I remember how it was in the beginning for me and can’t imagine someone as stalwart as he is readily accepting as I had; not many would, to be fair. I, too, still find it hard to believe some days when I’m out of the fog when I’m not imbued with the spirit of my aunt. It’s bad enough having to fight my own attraction to Nick but coupled with the love aunt Jan bore his grandfather, whose essence now permeates him, it’s been hard to hold out, to wait for tonight.
A strange tingling started between my thighs as I moved the washcloth over my body, and I had to hold onto the wall to keep standing. My heart beat rapidly in my ears, and my limbs grew heavy, my breasts heaving with need. I turned the water off and hurried into the bedroom to get ready for the night.
As soon as I picked up the bottle of scent, I grew faint. Now I know what will happen, what’s supposed to happen, but theory and practice are hardly ever the same. I looked into the mirror as the lights flickered and thunder clashed and rolled outside the window. I dabbed the first bit of scent behind my ear and watched as my image danced and swirled before my eyes.
Too late, I thought I should’ve set up some kind of recording so that I, too, could remember what was about to transpire. I know from experience that I won’t remember any of it, that the night belongs to the two lovers who’d waited for more than half a century to be together.
NICK
I think I might be coming down with something. Either that or I’ve been wound so tight these last few days being here alone with her and fighting the will to strangle the life out of her that it’s worn me down. Whatever it is, tonight, just like the one before it, I feel drained but somehow wide awake. I didn’t feel like taking a sleeping pill this time, though, not with the wind sounding like it was about to tear the roof off.
So, after a hot shower, I thought I’d sit up in bed and read—a little odd but not earth-shattering. I’d spitefully moved into the master suite, hoping to send her running elsewhere in the house to sleep, but the shameless one still parked her ass in the room next to mine. The room with the thin door connecting ours, the room that was meant to be easy access for the man and woman of the house to get to each other in the night, or so I’ve always thought.
I couldn’t hear her moving around in there this time because of the loud thunder, so hopefully, she’d taken her ass to bed. I reached over to the night table and picked up the leather-bound book gramps had left there, feeling a bit of sadness that the old man was gone. I’ve been doing my best not to think about that these last couple of days, but I guess it had to catch up with me sometime.
It wasn’t long before the words started to blur on the page, which was fine; I’m not a big Tennyson fan, and when the sleepiness crept in, it felt so peaceful, so welcoming that I gave in without a fight. I felt the book move as if taken from my hand but didn’t think much of it; maybe it just fell, but I could swear I felt gramps’ presence as if he was there in the room with me. The old man had come back to save his favorite book.
I smiled in my sleep as I drifted off completely and said hello as lightning flashed and thunder roared and echoed, shaking the windows. For some reason, the storm offered comfort, like a cocoon sheltering me from the rest of the world. It was a nice feeling, and I was soon all the way gone as comfort and warmth surrounded me.
The dream started out innocent enough. I walked through the house, the hem of gramps’ old velvet robe flapping around my calves, the scent of his cigar heavy in the air. I went from room to room looking for something; what? Doors opened and closed beneath my hand as I kept up my search in vain.
Something drew me to the door next to mine. For some reason, I’d walked around the house in the opposite direction, but something, some sound maybe, caught my attention from beyond the door. As I turned the knob, my heart picked up speed as if I was about to face something, but this was not fear; it was excitement.
There was a figure on the bed, female from the shape of her legs and thighs. I walked closer, navigating my way through the darkened room by the flashes of lightning coming through the large windows and balcony doors. The closer I got, the more the tantalizing scent coming from the woman enticed me.