'We'll have time for this drink,' he said. 'Now, what would you like?'
I shrugged and shut the water. 'Anything, honey. Whatever you're having will be fine.' I began to arrange the flowers in the vase.
I cleared a spot on the coffee table for the flowers. They looked beautiful: they made the room look so bright and cheerful. I sat on the sofa next to Rick. He handed me my drink. 'Here you go, Sally.' 'What are we celebrating?' I asked.
Rick laughed excitedly. He was like a little boy with a secret, trying to contain it. His happiness kept bubbling up and overflowing. 'All right,' he said, 'are you ready for this?'
The excitement was contagious. I giggled: 'Yesl What is it, now?'
'I did it,' he explained. 'I did it. I finally went over the mark. Over the million dollar mark. I've sold over one million dollars in life insurance policies!'
'Oh, Rick! That's marvelous!' I shouted. I threw my arms around his neck, spilling my drink, and I tossed him. 'That's wonderful, honey. Simply wonderful.'
He nodded his head, excited himself. 'I really did it, Sally. The million dollar mark. That exclusive club. And you want to hear the best part? Do you know what Mr. Kahn said to me? He told me I was the youngest agent to have ever done it in Westerns history. The youngest and in the shortest space of time!' 'Oh, that's wonderful,' I said again. I kissed his 181 cheek. 'Oh, I'm so happy for you, Rick. I know what this will mean to you.'
He sipped his drink, then put it down impatiently. 'It will mean everything for me. The big opportunity; the opening of the door. Ill be getting a substantial raise, but more important than that, Til have to be considered for Ryder's job when he retires in September. A Vice Presidency, Sally. Think of that!'
I put my own drink down, placing it next to Rick's on the table. I kissed him softly on the lips,
Tm proud of you, Rick,' I whispered. I touched his sofV handsome face. T truly am.'
He stared at me, his eyes becoming misty. There was a quaver of emotion in his voice. 'Are you, Sally?' he asked. 'You're not just… saying that, are you?'
I kissed him again, full on the lips, gently, tenderly. I moved my lips around in a slow, sensual circle, allowing the sweetness of the kiss to linger. Only our mouths touched, no other part of our bodies. It seemed appropriate somehow: it matched the intimacy, the solemnness of the moment.
Rick broke off the kiss. Emotion had drained his face until it was pale. His hand was trembling as he reached for his drink. He said: 'I need this.'
I stared at Rick and did not speak. Instead, I waited; I hoped.
He put the glass down again. 'I love you, Sally,' he said. 'Very, very much.'
Somehow the moment was awkward for me. I felt uncomfortable as I sipped nervously at my drink. 'You told me that the other night, Rick Do you remember?'
He nodded gravely. 'Yes, and I'm saying it again. Sally, I love you. I love you very much.'
I wanted to believe him; I ached to believe that it was so. Inside of me that old emptiness, the burning hole in my Me needed to be filled with that love. Sperm couldn't fill it, nor could passion. Maybe it needed love.
'How can you say that, Rick?' I asked. 'You hardly know me. Three weeks ago we were strangers.'
'And who knows what we'll be to each other in three more weeks.'
I stared mistily at him. 'Don't say that, Rick. Not unless you mean it.'
He touched my hand. 'I do, Sally, I do mean it. I want you to… be my wife.'
A shudder went through me. Images flashed through my mind, racing like a series- of motion picture frames being shown too rapidly. I saw all the men, from Adam right down to that final night at Burrough's mansion. I shuddered as if I had seen a nightmare, a horror movie.
A door closed in my memory, shutting off the images. They were gone, forgotten, like all things of the past, as if they had never happened.
'Are you… serious, Rick?' I asked. I shook with the need to make this last and final change. This final metamorphosis. 'Don't play games with me.'
'Sally, I couldn't be more serious if I tried. I love you. I want to marry you.'
My head began to spin. Marriage? I asked myself. Is that it? Is that what I need to be finally… happy? Marriage? I tried to think. Maybe that's what has been miss-183 ing from my life-stability. Lasting relations, emotional commitments, trust. Marriage.
But it was more than just marriage, I saw. It was the whole emotional commitment I would be making to the idea of marriage. To marriage as a life-style!
Rick has a good job, one that will lead to promotions, advancement. That's something solid, stable, sound, secure. You, could build a life on that kind of foundation. A steady job, respectability, a husband who loves me, perhaps a family some day, and maybe, maybe a home of our own, in the country, away from the noise and the dirt and the pollution of the city. A future. A real future!
Rick's eyes were large and dark and open, waiting for my answer. I touched his face and caressed him. He was so strong, so confident. I needed that.
I tried the other way of life. I tried the freedom, the wandering, the self-indulgence. It didn't work. I didn't find what I need in it. It didn't make me happy. Perhaps it's time, I thought. Time for Sally Bryant to settle down… again.
'Do you really want to marry me, Rick?' I asked, my voice trembling.
He shook with emotion. There were tears in his eyes. 'Yes…' he gasped. 'Yes.., yes… yes, I do!'
I gripped his hand tightly. 'Make love to me, Ricky,' I said. 'Please, Ricky, my love, my lover… make love to me!'
We came together, like two magnets. Like vines on a tree, our arms entwined. I kissed him hard on the lips, and his tongue pushed into my mouth. I sucked it, tasting the sweetness of his breath. I gave him my tongue, as a gift of my love, and he accepted it in his mouth.
'Oh, my God… I love you, Sally,' he moaned. Rick's fingers worked on my blouse, parting it. His hands fumbled with my bra, pushing it down. He fondled my naked breasts, pinching the nipples until they were stiff with fire. 'Jesus, believe me… I love you, Sally!'
I kissed his mouth hard, shutting off the flow of words. I placed my tongue between his lips, and he drew it back into his mouth. His hands worked feverishly on my breasts.
Passion began to work between the lips of my cunt. It had been so long since I had last been made love to. Only once, with Rick, in the long weeks since the orgy. I needed a man. My body burned with desire.
I reached down between us, and I touched Rick. He sighed with excitement and stabbed his tongue into my mouth. My fingers curled around the stiffness of his rod, brushing it up and down through the straining material of his pants. The heat of his erection burned into my palm, and I hardly minded that he wasn't as endowed as some of the men I've been with. But it didn't matter. All that mattered was that he loved me and I loved him.
There! I've said it! I've admitted it to myself. I love you Rick Tanner!
I opened his zipper and pulled out his cock. He was very hard and very, very hot. I caressed him expertly with my fingers, and he moaned.
'My God… Sally!' he cried. 'That feels so… wonderful!' I scooped out his balls and rolled them about in 185 my hands. They felt elusive: hard and soft, squishing under the pressure of my fingers. I could feel the hair curling between my fingers as I tried to smooth out the wrinkled fiesh.
'My… vagina,' I said, pressing my cunt against the loose hardness of his cock. 'Touch me… there, Rick. Please!'
His hand came tentatively down, and he placed it between my well-parted thighs. I pressed the swollen mound against his hand, and I sighed when I felt his fingers curling down and under. I hunched up and down against him, spreading the wetness of my hand, and I was afraid he would come. I let go of the stiff rod.
'Touch me… under my skirt,' I said. Rick I squeezed into his cock, jerking him off.
He began to breathe very heavily, sucking in breath and expelling it hotly. His cock throbbed in my hands, and I was afraid he would come. I let go of the stiff rod.
Touch me… under my skirt,' I said. Rick trembled against me. 'Tut your hand on it'
He fumbled with the side button on, my skirt, and finally I had to help him with it. The skirt parted, and I stepped out of it. Together we pushed my panties down my legs. I laid back on the sofa and parted my thighs.
'Make love to me, Ricky?' I moaned. My eyes were closed and I was thinking, remembering, dreaming, 'Tut
