Chapter Two
I took her into my arms.
"You're not damaged," I said softly, my fingertips very lightly tracing the ridges on her back, "you're a beautiful, natural woman."
I could feel her crying against me. I stroked her hair, kissed her forehead, and held her while she cried.
"Were you coerced?" I asked and felt her shake her head lightly.
"Were you raped?" I asked and this time the shake of her head was more emphatic.
I held her a while longer until I felt her take a deep breath and knew that the crying was passed.
I pushed her to arm's length and smiled. "Tell me you have beer," I said and she nodded.
"Come," I said, and walked her to the couch. "Sit," I said and she sat.
I went into the kitchen and opened the refrigerator. I had to laugh. It looked like something out of Better Homes and Gardens. Salads obviously figured highly in her regular diet but the way she had gone after those ribs made it clear that she was no vegetarian. She did have, praise the Lord, beer. Japanese Sapporo if it matters. I opened one of the oversized beers, found a glass, poured, and went back into the front room.
"Here," I said, "have a drink." She took a hard pull on the beer, no ladylike sip, and handed it back. Her little foam mustache was cute.
I took a drink myself, set the beer on the little side table, sat next to her, and patted my lap.
"Head here and let's talk," I said.
She reached for my belt and I slapped her hand.
"Talk," I said.
Her face showed an odd combination of hurt, relief, and something else, happiness maybe?
"Okay," she said, laying back, her head in my lap. She stretched, luxuriantly, almost cat-like, and the way her back arched when she did showed her breasts nicely. "Read any good books lately?" she asked with a giggle.
I smiled and caught her hand.
"Bonnie," I started, and then stopped to get my thoughts together. I figured I had one shot at getting this right and I didn't want to blow it.
"Bonnie," I started again, "unless you were forced, there is nothing, as you put it, 'damaged,' about you."
She started to say something but I touched her lips with my forefinger, stopping her.
"Someone," I said, brushing a stray hair away from her face, and I paused again, wanting to get the words right, "Someone revealed your nature to you," I said, "and you accepted it, didn't you?"
"My 'nature?'" she asked.
I smiled and said, "women need to be claimed."
Her forehead wrinkled in that way I remembered from watching her working on a math word problem, you know, "Bob leaves Denver heading east at 70 miles per hour. Dave leaves New York heading west at 55 miles per hour. Blah blah blah."
Finally, she looked up and met my eyes. "That feels about right."
"There is nothing wrong with you," I said, fingertips brushing her forehead, smoothing those thought wrinkles.
Damn, the woman even cried prettily. She smiled as tears slowly overflowed and ran down her temples.
Those blue eyes found mine and she was smiling.
"Make love to me, David," she said, "be gentle and we'll be 18 again for a night, okay?"