Chapter 5
"Tell me in words of one syllable or less, Wanda, will you marry me or won't you?"
"In words of one syllable or less, Art," She answered with a warm smile, "the answer is an absolute incontrovertible no."
"Why not, you stubborn broad?" he persisted.
"Because you're too good a friend and I wouldn't take a chance on spoiling such a wonderful friendship."
"Is there another man?" he glared in the classic style of the wronged husband.
"There are a million more men somewhere, Art darling, but right now I'm not interested in them. It's only you I want, but without any little gold band."
"You're a shameless broad, Wanda. You take advantage of my innocence and lure me with your fatal charm, yet you refuse to let me make an honest woman of you."
"You're putting me on, Art. You couldn't make an honest woman of an honest woman."
"I may be putting you on, lady in just a little while, but it won't be with words."
"Promises, promises," Wanda stifled a pretended yawn. "I remember when you were young you didn't talk so much about it."
"You're not old enough to remember when I was young," he growled. "Now shut up and pour me a drink before I fall out of my wheelchair."
Wanda stuck her tongue out at him and got up off the couch to pour drinks for both of them. The slowness with which she moved permitted him to deliver a brisk spank just as her buttocks were nicely arched as she reached for the glass. The fact that she wore no girdle permitted the smack to really make a solid impression.
"Ouch!" she yelped. "What are you, some kind of a sadist?"
"That was for sticking your tongue out at me," he answered firmly. "The next one will be for refusing to marry me and the next couple of dozen will be because you have such a nice spank spot. Hurry back, I'm getting anxious."
Wanda meant to pretend anger, but before she reached the kitchen, her delighted laugh floated back to him.
"At your age, Art," she called, "can you take a really strong drink without damaging your appropriate powers?"
Wanda laughed at his decidedly rude reply and went on pouring the drinks. Sensing that their playful mood was about to blossom into something nice and time consuming, she poured the drinks big enough to ensure that she wouldn't have to run back for refills too soon.
Taking the glass from her, Art took one sip and coughed. She had poured it a little stronger than he had bargained for. There was more kidding then, but it just added the right touch to the mood of the moment for both of them.
Wanda found herself in his arms then as their mouths pressed hungrily. A wave of passion rolled over her and she knew that if he had not arrived that day, she would have been in serious trouble. Her body was screaming for the things he could do to it.
Before their kiss ended, Wanda knew that he shared her desire and that was enough to make everything wonderful. If it had not been for that, she knew she would have felt somehow guilty. Now, seeing them as two normal adults with normal hungers demanding satisfaction, everything was all right.
In a little while, she realized, they would go to bed and, naked, would give each other that magic gift of man and woman and, in doing so, each would renew the other.
Looking at the man, Wanda saw his smile and knew it matched hers. Now that both had demonstrated their hunger, the biting edge was gone. A warm glow remained and it would suffice while they continued to sit and touch each other with the confident knowledge that in a little while they would make love.
With a sureness born of their positive understanding of each other, both knew it would be better to wait for a little while as the fires built and fanned out.
Picking up her glass, Wanda rested her head on his shoulder while his arm remained around her. His left hand slid up and down her side, finding the warmth of a full breast and sliding slowly all the way down to where a softly rounded hip yielded slightly under his lingering caress.
"It's been too long, darling," he whispered.
Turning so that she could look up into his face, Wanda told him with her eyes that it had indeed been too long.
"Imagine, Art, more than two months. If you hadn't arrived on the scene just now, I'm afraid I'd have been attacking delivery boys or playing leap frog with fire hydrants."
"Can't you see how silly it is now, Wanda?" he asked in a husky whisper as he brushed her cheek with his lips.
"How silly what is?" she asked.
"That you still refuse to marry me. There isn't any other man. We're just right for each other. Marry me darling and we can have this all the' time."
"Darn you, Art, stop talking about that will you? Sure I'm ready to melt for you right now, darling, but it isn't love. It's a nice healthy, animal thing and it makes me feel wonderful, but it isn't love and I can't marry a man I don't love."
"Dammit all, Wanda, you have to be the most stubborn woman in the world. Who says it isn't love? I love you. You're just so used to me now that you think of me as good old Art. We've just reached the stage that the lucky ones achieve after two or three years of marriage; we're comfortable together. So it doesn't make bells ring for you, but that doesn't mean you don't love me."
"Cut it out, darn you," she pressed closer against him. "If you don't stop asking me to marry you, I won't go to bed with you."
"You realize you're breaking all the rules, of course," he scolded her with a smile.
"Of course I do. Nice girls make sure the man says I love you and offers marriage before they go to bed, but I never was a nice girl, remember? I never even pretended to be one."
While she talked, his hands were busy unfastening the buttons at the front of her dress. When it gaped open, his hand slid inside to caress a warm, well filled bra-cup. She pressed even closer to him then.
"You have such good hands, Art. Are you sure you're not really an artist who poses as a business executive just to fool people?"
"I'm only an artist where you're concerned, Wanda. You give me the kind of inspiration an artist needs to paint a real masterpiece."
"Are you going to do that?" she asked softly.
"Yes darling, I am. While we talk like this, I'm going to undress you gradually. When you're naked, I'm going to make such love to you that you'll want me to marry you."
"I want you to make love to me, Art, but please don't look for other things. Just take what I can give you and give me what you can. Let's let that be enough for now."
"I'll make you one promise, Wanda, if you'll promise to be a very bad girl."
"What's that?"
"I promise I won't ask you again to marry me until the morning. Then, when you're still half asleep, I'll try to trick you into it."
"You've got a deal, sir. No man in his right mind would want to marry me in the morning. I'm intolerable then."
"Not so," he protested. "I've seen you when you wake in the morning and you're beautiful."
"Big mouth. Do you have to tell the whole world you've slept with me before?"
They started to laugh then, but his hand pressed a little harder on the cup of her bra and the laugh stopped. Instead, her lips parted and she moved her face closer to be kissed again. He kissed her and felt her body trembling.
"Want to go to bed now, darling?" he asked.
"I do and I don't, Art darling. I want you so much I just may scream any minute, still, there's something exciting about being taken gradually like this. It makes me feel so terribly young and naughty, like a high school girl on a heavy date."
"You are young and naughty, darling." As he whispered it, his hand moved boldly up under her dress and caressed the warm silk of her thigh. "How does that make you feel?"
"Like I'm not going to get any stars in my Sunday school book this week."
Her thighs had parted at his touch and his hand moved easily between them to stroke her.
"All of a sudden, I've got those stars, darling," she sighed as she fell against him. "They're flashing and bursting and lighting up the whole darn world."
"I know, darling," he replied gently. "I can see them too and I like them."
His hand moved slowly back and forth against the narrow strip of nylon and he felt her body move to meet him. It was the return of a kiss. He began to remove her dress and she moved her body eagerly to help him.
For a moment, Art thought of carrying her to the wide bed where they would spend the night, but he remembered what she had said earlier and knew it would be better this way.
The drinks were forgotten then and they played and kissed while wave after wave of passion swept over them with the warmth of the South Seas and the clear tang of salt water.
When her bra fell away, his mouth replaced it on one side while his hand looked after the other. In a little while, he changed the order and marveled at how the off-pink tips grew between his lips.
Wanda was the embodiment of all womanhood as she raised her generous hips so that he could slip the black nylon panties down over the firm white silk of her body. When they fell away, she was open to him. Open and ready and anxious.
She would have helped him, but Art decided it was faster to undress alone. Although he moved away from her to stand beside the couch while he undressed hurriedly, his eyes stayed on her and they kept her warm and ready for what was to come.
"Here, darling?" he asked as he came to her.
"Yes, darling, here." Her arms reached up for him as he pressed the welcome weight of his body against hers.
In the past, they had played almost endlessly before making love, but this time, both were in too great a hurry. They came together in a rush of love and desire and all at once her body was filled with an indescribable satisfaction.
They didn't talk then because there was nothing that could be said in words. Instead, their bodies talked the oldest and most articulate language ever known to man and woman.
When her cry of completion broke from her throat, his arms wrapped more tightly around her and his body began to move harder and faster as if to heighten her joy and release his own. It happened for him then, and it was greater than it had ever been.
In a little while, they were able to talk again. At first, the words required effort, but they were worth it.
"You're crying, darling. Did I hurt you in some way?" he asked with a genuine sincerity.
"If you did, darling, I want to spend the rest of my life being hurt like this," she answered breathlessly.
"Marry me, my darling," he pleaded.
"Please, Art, you promised. Not until the morning. I'm not responsible for anything I say now. I feel too good."
"Then say it darling. Say you will," he urged as their sweat soaked bodies rubbed in the aftermath of love.
Wanda pressed her lips together tightly. It would be too easy to say yes, she knew, much too easy. For the first time ever, she began to wonder if she did indeed really love him, but even as she did, she told herself that at the moment, her brain wasn't functioning nearly as well as other, more sensitive parts of her body.