Summer at the Sea

"...Rose here is spending so much time out of the house this summer I'm left to wonder what she's up to half the time."

Rose snapped out of her daydream and turned her attention to her mother and the other three ladies sitting around the patio table.

"What?" Rose asked innocently as she looked to each of the faces turned towards her.

"Well, what are you doing?" one of the larger women asked as she took another cookie from the tray in the middle of the table.

Rose narrowed her eyes and thought for a moment. Obviously, she couldn't tell the truth, but she didn't want to tell a lie that would sneak back up on her either.

"I go to town," she said cooly, "I met a boy."

"In town?" another woman asked speculatively.

"No, no, no," her mother said with a smile. "She's become acquainted with Paul Rhodes."

There was a collective "ooh" from the rest of the women sitting at the table and her mother nodded proudly. Rose shrugged and turned her attention back to the house in the distance on the next point over – James' estate.

"I tried to interest him in my daughter, Rebecca, but he had no interest," the larger woman said.

"That's because Rebecca is a zit-faced fourteen year old," Rose said without thinking twice. Every woman at the table, including her mother, gasped and Rose's attention snapped back to the table.

"Oh," she covered her mouth with the tips of her fingers. "I'm sorry." She shook her head and began to stand. "I'll excuse myself now." She didn't wait for any objections before walking away from the table and removing the hat her mother made her wear outside. She carelessly threw the hat over the side of the patio and retreated inside. Tea parties. She'd grown tired of those at the age of seven.

**

"Where have you been?" James asked, pulling Rose into his arms. "I thought you were coming an hour ago."

She pressed her lips insistently against his and slipped her tongue against his lips before pulling away to answer his question.

"Tea party," she said breathlessly, having ridden her bike as fast as she could from her home to get to him.

"I thought you bailed on me," he said, kissing her twice. She ran her hand along his cheek and smiled sadly. "What? What is that look?"

"I do have to bail on you," she said sadly.

"Why for?"

"Paul."

"Paul?"

"He's returning later this afternoon and he wants to see me and take me out," she explained.

"Let me come with," he insisted.

Rose laughed, "Are you serious? You want to chaperone? My parents don't even do that."

"I don't want to," he said, "but I will. To be with you."

She quickly shook her head, "No. Please, no! He's young and insecure."

"All the more reason to come along."

"How so?" she laughed again. "To make him more nervous? To make him jealous? To do something we both will regret? No."

"Then come see me again tonight," he begged, "afterwards."

"We'll see," she said. "I don't know how late we'll be out." James opened his mouth to speak, but Rose quickly pressed her hand against his lips. "Don't say anything. If I come, I come."

**

"Did you get into trouble while I was gone?" Paul teased as he opened the door of his automobile for Rose.

She smiled, "Come on. What kind of trouble could I get myself into?"

He shot her a sideways glance and she giggled – they both knew perfectly well what sort of trouble a daring girl like herself could get into.

"I sat around waiting for you, of course," she lied. "Oh Paul, when will Paul return?"

"I'm sure."

She leaned across the expanse of the front seat and pressed the palm of her hand into his thigh. He was warm and his legs were lean and muscular. Suddenly, surprising herself, she wanted to kiss him.

"Don't take me home just yet," she said.

"But it's already ten o'clock," he argued.

"Let's go to the beach."

Paul pulled along an empty stretch of road and before he'd even turned off the engine, Rose had jumped out of the vehicle and was running through the sand towards the water's edge.

"I want to go swimming!" she cried towards the sea.

"It's dark!" he argued from the road.

"Come on!" she called back to him. He looked left and right down the road – there was no traffic and he was nearly certain there would be no traffic. He shrugged, throwing his judgement aside and followed her to the water's edge.

"I don't think it's safe," he said, taking her hand in his.

"Don't you ever take any risks?" she asked, inwardly asking herself why she bothered to take so many.

"Of course," he replied, though he knew that he hardly took any. Asking Rose out was the biggest personal risk that he'd taken in months.

"Throw your logic aside," she said, leaning in close to him. She ran a hand through his wavy hair and stared into his eyes. For a moment, she completely forgot about James and the fact that he'd wanted to be with her for the evening.

He shook his head as if he was clearing his mind and without warning, he tightly wrapped his arms around Rose and kissed her fiercely on the lips. Had he not had his arms around her waist, she would have jumped backwards in surprise. Her lips were still, initially, but within seconds, she welcomed his kiss and returned it with fervor. His kiss was so different in comparison to the kisses that they'd shared the previous week – he was passionate, insistent and suddenly, in no time at all, he had made her completely weak in the knees.

"Wow," she breathed, searching his eyes with her own when he pulled away.

"That's much more enjoyable," he thought out loud, his hands still hovering at her waist.

"Absolutely," she said under her breath. She tore her gaze away from his and looked out to the ocean. "Come on." She pulled away from his grasp and took a few steps into the surf.

"Rose..." he said, the worry in his voice coming back.

"Come on," she said, taking another step into the water.

"You're going to catch a cold," he reasoned. "Your clothes are going to get wet."

"Well," she said with a devilish smile on her face. "There's an easy way to avoid that." Her fingers blindly searched for the buttons on her dress and effortlessly, one-by-one, she undid each closure and in the blink of an eye, she lifted the dress over her head and tossed it to Paul's feet.

He stood stunned on the shore, staring at Rose standing in the thigh-deep surf in nothing but her undergarments. He blinked twice and after she flashed him a dazzling white smile, she dove under the water.

"Rose!" he yelled. "Rose!"

She surfaced immediately and yelped from the cold and laughed out loud on account of the risk she'd just taken.

"Come on," he said. "Come out."

"No!" she retorted. "You come in!"

"I'm not crazy," he said. "Come on! Come out! I don't want anything to happen to you."

"What's going to happen?" she argued. "Minnows are going to nibble me to death?" She kicked the surface of the water in Paul's direction, the splash falling short of his toes.

"No, but..."

"Come on!" she cut him off. "How many times are you invited to join in a nighttime swim in the ocean?"

"Never," he replied, "but I think that's because it's generally a bad idea."

She sighed and trudged out of the water, "Where's your sense of adventure?"

His gaze abandoned her face for a moment and he caught a quick glimpse of her nipples through her thin, white bra. He cleared his throat uncomfortably and held his hand out to her.

"Come on," he said. "I'll take you home."

**

"He's very kind," Rose argued.

"He's going to ask you to marry him," James countered.

Rose rolled over onto her stomach and propped her chin on top of James' bare chest. "He's not brave enough."

"Brave enough for what? To ask you? Or to actually follow through?" He laced his fingers through her hair and trailed his fingers down her back, following the pattern of roses in the thin cotton.

"He can't handle me," she whispered, softly blowing against the smattering of hair over his chest.

"I don't think anyone can," he teased. He dipped the tips of his fingers underneath the elastic of her panties and quickly withdrew his hand and traced another line up her back.

"You can," she said. "Why don't you beat him to the punch?"

James laughed out loud and shook his head, "Right."

"What?" she asked, her brow furrowing. "You could."

"Sure, I can see it now," he said. "'Mr. Owen, I would like to request your daughter's hand in marriage...what's that? Oh yes, I do realize that I am your associate and your age...'."

"What's so crazy about that?" Rose insisted. "The only reason this is so unrealistic for you is because you have your mind so set against it."

"I don't..." he sighed, "What would I offer you?"

"Everything," she replied. Her eyes met his and she nodded firmly. "Everything."

They lay in stilled silence for a moment before James spoke up again.

"I was married once," he said.

"You were not," she argued. He had never mentioned a wife before this moment.

He nodded, "Ten years ago. She was sixteen. She left me two years after we were married. She fell in love with someone her own age."

"Is that what you're worried about?" she asked. "That I'll leave for someone my age?"

He nodded thoughtfully in response.

"We can't control our feelings, James," she said before kissing him softly in the corner of his mouth. "I want everything that you have to offer..."

"You're already running around with someone else," he finally confessed, "what am I supposed to think?"

"I'm not 'running around' with anyone," she said, "and if I am, I'm 'running around' on Paul." He opened his mouth to speak, but she pressed her hand against his lips before he could say another word. "No one knows what I'm doing with you. Not my parents, not Paul, not even the few friends that are around this summer. No one. Everyone knows about Paul. My parents, you, my parents friends."

"What do you tell them each night you sneak out to see me?" he asked, his eyes narrowing.

"They don't know," she muttered under her breath.

"What?"

"No one knows!" she cried loudly. "I sneak out! I sneak out, just so I can spend another night next to you. And what do you do? You ask me questions about Paul, you kiss me and treat me like a little girl." She stared hard at him. "I don't want to be a little girl."

"What do you want?" he asked, a little intimidated by the fire he saw in her eyes.

"I want to be your equal," she replied. "I want to be your lover." She emphasized the word "lover" for added effect. She lowered her voice and narrowed her eyes, "I don't want to be Paul's wife." His eyes widened and his hand stilled against her back.

"Has he asked you?" he asked.

"Not yet," she replied quietly. "But that doesn't matter. What matters is that you're as timid as he is. You kiss me with all the passion that you have, but when it comes to going any further you hesitate. You pretend to fall asleep or you shoo me out your door."

"Well what do you want me to do?" he asked. "Take your..." he cut himself off before he could go any further.

"Come on," she begged as she slipped her hand below the sheet covering the two of them. She ran her hand over his groin and kissed the cleft in his chin.

He had considered it dozens, if not hundreds, of times in passing moments during the day, when he was with her and when she was no where nearby. He dreamt about fucking her in every position that he could dream up, but when it came to actually performing, she was right. He was terrified of scaring her away, being too rough or simply not measuring up to the standards he could only imagine she was formulating in her mind.

"I can't," he murmured.

"Why not?" she asked. She draped her leg over his and ran her knee along the inside of his thigh.

"I can't be your first," he replied.

"Why? I'm supposed to save it? Protect it like a deep, dark secret?" she asked. "That's bullshit."

He couldn't help but chuckle in regards to her sentiments, "No, but..."

"But what?" she interrupted. "If I'd lied and told you a couple weeks ago that I was experienced in all of this, you wouldn't have given it a second thought. We would have done it right there and then." He nodded thoughtfully. "Come on James..." she rubbed her hand over his groin again and brought her lips to his ear. "I want you to be the first."

He instantly grew hard from the words that she'd uttered and the way that she'd said them with her breath hot against his jaw. He turned his head to hers and kissed her. He closed his eyes tightly to seal the words and the moment in his mind. His hands desperately roamed the expanse of her back and when she slipped her tongue past his, he mustered up the courage to slip a hand beneath her panties and trace the line between her buttocks with the tips of his finger. He pulled her as close as he could and she slipped a knee over his own and began to subtly grind against the top of his thigh.

She broke her lips away from his and slowly began her descent. She ran the tip of her tongue down the length of his neck, planted a small kiss on his collarbone, lightly swept her fingernails across his chest and circled a nipple with her lips. He expected her to stop there and kiss him on the lips again, but she went lower. She buried her nose against his stomach and hooked her fingers around the waist of his underpants and pulled them down. His cock sprang free from the cotton and she wrapped her hand tightly around the shaft.

"Rose, you don't have to..." he reassured, planning to offer a different suggestion before his voice was caught in his throat as she cautiously ran her tongue along the circumference of the head. She smiled deviously and all he managed to say was a soft, "Oh fuck..." before he trailed off and she took him entirely into her mouth.

"You really don't..." she made a noise in the back of her throat – as if she was protesting to his own protests – and he bucked his hips, sending his cock deep into her mouth. He wound his fingers tightly around the curls in her hair and held her head firmly in his hands, guiding her mouth further and further down his shaft until she simply couldn't take anymore without choking. He felt her gag and loosened his grip slightly. Her head bobbed up and she coughed and sputtered.

"I'm sorry, I get..." she took him into her mouth again, her tongue swirling around the shaft as she took him in more and more. He gasped and breathed, "...carried away." His grip tightened again and he thrust his hips against her face two more times. He thought he felt her gag again, but she didn't move or sputter at all. He groaned loudly and as he did so, Rose dug her fingers deep into the flesh of his upper thighs.

"Oh..." he chanted, "Fuck, oh fuck..." He thrust himself into her mouth over and over again until he started to feel himself losing control. He quickly stopped and stilled her head in his hands as he did so.

Rose lifted her face, her lips and cheeks bright red, her eyes slightly watery and gave James a perplexed look.

"You want me to stop?" she asked, narrowing her eyes.

James tilted his head back, resting it on the pillows behind him and sighed loudly, "I would love you to finish. But if you want this to happen tonight..."

"I do," she said, without waiting for him to finish. He nodded and rose into a seated position after taking another deep breath. He placed his hands firmly on her shoulders and looked her squarely in the eyes. His balls were aching, wanting and expecting a release. He was afraid that once he was actually inside Rose, he wasn't going to last for long.

"I don't want to hurt you," he said quietly. "If you need me to stop. Tell me to stop." She nodded eagerly. A tiny tear escaped from the corner of her eye and she quickly swiped it away. "Did I already hurt you?" He worried that maybe he had taken it too far with the blow job and that he should have simply let her go at her own pace.

"No," she shook her head for added emphasis. "I'm fine."

He nodded, feeling more or less satisfied with her answer and pulled her tightly into his arms. He kissed her cheeks, her ear, her neck and when his lips trailed over to her shoulder, he hooked his fingers around the hem of her undershirt and quickly lifted it up over her head. He took her breasts into his hands and rolled each nippled between his thumb and index fingers. She made a small noise when he pinched a little too hard, but otherwise she was silent.

He softly pushed her back into the pillows behind her and he trailed his lips across her belly and nipped at a soft spot of skin right below her navel. He pushed her underwear down to her ankles and his fingers quickly buried themselves between her legs.

She gasped when he slipped his fingers over and around her clit and he silently thanked her for already being so aroused. He slipped a finger inside of her and she responded eagerly with a sigh and a quiet moan. If she responded this way to a finger, he thought, he wondered how she would respond to his cock. The only other virgin that he'd been with had been his young, teenage wife so many years ago. And she had responded so negatively that it had taken him a full six months he had been able to take his time and finish inside of her.

He slowly dragged his tongue over her clit a few times to make certain she was ready. With each circle, her hips would jump and she would laugh softly. He had hoped that pleasing her a little longer would settle a bit of his own arousal and make the painful jolt in the pit of his stomach go away, but it was no use. Each little jump she made, he only grew more desperate and hungry for her.

He stopped, rose to his knees and lay next to Rose for a moment. He tucked a few stray curls behind her ears and kissed her softly.

"You're sure?" he asked. "This isn't something you can just take back."

She nodded and affirmed, "I'm sure."

He nodded and slipped a knee between hers and slowly pulled her legs apart. He ran a hand from her knee up to her pussy and traced the outline of her vulva. She closed her eyes and smiled. James removed his hand and slowly brought his other knee to rest between her legs. She spread her legs apart further and made a small noise of discomfort that he had remembered from his past.

He brushed more hair from her face and kissed her softly, "It'll get more comfortable..." She nodded. "Bend your knees a little." She did as he said and he wrapped his hands around her hips. He repeated to himself over and over not to simply push inside with one violent motion – like he'd grown so accustomed to. He positioned the head of his cock at her wet entrance and pushed gently. Almost immediately, her hips jumped backwards, away from him. Her eyes sprang open and she looked up at him with fear in her face.

"It's okay," he said softly, his hand gliding over her breast as he positioned himself against her again. But once again, the moment he pushed himself into her, her hips jumped away and her breath quickened in nervousness.

"Rose..." he said, caressing her lower belly with the palm of his hand. He dipped a finger between her legs and brushed against her clit playfully. She smiled and slowly inched her hips towards him once more.

"I'm sorry," she said in a voice that was almost a whisper. "I'm ready."

James nodded and positioned himself against her once more. He held her hips tightly – so tight he worried his fingerprints might leave bruises – and slowly pushed his way into her. She tried to jump away a fourth time, but he held her firmly in place. She whimpered as he buried the head of his cock inside of her. She tried to jump away again, but he held her tight. Entering her was an agonizingly slow process, but inch by inch, he worked his way inside.

"James..." she whimpered as he watched her take his cock into her tight pussy. "James..." her shoulders twisted as she tried to break free from his grip, but he wouldn't let go. "It hurts..."