A Week in the Snow

by Gwen Masters

  “I do have to go,” she said, her voice filled with regret.

  “Then I guess I need to start planning which weekend I’m coming to see you,” he teased, trying to lighten the mood.

  Rebecca smiled at him as she pulled clothes from the overnight bag. “Good.”

  Richard pulled himself from the bed with real effort. One of the realisations he had come to during their week together was that forty-four was no longer as young as it used to be. When he stretched, every muscle ached and his back creaked. He stretched his arms over his head, yawned wide enough to hurt his jaws, and joined her in getting dressed.

  As they were leaving the room, Richard turned to look at it one last time. He looked at the bed, the rumpled sheets, the pillows on the floor, and the blankets twisted into knots. The lampshade on the bedside lamp was tilted. “Hey, honey?”

  “Yeah?” she called from the truck.

  “Get your camera.”

  Rebecca brought it to the door, looked in and laughed. She took a few shots of their love nest, then put the cover on the lens and smiled up at him. “I’ll send them to you.”

  “Thank you.”

  The door closed locked behind them. Richard laced his fingers through hers as they drove out of the parking lot and headed for Crispin.

  She drove her car from the mechanic’s shop to Richard’s house, where she parked in the driveway and watched the garage door go down behind his truck. She looked around, at the wide porch and the rocker there, the big trees in the front yard still covered with snow, and thought about how much she was going to miss this place.

  Richard was waiting for her at the front door. Together they went into the guest room and gathered her things, then made their way through the house, picking up items that had been left here and there during the course of the week. Finally they put her suitcase on the kitchen table and started packing everything.

  “Something’s missing,” Richard said, and Rebecca smiled when he returned a minute later with one of his dress shirts. He carefully folded it and put it in her suitcase. Rebecca reached over and touched his hand.

  “How long?” she asked, fighting back tears.

  “A few weeks,” he promised. “The time will fly. You’ll see.”

  She held it together as he put her suitcase in the car. She was stoic when he talked about the work he had to do at the paper throughout the week, and she laughed when he joked about how his report on the snow would be read very carefully by the townspeople who knew what he had been doing during the blizzard. She smiled as he walked around her car, pretending to look at the body work but really checking out the tyres.

  When he pushed his hands into his pockets as she opened her door, a man out of his depth and unsure what to say, she finally lost it. She threw herself at him and he met her halfway, catching her in his arms and crushing her against his chest.

  His voice was rough with the need to cry. “You call me every step of the way. I don’t care if you call me twenty times a day. I want to know where you are, and I want to hear your voice.”

  “I’ll annoy you as often as possible,” she joked, then they held each other so tight it was hard to breathe. Neither of them knew how to let go.

  “A few weeks,” he said again, and finally she loosened her grip on him. There were tears in her eyes as she got in the car and closed the door. The sound of the door closing was so final, so complete, that it broke her heart. She looked at the interior of the little car and wished she could invite him to take a ride with her, so the smell of him would be in there when she finally did have to leave, but she knew the realities of time. If she was going to get back to Florida to keep her schedule, she had to leave now.

  She rolled the window down and looked up at him.

  Richard reached into the car and touched her face with the back of his hand. She closed her eyes for a moment and soaked up the feeling of his skin against hers. “Be careful,” he said. “I want you safe and sound when I come to Florida.”

  “I love you,” she murmured, and watched the tears turn his eyes bright.

  “I love you, Rebecca.”

  She put the car in reverse and backed out of the driveway. They looked at each other for a long moment before she stepped on the gas. As the car started to pull away, Richard moved into the road behind it, watching the taillights all the way to the end of the long street.

  When she turned the corner, he stood a while longer, watching for any sign of her, knowing she was already on her way out of town. He dreaded going back into that empty house, the one that had been so full of life during her time with him.

  As he walked into the house, his cell phone rang. “Hello?”

  “I miss you already.”

  The sound of her voice made his knees weak. He let them give way and sat down on the couch in front of the cold fireplace. The tears stung his eyes again but this time he wasn’t brave and didn’t try to blink them away. “God, this is hard.”

  “A few weeks, right?”

  “Right. Yes. I’m going to book plane tickets as soon as you call me about your schedule.”

  “That’s the first call I will make when I pull into my driveway.”

  “You don’t have to wait that long to call me.”

  Her laughter was happy, almost as clear as if she were there with him, and with a start he realised this was the first time he had heard her voice on a phone line. Long after she said goodbye Richard stared at the phone, both happy for the direct line to her, but frustrated that it would be the closest he could get to her for the next few weeks.

  In the car, Rebecca put the phone down on the passenger seat and pulled over to the side of the road. All the tears she had held back finally came in a flood, and she cried hard while trucks and cars whipped past her. She went over every word in her head, every touch and every look he had given her. She finally laid her head back against the seat and took deep breaths, reminding herself that he would be in Miami before she knew it, and she had a lot of obligations to take care of before he got there.

  But he would be there. He would get on a plane and fly to where she was, he would see her apartment, he would touch her and kiss her and tell her he loved her, over and over again. Now, instead of wishing time would crawl, she hoped it would fly.

  The tears gone and the hope firmly in place, Rebecca pulled back out on the road and pointed her car towards Miami.

  “I’ve never done this before,” he admitted.

  He was lying on the couch in the living room, the fire roaring in front of him, Rebecca’s voice on the phone line. She was in a hotel in southern Illinois, the first one that had looked good when she had decided she was too tired to drive any farther.

  “It’s just like masturbating,” she said. “Only the fantasy isn’t just in your head. It’s delivered by a real, live woman whispering into your ear.”

  Richard unzipped his jeans. He had missed her all damn day, no matter how many times she had called, and the farther away her car got the more lonely he felt. He was tired of the quiet house and he hated the fact that he would go to bed alone. If this was the only way he could have her, he would take it and be grateful.

  “What do I do?” he asked, slightly abashed at being so clueless. At his age, shouldn’t he have known something about phone sex?

  “You talk,” she said. “You tell me what you’re thinking. Your fantasies. Memories of us together. Things you want to do when you see me again. And while you’re talking, you picture it…and you stroke yourself.”

  “Are you going to be talking, too?”

  “Yeah. Either together, or one of us goes first. You want to come together?”

  “Don’t I always?”

  She smiled against the phone, thinking about how well she knew him already.

  “I’m willing to bet your dick is hard. It is, isn’t it?”

  “It’s getting there.”

  “I bet if you think about fucking me in the ass, it will get there faster.”

  She w
as right. Richard looked at his dick, silhouetted by the firelight. Sometimes it ached, and now there was a raw spot on it, just below the head on the right side. He touched it with a careful fingertip and winced.

  “You worked me raw, woman.”

  “I’m not exactly smooth down there anymore, either.”

  “Oh, yeah?”

  “You left a sore spot on my clit. I have to get off by touching myself inside, which takes longer.” She sighed into the phone, an unmistakable sound of pleasure. “But if I get that G-spot just right, it might take longer, but it’s better.”

  “Is that the spot you showed me yesterday?” They had done all sorts of exploring in the hotel, and she had taught him things he hadn’t known existed.

  “That’s it.”

  “That’s the place that almost makes you pass out when you come.”

  She blushed on her end of the phone line. Her legs were open, and she was stroking her inner thighs, letting the feeling build. She wanted more than anything to be there with him, showing him exactly how to have phone sex, but this would have to do.

  “Yeah…that’s the spot.”

  “I like the G-spot. I think everybody should have one.”

  She laughed hard. “Everybody does. It’s just a matter of finding it.”

  “I have a G-spot,” he said proudly.

  “You do?”

  “Yeah. It’s that place inside me that you hit with the vibrator. The one that made me scream.” He paused, stroking his dick slowly with his left hand. “Remember that, baby?”

  She definitely remembered. “You’re good at this phone sex thing.”

  “It’s all about a story, right?”

  “Right.”

  “Honey, I’m a newspaper man. You want a story? I can give you a story.”

  She laughed out loud again, and marvelled at how easily he could make her happy.

  “Tell me.”

  “I’ve been thinking,” he said. “With as much as you like cock and all…”

  She lay back on the pillows and grinned, her hand sliding to her pussy. She touched herself carefully—she was even sorer than she had let him believe—and soon the pleasure started to flow.

  “Yeah?”

  “I was thinking how much you need to have all your holes filled. How one dick isn’t enough for a woman who loves dick so much. You would love to have three men at once, wouldn’t you?”

  It was the fantasy that had got her off more than any other, but there was no way Richard could have known that. Her heart started to kick against her ribs as she slipped a finger inside herself.

  “Can you imagine it? You, in the middle of a bed. Not tied up, because you don’t have to be forced into anything at all. You want dick. You’re hungry for it. When the first guy walks into the room, all you have to decide is which hole he gets.”

  Richard was stroking his dick, not turned on so much by the fantasy than by what he knew it was doing to her. He could hardly hear her breathing, but he knew she was already well on her way to an orgasm at the idea of having so many horny men in one room.

  “Let’s say he wants your pussy. But when you look at his dick, you’re not sure you can take all of it. He’s huge, baby. His dick is thick and long and hard. You want it, don’t you?”

  “Yes,” she murmured into the phone, pushing two fingers in and out of her pussy.

  “Good. Because the other guys? They’re just as big and just as hard. They are complete strangers, but that’s all right. I’ve checked them out for you. I’m going to sit over here in the corner and watch while they ravage my woman and make her come. I’m going to stroke my dick while I watch you take all the cock you can stand. I’m going to sit right here while that first big one slides into you. Where do you want it, baby? You going to give him your pussy first?”

  “Yes…”

  “No. No, you don’t want to do that. You want to have your mouth stuffed full of cock first. You know why?”

  “Why?” she panted.

  “Because when that big dick impales your ass, that cock in your mouth will keep you quiet. You don’t want to wake the neighbours with the screaming.”

  Rebecca arched into her own touch, moaning at the visions in her head.

  “So suck him down, honey. Let me see you take that cock. That’s it…I love watching it disappear into your mouth. You’re such a good little cocksucker.”

  Richard moved his hand away from his dick. He was on the verge already, but he wanted to bring her all the way through his fantasy. “You’re ready to go, aren’t you, honey? I can see how wet your pussy is. I can see it from here in the corner. Spread those legs, baby, and let that other guy underneath you. You’re on your hands and knees…the better to take three dicks in three holes.”

  She gasped as she touched her clit. A hot flash of pain went through her, but she slipped her fingers into her pussy and found the pleasure again.

  “He’s right there under you now, his dick is waiting…slide down on it, honey. Show him you want it. Let his dick fill up your pussy. Do you know how hot that looks? The way it is swallowed up by your cunt? No, don’t move, baby…don’t ride him. Not yet. You have to be full of dick before the fucking starts.”

  Rebecca was walking the fine line of restraint before the orgasm. She stopped moving her hand, but it took a massive effort. “I want to come.”

  “You’ll come when he’s in your ass.”

  Rebecca moaned and stroked her pussy again. The orgasm was closer now, right there on the horizon, waiting.

  “Can you feel the bed move, honey? That’s the last guy. He’s coming up behind you. And that dick, it’s the biggest one of them all. He’s lubed it up already, so it’s going to slide right into your ass. Since you’ve already got a dick in your pussy, it’s going to feel incredible, isn’t it? It’s going to stretch you hard and fill you up and make you come. Go ahead, suck hard on that dick in your mouth. Maybe you can get him to shoot in you at the same time that dick is sliding into your back door.”

  “Jesus, Richard, I need to come…”

  “Then let him spread your cheeks, baby. That’s it. I’m going to come, too. I’m going to come right now while I watch him slide into your ass. Feel him, baby? Feel him going into you? Look over at me and watch, my dick is going to explode while another guy ploughs my girlfriend’s ass.”

  Rebecca squealed when the orgasm slammed into her. It hit her like a speeding truck, her body convulsing hard. The only thought in her head was a dick sliding into her and Richard coming at the same time, his cum spurting out as he let someone else ride her.

  Richard came when Rebecca did. His cock did spurt out—all over his hand, his leg and the couch. He came for a long time, milking every last drop, feeling naughtier than he ever had in all his years. Had he really just come while thinking about another man banging his girlfriend? Holy shit, what had got into him?

  Rebecca was laughing on the other end of the line, that low and satisfied laugh that said her orgasm was good, very good, and now she was exhausted.

  “See?” he asked. “We can still be just as naughty.”

  “Even naughtier,” she corrected, and whistled under her breath. “Are these the kind of fantasies that go through your head?”

  “Yeah. Is that bad?”

  “Noooo…it’s very good.”

  Richard smiled at the fireplace. He was a mess and needed to clean up, but talking with her made him so content he wasn’t ready to move yet. Just then she yawned, and he knew their conversation was going to be over soon.

  “You need to go to bed,” he said. “You’ve got to drive tomorrow.”

  “You’ve got to work overtime so you can take some time off,” she said.

  Richard smiled. “Goodnight, honey.”

  “Goodnight, love.”

  This time when they hung up the phone, they were both smiling.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Richard stared at the front of his mother’s house. His father wasn’t home, whi
ch wasn’t a surprise—he usually started his delivery run long before daybreak. His mother’s car was parked in the driveway and he knew she was in the kitchen, cooking. The woman never seemed to stop cooking, but everything she made got eaten by the hungry farmhands that always found their way home with her husband. Though the dairy farm ran on more technology than manpower, the farmhands always had something to do and not nearly enough time to do it.

  He walked up the sidewalk, thinking about the last time he had seen her and the argument they had had. He had been taught to never walk away without saying he loved someone, and he had told her that he did, but now he wanted to tell her again and make sure she heard him. He was afraid that after this morning’s talk she was going to hate him all over again.

  She looked up when he walked into the kitchen. Her smile was quickly followed by pursed lips and a disappointed shake of the head. “Is that chickie gone for good?”

  Richard smiled wryly. “You always do get to the point, Ma.”

  “Is she?”

  Richard poured himself a cup of coffee. His mother slid the creamer across the counter and went back to washing dishes without missing a beat.

  “I need to talk to you about all this, Ma.”

  “Ah, great. Here we go.”

  Richard sat down at the kitchen table. His mother stood and glared at him while he calmly drank his coffee, looking up at her with all the time in the world. Finally she sighed and sat down at the table across from him.

  “Can I talk to you, Ma?”

  Her eyes softened. She reached over the table and patted her son’s hand. “I don’t know,” she said, and, though the words stung, he respected her for the honesty.

  “She’s been gone over three years,” he said softly. “She’s not coming back.”

  His mother looked at him, her expression carefully guarded.

  “I’m tired of being alone, Ma. I shouldn’t have to be alone. If I had done something wrong, I would understand. But I haven’t, and I think I’ve done enough penance for something I didn’t do.”

  His mother nodded and looked at the refrigerator. There was a magnet with Richard and Amanda’s wedding picture in it. The two of them looked so happy, as if nothing could ever come between them.