon stops tickling her and just hugs her snugly.

As Sharlene catches her breath, Mariam just stares at them for a while then shakes her head and asks, "George, when are you going to take off that disguise? The way you act with her, I would guess your behavior in your teens, maybe early twenties."

"Ah-ha, confirmation that this young lady has restored me to my youth. Actually, if the truth were told, I was more boring that this as a teenager, so it's more like she's given me new life."

"I think I've had enough surprises for one day. Sharlene, can I impose on you to give me a ride home?"

"Of course."

"Thank you. I'd better make a quick trip down the hall first."

After Mariam is out of hearing, George asks Sharlene, "Do you want me to come along and ride shotgun?"

"I want you to, but I have the feeling Mariam wants to talk a little in private."

"Is your handgun in your purse?"

"Yes."

"You might want to set it in your lap while you drive. If you need it in a hurry, it might be difficult to dig it out of your purse while you're driving."

"Thank you for wanting to protect me. I'm quite sure we'll be fine. It's not that far."

"If she wants to talk for awhile, please call and let me know. I don't want to restrict your choices, I just want to make sure you're safe."

"I know that's what you mean and I really do appreciate it." While she hugs him tight, she tells him, "You don't know how much it means to me that you want me to maintain my freedom while you do all in your power to keep me safe. Somehow you've been able to find the right balance so I don't feel either smothered or uncared for."

Mariam steps into the room and says, "You guys really can surprise me. I think this is the first time I've come back into the room and you're not kissing."

George frowns then says, "Sharlene, I'm so sorry I've ruined our reputation. I thought to build up a little anticipation and I waited too long. Can you ever forgive me?"

Sharlene laughs, George grins at her, and as Mariam looks at them, she again shakes her head. When her laughter has mostly dissipated, Sharlene gives him a quick kiss and makes her own trip down the hall.

* * * * *

2147-09-11 (e4)

After a few moments of silence, Mariam turns to him and says, "George, I'm not sure which of you has gained the most from your relationship. I hardly recognize Sharlene. She seems so much more alive. She laughs a lot more, she's even more quick to cry. I know you claim she's given you new life, but from my perspective, you've done just as much for her. It's a good thing she's not going to work every day. To see her smile and watch her float instead of walk, all of the men and half of the women would fall in love with her."

He quietly remarks, "She affects you, too."

"Yeah . . . ." Although it's hard to notice on her dark skin, Mariam obviously blushes then says, "Dammit, George, you weren't supposed to know. Please don't tell her!"

"Mariam, calm down, I won't tell her. Frankly, I can't imagine how anyone, male or female, can avoid being affected by her. I suspect that you hold a rather special place in her heart considering her willingness to kiss you directly and share me. Not that I think I'm worth sharing, but I've never known of another woman who would willingly share their boyfriend with someone else."

"Me neither."

A couple of moments later, Sharlene steps into the room and announces, "I'm ready."

George turns to Sharlene and says, "Love, I was thinking, instead of setting your handgun in your lap . . ."

"Gun!?!"

"Yes, Mariam, Sharlene has a handgun and knows how to use it for her protection and while you two are together, for your protection also. Anyway, instead of setting your handgun in your lap and risk getting oil on your skirt, you might want to clip your holster to your skirt waistband on the outside. That should still keep it readily available."

"Good idea." A moment later she has it clipped on then remarks, "It's a little heavy for this skirt waistband, but it should be okay when I'm sitting in the vehicle. . . . Mariam, are you okay?"

"Martial arts, guns, Sharlene, you're supposed to be the embodiment of peace, joy, and love."

"Mariam, I'm sorry if I disappoint you, but life isn't always that safe and simple."

"I know that! I've had a few rough times in my life, but you . . . you're different."

George steps over, gently hugs her, and says, "Mariam, shhh. Calm down. . . . Did Klara tell you what happened yesterday morning?"

"Yeah, but she said it fast and was in and out so quick I wasn't really sure what she said."

"Last weekend at my place, do you remember the video Klara showed where Sharlene and I were in a restaurant and some bully tried to bother her?"

"Yeah."

"Apparently, the bully's boss didn't like his control taken away, so he sent a couple of his goons dressed up as police officers to kidnap Sharlene."

Mariam is shocked and it takes her awhile to respond, "Kidnap? You mean as take away and . . ."

"Yes. That's what I mean. If Sharlene didn't know her martial arts and if I wasn't there with my handgun, she could have been very badly hurt . . . or worse."

"Kidnap!" Mariam reaches over, pulls her into a three way embrace, and says, "Sharlene, I'm so sorry, I didn't realize."

"It's okay, Mariam. I'm safe. I was able to take care of one of them and George stopped the other one." Sharlene pauses and in a quieter voice she says, "Mariam, I think that your reading of Rebeka's diary is bothering you more than you're willing to admit."

As she bites her quivering lip, Mariam nods her head once, and bursts into tears. Many minutes pass before her tears begin to subside.

Sharlene wonders what's distracting her and a moment later she realizes that his left leg which is touching her right leg is trembling, and not just a little. As she tries to maintain a calm voice and hopes he doesn't collapse on them, she suggests, "George, let's move over to the love seat." He nods, does his best to maintain the embrace and slowly backs up to the love seat.

When he's in front of the right side of the love seat, instead of his usual left, he gently releases his embrace, quickly sits down, which ends up more as a controlled fall while he tries to keep his sigh of relief as quiet as possible, then he helps to guide Mariam to sit on his upper legs where she curls up and tries to bury herself onto his chest. After she pauses only long enough to remove the holstered handgun from her skirt waistband, Sharlene sits down on the love seat as close as possible and holds Mariam's hands.

When he looks up and sees Sharlene's warm smile of gratitude, it's as though all of his other concerns disappear into a little puff of smoke. As she remembers some of her own crying episodes, Sharlene isn't surprised when Mariam starts to calm down, apparently remembers something, and bursts into tears all over again. After a few more cycles of calm then crying, Mariam seems to relax and, a little later, they realize she's fallen asleep. Sharlene gets up and is soon back with a couple of blankets to cover Mariam and George who is still holding her. With a look of concern, she leans over and whispers in his ear, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah."

"Do you need anything?"

"A small drink, please, maybe with a straw?"

"A small drink?"

"I don't want to fill up my bladder too fast." After she nods her head in understanding, Sharlene is soon back, and helps him get a few small sips to moisten his mouth. He responds, "Thank you."

Sharlene sets the drink aside and sits back down on the love seat. A couple of minutes later, she gets up, checks the doors, turns out most of the lights, gets another couple of blankets, helps him recline that side of the love seat, leans over, gives him a long gentle kiss, and is glad to feel him start to relax. When he needs to breathe, she sits down on the love seat, reclines her side, drapes a blanket over herself, turns towards him, lays her head on his shoulder, kisses the top of Mariam's head, reaches her left arm over to embrace Mariam, and snuggles as close as she can. A few minutes later, they doze off.

* * * * *

Mariam slowly climbs out of her fog of emotional exhaustion then freezes. Since she doesn't know where she is, it takes all of her will power to not panic. She's laying down, but not in her bed, or any bed, . . . she's laying on someone! Calm down!! Nothing is happening to her. As she takes a moment to listen to her body, she realizes that all of her clothes are on, okay so far.

She has a blanket covering her, that's better. But there are arms holding her, male arms! Calm down!! The arms just seem to be holding her, they aren't even moving. What was that!?! It sounded like a . . . snore? She's laying on someone who's asleep? Hold still, woman! If you move, you might wake them up! What have you gotten yourself into this time? Don't panic!!

Mariam asks herself, "What was the last thing you remember? I was at Sharlene's, I was crying because I was upset about what I had read in Rebeka's diary and George was holding me. George? Is it George who is holding me? Did I fall asleep while George was holding me until he fell asleep too? If this is George I'm laying on, then where's Sharlene?"

Slowly, Mariam opens her eyes, but it's hard to see because of the dim light. As her eyes adjust to the dimness, she sees what looks like a blanket hanging down right in front of her as though it's held up by something. While she makes the effort to hold her head still, she moves her eyes as far as she can and it seems like whatever is holding up the blanket is somewhere near her shoulder. Freeze!! Someone's moving! A kiss? Why would someone kiss the top of her head?

"Mariam?"

That's . . . that's . . .

"Mariam? Are you waking up?"

. . . that's Sharlene's voice. After she hesitates a moment longer, Mariam asks, "Sharlene?"

"Yes, I'm right here."

"Wha . . . what happened?"

"You were upset about what you had read in Rebeka's diary, you had a long cry, we held you, I had George sit down on the love seat, he held you some more, I got a blanket to cover you, and you fell asleep. I'm afraid that George and I dozed off for awhile."

"George is still holding me?"

"Yes."

"Did George . . . touch me?"

"It's kind of hard for him to hold you without touching you."

"No, I mean did George touch me more than just hold me?"

"No. Once he laid back and you snuggled up to him and he wrapped his arms around you, he hasn't moved them. Why?"

"He's a man isn't he? I fell asleep on him, what a golden opportunity for him to feel me before he fell asleep."

"George wouldn't take advantage of you like that. He held you to give you comfort and to help you feel safe, secure, and loved."

"I . . . I feel that . . . but part of me says it's not possible. Now that I'm more or less awake and know that it's George who is holding me, I do feel comfortable and secure, yet a voice in the back of my head keeps saying that no man who would call himself a man would pass up an opportunity to touch a woman when she couldn't protest."

"Mariam, at least this time, the little voice in the back of your head is wrong."

She starts to think about that when she's startled by a deeper voice which seems to come from under her as well as above her head.

"Mariam, I may be a sneaky bastard for listening in on private conversations, but I'm not a sneaky bastard to touch a woman when she's not aware. If a woman is unwilling for me to touch her when she's aware, what kind of fun is it to touch her when she's not aware? Before I discuss it further, I'm going to roll you over and get up so we both don't get uncomfortably wet." Sharlene quickly scoots back and when he, while he continues to hug Mariam, rolls to his left, Sharlene's arms reach around her and pull Mariam into a hug as his arms release her. He quickly gets up and leaves the room.

After a stunned pause, Mariam asks "Who have you guys been practicing on?"

"What do you mean?"

"George rolling me off of him right into your arms."

"We've never done it before. I didn't know he was going to do it until he said it."

* * * * *

2147-09-11 (e5)

After she lays there for a little while as Sharlene continues to hug her from behind, Mariam gently pulls Sharlene's arms apart, rolls over, looks her in the eye, and asks, "He really didn't touch me?"

She reaches up to caress her face as she says, "Mariam, I didn't watch every twitch he made for the entire time he held you. But once he hugged you, his arms didn't move. He dozed off before me and when I woke up before him his arms were in the same place. It's up to you as to whether you believe us or not."

"I want to believe you, but it's quite contrary to what I've experienced in the past."

"I'm sorry that's what you've experienced. Are you feeling any better than you were earlier?"

Mariam nods her head as she answers, "Yeah, I think so. . . . A good cry and a good hug do make a big difference."

"I know what you mean. I don't know how many of George's shirts I soaked while I had a good cry. And he would just hold me and let me cry."

The companionable silence stretches until he steps near the love seat and asks, "How are you feeling, Mariam?"

"Better, thanks to you two." With a brief brush of her lips on Sharlene's, Mariam stands up, hugs him, and tells him, "George, thank you very much for holding me for so long. . . . And thank you for not touching me more while I was asleep."

"I'm glad I was able to maybe give you a little comfort and help you feel better."

A little surprised at herself, Mariam reaches up to caress his cheek and not to pull his head down for a kiss. A moment or two later, she steps back, turns, pulls Sharlene off of the love seat, and hugs her. After awhile, she reaches out and pulls him in to make it a three way embrace then says, "Thank you, guys. You've given me renewed hope and a refreshed understanding of friendship."

Almost as though they timed it, he bends his head to kiss the side of Mariam's forehead while Sharlene lifts her head to kiss Mariam's cheek just above her jawbone. They hug a little longer and then as though by unspoken agreement, they each take a partial step back.

Sharlene asks, "Mariam, do you want to stay here tonight?"

"Um, no. I would prefer my own bed and I really don't want the guilt of someone else giving up their bed, unless you're too tired to take me home."

"No, I'm not that tired."

"Then I'll make my own trip down the hall and maybe this time I won't interrupt the progress."

When Mariam steps down the hall, Sharlene turns to George, pulls his head down and thoroughly kisses him breathless.

A little later, Mariam returns, looks at them, and asks, "You're not kissing?"

Sharlene answers, "Just a pause while he catches his breath before we start round two."

"Then I guess now's the time to drag you away so he can be ready for round two."

Sharlene grabs her handgun and purse while Mariam picks up her purse and after they each give him a brief kiss, they're out the door, in the vehicle, and soon driving down the street. He leaves the porch light on and locks the front door, then restlessly wanders around the house for awhile. Finally, he grabs his handgun, picks up a chair, leaves the front door open just enough to listen for the phone, sits on the front porch with a towel on his lap, and practices field stripping his handgun and putting it back together.

In the vehicle, the silence stretches before Mariam says, "Sharlene, from what I saw and heard this evening with you two, I'm not sure what to think or even what to ask. Even if I did have half of an idea, it would probably go on into a rather lengthy discussion. There's one thing which has been nagging at me. It's probably none of my business, but it kind of set off an alarm in my head. Um, George said something about taking your panty off earlier. Has he been taking your clothes off?"

Sharlene shakes her head then answers, "No, but I wish he would. Let me assure you, he hasn't forced me or pushed me in any way, by any definition. His touching is always gentle and when he touches me more, it's only a little more than he's touched me before. Like I've told you before, I'm the one pushing him."

"Are you sure?"

"Absolutely. He didn't unbutton even the top two buttons of my shirt to kiss my chest, not my breasts, my upper chest, until after I had unbuttoned my shirt so he could kiss me."

"If he's not taking your clothes off, how would he be able to pull your panty down?"

"He was caressing my legs up under my skirt."

Mariam glances down at her skirt, back up to her face, and asks, "You mean he's been sneaking his hands under your skirt?"

"Mariam, please, calm down. I like him touching me, I want him to touch me. If by 'sneaking' you mean him trying to touch me without my knowledge, then no, he hasn't. If by 'sneaking' you mean the concept of him slipping his hands under my skirt to give me pleasure, in a way that others might not be able to observe, then yes, he has. And he's done it with my full encouragement and enjoyment of the risque element of his hands under my skirt."

"You really like him touching you?"

"Very much. You like his hugs and kisses."

"Yeah, when I'm there, but when I step away, sometimes I start to wonder why I was doing that."

"You've been spending too much time with Rebeka's diary."

Mariam hesitates then says, "Maybe so, but it's got me to thinking about some of my own relationships and they weren't a whole lot better."

"I'm sorry, I didn't realize."

"No. I guess I said that wrong. Other than by my uncle, I haven't been sexually abused. What I meant is that even when I asked a man to share my bed, and it was all done in full knowledge of what I was doing and by mutual consent, it wasn't much more than mutual rape as we each took advantage of the other person for our own pleasure."

Sharlene says, "From that definition, I'm just as guilty in taking advantage of George's willingness to give me pleasure and not making the effort to give him pleasure."

"I don't think it's the same, because you do want to give him pleasure. At least, I think you do."

"Yes, I do. Not as much as I selfishly want to receive pleasure from him, but it's a lot of fun to get him excited and give him pleasure."

"You have!?!"

Sharlene grins as she answers, "Oh, yes. I've had to be somewhat sneaky to get him to cooperate, but I've been able to give him pleasure."

"Oh, my. I can hardly believe that it's you who is saying those things." Mariam looks intently at Sharlene as she parks the vehicle then says, "You really mean what you're saying!"

"Every word. I have no reason to lie to you. I'm not inclined to give you an account of every move, but I don't mind telling you some of the more general things."

"I don't know how long it's going to take me to assimilate what you have been telling me."

"If you want to talk some more, call me. We plan on spending the next week or so at George's. If you really want to talk face to face, I can drive down or you can drive up, whichever you want."

"Thank you. I can't tell you how much I appreciate your friendship, even if you keep knocking me for a loop with all of your surprises."

Sharlene leans over and as they hug, she says, "Mariam, thank you for being not only a friend, but a big sister and watching out for me."

With feelings of great affection for each other, they limit themselves to a brief brush of the lips before Mariam slips out of the vehicle, gives a quick wave, and dashes into her house. When she sees the door close, Sharlene backs out of Mariam's driveway and heads for home. She's glad to have a friend like Mariam, but she's also rather concerned about what's happening to her.

Mariam watches Sharlene leave, and feels a small sense of loss then almost wishes she had stayed with them for the night. After she makes sure the door is locked and the lights are out, she quickly gets ready for bed. While she lays there for awhile and lets her mind wander over the conversation this evening and over what she had read in Rebeka's diary, Mariam starts to weep.

Even as her tears flow, it takes her awhile to figure out that part of it is gratitude for having caring friends like Sharlene and George and another part is strong jealousy of both of them. For her to love a woman would carry much less risk, yet to love a gentle considerate man would have its own rewards. Even as she knows that she doesn't want to come between Sharlene and George, Mariam shocks herself when she reluctantly admits to herself that she would willingly take either of them to bed. It takes her awhile to calm down after that piece of self-revelation before she falls asleep with fresh tears.

* * * * *

2147-09-11 (e6)

When he hears footsteps come across the decorative rock in the front yard, George quickly puts his handgun together, slips the clip in, chambers a round, and cocks it, but keeps it down in his hand with the back of his hand resting on his thigh.

"You're pretty good at that."

George asks, "Can you please step into the light so I can see who I'm talking to?"

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you. I'm Glenda Johnson, Sharlene's neighbor."

She steps into the light and George recognizes the police officer he met yesterday morning. After he releases the hammer on his handgun, he holsters it, stands up, extends his right hand, and says, "It's nice to see you again."

Glenda shakes his hand as she responds, "You, too. If you don't mind my asking, what are you doing sitting out here?"

"Sharlene took a friend home. I felt somewhat restless inside so I decided to sit out here while I wait for her. Would you care to sit? I can get another chair."

"If you don't mind chatting a little."

"I'll be right back." He soon returns with another chair and asks, "Did you have something on your mind?"

"When I saw you sitting here, it dawned on me that I ought to know my neighbor better. Especially since I just came from a community group meeting and was telling them that one of the best ways to help reduce crime in a community is to get to know their neighbors." They share a chuckle. "I'm not inclined to spy on my neighbors, but I've never seen a single man visiting Sharlene until you. There's obviously a lot of affection between you two and frankly, the obvious age difference has me mighty curious. If you don't want to say anything, that's completely understandable."

"It's no big secret and I would prefer that people know the truth rather than have them make wild and often incorrect guesses. Mind you, my version of the truth will probably come across different than how she would describe it. But, then, you ought to know about that."

Glenda nods her head as she says, "I see it all of the time."

George explains, "Anyway, it's been my privilege to know Sharlene's aunt and uncle as friends for several years. A few weeks ago, Sharlene spent a week with them and we were introduced when her aunt asked me to drive Sharlene to a local pond to observe the wildlife while I chopped some firewood. Later, when she talked about it she said she had felt comfortable being with me.

"About three weeks later, she was visiting again. A canine which had adopted me became agitated and started to guide her aunt towards the path to my house. Her aunt grabbed Sharlene and drove to my place where I had had a heart attack. Sharlene did CPR and when they got me to the medical center, she insisted on immediate surgery and the use of an experimental drug. She quite literally saved my life.

"When I was able to leave the hospital, she said I needed extended care and decided to do it herself. She said something about wanting to get to know me better. Our relationship has kind of developed from there. I still have a hard time trying to understand why she would want a boring worn out old man like me around, even as she keeps telling me that she's comfortable with me. As for myself, I'm selfish enough to want to stay with her as long as she allows me to. That's the story in a nutshell."

"That's a nice concise nutshell. Thank you. I appreciate your willingness to speak."

"Well, since you didn't read me my rights, I guess I can deny it all."

Glenda grins and says, "You've got me there. If you don't mind my asking, what do you carry? Yesterday morning, it looked like a .45."

"That's what it is." George pulls it out, lays in on the palm of his hand and holds it out towards her. As she hesitates, he assures her, "Go ahead. It's a tool, not a part of my body."

Glenda picks it up, looks it over, and pops the clip out to look at the top bullet and asks, "Hollow point?"

"Since it's for self-defense, I want stopping power."

"That makes sense." After she puts the clip back in, she lays the handgun back on the palm of his hand and tells him, "Thank you."

"Not a problem," as he re-holsters it. "If I remember correctly, I saw sergeant's stripes on your uniform yesterday. That would suggest you've make the police force your career."

"Correct on both points. Law enforcement tends to be a career of choice in my family. My grandfather had a hobby of genealogy and traced back more than five generations where there was at least one person in the family, and usually more, who were involved in law enforcement, sometimes to the detriment of other family members."

"That's not uncommon from what I understand. If there's a strong inclination in a family to have a particular type of career, invariably there will be others within the family who will find a career or life style almost as far removed as possible."

"Too true. I assume that you're retired."

"Yes."

"What kind of career did you have?"

George answers, "I wouldn't call it a career, just a series of jobs usually in a support function of a company. Most were one variation or another of the 'eight to five work in an office' type job. Actually, if I hadn't have won some money a few years ago, I would probably still be working. There never seemed to be enough money after paying the bills to save for retirement, and companies are more interested in executive bonuses than they are in worker pensions."

"I know what you mean. I have a few family members and acquaintances in a similar situation. Luckily, the municipalities haven't figured out a way to get around providing pensions to police and fire department employees, yet."

They pause in their conversation as a vehicle pulls into the driveway, presumably Sharlene's, which is confirmed a moment later when she gets out, walks towards them, and says, "Have you got room for me there, old man?"

"Always for you," as he opens his arms.

Sharlene sits on his upper legs, gives him a quick kiss, grins at Glenda, then asks, "What's up?"

"I thought I ought to find out about the new neighbor. Although next time I think I'll make more of a production about coming across the yard. I'm glad he's not the kind to shoot first and ask questions later or I would have been a goner."

"Not likely, with the porch light in my eyes, I would have had to guess where you were which isn't a good way to achieve any accuracy."

"I suppose that's true, George. Anyway, seldom have I seen someone take a field stripped weapon and have it ready to fire so quickly. He's got you carrying too?"

Sharlene nods her head as she answers, "When I spent a week at his place, we were going to go out and target shoot. Occasionally my aunt or grandparents would take me 'plunking', as they called it, with a .22. When I said that sometimes a .22 pistol seemed a little light to think of it as a weapon, George offered to let me use this .38. When I found I liked it, he gave it to me. After yesterday morning's event, he insisted I take it with me since it would have been difficult for him to ride in the vehicle when I took my friend home a little while ago."

"Good idea."

"Glenda, would you like to come in for a cup of tea or something?"

"I would like to, but I shouldn't. I'm shift supervisor tomorrow, so I have to get in earlier than usual. As I told George, I just came from a community group meeting where I was telling them that knowing their neighbors is a good way to help reduce local crime and I figured I ought to practice what I preach."

Glenda stands up and they quickly follow suit. She holds out her hand, "Thank you, George, for the chat."

"It was my pleasure."

Sharlene hugs Glenda and asks, "Can you keep an eye on the place again? We plan on going up to George's tomorrow and spend a week or so."

"Not a problem," Glenda releases the hug and says, "enjoy your week and we'll see you when you get back."

"Thanks, Glenda, bye."

As Glenda walks across the yard, they pick up the two chairs and carry them into the house. Sharlene waits a little longer to give Glenda plenty of time to cross the yard before she turns off the porch light, and closes and locks the door.

* * * * *

2147-09-11 (e7)

Almost immediately, Sharlene is in his arms and hungrily kisses him and from his instantaneous response, her initiation of the kiss was only a split second ahead of his.

Despite their hungry, their kiss is short lived because their handguns press somewhat painfully into each other and themselves. They chuckle then quickly remove their handguns, set them on the small table near the front door, and resume their kiss and hug. When she lets George have an opportunity to catch his breath, she says, "As much as I like Klara, Mariam, and Glenda, it was all I could do to remain civil and not chase them away. It's probably a little late to drive up to your place tonight."

"Yeah. I would probably fall asleep before we got there."

"Are you just going to stand there and look at me or are you going to touch me."

"Well, I really do like to look at you. In fact, there's hardly anything I would rather do than to look at you." He bends over and kisses her long and deep to her delight and mutual response. When he breaks the kiss before he's out of breath, he lays a line of kisses across her cheek to nibble on her ear where he tells her, "Touching you is the one thing I would rather do." His lips retrace their path back to her lips for another deep kiss before he lays another line of kisses to her other ear where he whispers his question, "So, how and where do you want to be touched?"

"Any way and anywhere you'll touch me."

He leans back and looks mockingly stern at her before he asks, "You're getting rather selfish in your old age, aren't you?"

"Yes." She pulls his head down and kisses him breathless. Reluctantly, she releases his lips and then his head to slide her hands around his neck and with more enthusiasm, she starts to unbutton his shirt. With the renewed flow of oxygen to reanimate a few of his brain cells, his hands take turns to rub her back and pull her shirt out of her skirt waistband, then his hands slip under the bottom of her shirt to caress the bare skin of her sides and back.

When his hands make another pass up her side, they go higher, then rest momentarily on the sides of her bra as his thumbs reach over and gently rub across her bra along the outside of her breasts. She gasps as the pleasure leaps higher, "Ohhh, yesss, . . . please, . . . more." His hands momentarily move away, but are soon back to caress almost to the center of her breasts. She moans and lays her head on the skin of his chest which she has just finished uncovering.

He takes a small step back then his hands snugly grip her waist and lift her up to stand on the chair by the door. This time, he pulls her head down to initiate the kiss which soon has them both panting for breath. Gently, he pushes her back to rest her buttocks on the wall and he slowly begins to undo the buttons of her shirt, apparently in a random order, while he pauses in between to caress her over her shirt, under her shirt, and sometimes both at the same time.

His caressing hands sometimes slide quickly over her breasts, other times they seem to bounce over her breasts, still other times, they linger which causes her groans of pleasure to become more frequent and higher pitched, until his fingertips very gently twist the fabric of her bra around her swollen nipples and she cries out with her climax. While he gives her some time to catch her breath as well as to clamp down on his own raging hormones, he finishes unbuttoning her shirt, but doesn't open it.

A little later, he bends his knees to rest them on the front of the chair, slides his hands down over her skirt along the outsides of her legs, then he slips his hands under her skirt hem and slowly begins to caress up her legs, from the fronts of her thighs across the outsides to not quite the middle of the backs of her legs. When his hands reach just shy of where he thinks the bottom seam of her panty is, they reverse direction to go down her legs. As his hands move down, his nose slips into her open shirt and begins to move back and forth across her upper abdomen which opens her shirt wider and enables his lips and tongue to perform their own magic on her bare skin.

His hands soon begin moving back up her legs, this time covering the outsides and backs of her legs. A fraction of a thought gets through her growing pleasure which makes her wonder how it can continue to feel so good when he's touched her like this so many times before. Soon, even that thought gets washed away in the pleasure she receives as his hands continue to move up her legs and past the middle of her thighs. She tries to hold onto the pleasure as long as possible and she is successful until the edges of his thumbs brush along the side seams of her panty right under her buttocks and she releases her cry of pleasure.

He moves his hands a little slower down her legs which he hopes will give him a little more time to gain some control over his own desire. To help his effort to control, he concentrates more on kissing her bare upper abdomen while he keeps his lips away from the enticing nearness of her thinly covered breasts. After his hands spend a little time caressing her calves, they slip back under her skirt and slowly move up her legs. This time, his hands caress the front half of each of her legs while his thumbs slip more than halfway to the insides of her legs.

The pleasure seems to climb faster than his hands while her body doesn't know whether to pant for breath or to groan with pleasure. In her desire to get any part of him closer to her, she grabs the back of his head and holds it very snugly to her upper abdomen, even though it interrupts his wonderful kisses. As his hands near where he expects to find her panty seam, his hands move slower while his thumbs stay closer to the fronts of her thighs.

His surprise at continuing to encounter bare skin distracts his pleasure which was almost overwhelming him while she barely avoids crying out to enable the pleasure to last a little longer, his hands go higher, her pleasure grows more, then his hands slip onto the front of her hip bones and she can no longer contain her climax and her cry of pleasure continues a little longer as his mind goes numb even as his fingers explore the front of her hip bones. Soon, he becomes aware that she's on the verge of collapse and he stops moving his hands.

While he gives her more time than usual to catch her breath and to slightly calm down, he slowly, carefully, gently, begins to explore the extent of her bare skin and mentally breathes a sign of relief at finding that she is wearing a panty, but one that is cut very high up the leg. Although he thought he had given her a lot of time, his exploring fingers soon have her pleasure soaring, especially as his fingers follow her panty seam along the outside of her buttocks, over her hip bone and partway down the front of her lower abdomen. She cries out again, although her growing exhaustion keeps it shorter.

His hands, almost absentmindedly, slowly move back down her legs while he tries to figure out what it means and then to handle the obvious answer as to why she put on the panty she did. With this further evidence that she does want him to touch her, his excitement begins to swiftly grow, even as he tries to push it back down since he guesses she's had enough. But when she gasps out, "More," he doesn't even stop to consider whether she can handle more.

His hands quickly reverse direction and as they begin to go back up her legs, they reach around the outsides, across the backs, and far to the insides of her legs. Instead of zigzagging his hands up the insides of her legs, his hands alternate moving up a mere inch at a time as though they truly are climbing her legs, grip, slide, grip, slide, grip, slide. She finds this drives the pleasure to seemingly incredible heights and when his hands are gripping her legs very high up on the insides, his thumbs caress her skin just a little higher and almost touch the bottom seam of her panty where it covers her pubic area. He turns his head and muffles his groan of release on the bare skin of her upper abdomen. A moment later, she cries out with her released climax, and collapses over his shoulder and across his back, almost as though he had planned then made the move just in time.

He maintains his grip on her legs and tries to catch his breath while he tries not to move in a way which might cause her to fall off of his shoulder and back. Soon, he realizes that he needs to move, now or never. He adjusts their positions slightly then he slowly stands up with her across his shoulder and he barely makes it to the love seat to guide her into a controlled fall. A couple of minutes pass before he's able to get her reclined and covered with a blanket. He almost collapses onto the other side of the love seat, reclines it, and is reaching for another blanket when consciousness abandons him.

Even as Sharlene begins to rouse a little later, all she wants to do is stay submerged in the pleasure and remember him touching her. Slowly, she realizes that something is distracting her and she feels somewhat irritated then she wakes up more fully with the intent of dealing with the distraction so she can return to the pleasure. She calms down some when she realizes that it's her bladder which is being distracting and is only doing its job.

As she starts to get up and out from under the blanket which George had obviously covered her with, she stops as she notices that he is laying uncovered while he appears to be reaching for another blanket. Even as she covers him and goes down the hall to relieve her bladder, she feels ashamed at thinking only of her own pleasure and leaving him to take care of her and keep her safe when she passes out because he gave her so much pleasure.

When she returns to the love seat, she briefly uncovers him and is able to partially clean up his release, but there's nothing she can do about his damp underwear without his cooperation. She covers him back up, watches him for a little while then takes the washcloth and towel back to the bathroom. As she washes herself, she has to struggle to not imagine that he's the one who is touching her. Finally, she gets her pajamas on, glances once at her empty bed then decides that she won't leave him on the love seat by himself. After she double checks the doors, she turns out most of the lights, reclines on the love seat next to him, covers herself, and looks at him briefly before she drifts off to sleep.

* * * * *

2147-09-12 (m1)

Pain. George starts to wake up. Bladder pain. That wakes him more. Kidney pain. With no other thought, he gets up, stumbles down the hall, into the bathroom, barely gets seated on the toilet then finds it almost hard to relieve himself. When his bladder is finally empty and the backup is draining from his kidneys, he sighs in relief. As his eyes slowly start to close, he comes close to drifting off when a couple of things begin to move from his unconscious observation to his conscious awareness.

It's morning and he had been on the love seat covered with a blanket, and, yes, Sharlene had also been on the love seat covered with a blanket. Why hadn't they been sleeping in her bed? He remembers touching her and hearing her cry of pleasure and his lower anatomy begins to respond to the memory, but how did they end up on the love seat? Since only fleeting partial images seem to reach his conscious awareness, he shakes his head.

He's startled to hear a light tap on the door then he hears her muffled voice, "George?"

"Yes?"

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, just confused." Rather than carry on a conversation through the door and since he's not sure if he can deal with her coming into the bathroom, he gets up, flushes the toilet, gets his clothes back in order and fastened, washes and dries his hands, opens the door and before he can open his month to speak, she covers it with her own and thoroughly kisses him while her arms hold him tight. It takes him a moment to respond.

When she finally lets him breathe, she tells him, "Thank you, thank you, thank you. Or should I say, 'I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.'?"

"Prefer . . . no words."

She briefly grins before she kisses him, to his immediate response, breathless again. As her breathing settles before his, she suggests, "Come on, let's get some food in you."

When he starts to move, he's surprised at how shaky he is. With an arm across her shoulders and his other hand occasionally touching the wall for support, they make it to the table where she encourages him to sit down and a moment later she's back with a glass of orange juice. As he takes slow sips, she fixes a couple of eggs and toast.

After breakfast is eaten and cleaned up, she pauses, notices that he's somewhat blankly staring out the window, sits down in her own chair, puts her hands over his which are laying on the table, and asks, "George?" She's about to call his name again, when he turns to look at her and smiles with a bit of sadness or concern showing through.

He asks, "When I came out of the bathroom, why did you say, 'Thank you,' or wonder if you should say, 'I'm sorry'?"

"I was saying 'thank you' for all of the wonderful pleasure you gave me last night. It's a wonder that my cries of pleasure didn't have Glenda breaking the door down to see what the noise was. I thought I ought to say, 'I'm sorry,' for forcing you to take care of me when I collapsed from overwhelming pleasure."

"Sharlene, I'm a bit confused about last night. I remember touching you to hopefully give you pleasure, then the next thing I know, I'm waking up in the morning on the love seat with a screaming bladder. Do you know what happened?"

"Not completely, but I think I can piece some of it together. First of all, there was no 'hopefully' about you giving me pleasure. You most definitely gave me great pleasure. Even when I think the pleasure can't get any better, you keep showing me that it most certainly can get better. Anyway, last night you gave me pleasure on top of pleasure. I don't know how many times I climaxed. Then, when your hands were wrapped around my legs and touching the insides of my legs, I climaxed yet again and apparently collapsed.

"You must have caught me before I fell, carried me to the love seat, laid me down, and covered me up. You got yourself laid down and reclined just before you apparently collapsed because when I woke up to a noisy bladder, you had a blanket in your hand, but hadn't covered yourself with it. After I took care of my bladder, I washed you, made sure you were covered, put my pajamas on, and laid down on the love seat with you."

"Um . . . uh . . . thank you for covering me up and . . . uh . . . thank you for washing me. . . . You . . . uh . . . didn't really need to do that."

"George, don't be going shy on me. I've washed you up before and I fully intend to do it again. It's more fun when you're awake, because I like to touch my little friend and see how eager he is to stand up for me."

He can only stare at her for a little while before his shakes his head then he pauses a little longer and asks, "Since you woke up in the middle of the night, why didn't you go to sleep in your bed?"

"Because, lover boy, you weren't there."

"But wouldn't your bed have been more comfortable?"

"Excuse me, but you didn't listen to what I said. I didn't sleep in my bed because, you," she pokes his chest, "weren't," poke, "there," poke.

He tries to think of an appropriate response, but only manages to say, "Oh."

"Are you still having trouble with the idea that I want to be with you?"

"I'm sorry, Sharlene, but I guess so. Just when I think I'm beginning to come to terms with the idea, accept it, and believe it, a bit of doubt creeps in and raises its ugly head. Yet all of the evidence is there. I certainly can't fault your effort in trying to convince me."

"Well, you did warn me that you would probably continue to have some doubts. That's part of human nature." As her grin turns into a dazzling smile, she proclaims, "Of course, that just means I have more fun demonstrating very clearly that I do want you."

She gets up only enough to push his chair back then she straddles his legs, hugs him tight, kisses him breathless, and is happy to realize there's nothing wrong with his response. When she lets him breathe, she leans back a little. His eyes look down her body and widen slightly at seeing how snug their pubic areas are with just a couple of pieces of fabric between them. As his eyes move back up her body, they stop partway up and widen further. She can feel her nipples tighten in response.

As he supports her with his left arm, he brings his right arm from around her back and reaches to within a couple of inches of her outlined nipples. When she notices his hesitation, she reaches up and as she firmly holds his hand, she presses it down and rubs it over one of her nipples and the surrounding breast while she involuntarily deeply groans with pleasure. Moments later, as she becomes aware that he's holding his hand still, she asks, "What's the matter?"

"You're not wearing a bra."

She chuckles then says, "I usually don't with my pajamas. You've touched me through just my bra before."

"Yeah."

"Well, silly old man, the fabric of my pajama top is thicker than the fabric of my bra you've touched me through. Please, I want you to touch me."

"Oh, I guess you're right." Hesitantly, very gently, George begins to caress her breasts through her pajama top. Sharlene closes her eyes and soaks in the pleasure while her moans almost become a purr of thorough satisfaction. As his hesitancy recedes, his hand caresses her all over the front of her pajama top above her waist, then spirals in on one of her breasts. Soon, his hand moves down to caress her abdomen some more before it spirals in on her other breast. Her moans turn to groans as he tantalizes her nipples, first one, then the other, and sometimes both together.

Whether it's memory, current experience, or anticipation, she doesn't care about the cause which results in her pleasure as it grows by leaps and bounds. When it outpaces her attempts to corral the pleasure to make it last longer, it overflows her and she cries out with her climax. He gives her an opportunity to catch her breath and pulls her up closer to cover her face, ears, and neck with kisses. This does little to help her control herself, indeed, it only inflames her desire. When his lips lock onto hers again, the passion of his kiss almost blows her away. Then his right hand slips between their chests, gently twists a nipple, and the pleasure does blow her away as she cries out with another climax.

While she again tries to catch her breath, she's astounded that she can be so ready for more pleasure, especially after last night. Although she's experienced this phenomenon before, it doesn't explain why it happens. Does having intense pleasure really get her that hyped up for the next time he touches her so the pleasure builds so much faster and stronger?

Even as she wonders how to test such an idea, her feet move to behind the back chair legs and she pulls herself tighter to him. She gasps as the pleasure sky-rockets through her, only the unexpected surprise of it distracts her from crying out. Almost as though the pleasure center of her brain has taken over her body, she leans back, braces her hands on the top of his knees, lifts her feet to the back of the chair, drops her knees to spread her legs, pulls herself even more tightly to him, and as her pubic area presses on his lower abdomen, she climaxes again.

When she briefly pauses to catch her breath, she feels his right arm drop down her back to her waist and hold her snugly just below her waist. Without waiting for her own breathing to completely settle, she begins to slide her hips a few inches from side to side. As she feels his right arm moving with her and pushing on the back of her hips to hold her spread pubic area tightly to his lower abdomen, her pleasure leaps off the mountain peak for the sky. Moments later, her pleasure takes another leap for the stars when his body surges out of his chair with his effort to remove any gap between their bodies which forces her legs from the back of the chair to automatically wrap around his waist while his climax leads her to an intense orgasm which she expresses in a shriek of pleasure.

Since he's unable to continue to hold her, he lays her on the table as gently as possible and barely avoids collapsing on top of her. He braces his elbows on the table on either side of her then he lowers his forehead to the middle of her chest while he pants for breath. When his breathing is closer to normal, he tries to straighten his knees but discovers that he's lifting her buttocks off of the table because her legs are locked around the back of his waist and are still holding them snugly together.

Although he doesn't want to move since he finds their positions wonderfully exciting, he knows if he doesn't move soon, his body will be in a lot of pain. When he recognizes that she's no longer panting for breath, he hopes she hasn't fallen asleep then he leans over further with the intent of whispering in her ear.
As more of his body lays on hers, her grin grows wider and her eyes slowly open and she asks, "Are you ready to start round two?"

He just stares at her for a couple of moments and shakes his head before he manages to say, "As much as I selfishly want to stay here, my body is already starting to protest being in this position."

"I'm sorry, what do I need to do?"

"If you can release the grip of your legs from around me, I'll be able to stand up."

She turns her head to look down at their bodies, responds, "Oh, sorry," unlocks her legs, and lays them down partially over the side of the table

After he straightens his legs with relief, he bends over to briefly kiss her, and tells her, "Don't be sorry, I very much like your legs around me like that. My body was protesting being bent over." Slowly, he stands up, closes his eyes, and leans backwards to stretch his muscles the other way. He recognizes the feel of the chair right behind him, sits down, opens his eyes to look at her, stares, and loudly groans at the same time.

* * * * *

2147-09-12 (m2)

Sharlene quickly leans up on her elbows, not without a bit of vertigo, and sees him staring at her between her legs. After a moment, she asks, "What's the matter?"

His voice is husky with desire and exhaustion, "If I wasn't already worn out, you would quickly lose your pajama bottom and your virginity."

She sits up a little more, looks down, and sees that her pajama bottom is damp where it covers her pubic area. Her eyes rise up to his face and she requests, "George, please look at me." She tries to keep her smile of pleasure on the inside as she recognizes the difficulty with which he raises his eyes to hers.

"Yes?"

"The only thing I regret about your statement is that you're already worn out."

It takes a couple of moments for the meaning of her statement to sink in. When it does, his eyebrows seem to fly off the top of his head as he opens his eyes wide.

She asks, "Do you like looking at my pubic area?"

He's unable to prevent his eyes from moving back to the mentioned area then his eyes seem to remain glued there even as he nods his head, then he struggles to move his eyes back to her face, but his attention pauses partway there for another long look at her obvious nipples.

Without being able to fully understand her own response, Sharlene almost shivers in pleasure then tells him, "Thank you, George. I'm very glad you like to look at me and I'm ecstatic that you like to touch me. And I would happily accept much more of both, but I don't want to wear you out any more."

He barely manages to get out, "Thank you," before he stares in amazement as she pulls herself closer to him. He doesn't seem to realize that it's the closest way for her to get off of the table, but she's not going to tell him.

As she slips off of the table, she has to brace herself for a moment before she can stand up next to him. It's almost humorous to her to watch his eyes move up and down her while he tries to see all of her at once. She moves her left hand to his shoulder, lifts his chin with her right hand, bends over, and kisses him breathless. When she stands back up, she pauses a moment to catch her own breath before she tells him, "Rest a little. I'm going to get dressed then I'll come back and help you get changed."

She walks down the hall to her bedroom and occasionally stumbles and catches herself on the wall which encourages her to make a mental note to check her emotional recordings. Her pleasure didn't seem any less intense than last night although it didn't last as long. Maybe it's a combination of intensity and duration which knocks her out, less intense or less time enjoying the pleasure maybe only wears her out instead. She takes her time, without laying down for a nap like she wants to, in order to get washed and dressed.

After he watches Sharlene walk away, George waits a moment or two then closes his eyes to try to imprint in his memory the image of her laying on the table, her legs spread in front of him which clearly displayed the dampness of her pajama bottom. What a sight! What a woman!!

When she stood up next to him, he didn't know whether to drown in her inviting eyes, be swallowed by her dazzling smile, be impaled on her protruding nipples, or to be suffocated by the smell of her vaginal secretions. It was all he could do to not bend over to smell her enticing scent closer. Since he doesn't know whether she would be offended or find it interesting, he isn't ready to take the risk yet, especially when it's finally getting through to him that she wants, she really wants him to touch her.

She's been making it very clear, both by word and deed. If she didn't want him to touch her, she would have said something, she's certainly not been shy about saying other things which she thought needed to be said. She certainly wouldn't have changed her panty like she did yesterday, nor would she have moved his hand to touch her breast like she did just a few minutes ago.

He tells himself, "Face it, you boring old man, she wants you to touch her. What did she just say when you threatened to take her pajama bottom off? No way. I must have heard something wrong. She couldn't have said something like that." Since he feels somewhat confused and quite tired, he lays his head down on his folded arms.

When she comes back to the dining room a few minutes after she left, she sees him with his head on the table then pauses and feels somewhat guilty for wearing him out. Yet, at the same time, she can barely control her desire to ask him to touch her more, or even to allow her to touch him. She wonders if this is what it means to be addicted to the intimate pleasure he so willingly gives her. She steps up near him and begins to rub the back of his shoulders. His immediate "mmm" of enjoyment makes it clear that he isn't asleep.

She leans over to nibble on his ear then suggests, "Let's go get you washed, then you can lay on the bed and I can give you a better back rub."

George mutters, "You're tired. I saw you stumble down the hall. I don't want to wear you out."

"Look who's talking. I didn't say it would be a long or a good back rub." She steps back as he starts to sit up. After she helps him stand up, they slowly walk down the hall. In the bedroom, she has him stand at the end of the bed as she quickly undoes his pants to his muttered protests, and washes him. She returns the towel and the washcloth to the bathroom then comes back to unbutton and remove his shirt.

With a tired slur to his words, he says, "Sharlene, you made me naked."

"You want me naked."

"But you're bee-u-tee-full."

"So are you."

Since he's unable to think of an appropriate response, he lets her lead him to the side of the bed where she throws back the covers and has him lay down on his front. She kneels on the bed while she straddles his body, sits on his buttocks, and begins to rub his shoulders and work her way down his back. Before she makes it halfway down his back, his hums of pleasure have turned into occasional light snores. She rubs him just a little longer before she can no longer deny her own creeping tiredness. Since she doesn't want to sleep in her jeans, she takes her clothes off, slips into one of her new long nightgowns, lays on his back, pulls the covers up, and is soon asleep.

* * * * *

It's quite awhile later before Sharlene begins to wake up and feels toasty warm, a loving body under her . . . and a noisy bladder. She slips out of bed, is somewhat surprised to see she has a nightgown on, and goes to take care of the noise. As she slips back into bed, on top of him, she thinks, "So much for an early start to George's. What am I going to do? I can't keep wearing him out, but I can't resist his touches and he's so willing to touch me." Apparently intimate pleasure carries with it its own expenditure of physical energy. They've testing the physical energy expended in all kinds of other physical activities, certainly they've also done it with sex, not that she remembers the statistics, or would have paid any attention to them in the past.

A moment later, she wonders why she crawled back into bed. She's no longer tired, and wasn't when she emptied her bladder. Finally, she admits to herself, she wants to touch him and be touched by him, even if it's only laying on his naked back. That starts other thoughts rolling and soon she almost throws herself out of bed to stare down at him. When she sees him slightly shiver, she covers him up.

Sharlene grabs her computer, steps out of the room, goes to the kitchen table, plugs in her computer, and turns it on. As she downloads her emotional recordings, she realizes that she has no one to blame for her predicament except herself. She started the whole affair with George, even as he told her to forget about him. She's been doing all of the pushing while he's been giving her every opportunity to stop or just slow down the progress.

Even for the amount of touching he has been doing, she's been encouraging him every single step of the way. She takes a number of minutes to try to look at the situation from a variety of angles. Since she's concerned she might have forgotten something, she goes back over her thought process, even slower this time.

While she wonders if any new information might come to light which would change the result, she admits that she doesn't have one iota of regret regarding all of the pleasure he's been giving her. The only thing she regrets is that she keeps wearing him out. As she thinks about it some more, she realizes that he probably doesn't expend that much energy in his physical touching of her, but if he's expending energy being excited, just as she is, that would explain him getting tired. It certainly wouldn't be fair, even if it was possible, for him to touch her without enjoying some excitement and pleasure himself.

Hold it, he does more than touch her and get her excited when he gives her pleasure. He keeps her from falling or getting hurt when she collapses and he even carries her to a safer place for her to rest and recover. That may be the key.

After he expends his energy in touching her and being excited in return, he probably uses that much energy or more as he carries her to a safer place when he doesn't have that much energy left over. And knowing him, he wouldn't complain about it one bit, even if it literally killed him. He would just smile with his goofy grin and say, "What a way to go." He's never stopped her from receiving pleasure, just said, "Not yet," on some occasions to the type of touching which gave her pleasure.

While she goes through the routine of dealing with her emotional recordings, it helps to distract her from her introspection, but not from the recognition of the pleasure she's received, as she makes notes of what was happening to generate the pleasure. Considering what she was thinking about earlier, the intensity is clearly identified on the chart and the duration is also clear. The only thing missing is the result.

She works her way backwards from the most recent download to her earlier downloads and adds notes as to whether she collapsed or stayed awake and whether she can remember how tired she was afterwards. Of course, there are other factors involved in being tired like the time of day and other events or activities. She knows there are too many subjective factors in the whole process to be scientifically accurate, but any key to help her understand what's going on is better than having him drop dead while he's giving her pleasure. She doubts there is anything which will help her to really understand her own feelings and desires.

When she finishes the last of her notes which she's able to make, she closes the software, and turns off the computer. She glances at the clock and sees that it's definitely time to get George up and get some more food in him. As she steps into the bedroom, she sees that he's still in bed, but when she comes around the end of the bed, she realizes that he's awake since his wide eyes watch her every move. She stops next to him and feels a thrill run through her as he clearly looks her up and down and tells her, "You're gorgeous!"

"Why, thank you." She bends over, caresses his face with her right hand which then slides down to caress his chest under the covers. "You're mighty good looking yourself," and she kisses him breathless before he can protest. "Old man, you're an addiction which I'm unwilling to give up. I'm trying hard not to crawl under the covers with you. The only thing stopping me is that I know I need to give you some more time to recover. I'm going to go over and get you some clothes, help you get dressed, and get some more food in you." She goes to his luggage and is soon back with clean underwear and clothes.

"Lady, I suggest you go get dressed yourself while I get dressed on my own. Your thin nightgown is only adding to the enticement factor."

"Oh. It is? But it covers me more than my skirt."

"But your skirt doesn't mold itself to your legs like a second skin. I also think that the slinkiness of the fabric sliding over your skin will have its own enticement."

She bites her lower lip, nods once, then in a whirl of motion and nightgown skirt, she spins away from the bed, grabs the clothes she had taken off earlier to put on the nightgown, pauses at the bathroom door, says, "George, make the journey go faster, please," slips in the door, closes it, and with a clear 'click', she locks the door.

* * * * *

2147-09-12 (a1)

In the silence, he lays there for a little while before he gets up and gets dressed on automatic while his mind is alternately stunned or stirring as he tries to make sense of what she's been telling him. He goes to his luggage and transfers his keys and wallet from the clothes she took off of him earlier. After he puts the clothes in his luggage, he sits on the edge of the bed to wait for her.

A couple of moments later, she comes out, looks a little subdued, stands in front of him, and tells him, "George, I'm sorry. I don't mean to keep wearing you out. I'm sorry I keep pushing you."

He opens his arms and she's almost instantly sitting on his upper legs and cuddling up to him as he tells her, "Shhh, my lady, it's okay."

"But I don't understand it. I like you touching me. I love you touching me. I've never felt anything so wonderful in my life. I would have thought that if you touched me, I would enjoy it and it would suffice for awhile until the memory dissipated a little and then I would want a little more touching. But it's not working that way. You touch me so wonderfully, all I want is more. So you touch me more. I pass out from so much pleasure. When I wake up, all I can seem to think about is how soon can you touch me even more.

"I keep forgetting that you need recovery time between climaxes, but when you hold me up, keep me from falling, and even carry my unconscious body to lay me down somewhere safe, that only uses up more of your energy. And before you say 'what a way to go', I don't want you going anywhere without me, especially if it's 'before your time', double especially if I caused it because of my selfish desires. I don't know how, but I'm going to try to quit asking for more touching until I pass out. Or I'm going to try to consider the location so that if I do pass out, you don't have to carry me somewhere else."

He asks, "How can I help you?"

"Don't pick me up and carry me when I pass out from asking for so much pleasure. It's not going to hurt me to lay on the floor for awhile. You've had to let me do that before."

"That was because I was surprised at your response and barely kept you from falling to the floor."

"That's something else I don't understand, passing out from enjoying pleasure. From what I remember in overhearing other conversations, I've never heard of anyone else experiencing that. Have you?"

George pauses before he shakes his head and says, "Um, no, not specifically. I've heard of people passing out or almost doing so from laughing so hard."

"That would probably be similar. I really didn't want to equate the pleasure you give me to the typical reasons for passing out like standing still for too long or being frightened. But maybe the physiological reactions are similar even if the events which caused them are quite different. I ought to do some reading to see if someone has done a study of the phenomenon. Thank you for the distraction." A moment later, she lifts her head, pulls his down, and kisses him breathless. She gets off of his upper legs and as she pulls him up, she says "Let's get some more food in you."

Numbly he follows, even as he wonders what he did or said to distract her.

After a lunch of sandwiches, Sharlene insists that George rest while she quickly cleans up the kitchen, checks the fridge, moves a couple of things to the freezer, and packs the perishables to take with them to his place. Not long after that, she sends him to the bathroom and to finish packing his luggage. A few minutes later, they load the vehicle, she locks up her house, and they're on the road. When he suggests a different route, she gladly follows his directions and soon they're driving down quiet country roads.

"George, you've been mighty quiet. Is something the matter?"

"I don't know. I thought I heard you say something, but it just doesn't seem possible. I don't want to offend you by questioning what you might have said."

"Oh, George. Please don't be worried about offending me. You've said some rather blunt things to me, usually after I insisted and I haven't been offended yet. Come on, spit it out."

He still hesitates before he starts, "Well, . . . um . . . this morning when we were touching after breakfast," she doesn't interrupt to tell him that he was doing the touching because she was too distracted by the pleasure to touch back, ". . . I mean after we touched and you were . . . uh . . . laying on the table . . . ."

She waits for a little while, but he doesn't finish, so she does, "You said, 'If I wasn't already worn out, you would quickly lose your pajama bottom and your virginity.'."

"Um . . . yes."

"The only thing I regret of your statement is that you're already worn out."

He swallows nervously then hesitates, "That's what I thought you said."

"I meant it then. I mean it now." She glances over at him, but he just stares ahead so she quickly returns her eyes to the road. She waits a little while then says, "George, I've been saying similar things for weeks now. Why was it any different this morning than when I've said I want you to touch me and have given you permission to touch me all the way up to and including making love to me?"

"Well . . . um . . . uh . . . before you weren't . . . uh . . . laying in front of me . . . with your legs spread . . . and . . . um . . . your . . . (gulp) . . . pubic area . . . so . . . obvious."

"Oh, my poor man. I think you have more trouble with the idea than I do. What bothers you so much about making love to me? I know you want to."

"I . . . I don't . . . really know. . . . I don't know if I'm afraid of hurting you or of disappointing you. . . . Maybe I'm afraid of being the one who takes your virginity away from you."

"I doubt if you're capable of hurting me. If you making love to me is no more pleasurable that what your previous touching has been, I'll certainly not be disappointed. In regards to my virginity, for most cultures which prize virginity for marriage, the evidence of my virginity, my hymen, is long gone. So my virginity is only in my head because a man hasn't made love to me before."

"Oh."

They ride in silence for awhile before she asks, "George?"

"Yes?"

"I want you to listen carefully to what I'm going to say."

He swallows nervously then pauses before he responds, "Okay."

"I give you my virginity."

"You what!?!"

"Didn't you listen?"

"You said you give me your virginity."

"That's what I said."

"What do you mean?"

"George, don't go dumb on me. You know what it means. And quit disbelieving me. I'm sorry it's so hard for you to accept, but it's the truth. I want you to take my virginity away from me. No other man. You and only you. I want you to be the first man to make love to me, fully and completely."

"Me?"

"Yes, you. And no other. Do I need to put it in even more blunt terms?"

"Uh, no. . . . Me?"

Sharlene sighs then says, "Yes, George Greyson, you."

"Oh. . . . Thank you."

"When we get there, I can assure you that I'll be thanking you."

Other than giving her directions to make a couple of turns, he's silent.

* * * * *

Awhile later, they see a sign for a quadrant park and George asks her to pull in for a bladder stop. A few minutes later, they're back at her vehicle with relieved bladders. He pauses then asks, "Sharlene, would you care to take a walk?"

"Sure." She grabs his left hand and follows his lead. As she glances around, she sees a couple of people looking at them as they start down one of the tree covered trails. She enjoys the quiet and smiles at the chatter of a squirrel or the occasional bird chirping in a tree. After they pass a small meadow, they come to a footbridge over a small stream. The trail follows the stream for a ways before it angles away to zigzag down the side of a hill. The trail moves back towards the stream where the stream falls over the hill in a small waterfall to plunge into a pool. They watch as several kids swing on a rope and drop into the pool and then climb out of the pool with their teeth chattering as much as the squirrel before they get in line to do it all over again.

Sharlene and George step away then follow the trail as it moves away from the stream, ascends the hill in another zigzag and winds through the trees. She leans on him as they slowly walk while she enjoys the quiet and his presence. A little later, she hears the noise of water bubbling over rocks. They turn a corner in the trail and she's surprised to see a stream of water gushing up a couple of feet out of a hole in the ground, then flow down the stream. A nearby sign says it's the only natural year-round spring within fifty miles and had been a closely guarded secret of the native peoples for many years. She turns to him, says, "Thank you for bringing me," and kisses him thoroughly, but not quite breathlessly.

"It was my pleasure." They continue their walk and are soon approaching the parking lot, if the vehicle noise is any indication. He slows his pace, looks intently through the trees, and mutters, "Damn."

"What's the matter, George?"

"It looks like two or three punks are camped out around your vehicle. They probably saw us go down the trail and thought they would wait and give you a hard time." He pulls out his handgun, checks it, makes sure a round is chambered, and is cocked. Then he puts it back into his holster and asks, "Do you have yours?"

"Yes. I'm glad I picked up these larger jeans." As she does the same with her handgun, she asks, "Just a moment, did you say two or three?"

"Let me look again. I see three, two on this side of the vehicle and one on the other. I don't know if they have backup stationed nearby, but I have the impression, whether it's right or wrong, that they aren't that smart."

After a moment's thought, she pulls his head down and whispers in his ear.

He looks thoughtful for a moment, before he asks, "Are you sure?" She nods her head and he grins in response.

* * * * *

2147-09-12 (a2)

They take a moment longer to compose themselves then nonchalantly stroll towards her vehicle as though nothing is amiss. When they stop a few feet away, George, in a louder than normal voice, suggests, "Boys, please step away from the vehicle."

They note that several other people are beginning to pay attention to the scene, but no one seems to be moving in to support the others.

The apparent ringleader says, "You and who is going to make us, old man?"

"Well, I had hoped a little politeness would work."

"Politeness?" The young man spits on the ground then says, "Just go away old man and leave her with us."

George suggests, "You don't want to be messing with my bodyguard."

"Bodyguard? What bodyguard? I don't see no bodyguard. 'Sides, what would you need with a bodyguard?"

"I'll ask you again to leave before you get hurt."

"Stuff it, old man."

One young man reaches for Sharlene, screams and drops, the second one who had been reaching for George turns to see what happened and drops without a sound, and the third one who had been on the other side of the vehicle, stares briefly in near shock, and runs as fast as he can, in the opposite direction.

Sharlene mutters so only he can hear, "Damn, George, that wasn't even a challenge."

"Now we get to wait for the police. You might want to uncock your handgun."

"I didn't even think of having to wait for the police when I suggested doing it this way. Thank you for reminding me about my handgun."

"Well, it looks like we don't have to wait long, here comes a park ranger."

"That was an impressive display of self-defense, young lady."

"Thank you, sir.

The Ranger raises his voice and asks, "Did anyone happen to record what just happened here?" A couple of people come forward and download their recordings into the Ranger's unit and gave their contact information should it be needed. A couple of other men come up with the third person, who had run away, firmly in their grip. After he handcuffs the third person, the Ranger then handcuffs the first two who are starting to groan and stir. The three perpetrators are dragged off of the parking lot and handcuffed to a nearby picnic table. The Ranger makes a call to the local police to pick them up then leads George and Sharlene to another table to take their statements.

Partway through, Sharlene holds up her hand and listens more carefully to the three who are hurling recriminations at each other then she turns to the Ranger and asks, "Excuse me, but isn't the interrogation clause connected to the self-defense laws?"

"Yes, why?"

"Then I hereby formally invoke the interrogation clause."

The Ranger makes a note.

Sharlene explains, "From what I overheard them saying, they were associated with former Senator Ed Mulligan and may have information which could help that case. I don't remember who's leading the investigation on the case, but my attorney does. Just a minute and I'll give her a call. . . . Klara, it's Sharlene. . . . Fine. . . . Do you have the contact information for the officer heading the investigation regarding former Senator Mulligan? . . . Great. Can you send it to my phone? . . . Got it. . . . We might have more fuel for your fire. . . . We're both fine. . . . I'll give you the details later. . . . Thank you. Bye." She turns her phone for him to see, "Here's the information."

The Ranger copies the information onto his incident report, then says "As soon as we wrap up here, I'll let him know there might be a connection. I don't mean to be nosy, but you seem to know more about the case than was mentioned on the news."

"The former senator had a couple of goons try to kidnap me. George and I stopped them."

The Ranger's eyes widen in surprise then he says, "You're the one who was unnamed in the news?"

"And I prefer to remain unnamed."

"No problem there. It's a privilege to meet you both."

"You might want to forward the recordings you received to the investigating officer. Do you think you could forward a copy to my attorney also? She has a civil case going against the former senator."

"I can do both. What's your attorney's email address?"

Sharlene gives it to the Ranger.

"By the way, I also had a video recorder covering the scene and I'll forward the recording from that also. Those three have been hanging around off and on for a few days. They hadn't quite done anything wrong up until now. Most of the time they get bored and leave before a confrontation can begin. I guess they thought you were going to be easier to pick on than other people."

"That's why I didn't want George to come in with guns blazing. I figured they would either politely leave or be off their guard and more easily be taught a lesson."

The Ranger nods his head as he responds, "Good thinking." He turns to George and asks, "What do you carry if I may ask?"

"A .45. Although the little lady can clearly defend herself, I would prefer to be safe rather than sorry in regards to her protection."

"You'll get no argument from me." The Ranger looks over his paperwork again then says, "I think that about covers it. I appreciate your cooperation. If anything comes up, I'm sure you'll be contacted, but it was a clear case of self-defense if I ever saw one." He stands up and shakes their hands, "I know you didn't plan the situation, but the best way to get goons like those off of the street is to defeat them while defending yourself. Thanks again."

Sharlene responds, "Thank you, sir, for your politeness and cooperation in seeing a possible bigger connection than a simple harassment."

"Not a problem. I was glad to help. I hope the rest of your day is less eventful."

"Me too. Thank you again. Goodbye."

They get in her vehicle and as they pull out, they see the local police pull in. When they're a few miles down the road, George asks her to pull into a small restaurant. As she looks at him with a puzzled expression, he explains, "I need a drink, could use some food, and forgot to visit the restroom before we left."

Sharlene chuckles then says, "Me, too."

They enjoy a quiet mid-afternoon meal. As Sharlene and George get back in her vehicle and resume the drive, she says, "Thank you for directing me this way and for the stop in the park, I enjoyed it."

"I'm glad. I certainly didn't plan on the entertainment finale."

"I know you didn't. I really ought to find another teacher or at least a sparring partner. I was somewhat sloppy in taking those two down."

"If that was sloppy, I can't image what you would have been like in your prime."

"You might not actually notice a difference. A lot of the finer points can be rather subtle."

"I'll have to take your word for that. I didn't even see the transition you must have made between taking care of the first and the second guys."

"That's good, because there wasn't any transition. The moves I made were specifically designed to take down two opponents in a frontal attack. The only adjustment I had to make was in regards to their exact positions as well as anybody else involved. Under a good teacher, I had to practice those moves many times with a number of variations as well as several levels of response.

"There were times I would come home from training and my mom would cry to see me with some bruises. My dad would just grin when I said they should have seen the other guys. I don't know how many times I won matches or even tournaments because the other person would underestimate me or they would hold their punches when they saw that their opponent appeared to be a little girl."

"That's why you wanted to go in apparently unarmed instead of with guns blazing."

"I'm sorry, George, I shouldn't have even jokingly accused you of that. I know you would have tried to persuade them first, but once you had drawn, it could have easily escalated and I didn't want to see you involved in a gun battle. If I hadn't have been able to take them, there was still time for you to draw and defend either or both of us."

"You're probably right. They only saw you as a potential victim. All of their threat attention was directed at me."

Sharlene nods her head as she says, "That was a part of my intent. By them focusing on you, they paid no attention to me so I was able to get into position and mentally prepare to make the necessary moves. All I had to do was wait for them to start their moves and I had them. I could have almost scripted their moves ahead of time. But I had to wait for them to make the first move or it wouldn't have been self-defense on my part. They paid no attention to the fact that we were acting a little abnormally."

He thinks about it for a little while then asks, "How were we acting abnormally?"

"If I was the defenseless victim they thought I was, when they said for you to go and leave me to them, a more normal response would have been for you to tell me to run and then try to take them down while giving me time to escape. The leader would have then beat you and either of the other two would have run me down. The odds are that no bystander would have lifted a finger. Once I dropped two of them, the bystanders, at least a couple of them, felt empowered to respond and so they captured the third one."

"How did you figure all of that out?"

"One of my martial arts teachers wanted us to be prepared for many situations which develop in real life instead of only on the exercise mat. So he had us study actual crimes as well as self-defense scenarios. After awhile, he would just set the scene and we had to predict what would most likely happen. With a basic understanding of human psychology, sociology, and group dynamics, I was amazed at how often we correctly predicted what was going to happen, in spite of the multitude of possible variables which there was no way to take into account." Sharlene briefly chuckles then says, "My teacher probably would have chastised me for not taking down the third guy."

"Really? But he was on the other side of the vehicle."

"What's that got to do with it? My teacher would have disdained the use of my handgun, but in the scenario in the park, he would have asked why I didn't use it to at least stop the fleeing criminal."

"What about bystanders?"

"Many martial arts adherents can tell you that once you're concentrating and 'in the zone' so to speak, you seldom if ever miss what you're aiming at, whether it be with a handgun, a knife, a star, or even a rock. Of course, one usually pays for it later. I was concentrating probably less than two minutes, but I was very glad you suggested stopping to get something to eat."

"You did seem to eat more than you normally do."

"And I'll probably want to eat again as soon as we get to your place."

"You'll want to take a left at the next stop sign."

"Thank you, George."

* * * * *

2147-09-12 (a3)

A little later, George asks, "Did you happen to call your aunt?"

Sharlene shakes her head as she answers, "No. I meant to call her last night, but by the time it was obviously too late to drive up, I thought it was too late to call her. This morning, I forgot. I figured we can stop by on the way to your place."

"That will work. Did you want to invite them to dinner tomorrow?"

"You wouldn't mind?"

"I like them. I'm just a lousy host. You make up for my lack."

"Thank you. I appreciate that."

The companionable silence stretches for a few miles.

"George?"

"Yes?"

"You pretty easily took my word for what I said about martial arts."

"I have no basis for comparison and I can't think of any reason for you to lie to me about that."

"I could be trying to impress you."

"I've seen you move. A few words may help me to understand your moves, but they can't impress me more than what my eyes have already seen."

"Then why do you have such a hard time taking my word when I say I want to give you my virginity?"

"Huh? . . . Oh . . . (gulp) . . . well, . . . it's true that I can't think of any reason for you to lie to me about it, but, . . . well, . . . I guess I do have a basis for comparison since no one ever wanted me to do that before . . . and . . . uh . . . I really don't want to send you to somebody else . . . but . . . I guess I don't think I'm worthy of such a gift."

He pauses before he continues, "I know the journey of touching is leading us there and I want to go there with you and I want to give you pleasure, . . . and it would only be one more little step of progress along the journey. But when I think of it as that final taking away from you of something I can never give back, it seems like this huge barrier or like I'm stealing the crown jewels . . . or . . . I don't know. . . . I know I'm not making much sense. . . . I don't want to deny you and I don't want to hurt you, but I also don't want to take a part of who you are away from you."

"Thank you, George. I appreciate you trying to explain yourself. You've given me a few things to think about."

The silence stretches for a few more miles.

She remarks, "I think we're almost there."

He looks up, looks around and says, "You're right. Take a right turn at the next stop sign and you'll know the way from there."

A couple of minutes later, Sharlene pulls up to Paula's store and parks. She gets out and when she notices that he hasn't moved, she sticks her head back into the vehicle and asks, "Are you coming?"

He absentmindedly waves his arm and answers, "No, go ahead, I'll wait here."

Since she doesn't want to push him, she goes in and is warmly greeted by her aunt. After a couple of minutes, Paula asks, "Where's George?"

"In the vehicle."

"Is something wrong with him?"

"Not physically. He's having some trouble dealing with something I told him."

"What did you tell him that disturbed him?"

"I told him that I wanted him to be the one to take my virginity."

"But, isn't that what the journey of touching is all about, to lead you gently to that point?"

Sharlene nods her head as she answers, "Yes. And he admits that and admits that making love will only be just another small step along the journey, but somehow to him the idea of taking my virginity is taking something away from me which he can never give back. That and he doesn't think he's worthy of such a gift."

"Damn. I don't know whether to strangle him or kiss him. Sometimes he's too good for his own good. If there was ever a man I would want to turn loose on a bunch of virgins to teach them the joys of sexual pleasure, it would be that man. . . . Oh, Sharlene, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that."

"Aunt Paula, I happen to agree with you. Not that I would be inclined to tell him so anytime in the near future."

"You do?"

"I've seen and felt what he's done for me. I don't think I deserve the gift which he keeps giving me day in and day out. Half of the time I feel guilty for keeping his gift all to myself, the other half of the time I want to selfishly keep it all to myself."

"Mmm. I think I can understand that. So, what are you going to do?"

"I think the best thing for the present is not to push the idea on him. Let him settle down and be comfortable. I have a couple of ideas floating around in the back of my head."

"Yeah, that's probably the best approach for now."

"Changing the subject, do you and Uncle Paul have any plans for dinner tomorrow night? George thought of having you guys over."

"I don't know of any plans. We would love to come for dinner, but let me check with Paul first and I'll give you a call."

"That sounds good. Well, I'd better get him home. Familiar surroundings ought to help distract him from what I was telling him."

"You're probably right. If he needs a good talking to or a swift kick in the pants, let me know. I'm pretty good at both."

Sharlene chuckles then responds, "Yes, you are, Aunt Paula. Thank you."

"Oh, go on with you. I've got customers coming."

"Yes, ma'am. We'll see you tomorrow."

"Goodbye."

Just after Sharlene walks out of the store, a couple of guys come in and stumble over themselves as they try to watch her and not run into the door. One of them asks, "Paula, who was that?"

"That's my niece. And if either of you think bad thoughts about her, I'll tell Molly."

"No, no, don't do that."

A few minutes later, Sharlene stops her vehicle by his house and is about to say something to George when he sits up, opens the vehicle door, and a pile of fur lands on his lap. For a moment, Sharlene feels stupidly jealous of a canine, until Molly looks up at her and gives her a clear, "Woof," of welcome. Quickly, Sharlene gets out of the vehicle, goes around to the other side, partially lands on Molly and soon it's hard to tell who's petting or hugging whom. After a little while, it's clear because Sharlene and George hungrily lock lips and forget the world for awhile, while Molly seems to grin while she's squeezed between them. When she finally lets him breathe, Sharlene finds herself partially dazed, slips out of the vehicle, and leans on it.

Since she didn't see her leave, Sharlene is surprised when Molly gently jumps up on her with her ball in her mouth. Sharlene takes the ball, Molly jumps down, waits expectantly, and charges after the ball when it's thrown. A couple of more times she brings the ball to Sharlene to throw, then she brings it to George who has dragged himself out of the vehicle. For a couple of minutes, Molly brings the ball back for them to throw before she puts the ball away, comes back for some more petting, which they gladly give her, then she wanders off. A moment later, Sharlene turns to George and hugs him tight.

He quickly returns her hug then seems to hesitate before he says, "Thank you for your patience. I never intended to be such a burden to you."

"Shut up, old man," and she kisses him while she tries to pour all of her love and desire for him down his throat. When she lets him breathe, she almost prevents him from doing so by hugging him even tighter.

As his breathing settles, he says, "Sharlene, I . . ."

She clamps a hand on his mouth and tells him, "George, no talking, no discussion. Let's get our stuff in the house, get something to eat, then we'll see."

He pauses then nods his head. Her subsequent smile seems to dissipate any harshness her words might have conveyed. They get their luggage into the house, transfer the perishables from the cooler to the fridge, get a couple of them back out to make sandwiches, then slow down to eat. He still feels somewhat dazed, especially as she keeps bestowing those dazzling smiles on him. He knows she's up to something, but between the dazed feeling and the smiles and the desire shining forth from her eyes, he's unable to feel worried about whatever it is she's up to.

* * * * *

2147-09-12 (e1)

Once their meal is cleaned up, Sharlene takes her handgun out of her jeans, sets it on the counter, and steps away to make sure the front door is locked. George takes his handgun out of his jeans and sets it next to hers. When she notices his handgun on the counter, she smiles at him, takes his hand, leads him to the sofa, and has him lay down. As soon as he's settled, she lays down on top of him and kisses him passionately. Although he's momentarily surprised, he soon responds with his own kiss of desire. When she lets him breathe, she props herself on her left elbow and with her right hand, she slowly starts to undo the buttons of his shirt. After the top two buttons are undone, she leans over and begins to kiss his revealed upper chest. As more buttons are undone, her kisses move down his body.

When there are no more exposed buttons to unbutton, she works at undoing his belt buckle. As he reaches down to interfere, she gently slaps his hands away. She gets his belt buckle undone and the button above his jeans zipper, but instead of undoing his zipper as he expects, she pulls his shirt out of his jeans and undoes the last buttons. After she spreads his shirt open, she caresses and kisses her way back up his chest, latches onto his lips, and kisses him like she'll never let go. She eventually does let go, simply because they both need to breathe.

A little later, she sits up with her knees on either side of his chest and her buttocks on his lower abdomen then she slowly rocks her hips from side to side while she takes her time to unbutton her shirt, pull the bottom of her shirt out of her jeans, and unbuttons the last of the buttons. She slowly lowers herself while she supports herself on her right arm which gives him plenty of time to see into her gaping shirt. With her smiling face right above his, she again kisses him while her left hand roams his chest, his neck, his face, and his ears.

Finally, his hands seem to wake up and begin to caress her legs, over her hips, across the bare skin of her back and along her sides. When she breaks the kiss, she moves her head to nibble on his left ear, suck on his earlobe, and huskily whispers, "Yes, George. Touch me." After she pauses a few moments to enjoy the pleasure flowing through her from his hands, she moves her lips back to his to finish kissing him breathless.

In order to give him an opportunity to catch his breath, she pushes on his chest, sits back up, and when she sees that his eyes are focused on her, she slowly spreads her shirt wide and is pleased to see that his eyes try to open just as wide. Then, in a quick movement, she takes her shirt off and throws it to the side. His eyes briefly follow the movement of the shirt, but are soon back and open even wider to stare at her almost bare torso.

Slowly, she lowers herself, supports herself on her left elbow to allow room between their chests, nibbles on his right ear, and requests, "Touch me, please." She moves her lips to kiss his lips then moans as his hands move their caresses to her chest and over her bra covered breasts. While she tries to concentrate past the pleasure which is flowing through her, she slides her right hand down his torso, under the waist band of his pants, and runs her fingertips over and around the head of his erect penis. His hands stop moving as he groans with pleasure.

Since she intends to help his pleasure last longer, she reluctantly pulls her hand out of his pants to caress his chest. A few moments later, she scoots her body up higher along his until her knees are almost in his armpits and her buttocks are on his waist then she arches her back as his hands begin to move again. Her erect nipples are outlined above him and appear as though they're trying to punch holes in her thin bra and become like magnets to his eyes and hands then she groans with the pleasure he gives them. She bites her lip to help her concentrate past the intense pleasure then she moves her hands behind her and, after a couple of attempts, she's able to unzip his pants.

After she pauses for a few moments to let the pleasure wash through her, she rocks her hips from side to side as his right hand gently pushes, shoves, and pulls her nipples while his left hand slides down her torso and fumbles with the waistband of her pants, one moment sliding fingertips under her waistband, the next trying to undo her pants, without success.

While she braces herself on her left arm, with her hand spread across the top of his thigh and her thumb rubbing his pants covered scrotum, the fingertips of her right hand slide along the length of his penis which bounces up and down, seemingly in an attempt to escape the confines of his underwear. His hips bounce a couple of times then lift high as though to shove himself into her while she cries out as she releases her held in climactic pleasure and his penis pulses beneath her hand.

He slumps down then moves his hands from her breasts so she can lay on him. A moment later, she moves her legs down along his body a few inches, lays on him, rubs her bra covered breasts on his chest, and between panting breaths, she whispers, "Thank you," and kisses his face while her fingers caress his face, his ears, and his neck. In a little while, he's surprised to feel his excitement growing again since he thought he was satiated. He moves his hands up her legs and over her hips to caress her back while he firmly presses her body onto his. A little later as he fumbles with her back bra strap, he experiences a moment of disappointment because there's no fastener there.

As he slides his hands down her back, he slips his thumbs under the waistband of her jeans and slides them around to each side and back again. He pull his thumbs back out then his hands slide down further and cup her buttocks as though to pull her higher up his body which causes her to cry out again in pleasure. While he feels as though both exhaustion and excitement are trying to claim his attention, he moves his hands up to caress the silky smooth bare skin of her back.

After a little while, his left hand slides up her back and under her braid of hair to cup her neck. His lips find hers and kisses them with all of the enthusiasm his flagging body can exert while his right hand slides down her back to caress her buttocks on either side of the back seam of her jeans. She breaks the kiss to cry out just before his exhaustion gets the upper hand and renders him unconscious. As she pants for breath, she hears him sigh deeply and feels his whole body relax.

Sharlene takes a moment to straighten out her legs then lays fully on him and allows her own body to relax, but she's not tired enough to fall asleep. She lays there for awhile and feels immensely pleased with herself for being able to give him pleasure without being so overwhelmed by the pleasure he was giving her. A few minutes later, she gets up, washes up his release, and covers him with a blanket.

She picks up her shirt from off of the floor, drapes it over the back of the sofa, and goes to wash herself and change her panty. Although she decides to stay with her plain white cotton panty under her jeans, she's reminded of his reaction to finding her wearing a high cut panty under her skirt yesterday. She guesses that he's going to sleep for awhile, so she goes to her 'lingerie sorting room' to see what other treasures she can find to surprise him with.

* * * * *

When George wakes up to a noisy bladder, it takes him a little while to figure out his situation. He's lying on the sofa, his shirt's undone and spread wide, a blanket covers him, and his pants are undone. Apparently, Sharlene washed him and covered him. As he sits up, he stares for a moment at her shirt which is draped over the back of the sofa. Soon, his bladder makes it clear he doesn't have time to figure out such a puzzle, so he quickly gets up, goes to the laundry room, and uses the toilet there to relieve himself then puts his clothes back together. He walks back to the sofa, picks up her shirt, holds it out to look at it, then pulls it close and inhales deeply which confirms his knowledge that it's hers. He does a quick search of the library and the kitchen, but he doesn't see her.

As he looks in the empty bedroom, he sees that she's there, sitting on the floor, and sorting lingerie while she faces away from the door. He can only stare at her back which seems to be a vision of perfection in front of him. Like a delicate nymph from a fairy tale, her milk chocolate skin rises like a dream from her jeans and is interrupted only by the thin straps of her bra and by her long black hair which is draped along a side. He grows weak-kneed at the sight of her and braces himself on the counter which is built in along the side wall of the room.

She must have heard something, because she turns, proclaims, "Lover," is up, and quickly moves towards him. He barely has time to brace himself before she throws herself on him, wraps her legs around his waist, her arms around his neck, and her lips around his. As he leans back to brace himself with his buttocks on the counter and his shoulders on the upper cupboards, his right arm goes under her buttocks, his left arm moves to around her back, and he belatedly responds to her kiss. When she lets him breathe, she leans back a little, dazzles him with one of her smiles, and tells him, "Thank you for giving me pleasure."

Between gasps for breath, he manages to get out, "Thank . . . you."

"You know, George, I don't deserve the gift of pleasure you keep giving me, but I'm going to be selfish and keep taking it." She kisses him again.

He's barely able to respond to her kiss and his mind whirls around a single thought, "She's the gift, I'm the selfish one." Another part of his mind manages to chime in, "If you're so selfish, how come you're not caressing all of that luscious skin under your hands." Since he's unable to or simply unwilling to argue with that logic, he applies himself to touch her and respond to her kiss.

She assures him, "You're the most wonderfully glorious person to enter my life, thank you," before she moves her kisses to the rest of his face while he pants for breath.

When he can finally speak without gasping for breath, he tells her, "Sharlene, I don't want you to stop, but all of your flattery and affection is making me weak-kneed."

She unlocks her legs from behind him, slides down him to stand on the floor and hugs him briefly but tightly before she leads him back to the sofa.

* * * * *

2147-09-12 (e2)

George sits down on the middle seat of the sofa and Sharlene quickly sits on his upper legs. With all of her luscious skin so close, he almost drools as he explains, "Young lady, your presence, you letting me share your life is such an overwhelming gift, a completely undeserved gift, that I could give you continuous pleasure and never repay you."

"Without your freely given gift of comfort and freedom, I would have never known you to let you into my life."

He looks at her with a puzzled expression then says, "I'm not sure I follow that."

"If you hadn't have freely given your gift of comfort and freedom to Aunt Paula, she would have never recommended you as a chauffeur for me. And if you hadn't have freely given your gift of comfort and freedom to me, I would have never felt safe in your presence and would have never found out how wonderful you are."

"Oh."

She pulls his head down and kisses him breathless, then snuggles up to him as he tries to catch his breath while he joyously caresses all of the bare skin she's left uncovered. Awhile later, she sits up a little, unbuttons his shirt, opens it up, snuggles back up to him, and caresses his bare skin.

Sometime later, George asks, "Sharlene?"

"Yes?"

"I'm sorry I responded so poorly to your wonderful gift of offering to give me your virginity."

"Thank you. I think I can understand some of your difficulty and I'm sorry I pushed you. Do you feel up to talking about it now? I was going to wait for awhile before I brought the subject up."

"It's not easy to talk about, but I think I would prefer to clear the air."

"Thank you. How do you want to deal with it?"

"First, I want to say that my mind is having a hard time grasping the full extent of what a wonderful gift you're offering me. There can only be one first time and that you want me to be the one to share your first time, is overwhelming, humbling, as well as fills me with pride and joy. When I first talked about the journey of touching, I fully expected you to back off, send me away, or any number of other scenarios.

"I never expected us to get anywhere near where we are now or even to be considering going further. So I didn't even think about what the significance of that final step of the journey would mean. Once it clicked with me what that final step meant and that I didn't deserve any of our relationship, especially the final step which seems to be quickly approaching, I panicked. For that I'm truly sorry for treating you and your gift so poorly."

"Lover, please don't feel sorry. I think I understand, at least to some degree, how hard it's been for you to overturn decades of ingrained self-image. For you to keep patiently loving me and putting up with me pushing you is amazing. And for you to control your obvious desire for me in order to continue the journey of touching simply for my benefit is nothing short of miraculous. I'm amazed you haven't taken more of my clothes off, if for no other reason than to look at me."

"There have been a couple of times I tried, but either my fingers were suddenly uncoordinated or I didn't know how. I'm used to a bra hooking in the back," he gently pulls her back bra strap a little ways from her skin and lets it lightly snap her back, "instead of in the front," as he slides a finger down her upper chest over her bra hook to her gasp of breath, "so when I get excited, my brain cells and recent memory don't work very well. Which is probably a good thing, otherwise the journey would have probably skipped over a number of steps."

"Maybe I ought to help your poor brain cells and recent memory by wearing my bras backwards."

"Whoa, lady. That might be interesting, but I don't think it would be comfortable for you and I never liked the idea of a woman dressing uncomfortably in an attempt to entice a man. There are too many ways to entice a man without a woman having to be uncomfortable."

"In that case, I ought to dispense with my bra altogether."

"Let me get your shirt.

"Stay seated, George, I didn't mean right now."

"In that case, that would be your choice. Your bra or your shirt, I don't think I can handle the visual temptation of your completely bare torso yet."

"Then I guess I'll stay as I am for the moment because my skin is enjoying the opportunity to touch your skin," she twists her body to rub various parts of her torso on his torso. The companionable silence stretches as the desire somehow stays low key while they enjoy caressing each other. After a little while she says, "There is one thing that does bother me about our relationship."

"Uh, what's that?"

"You have more breast than I do," as she kneads that part of his anatomy.

George freezes for a moment then bursts out laughing. As he calms down some, he slides his hands up her body, captures her head and thoroughly kisses her. Eventually, he has to break the kiss to breathe and hugs her snugly to him in an effort to resist escalating the passion.

She has to ask, "Is it that funny?"

"Considering our society's penchant for globs of chest fat on a woman, yes, it's that funny. Little lady, for your body size, your breasts are perfectly sized."

"But you haven't even seen them."

"Your bra doesn't hide much. I'm surprised I can enjoy you so close without a shirt and without turning into some gibbering lust driven dirty old man. Anyway, there's only one thing which large breasts on a woman do better than small breasts and that's attract male attention. Not only that, but with large breasts a woman is more likely to have breast cancer or for it to go undetected. And she has to pay more attention to how she dresses.

"I've seen women with large breasts jogging and it almost hurts me to watch them. I can't image it's comfortable for their breasts to be bouncing around and usually out of sync with the movement of the rest of their body. Or they have to wear a very tight bra which can't be comfortable. I suspect you don't need a bra for support, but only for coverage which gives you more freedom in how you dress."

Sharlene nods her head as she responds, "You're right. There were a few times in college when I made a personal dare with myself and wore one of my heavier shirts and didn't wear a bra. Nobody noticed. I wouldn't admit it to myself at the time, but there was a certain risque pleasure in doing so. After the brief experiment, I went back to wearing a bra just to be on the safe side. . . . You know, we really got off the subject."

"Oops. You're right. Let's see if I can regain my thought process. . . . I'm slowly beginning to accept the idea that you actually want me to touch you and that you want my touching of you to eventually go 'all the way' to making love. Not only do I feel greatly honored, but I also feel overwhelmingly undeserving of such a gift. I know that, in a sense, the ultimate goal of the journey of touching is for us to make love.

"Although that final step may be just a little more touching than the previous step, it ends up being a quantum leap in who you are. I don't really know how much it means to you personally to think of yourself as a virgin. For most people in our society, virginity has little meaning other than as a ridicule and it has little value to anyone unless they're highly religious or crude egotistical males who like the idea of despoiling virgins.

"I think that may be a part of my problem with being the one to take your virginity, I don't want to be in any way associated with despoilers of virgins. A woman ought to have the opportunity to explore her sexuality freely with the person of her choice and not be taken advantage of by some slob for his own pleasure who will use her once and then discard her because she's spoiled, even though he's the one who caused her to be in that condition. Frankly, such people ought to be taken out and shot. They have no right to ruin a woman's opportunity to enjoy the pleasure of her body in their self-centered idea that they know better than the woman what she finds pleasurable. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to get on my soapbox."

"I like you on your soapbox, especially when you're so right. Thank you. Your explanation does give me a much better understanding of why the idea of taking my virginity is a problem for you. I greatly appreciate it that you don't want to be associated with those kinds of males. Your conviction and sincerity only add to the high esteem I have for you."

"Thank you."

"I completely agree with you that a woman ought to have the opportunity to explore her sexuality freely with the person of her choice. As a woman who wants to freely explore her sexuality I've chosen the person I want and that person is you."

He stares at her in disbelief.

Sharlene assures him, "Yes, you, George Greyson, I want you and no one else."

He drops his head then half stutters, "I . . . um . . . thank you."

"If I had thought about it for awhile, I might have guessed you would have a problem with the concept of taking away my virginity. I'm sorry I pushed you on that concept. Later, I thought of a better way of expressing the same event. When we make love, you won't be taking something from me, you'll be giving me something I want, full initiation into being a complete woman. In many cultures, a female isn't recognized as a woman until she's had sexual relations, usually through marriage or recognizably through childbirth.

"In our culture, although it's seldom talked about, the concept is still there in the sense that a woman who isn't in a sexual relationship is sometimes referred to as a spinster or as an old maid. It's certainly not fair or polite and it's also quite discriminatory, but it still happens. George, first of all, I don't identify myself as a virgin or not as a virgin. If someone were to ask me when I lost my virginity, I would say it was when you first gave me intimate pleasure."

As she notices his eyebrows rise in surprise, she continues, "That's right. That was the turning point in my life, not when you finally feel comfortable that the time is right for you to insert your penis into my vagina. Let me assure you, I greatly look forward to that moment, but it won't be the turning point. When I first experienced intimate pleasure in your pickup, that was like a prelude. When you first touched me until I verbally expressed my sexual release, that was like a dream come true because it was something I had only imagined for a long time and it was wonderful.

"Your subsequent touching has been even better. I never could have asked for a better first intimate partner. I intend to keep you as my intimate partner for a very long time to come. In my opinion, I haven't been a virgin for awhile, so you can't take it away from me. All I want is for you to keep touching me, to keep the journey of touching going, to keep making love to me which is what your touching is, up to and well beyond when we happen to meet society's definition of making love."

"Ohhh. . . . Really?"

"Yes, my wonderful man, really."

Since he feels as though any words he could come up with would be completely inadequate, he hugs her as tightly as he dares.

* * * * *

2147-09-12 (e3)

When his arms begin to tremble from the mere physical effort of holding Sharlene so tight, George relaxes his hold enough for their lips to meet while he kisses her as much as possible with warm gratitude rather than hot passion. As he leans back in order to breathe, he holds her closely rather than tightly and caresses her back and right arm. While they cuddle with her left side snuggled up to his chest, his mental anguish and doubt begin to dissipate, at least for the present.

It's unbelievable, but also clearly undeniable that she's sitting on his upper legs cuddling with him, without a shirt. Only a little thin bra covers her breasts. She has made no move to cover herself, either to get her shirt or to pull up the blanket which is laying right in front of her. He's not ready to test it yet, but he's quite sure that if he made the move or even asked her, she would gladly take off her bra and encourage him to look at her and touch her.

It stuns him, even as he has to accept the truth of his senses. No matter how unworthy and undeserving he is, the evidence is overwhelming that Sharlene, the most beautiful woman in the world, really actually truthfully wants him, a boring dirty old man, to touch her. Could it be possible that he's not as despicable as he had frequently been told and then reinforced the idea in order to avoid the pain of rejection? Since he's not ready to completely throw his self-image away, after all, what would he replace it with, he decides to stick with trying to accept her acceptance and desire for him.

Even if everybody else continues to view him with disdain, at least one person makes it obvious that she believes he's worthwhile and wanted and that's all he really needs to know. The liberation of that thought is almost overwhelming and so comforting that he relaxes more completely than he has for a very long time and almost falls asleep.

As she feels the tension drain out of him, Sharlene is very curious about what's going through his mind, but is unwilling to disturb his relaxation to question him. She decides to let him enjoy his peace, she sure enjoys his cuddling, and if it helps him to hold her partially naked body, she's more than happy to stay right here. She would even be happier to be more than partially naked. But for his benefit, she figures his acceptance of her desire for him has to have time to grow.

She begins to realize how right Mariam was about how lucky she is to have met George and be able to develop a relationship with him. Nothing could have prepared her for it and no description could have come close to how comforting and wonderful he is. As they relax even further in each other's presence, they almost feel like they're melting into each other then gently doze off.

Sleeping while sitting up isn't comfortable so when one of them stirs slightly, it disturbs the other one and soon they're waking up, while both of them feel a little ashamed of having fallen asleep on the other person. As they become more aware, they realize their bladders are demanding attention. They get up and start to walk down the hall while they hold hands. Sharlene stumbles when the thought crosses her mind that she wants to take him into the bathroom with her, just to stay close.

George immediately stops and asks, "Are you okay?"

"Yes. I just had an errant thought which momentarily distracted me." He looks at her for a moment then bends over and gives her a quick kiss before he walks the extra distance to his bathroom while she steps into the guest bathroom. While she wonders where that thought came from, she's almost shocked to realize that she's not embarrassed at the idea. As she looks at her image in the mirror while she washes her hands, she wonders what has come over her, not only to think such thoughts, but also to be going around the house without a shirt on, in front of a man.

She quickly dries her hands, goes to the kitchen, gets a drink, and in a futile attempt to distract her thoughts, she gets out sandwich fixings from the fridge. Like table tennis balls, her thoughts bounce back and forth, the idea is good, but the idea is so not me; I like the way he looks at me, but he's a man; he's so comfortable, gentle and loving, but he lusts for me; he would never hurt me, only give me great pleasure, but . . . . When she sees him step around the corner into the kitchen, she knows, the idea of being close to him, even without a shirt, although maybe not yet in the bathroom, is good, is very good. She smiles at him and asks, "Are you ready for some food?"

He hesitates to say, "I think I'm ready to eat you. I just left you a couple of minutes ago. My memory can't be so bad that I can't remember how beautiful you are, yet when I stepped around the corner and saw you smile, I . . . I . . . to say that you're beautiful just doesn't do you justice."

She steps up close and as she holds his head with her hands, she looks into his eyes and tells him, "Thank you. I really appreciate it, even if I think you're tremendously biased."

He bends over a little more and begins to kiss her. She responds and soon their kiss is deep and hungry. His hands slide down her sides, grip her buttocks, and lift her up. She gasps in pleasurable surprise, then quickly responds by wrapping her legs around his waist and escalates the kiss while his hands cup and fondle her buttocks. She barely breaks the kiss to allow him to breathe when she cries out in pleasure. As she pauses a few moments to catch her breath, she feels his left hand slide up and begin to caress her back.

She tightens the grip of her legs around his waist and wraps her arms around his neck so his right hand doesn't have to try to hold her up by itself. Soon, she begins to rub her bra and quickly rising nipples back and forth across his chest. Suddenly, her pleasure leaps skyward and then the feeling reaches her conscious mind that his right hand is caressing her buttocks, centered along the back seam of her jeans and seemingly goes waaaay down, almost past her buttocks to between her legs. Her pleasure leads her cry of climax into the sky.

Even after she again pauses a few moments to catch her breath, her pleasure stays very close to the peak which interferes with her attempt to kiss him. He's also having trouble kissing her cheeks, her ears, and her neck. Soon, he slides his caressing left hand further up her back, then slips it under her back bra strap to concentrate his caresses there.

As she begins to use his hip bones as a fulcrum in order to slide her torso tightly up and down his torso, she feels his left hand stay under her bra strap to slide far to either side and even comes close to directly touching the outsides of her breasts. While she pants for breath as the pleasure climbs higher yet, she barely holds on, until she feels his right hand sliding up and down the back of her buttocks in rhythm with her torso moving up and down and she shouts out her pleasure.

He barely holds her up with the relaxation following his own release. When he feels her relax rather than collapse, he gently lowers her until her feet are on the floor, leans back on the counter, and holds her snugly then hopes that neither of them leans to the side and drags the other one down.

She leans on him while she pants for breath and is amazed at how quickly the pleasure had built and exploded through both of them. Were they that anxious or was their anticipation that high?

"Wow! . . . lady . . . almost . . . afraid to ask . . . what happened . . . ," he gasps out in between pants of breath.

"You . . . touched me."

Since he doesn't want to argue with her, he figures there must be more to the explanation, but between the pleasure and the exhaustion, he can't think more coherently.

When she feels somewhat steadier, she pushes herself upright and suggests, "Wash up time then we really need to get some more food."

They support each other with an occasional assist from the wall and make it to their respective bathrooms to wash. While she thinks about how much she enjoys the freedom, his appreciative looks, and a hint of risque pleasure for not wearing a shirt, she washes, changes her panty, and puts her jeans back on. Back in the kitchen, she fixes a couple of sandwiches, pours drinks, and is about ready to go check on him when he emerges wearing a sweat suit and goes straight to the dining room table to sit down.

As she sets a plate of food and a drink in front of him, she touches his arm and can feel his muscles twitching. She takes her own food to the table and as she eats, she almost starts to chuckle after about the fourth or fifth time he pauses in his eating to look at her, shake his head, resume eating, then pauses to look at her yet again. She suggests, "You really ought to pay attention to your eating."

"That's what my body thinks. My eyes say I can get food any old time, but to see such a beautiful woman wearing only a tiny bra on her upper body, that's to be treasured, to be lingered over, to absorb as much as possible."

"Now you present me with a quandary. I enjoy you looking at me and I want to leave my shirt off to give you the pleasure of looking at me. At the same time, I'm inclined to find a parka to wear so I don't distract you from the necessity of eating."

"I'm eating. Isn't it recommended that we ought to eat slower in order to help our food digest and reduce overeating? I can't think of a better motivation to eat slower than to look at you."

Sharlene chuckles then says, "Old man, I think you would dredge up any bit of knowledge, wisdom, advice, or old wives' tale to have an excuse to look at me or touch me."

"Of course. How else can I reduce the guilt of my purely selfish desires?"

"Oh, George, you really don't need an excuse. I'll do almost anything I can to encourage you to look at me and touch me. I'm just concerned when you ignore your own health and well-being in order to satisfy my selfish desires."

* * * * *

2147-09-12 (e4)

George becomes thoughtful for a few moments while he eats before he says, "If I understand you correctly, it sounds like you're admitting to being a temptress."

Sharlene keeps her grin on the inside as she clarifies, "If by that you mean I'm a female who is encouraging you to look at me and touch me, then I can admit to being a temptress; on one condition, that I'm tempting you and only you and no one else."

Since he's surprised at that, he looks at her for a moment or two before he asks, "Um . . . are you sure about that condition? It's rather restrictive."

"I'm absolutely positive about that condition."

"Oh. . . . Thank you." He drops his head and again becomes thoughtful as he resumes eating. When he finishes eating, he takes a drink, stares down at the table for a little while then turns his head to look at her and says, "Sharlene, I need to apologize to you."

"Why?"

"Well, in light of your stated condition, accusing you of being a temptress was trite and inappropriate."

"Oh no, you don't. You have nothing to apologize for. I think you meant the accusation in a light hearted manner, but it's the truth. I do tempt you to look at me and especially to touch me, often in full awareness of what I'm doing. . . . I don't mean to go all serious on you. What were you thinking when you thought of calling me a temptress?"

"You're not bothered by the term?"

"No. Why should I be bothered by the word when I've been intentionally tempting you? Maybe in some religious circles it has negative connotations, but that doesn't mean anything to me. Instead, I would like to know how successful I've been in my attempts."

His eyes open wide before he gets out, "Really?"

"Yes, lover. Have I been successful enough in tempting you that you would be inclined to call me a temptress?"

"Yes. The fact that you made the choice to not put your shirt back on would be a clear example."

"Mmm, I'm glad. I thought that might be the case, but it's always nice to have confirmation. Do you have another example?"

"Well, . . . um . . . last night . . . when I was caressing your legs under your skirt . . . I was surprised to find that . . . you had obviously changed your panty because the style was different. . . . The thought which briefly crossed my mind, but I was too distracted and then too tired to express it, was that you were a sneaky little temptress."

"Me? Sneaky?" Sharlene looks at him as though in great surprise before she asks, "Whatever gave you that idea? I think I'm being rather bold at not wearing a shirt."

It takes George a couple of moments to catch on that she's teasing him before he's able to appropriately respond, "Yes, you are being rather bold at not wearing a shirt and running the risk that I don't turn into some raving maniac who is out trying to ravish half naked females. But I was referring to last night. I'm guessing that you hoped I would touch you under your skirt again so you changed the style of panty you wore so I would touch more of you while staying within the limits of my touching."

"And it was glorious fun. Not only because you touched more of me, but because I was able to surprise you. Yes, I was deliberately being sneaky about getting you to touch me more, but I'll have you know, old man, that in spite of being a little," she holds a couple of fingers close together, "sneaky, I was being a good girl."

"Um . . . usually it's pretty hard to equate being a sneaky temptress with being a good girl. How do you explain that?"

"Scoot your chair back."

Sharlene gets up and after he scoots his chair back, she sits on his upper legs perpendicular to him, makes a show of looking around as though to make sure nobody else is in hearing range, and says, "I don't want to say it out loud." She pulls his head closer then whispers in his ear, "When I was done washing myself and started to walk back out here, I didn't have a panty on under my skirt."

George's jaw drops open, his eyes almost pop out of his head, and he swallows nervously before he almost stutters, "Didn't? . . . Nothing . . . under your skirt?"

"Didn't. Absolutely nothing."

"Nothing, as in nothing at all?"

"That's usually what it means."

Since he's still astounded at her 'admission', he hesitates to verbalize what he guesses was her intent, "Oh my. . . . And you were hoping . . . that I would touch you . . . under your skirt again?"

"Not just hoping, I was counting on it. If you hadn't of done it on your own, I was kicking around several ideas to encourage you to do so."

"What . . . what changed your mind?"

"I wanted to surprise you, but I thought that would be too much of a surprise at this time."

"Oh my. . . . Yes. . . . Thank you."

She nibbles on his ear and sucks on his earlobe for a few moments then says, "Oh, but there's more."

"More?" comes out of him with a bit of a squeak.

"When I picked out that high cut panty, I had to see what it looked like, so I took my skirt off to see and then I almost walked out without wearing my skirt."

"Ohhh. . . . Oh my. . . . Well, . . . that wouldn't have been . . . sneaky."

"Then I thought that would have been too much of a surprise."

He nods his head as he swallows nervously then struggles to speak, "That's the truth. . . . Young lady, . . . you do know how to surprise me. . . . Even just telling me, much less letting me see or feel you. . . . I've barely seen your legs above the knee. . . . To see all of your beautiful legs . . . and a panty which barely covers your pubic area, . . . that would have been . . . overwhelming. . . . You really had to stop yourself . . . from walking out in those ways?"

"Very much so. I've thought of similar things at other times, but that was the first time I had to actually stop myself from leaving the room."

He sits there and holds her while he stares out into space, somewhat stunned, for quite some time before he asks, "You're really willing to share yourself visually and physically with me to that level?"

"That level and more. And not just willing, but desirous to do so."

He sits stunned for a while longer, before he shakes his head as though to clear the fog from his brain. He pauses a little longer then says, "You keep telling me you want me to touch you and you keep demonstrating it so clearly a blind man could see. I don't understand why my fossilized brain cells are having so much trouble with the idea. For you to tell me you want me to touch you is the most wonderful thing anybody has ever said to me. And that you want and encourage me to touch you is simply the most fantastic gift I've ever been given or could be given. I don't know how I can every repay you."

"Hold it right there. What's this 'repay' crap? You said it was a fantastic gift. Then accept it as a gift, freely given, and with no holds barred. Frankly, I'm just being selfish, because what you think of as a gift to you, is really a gift to me, selfishly desired and greedily accepted."

"You've said that before, why do I keep forgetting? . . . I don't mean to be rude, but sometimes using slightly harsh terms helps me understand things better. . . . You selfishly encourage me to touch you because you like to be touched. I gladly accept your encouragement because I selfishly want to touch you. So my selfishness feeds your selfishness which feeds my selfishness . . . What a happy upward spiral . . . and selfish to boot."

Sharlene nods her head then says, "That's right, George. What you think of as a gift from me, is selfishness on my part. What I think of as a gift from you, is selfishness on your part. I still think I'm getting the biggest benefit, because the result of either of us being selfish is that I enjoy being touched by you. Let me be very straightforward and blunt, there's only one gift which you can give me which is better than you touching me, and that's you touching me more."

While his mind is trying to digest and internalize all she's been saying to him, his body side steps the whole debate, gently takes her head in his hands, and kisses her, thoroughly, deeply, hungrily. She immediately responds. When he sits up to breathe, his left hand glides down her neck and her chest to caress her right bra covered breast and she groans as the pleasure railroads through her, then after a brief gentle tweak of her nipple, his left hand moves down her side and around to her back where it slowly caresses up her back to cup her neck. As his left hand nears its destination and his breathing approaches a more normal pace, his right hand glides down her neck and across her chest to caress her left breast. Just before she climaxes, his right hand moves below her breast to caress her upper abdomen.

Since she feels as though her pleasure is seemingly floating just below the mountain peak, she closes her eyes and lets it flow. She almost feels the pleasure her body receives more than she feels him lean her back to bestow his kisses on her neck and upper chest which causes the pleasure. While his left arm supports her, his kisses cover her skin above her bra and his right hand caresses her skin between her bra and waist, the peaks and troughs of her waves of pleasure smooth out, except when his beard brushes over her sensitized nipples which causes her to jerk and gasp as the pleasure briefly spikes. Because she feels relaxed and like she's floating with the pleasure, she barely notices when his right hand slowly slides over her hip, diagonally across her left buttock until he clasps her buttock and uses just his fingertips to caress her between her buttocks, and she cries out in climatic response.

As he gives her an opportunity to recover her breath, he lifts her back up to lean her right side on his chest then his right hand slides up and away from her buttocks to the front of her left leg, then slowly goes down her leg over her knee and partway down her shin before it slips across to her right leg and slowly moves up it to about the middle of her thigh before it reverses direction. A couple of more times he caresses her along the front of each of her legs from about the middle of her shin to about the middle of her thigh. With each cycle of his hand as it continues to caress her, his hand expands its caresses to go farther up her legs, then more towards the insides of her legs while her pleasure grows as the extent of his touching increases.

He maintains a snug grip across the inside of her right thigh between her spread legs with his right hand which very slowly moves up her leg. Her pleasure grows ahead of his touching hand to escape her lips with her climax as he grips her leg a little more snugly a bare finger's breadth from her pubic area. He gently removes his hand from between her legs and pushes her upright with his left hand then wraps his arms around her to hug her tightly to him.

When her breathing has settled, she proclaims, "Thank you, lover, that was marvelous. . . . I don't know how you keep coming up with such wonderful variations on how you touch me. . . . Oh my . . ."

"What?"

"I'm having a hard time not begging you for more, but I know I shouldn't or I'll end up asleep on the floor. And don't tell me you'll carry me to bed because you're very close to being worn out yourself."

"You're probably right about that."

"How about I leave you to clean up after our meal while I wash up and," she slips her right hand between his legs to stroke him a couple of times while he gasps as the pleasure surges into him, "change my panty." She kisses him intently, but briefly, before she turns and almost dashes down the hall.

He's just finishing clearing the table and cleaning up the kitchen when she returns wearing her pajamas. His sigh of relief is almost verbal at the reduction of visual temptation which her pajamas present. She pours fresh drinks as he turns on the video player and television. Although she doesn't have high hopes, but is willing to watch with him, she's soon caught up in and enjoying the antics of a couple of feisty senior citizens in a retirement center. After the first half-hour episode, she gets her brush and enjoys him brushing her hair during the second episode.

At the end of the second episode, a couple of yawns easily convince them to call it a day. They finish their drinks, she puts their glasses in the sink as he puts away the video recording and turns off the equipment. Together they check the doors and turn out the lights, separate briefly to prepare for bed and are soon in his bed, where they briefly kiss, cuddle, and soon fall asleep.

* * * * *

2147-09-13 (n>m1)

After he wakes up in the middle of the night, George gently slips out of bed to go to the bathroom. When he comes back to bed, she's not there. As he tries to control his disappointment, he lays on his side facing what he's beginning to think of as her side of the bed. His disappointment is short lived and vanishes when she returns.

She steps around to his side of the bed and when she sees how he's laying, Sharlene leans over, briefly nibbles on his right ear, says, "Stay there," lifts the covers, almost rolls over him, and as he covers them up, she scoots herself so her back is snugly pressed to his chest. He slips his left arm under her head while she pulls his right hand over her right side to grip her left side. She wriggles her body closer to him which encourages him to hold her snugly. A moment later, she turns her head to her right and tells him, "Very nice, I always did wonder what it would be like to have my teddy bear actively hug me. Thank you." She lays her head back down and soon they drift off to sleep.

* * * * *

Three things are central to her awareness as she wakes up, the warm comfort of being wrapped in his arms, the early morning light peeking through his bedroom windows, and . . . something poking her buttocks. As she carefully reaches behind her, Sharlene finds that his erect penis is poking her through his pajama bottoms. Unintentionally, her exploring fingers move the fabric enough so his penis seems to jump out of the open fly of his pajamas. With great effort, she restricts herself to just a couple of strokes before she moves her hand away. In an attempt to distract herself, she moves her hips a little further from him, but the purpose of her move is quickly defeated because her mind begins to consider possible scenarios which could conceivably develop from their positions.

A moment later, her eyes open wide at where her thoughts are going. Mostly before she had been more than content with encouraging him to touch her more, now she's starting to come up with specific ways in which she wants him to touch her. And some of those . . . . She quickly slips out of his arms and out of bed, turns to stare at George then realizes she ought to be staring at herself in the mirror.

She's the one who is coming up with those ideas which have the pleasure beginning to surge through her. It's not that he hasn't thought of the same or similar touching ideas, he just hasn't described them to her. As she realizes it might be a good idea to consider such things before they happen, she quickly changes her mind and decides it's not a good idea because she barely stops herself from slipping back into bed to try out some of her scenarios.

She goes to the front room to do an extensive tai-chi then an active martial arts workout. After she's cooled off with more tai-chi, she resists her desire to wake him up and enjoy his response to her pajamas which are sticking to her sweaty body. She takes a quick shower in an effort to reduce the time she has to think of him touching her, then gets dressed in a basic short sleeve shirt over a thin bra, one of her slightly longer than knee length full skirts he likes so much, and a high cut panty underneath.

George gladly wakes up to comb and brush her hair. While he does, she considers her wardrobe. Since she knows he wants to see more of her, and she wants him to, she also realizes that her current wardrobe doesn't allow for that, unless she doesn't bother with her outer clothes at all which will probably be too much for him just yet. Some shorter skirts or short pants would be a transition from her jeans and skirts to just her panties. Maybe she ought to ask Aunt Paula if there's a reasonable clothing store in town, there probably isn't considering how small the town is. Or maybe she can ask Angelisa who is maybe just a size or two bigger than she is.

He seems to reluctantly admit to being done with brushing her hair even though she suspects he was actually done some time ago. After she stands up, she gives him a quick thorough kiss, tells him to get dressed, and forces herself to leave the room. Once she's out of his room, she has to lean on the wall for several moments while she tries to rein in her desires. In an effort to help distract herself, she goes to the kitchen, gets a pot of tea started, and quickly puts together a breakfast. After they finish eating, they enjoy another cup of tea and just quietly spend time in each other's company.

He remembers and asks her, "Did you happen to ask your aunt about dinner tonight?"

"Yes. She said they would like that, but she wanted to check with Uncle Paul first. I suspect she's waiting to call until she's sure she won't be waking us up."

"I was kind of wondering what to serve. Do you have any ideas?"

"Not off the top of my head. Did you have anything else you wanted to do?"

"I thought I ought to run a mop through the place."

"If you have another pizza in the freezer, you could serve that which would give you more time to rest after mopping or I can help with the mopping."

"A pizza would be easier. I can take care of the mopping, it's not necessarily hard, it just takes some time. Besides, you just took a shower and there's no sense in you getting all sweaty so soon afterwards."

"I can always take another shower, or," with a definite smile and a glint in her eye, "I could just shower with you."

He swallows nervously then says, "Not yet. . . . It's almost overwhelming to have the imaginary you in the shower. . . . To see the real you there would be . . . mind-blowing."

"I was about to say it couldn't be that overwhelming until I remembered that one time you said you had dreamt of me in the shower and had spontaneously ejaculated. Is the image of me in the shower with you that strong of an image?"

"Oh yes. And based on my experience with you so far, my imagination is often a very weak version compared to what reality ends up being. I'll warn you that in the weeks we've been together, I've been thinking up various ways of touching you and scenarios to lead to touching you in various ways. It seems like the more we touch, the more variations cross my mind."

Sharlene gets up, sits on his upper legs, kisses him breathless, and when she has enough breath herself, she tells him, "Mmm, that sounds wonderful. Maybe I should warn you, I've come up with a few scenarios of my own. When we get to the appropriate stage of the journey, can I suggest a scenario or variation?"

"Of course. The whole point of the journey of touching is to give you pleasure in a gentle progression and with a wide variety of ways. If you hadn't have given me carte blanche permission to touch you and wanted me to be spontaneous, I would probably be driving you crazy by constantly asking you how and where you want to be touched. If you have some way you want me to touch you, please tell me and I'll do my best to touch you as you want. I won't guarantee that it will be as nice as you imagine."

"Why no guarantee? If your past touching is any indication of your future touching, are you afraid I'll sue you for touching me more wonderfully than I can imagine?"

George thinks about that for a few moments then briefly chuckles before he says, "Considering some people in our society, they would do just that, although how anyone could prove what their imagination was, is beyond me."

"I might be able to."

He stares at her for a moment or two then asks, "How?"

"With my emotional recordings."

"I don't follow."

"I have a few recordings of when I touched myself. I also have a few recordings of when I touched myself while I imagined that it was you who was touching me. When we get to the appropriate step of the journey, I hope to have some recordings of you touching me in a similar way. I'm willing to bet that my emotional recordings of you touching me will be more intense than when I imagined you were touching me, which will be more intense than when I just touched myself."

"There are a lot of factors and variables in that which will affect the quality of any of those recordings."

"True, but in a general way it might give an indication of how I respond to the real you compared to the imaginary you."

He thinks about that for a little while then says, "You may have a point there. You know, sometimes I forget that your headband is anything more than a fashion type accessory which is a part of your normal attire."

"So do I, until I occasionally remember to download the recordings. When I review the recordings and make notes about what was happening which led to my recorded response, sometimes I have trouble making my notes without getting overwhelmed by remembering how I felt when you were touching me. There's been more than once I've gotten all excited at remembering how you had touched me and barely had to touch myself to enjoy a sexual release. Other times I barely restrained myself from waking you up to touch me, because I became so exciting while I was reviewing my recordings."

"Really? You seem to enjoy me touching you, but I had no idea that the memory of me touching you would be pleasurable."

* * * * *

2147-09-13 (m2)

Sharlene stares at him in disbelief, starts, "George, . . ." stops, shakes her head, then continues, "George, you probably don't have any idea and I don't know how to give you an idea of how exciting, how pleasurable, and how wonderful it is for you to touch me. The best I can do is to say that one evening I almost fell headfirst into the bathtub because I was so excited and the pleasure was so overwhelming. You weren't touching me, I wasn't remembering you touching me, I was simply imagining that you were touching me. I've learned from experience that remembering you touching me has always been better than my imagination of you touching me in a similar way, and the reality of you touching me is always better than my memory of when you touch me."

"Oh . . ."

"I certainly don't want it to happen, but if something should prevent you from touching me anymore, I can easily continue to enjoy sexual release from my memory of you touching me and my imagining of you touching me. And if Digital Empathy can perfect the transmission of recorded emotions, I'll replay all of the pleasure you've given me. But I don't want that. I'm extremely selfish and want you to continue to touch me, to touch me more, to give me every bit of pleasure my body is capable of enjoying, to overwhelm me . . . ."

While his mind is reeling with what she's telling him, his body moves. His lips cover hers and he initiates a kiss so deep, so intense, she feels like her excited response never catches up. His left hand supports her as his right hand reaches for her left breast and soon her hardening nipple seems to punch a hole right through her bra and shirt. She cries out then gasps for breath at the intensity of the pleasure which still remains even after her climax.

His right hand, surprisingly coordinated, soon has her shirt unbuttoned, spread wide, and is caressing her all over the front and sides of her torso. As his lips move his kisses to her neck and ears, his right hand spirals in on her right breast and when his index finger makes a tight circle around the sides of her erect nipple poking up her bra, she climaxes again.

She's astounded at the speed with which her pleasure had built to such intensity. Her talking about it must have given her an anticipation she hadn't noticed. Before she can think any more about it, her pleasure drowns out rational thought as his kisses move down her upper chest while his right hand caresses her legs through her skirt and unintentionally pushes her skirt up her legs.

He doesn't pause to notice when his caresses move from her skirt to her bare legs, then slip under her skirt to caress even higher up her legs which pushes her skirt even higher. While his right hand moves back and forth across the inside of her left leg, his thumb is even deeper between her spread legs which causes her panting breath to become quicker and her groans higher pitched, until his thumb caresses the inside of her leg a fraction of an inch from her panty, and she climaxes with another cry of pleasure. She slumps, but doesn't quite collapse, as his right hand moves from between her legs to help hold her up.

It seems like minutes before her breathing partially settles, her pleasure recedes to a dull roar, and she gasps out, "WOW!!" That seems to startle him. He looks at her, sees her flushed face, her closed eyes, her open mouth, her open shirt, her erect nipples, her chest breathing heavily, and stares at her partially revealed legs before he moves his hand to pull her skirt back down to her knees, then he quickly moves his right hand back to her side to keep her from leaning over too far.

It's awhile later before she opens her eyes to see the somewhat confused expression on his face. Sharlene reaches up her left hand to caress his face. He quickly looks at her as she tells him, "George, sometimes you think too much."

"What happened?"

"I'm guessing that while your mind was off thinking about what I was telling you, your body was giving me pleasure, very much pleasure."

"Oh. . . . I didn't hurt you did I? Or go too far?"

"Not at all. Why do you even ask?"

"I'm afraid that without my conscious control, my body will resort more to the primal male level and just take what it wants without regard to anything else."

"If that was an example, then you have no need to worry. Apparently, your conscious restrictions have so ingrained themselves that your unconscious mind doesn't go beyond them. George, I love the way you touch me, whether it's a slow building of pleasure over the foothills and up the mountain or a quick mind-blowing rocket to the moon. I'm more than half inclined to ask for another round even though I haven't recovered from the last one. Thank you very much," and she kisses him breathless.

She cuddles closer, lets his breathing settle, and suggests, "Walk with me down the hall, please. I would like to wash up and I'm feeling a little shaky." He helps her stand and with an arm around her back, he helps her to the guest bathroom. She steps in, starts to close the door then opens it again and asks, "Can you get me a clean panty, please?"

He briefly stares at her before he says, "You don't want me pawing through your underwear."

"Come here." He steps closer and she gently pulls on his beard to pull his head down, briefly kisses him, and tells him, "I want you to paw through my underwear to get at my body. Practice pawing through my underwear to get a panty for me. Just grab the first one you come to."

It seems like a long time before he closes his mouth, shakes his head, and goes to the guest bedroom. He opens a couple of drawers before he finds the one with her panties. He holds up the first one he comes to and sees that it's just a little bit of elastic and a wisp of lace. As he shakes his head, he puts it back. When he tries the next drawer, he finds more 'normal' panties. He picks one up and sees that it will provide her with full coverage as well as has a standard cut for the leg. He closes the drawer, goes to the guest bathroom, and hands it to her.

She ignores it for a moment, pulls on his arm to pull his body over slightly, and kisses him thoroughly. When she lets him breathe, she helps him lean on the wall, takes the panty, says, "Thank you," and gently closes the door. She smiles at recognizing her most conservative type of panty and she knew that's what he would bring her, even though she was still hoping he would have been a little more daring. She's not sure what she would have done if he had brought her one of those barely there panties which she hasn't even been willing to try on yet.

She can't really fault him for not being more daring, especially since he's acting more consistently with his age group on this subject. She's soon washed, has the clean panty on, puts the damp one with her dirty laundry, and goes to the kitchen to see that he's just finished cleaning up after breakfast. Sharlene hugs him from behind as she tells him, "Thank you for the pleasure and for helping me afterwards."

He finishes drying his hands and turns in her embrace as he responds, "It was my pleas . . . your shirt's still open."

"A high grade for being observant."

"But . . ."

"Don't you like to see me with my shirt open?"

"Yes. But . . ."

Sharlene smiles brighter and tells him, "That's a good enough reason for me. I thought about just taking it off, but I didn't want to set it down somewhere and forget about it and have Aunt Paula find it."

"Oh."

"George, lover, as you touch more of me and see more of my body, why should I cover it up? I like you looking at me. I love you touching me. I know you aren't offended at the sight of the female body, so what's the problem?"

"Um, . . . well . . . I guess . . . I wouldn't want you to feel under any obligation to display yourself."

"But what if I want to display myself to you?"

He hesitates then says, "Well, if it's truly your own choice made of you own free will with no coercion or obligation being put upon you."

"I assure you, I feel no obligation or coercion to let you see me. All I feel is joy at seeing the pleasure in your eyes when you look at me. I very much enjoyed the freedom yesterday evening of not wearing a shirt and seeing the pleasure in your eyes when you looked at me and touched me."

"Really?"

"Yes, really."

He gently pushes her out to arm's length and clearly looks her up and down a couple of times before he tells her, "You certainly are a sight worth beholding and a treasure of a woman to allow me to do the beholding."

As he pulls her back into his embrace, she pulls his head down and thoroughly kisses him.

* * * * *

2147-09-13 (m3)

When Sharlene has enough breath, she tells him, "Thank you. Before I let you get me all excited again, I'm going to chase you off to do your mopping. Do you need any help picking up? Or do I need to pick up things in the empty bedroom?"

George pauses to take another deep breath before he answers, "No to both questions. I could probably get by with letting the mopping go for awhile longer, but having Paula and Paul over is a good excuse to get it done. Warning, I'll be making noise at first when I run the vacuum cleaner before I start the actual mopping."

"That's not a problem. If I find the noise bothersome, I can always go out and play with Molly."

"She would like that. Okay. Can I beg a kiss before I start?"

"Sorry, no begging allowed."

"May I have a kiss?"

"I thought you would never ask." She kisses him and holds nothing back.

When she lets him breathe, he leans back on the kitchen counter and just stares at her for awhile before he asks, "Sharlene, are you trying to make me . . . forget what I was . . . going to do?"

"Yes. No. George, you're just so wonderful, that sometimes I can't hold my feelings in any longer. Thank you for giving me the freedom to let go." She briefly kisses him again, spins, and almost dashes out of the door.

He stands there feeling stunned as he looks after her. He doesn't know how many more of her revelations he can handle, or is he just disbelieving her as she keeps repeating herself with a variety of words. He suspects the truth is closer to the latter. Is what she says about him so unbelievable? Yes, at least according to his life long experience.

Or is he afraid that if he finally accepts what she says, a monster will be unleashed which neither of them can control? Yes, that's a real concern. Since he knows he won't solve the dilemma in the next few minutes, he pushes himself away from the counter, gets out the vacuum cleaner to run along the baseboards to take care of the dust and dirt which tend to accumulate there before he uses the mop over the whole floor.

As she steps out from the sliding glass door, Sharlene calls for Molly. She feels something different so she looks down and sees that her shirt is open. As she buttons it up, she realizes that's something she's going to have to be more careful about. It's one thing to feel free to walk around inside his house while she's half naked, but it's another thing to do it outdoors. It may be unlikely that someone would be in George's yard, but the odds are better for someone to be in his yard uninvited than in his home.

She just finishes buttoning her shirt when Molly almost knocks her over in her greeting. When she sees what appears to be a grin on Molly's face, it dissuades her from scolding Molly because she's sure Molly knows just how much force she applied. She quickly bends over and gives Molly a thorough petting and a scratching around the ears. Molly dashes off and soon returns with her tennis ball which Sharlene willingly throws. After they play for awhile, Molly puts her ball away just as Sharlene's phone rings. She answers it, "Hello?"

"Hey, kiddo."

"Hi, Aunt Paula."

"If the offer is still on, we would enjoy coming to dinner."

"Of course it's still on. We'll be glad to have you."

"If you don't mind my asking, what's on the menu?"

"Pizza."

"Do you know where you're getting it from?"

"George makes it."

Paula pauses before she responds, "George makes pizza? Surprise, surprise."

"I think you'll like it. It has a thick bread crust and is loaded with all kinds of ingredients. It's the best pizza I remember ever having. Couldn't even eat two slices, but it was great as leftovers."

"Sounds good. Paul will want his wine."

"You might have him bring a bottle. I don't know what George has."

"No problem. So, Sharlene, how are you two doing?"

"Very good. He was actually willing to talk about his feelings last night and it shed some light on his aversion to taking my virginity. He doesn't want me or anyone else to associate him with, how did he put it, 'crude egotistical males who like the idea of despoiling virgins' and then discard them because they're no longer virgins."

"That would be George."

"I pointed out that rather than for him to think he was taking my virginity away, I would prefer him to think he was giving me the gift of initiating me into full womanhood. It probably wasn't the best approach because I don't believe a female needs to be in a sexual relationship to be a full woman, but many cultures do believe that and it was the first approach I could think of to encourage him to think of making love to me as a gift rather than as taking something away."

"Without having more time to think about it, I probably would have come up with something similar. Most likely he was feeling rather stunned by what you were telling him, otherwise he would have protested that a female doesn't need to be sexually active to be a full woman."

"I think you're right about that. He's doing better, but he still has a hard time fully accepting that I want him and want him to touch me. He admits that I'm frequently telling him, he admits that I frequently demonstrate it, he's even expressed dismay at not understanding why he has such a hard time accepting the notion. He's also warned me that when he finally internalizes the acceptance that I truly want him, he'll be like a monster released. I'm not afraid of him hurting me, I'm more afraid of him wanting to touch me and getting excited by doing so and wearing himself out, because he doesn't give himself enough time to recover."

Paula briefly chuckles then says, "Yeah, you've got him figured out. I would like to talk more, but I have customers coming in. We'll see you this evening. Bye."

"Goodbye."

As she puts her phone away, Sharlene is a little surprised to realize that she's been absentmindedly petting Molly's head which is laying on her leg and she tells her, "You're a sneaky one, too."

Molly gives a soft, "Woof," in apparent agreement, a quick lick of her hand, and trots off.

Sharlene watches Molly stop briefly for some food and water before she disappears around the end of the garage. As she shakes her head, she wonders how much she's anthropomorphizing Molly's behavior and how much Molly actually understands. She gets up, brushes herself off and just before she goes in the door, she wipes her shoes off as well as she can. After a brief search, she finds him getting his mop water ready in the laundry room and asks, "Is there anything I need to do to stay out of your way?"

"Not really. I'll start in the library then do the kitchen, dining room, and living room. If you think you might get thirsty, you might fill a drink bottle. Usually I change my mop water about then. I usually do half of the hallway, the laundry room, my bedroom, the guest bedroom and by the time I'm ready to do the guest bathroom, the laundry room is usually dry so there's no need to be without an available bathroom. Then I finish with the empty bedroom and the other half of the hallway."

"Did you want me to pick up my lingerie sorting?"

"There's no need to."

"Then give me a kiss and I'll be out of your way."

He gladly accedes to the first part of her request and reluctantly watches her leave the laundry room. As he realizes that the sooner he finishes, the sooner he can be with her, he rolls the mop bucket down to the library.

She recognizes his wisdom of having a drink bottle available so she fills one with iced tea and goes to resume her sorting of lingerie. She sets aside a couple of items which she might want to try in the near future. Other items go into her box for later. She's surprised at how much time has passed when he sticks his head in the room and suggests that she use the guest bathroom if necessary since the laundry room isn't quite dry yet. She gratefully kisses him, uses the guest bathroom, and takes her drink bottle to the kitchen. Since she figures he's going to want lunch when he finishes, but doesn't know how long that will be, she decides to play the piano while he finishes his mopping.

When he finishes in the guest bathroom, he hears the piano and has to mentally kick himself to keep going instead of leaning on the wall to listen. He finishes the mopping, cleans out the mop and bucket, gets a drink, and sits on the end of the sofa so he can watch her as he listens to her play. Later, he's startled and opens his eyes to see her gently pull his empty glass out of his hand.

She asks, "Why didn't you tell me you were done mopping?"

"I didn't want to interrupt beauty in action."

"Me or my playing?"

"Both."

"Sometimes I'm not sure if you're extremely selfish or extremely selfless."

"The answer is selfish."

"I'm not going to debate it with you. It's time to get some food in you then rest some more."

* * * * *

2147-09-13 (a1)

By the time George is back from a quick trip down the hall, Sharlene has sandwiches and fresh drinks on the table. When they finish eating, they sit quietly for awhile and feel relaxed in each other's company.

"George, something puzzles me about your house. It's been six weeks since your heart attack and the week we were here, you didn't clean or mop. I don't mean to sound rude, but how come it isn't dustier?"

"When I was designing the house, I did some research to try to make it as easy to maintain and take care of as possible. On the air intake systems, I had high quality air filters installed. I also had the house made as air tight as possible and keep a slightly higher air pressure inside. That way when an outside door is opened, anything near the door will be blown out rather than blown in. It's not a perfect system, but it does significantly reduce the amount of time I have to spend cleaning."

"I assume it increased the cost of building the home."

He nods his head as he responds, "No doubt about that. Along with the other improvements which I had installed such as wider doors, handicap supports, thicker walls, more insulation, the solar panels, quadruple pane windows, and a few other things, I probably spent about twice as much as a more normally build home would cost with about the same square footage. My energy costs, without considering the solar panels, are less than a regular home of similar size, but it will still take quite a few years for the lower energy costs to make up for the higher construction costs."

"If I remember right, you said you intended to live here for the rest of your life, which, I assume, would mean you were less interested in having a positive return on your investment and more interested in your comfort and peace of mind."

"A more accurate statement would be that I was less interested in having a positive financial return on my investment since I don't plan on selling it. To have comfort and peace of mind are a positive return on my investment even if they can't be quantified and assigned a credit value."

"Thank you for the clarification. You're right. Grandpa Hienrik would certainly agree with you."

"Why do you say that?"

She explains, "He always believed that the value of a product, especially a high credit product such as a type of infrastructure, was more than the mere financial cost of the product. A sewer system in a village may cost a staggering amount of credits up front, at least to the village, but the value of a cleaner environment and reduced diseases can't be calculated. Often those values were ignored when a cost analysis was done on a project, so many projects which were worthwhile weren't done because the cost analysis didn't look good enough.

"Dad can tell you about a lot of projects which had two sets of plans, one which was bid on and another which was used to actually build the project. And the built to plan often had things added, like sewer systems, running water, solar panels, or wind turbines. Grandpa had the desire and would often find a way to reduce the construction costs usually while increasing the quality of the construction to be able to add things he felt would improve the lives of the people living there, all while he stayed at or below the amount which was bid. The bureaucrats couldn't complain too loud because the project wasn't over budget, and the people were usually delighted."

"I assume that the times the people weren't delighted was usually because they were either very conservative or they didn't understand how the added items would benefit them."

She nods her head then says, "That's right. Sometimes it took some explaining to help them understand that there were little things too small to see called germs which would make them ill. I've heard more than one story in the family about how Grandma Running Deer would tell villagers that germs were little evil spirits and if they were left out in the open they would breed and all of those evil spirits would make their children ill, but if they put those evil spirits underground and gave them poison, also known as waste treatment chemicals, the evil spirit germs couldn't breed and it would be harder for them to make their children ill. I'm sure it was more involved than that, but that's what I remember hearing as a child."

"Your grandparents sound like interesting people to be able to find ways to incorporate improved technology with the local people's belief systems."

"Grandma was always quick to remind me and my cousins that while we often had better technology, it didn't mean our belief systems were any better or worse than anyone else's belief system nor did it mean we were any happier for having the technology. She could name quite a few cultures where the people were very happy even while they lived at a subsistence level because they were at peace with their situation and worked with their environment."

"From what little reading I've done, it seems like most people could be more satisfied with their lives if there weren't greedy malcontents trying to stir people up in an effort to keep up with the proverbial 'Joneses' or thinking that more and bigger is always better."

"Yeah. What little I've seen in life seems to support that idea. . . . So, George, did you have any other plans for the day or the week?"

"Did Paula call?"

"Yes. I'm sorry I forgot to tell you. They would like to come to dinner. I suggested that Uncle Paul bring his own wine because I didn't know whether or not you had any more after Mariam finished off that bottle last weekend."

He thinks for a moment before he responds, "I'll have to look. I don't drink it much so it's easy to lose track of how much I have. In that case, the only thing I ought to do before they come is to get a shower. As for the rest of the week, I should check my mail a few times, pay my bills, and look over the yard. Assuming you get awarded the Project next week, we might want to invite Darren Harvey and Angelisa up sometime this week to talk about college before you get real busy with a new company."

"That's a good idea. I probably ought to see if Klara wants us to touch base with Maria or whether she's getting statements sent directly to her."

"I was wondering about that."

"Before I check with Klara and do some research about colleges, we ought to clean up after lunch. Then I think we ought to take a leisurely walk down to get your mail which will provide a little time for our food to digest before you take a nap then shower or shower then nap."

"I guess that will depend on how tired I am after the walk."

Sharlene gets up, holds out her hands, and helps pull him to his feet. As he stands up, he leans forward, pulls her towards him and starts to kiss her. Only when he has to breathe does he stand up straight and hug her tight. He suggests, "Why don't you go get your shoes on while I clean up after the lunch you so kindly fixed."

"I've gone barefoot over rougher territory than your driveway."

"Recently?"

"It's been a few years."

"Then your calluses have probably disappeared. Even if they hadn't, I wouldn't want you to accidentally step on a scorpion or something."

She looks at him in surprise then asks, "Scorpions? I've seen pictures of them, but never a live one. Do you have many around here?"

"Not many. Go get your shoes on and I'll tell you what little I know about them as we walk."

"Okay." She reaches up and kisses him before she dashes off.

After he watches her go, he shakes his head and cleans up after lunch. Sometimes she comes across as a highly intelligent person who mastered a demanding field like medicine with ease, other times she's an intimate partner without equal, and other times she seems like a happy little girl. Again he marvels that she wants him in her life. A couple of minutes later, with his handgun holstered and the doors locked, they walk down the driveway.

He tells her that scorpions are shy primarily nocturnal creatures who are often lazy and wait for their food to come to them rather than stalk it. If they aren't hungry, their prey can walk right over them and they won't move, but if they're hungry, they strike with lightning speed. They'll eat almost anything they can handle, including each other.

Some of the biggest varieties of scorpions have weak venom and are more inclined to use their pinchers to hold their prey, while the venom of one of the smallest varieties can kill a human although usually only a child or an older adult. Their venom is a neurotoxin which attacks the nervous system of their prey. They prefer to have a source of water nearby and have even been known to submerge themselves and strike underwater. He relates that they seem to have variations in personality because some of them act more shy while others are more aggressive or some will just sit while others explore their environment.

"That's interesting, George. So how did you find out so much about scorpions or maybe I should ask why were you interested in finding out about them?"

"One place I lived, we occasionally had them in the yard or in the house. Since most people had a negative reaction, I guess that increased my curiosity about them. So I did a little research and was surprised that little actual research had been done with scorpions. At the time, about the most informative book I could find was written for preteens. We had a small aquarium and the next scorpion I found went in it. I put a little lid of water in for it and either captured a cricket in the yard or bought them at a pet store. Most of the time there wasn't much to see, but once we saw one actually wash itself which is something I hadn't found in any book."

Since she hadn't expected that, Sharlene asks, "Wash itself?"

"I don't know what else to call it. It sat near the water source, and would bring one of its pinchers up to its mouth then rub the pincher across part of its body, then back to its mouth and across another part of its body, even its stinger."

"Well, George, if you were scripting a nature show, you forgot a subject."

"What's that?"

"Their mating rituals."

He briefly laughs then says, "I'm not sure I would call it much of a mating ritual. I never saw it, but according to what I've read, the male will deposit his sperm on a stick or a rock and then try to guide the female's reproductive organ over that spot. It seems like a rather uncertain way of doing things, but it must work because we still have scorpions in the world. Of course it can be quite a risk for the male since he doesn't know whether he'll end up as a mate or as a meal."

"Oh, that is a risk. I much prefer our way." Sharlene turns to him, pulls his head down, and kisses him.

* * * * *

2147-09-13 (a2)

When his breathing has settled, he suggests, "I'm glad you didn't say the human way."

"Why do you say that?"

"Because some humans, males in particular, have no more interest in their sexual partner then a scorpion." While she ponders that, he gets his mail and they walk back up the driveway towards his house.

"George, it seems as though you have a rather low opinion of human male behavior in regards to sex and it seems to make you feel guilty to be considered a human male."

"You're right."

"Why?"

"I guess I've just been acquainted with too many males who considered females as little more than a conquest to be achieved, usually through sexual means. I've known of too many women who've been abused and never had an opportunity to know what a gentle touching relationship could be like. Many women are afraid to have a male friend for fear of having the relationship go too far or of becoming a victim of date rape. Because of those kinds of males, the whole male-female relationship gets set on edge with each ready to accuse the other at the drop of a hat.

"Some men are afraid to even look at a woman for fear of having a sexual harassment accusation thrown at them. I knew of a manager who was interviewing people for a position. One of the people who didn't get the position claimed it was because she didn't offer to have sex with the manager. It caused quite an uproar, when the simple truth of the matter was that someone else was better qualified. All of that is because some males can't keep their hands to themselves."

"I see what you mean." She thinks for a little while before she says, "But that's been going on throughout history."

"That doesn't make it right and it only adds fuel to the fire to say there's a huge precedent established that it's okay for males to treat females as objects by which to selfishly achieve their own sexual release, without give a moment's thought to helping the woman be able to enjoy the activity in order for her to achieve sexual release. And it's true to one degree or another in almost every culture in the world. Even the so-called great moral religions of the world only perpetuate the idea. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to get on my soapbox and start preaching at you."

"George, please don't be sorry. I'm glad you're willing to open up and talk about it. It helps me to better understand you."

He stops walking, pulls her into a tight embrace, and tells her, "I don't mind you wanting to know what kind of rabble-rouser you're spending your time with, I just don't like the idea of having the shadow of the world's misbehavior cast upon our relationship. Even without being a typical male, I don't deserve your love and attention. As I slowly come to accept the incredibly miraculous idea that you actually want me to be with you and touch you, I don't want anything to interfere with what I selfishly consider the most wonderful thing to ever happen to me." He relaxes his grip on her just enough to lean his head over to kiss her.

He stands back up to breathe, but before he can pull her back into his embrace, she shrieks, leaps into his arms, wraps her legs around his waist, and turns to look behind her. He drops his right hand to under her buttocks in order to help hold her up then turns her to see what she's looking at. Molly just sits there with such a look of innocence they start to laugh.

When their laughter diminishes, he kisses her briefly and says, "I love you this close, but I'm not strong enough to hold you here for long." She unlocks her legs from around him and as she slides down, his right hand lingers on her buttocks. He asks, "What happened?"

As she releases him, Sharlene bends over and grabs Molly's head as she explains, "I'm not positive, but I think our friend here, stuck her nose on the back of my leg which startled me."

George lowers himself onto one knee in order to more easily pet Molly as he asks, "Why would you do that, girl?" As his hands brush the fur along her sides, he remarks, "You've put on weight." A moment later, his hands slide along her belly, then he turns, looks at Sharlene, says with surprise, "I think she's pregnant," and Molly gives him a brief lick as a reward. He looks back at Molly and they stare at each other for a moment before he says, "No, Molly, we aren't going to make babies. . . . As much as I love and desire Sharlene, I'm incapable of fathering children."

Sharlene just stares at George as he carries on a one-sided conversation with Molly.

"Even if I could father children, at my age there's too great a risk for them to have deformities. . . . I'm sorry to disappoint you, Molly."

Molly briefly drops her head then looks back at him.

"Yes, we'll help you with your babies. . . . I can set up a large box for you in the garage with a couple of blankets in it."

Molly gives him a brief lick, gives Sharlene's hand a brief lick, and trots off with her head held high.

Sharlene asks, "What was that all about?"

"I think Molly startled you so you would react as you did in the hope that we would mate."

"What gives you that idea?"

"I don't know!" George pauses before he says in a more gentle voice, "I'm sorry, love. It doesn't make any sense, but sometimes it's as though I understand what she's thinking. I don't hear any words or anything, but I respond as though I hear her. Frankly, it scares me. Am I losing my mind or something? I don't know. And it only happens with Molly."

"She certainly responded to you as though you were saying the right things in response. I've never seen anything like it. . . . No, I have to take that back. When I was a little girl, there were times when I had a conversation with Natasha before she died. How much of that was a little girl's fantasy, I have no idea. But at the time, it sure seemed like I could understand her. I'm surprised Molly let me see that."

"You shouldn't be surprised, she likes you very much."

Sharlene looks at him with lifted eyebrows then asks, "Oh? I suppose she told you that too?"

"Well, not in so many words. Look, for some reason, Molly barely tolerates human male company. She'll generally let human females pet her and sometimes children can hug her, but you're the only other person I've heard of who Molly will request a hug from."

That surprises her so she asks, "Really?"

"Yes, really. Ow. Give me a hand up, please." She quickly braces herself and lets him hold on to her as he pulls himself up and says, "Molly could have at least waited until we were more comfortably situated before she suggested that we mate." He brushes his knees off.

"Or you could have been less gallant and not knelt down to speak to her."

"You've got me there."

"So, how soon can we get back to the house so we can more comfortably mate?"

George stares at her for a moment before he says, "Sharlene, as much as I anxiously desire to make love to you, there are a few more steps of the journey which I would like to share with you. If and when we do make love, it will be at our mutual agreement, not at the suggestion of a canine, regardless of how much I like Molly."

"Ah, but lover, it's such a good suggestion."

He senses the tease in her voice so he changes his response to, "I think you're tempting me."

She pulls his head down to whisper in his ear, "I don't need to," as she brushes a hand across the front of his pants. He turns his head and kisses her passionately while he pulls her body tightly to his. She responds just as passionately then tightens her grip on him when he breaks the kiss to breathe and sways slightly.

"Be careful, young lady, or you'll find out how hard the ground is on something other than your bare feet."

"I'm sorry, lover, but I don't believe you. Even if you were to let your desire run wild, you're still so wonderfully gallant and gentle, you would lay down and let me be on top or you would find some other way of entering me rather than laying me on the ground."

He seems to deflate a little then says, "You're probably right. Even if we were in bed, I would be afraid to lay on you because I wouldn't want to squish you."

"And for that I greatly thank you. It only makes me more desirous of wanting you inside of me."

"Why?"

"Because even in the midst of your raging hormones, you're still gentle and concerned more about my benefit than you are about achieving your own sexual release. That makes me feel very special. I know I don't deserve your gentle concern, but I'll selfishly take every bit of it even as I try to think of ways to express my appreciation."

He hugs her tight and even works a hand around to cover her mouth as he says, "You're too good to me," to prevent her immediate verbal response. It's a long hug, but eventually they relax their grips, and with arms around each other, they make their way back up to the house. She's disappointed to feel the beginnings of a tremor in his legs since she knows she's going to have to let him rest before she encourages him to touch her. He unlocks the front door, ushers her in, closes and locks the door, puts his handgun back in the drawer, sets his mail on the counter, and pours them both a drink.

When their glasses are almost empty, Sharlene suggests, "George, I think you're going to need to rest for awhile before you shower."

He pauses a moment before he finishes his drink and says, "I think you're right."

When he sets his glass down, she takes his hands and guides them around her as she steps up close. A moment later she tells him, "I want you to know that I really want to walk you down to your bed, take your clothes off, touch you, and be touched by you. The only reason I can resist this time, is that I can feel your legs are beginning to tremble and I think your need for rest is greater than my desire for pleasure."

He tightens his arms around her and kisses the top of her head before he says, "My lady, you are wise. While your first sentence is consistent with my desire, your second sentence is the voice of wisdom. . . . Can I have a brief kiss before I go rest?"

"Of course. But only a brief kiss?"

"Anything more might release the monster which is lurking just under the surface."

She gives him a thorough kiss, but does keep it brief. When she breaks the kiss, she gently pulls his head down just a little further to whisper in his ear, "George Greyson, you be careful making such threats or I'll insist that you carry them out."

He turns his head and kisses her more thoroughly, but just before it crosses the line, they each shove the other back a little more firmly than they intend, stare at each other for a moment, then he forcibly turns his body and walks away.

About the writer:

After decades of doing office work from which he escaped to read books and occasionally write something in the evenings or on the weekends, this writer was finally able to retire and move back to the dry heat land of saguaros, Gila monsters, and bark scorpions (while they can be a low maintenance pet, they are not amenable to leash training).

If you liked this story, please tell your friends about it and leave a review. You can also contact this writer at geoff_schultz_01@yahoo.com.

