Weeping, while often considered therapeutic, was only a means of temporary relief for the newly minted widow. She knew the anguish would return—perhaps a bit less dramatically next time, or maybe in a different form.
Yet it would return. In a life turned upside down, that was the only certainty she felt left.
A loud, annoying ring of her doorbell disrupted Lillith's troubled meditation.
"Who is it and how quickly can they go away?” she pondered, rising with great reluctance to her feet.
Lillith pasted an abiding smile on her face as she donned a long pink robe and made her way down the spiral staircase that lead to her living room.
She knew people meant well when they delivered gifts of brownies and homespun advice. Yet sometimes, she felt too weary, too impossibly drained, to respond to their kindnesses.
Even so, she always managed a smile of thanks, and greeted her friends warmly as she welcomed them to her home.
That is, until this morning. For when she greeted the man who now stood at her doorstep, a dozen dew-glistened pink carnations clutched dutifully in his grasp, her smile turned to a barely concealed sneer. And her intended greeting of “Good morning” morphed into a hearty “What the hell?"
The man who faced her threw back his leonine head, his azure eyes crinkling as he laughed openly at Lillith's exquisite word choice.
"That's my Lilly,” he praised, leaning forward to plant an affectionate kiss on her cheek.
Lillith drank in the man's lightly scented cologne and sweet, hot breath. She couldn't deny the thrill that coursed throughout her being as his long, sleek ebony hair grazed her neck and cheek.
"Only one man can affect me this way,” she thought, rolling her eyes heavenward.
Quickly she withdrew from Taron Andrews, the college sweetheart she hadn't seen for nearly seven years. Steadying her breath, she now regarded him with a chilly, assessing gaze.
"You called me Lilly,” she observed, folding her arms coolly and somewhat protectively before her. “No one has called me that name since college."
With this, she scratched her head, and then snapped her fingers dramatically.
"Dare I say, I spot a correlation!” she exclaimed. “I haven't seen you since our college days. And the last time we met, you put a slight damper on our much-anticipated date to the homecoming dance by leaving said dance with the homecoming queen."
Pausing, she shook her head with a wry beam of remembrance.
"I have to say you made a lovely couple,” she allowed, adding with a shrug, “The only problem was that I was your girlfriend.” Cocking her head, she finished in a low tone, “And that evening marked the last time I saw you."
Her visitor nodded, his bright, friendly expression giving way to a look of somber concurrence.
"You have every right to hate me,” he admitted. “And I have much to explain to you. Let me say first, though, that I am so sorry about Gregory. He was a fine man; a good friend, an esteemed scholar..."
"And he knew how to heal a broken heart,” Lillith snapped.
Taron nodded, biting his lip self-consciously. “I heard about your wedding just after graduation,” he told her, then, tone softening, “As much as I liked and admired Gregory, I wanted to physically strike him the day I heard the news."
Starting, Lillith stepped sharply backward, her mouth gaping openly at Taron's words.
"Why?"
Yet her breath suspended as Taron seared her with a hot, intense gaze. Then he offered her the fresh, luminous bouquet that seemed to bloom forth from his grasp.
"Gregory had the woman I so desperately wanted,” he explained.
Lillith nodded, planting her tongue firmly in the confines of her cheek.
"OK, between the flowers and the heated confession, you just earned a cup of decaf and a doughnut,” she announced, then, stiffening her spine, “Make that a half-cup and a doughnut hole."
Chapter Two
Taron, Lillith had to admit, sure knew how to decorate a room.
Oh, not in the literal sense; like most blatantly straight males, he couldn't color-coordinate a pair of matching coal black socks. Yet his towering, muscular frame stood in delightful counterpoint to the delicate design scheme of her Victorian-style living room.
Even so, he beamed graciously as he accepted her offer of coffee in a rose-patterned cup.
"I'm still somewhat amazed that you let me in the front door,” he admitted, arching his feathered eyebrows.
Lillith shrugged.
"A few months ago, I might not have been so gracious,” she allowed, taking a seat next to her guest on a softly hued pastel loveseat. “Years ago, you were the cause of my greatest heartbreak."
Pausing, she swallowed hard and lowered her gaze to the smooth ivory carpet beneath him.
"Things have changed since then,” she finished in a whisper.
She didn't resist as Taron gathered her gently into strong but gentle arms, or when his full, firm lips grazed her forehead.
"I'm so sorry,” he offered, tone soft and soothing.
Exhaling sharply, Lillith buried her head in his muscular chest and shut her eyes tight. She lost herself in his offered cocoon of strength and nurturance, taking great comfort in his touch.
This comfort was fleeting.
"I appreciate your concern,” she told him a moment later, pulling back to give Taron a short, polite nod. “I also still await your explanation. You know, the one you owed me about seven years ago?"
Sighing deeply, Taron regarded her with what she considered a long, assessing gaze.
"The night of the homecoming dance,” he began, tone steady and cautious, “You saw me leave with Talia Callister. And after that night, no one in our class saw Talia or myself again, because we disappeared together."
Lillith nodded, stiffening as an old, deeply embedded wave of righteous anger suddenly invaded her psyche.
She was pondering the possible legal penalties for assault with a deadly Victorian throw pillow when Taron continued.
"You might have assumed, given these circumstances, that we ran off together."
"Nah, ya’ think?” Lillith interrupted, raising a sardonic eyebrow. “On the night of the homecoming dance, the star football player disappears with the class beauty queen. It's all very romantic..."
"Except the football player was supposed to be in love with the class brain, his English tutor. Me."
Releasing a second deep sigh, Taron spread his arms in what Lillith sensed was a gesture of sheer frustration.
"Lillith, I never loved Talia. You were always the one."
"So why did you leave with her?” she pressed, unappeased. “Did you have a one-night fling and get her pregnant?"
Taron, much to her surprise, met these last words with a hearty round of laughter.
"Lillith, I'm afraid you couldn't be further off the mark. Talia was never involved seriously with anyone in our class."
She shook her head in disbelief. “She was dating Leo Peters, the pre-law student,” she countered. “She was rich and beautiful and had the attention of every male at our school."
"She dated Leo,” Taron agreed, adding with a rather sheepish smile, “She was in love with her best friend from high school. The son of a poor mortician who aimed to follow his father's career path."
Lillith swiftly spat forth a mouthful of hot coffee, then contemplated with a cringe just how unattractive, if not downright unsanitary, this gesture looked.
Yet Taron only laughed, and leaned forward to press a pair of full, sensuous lips against Lillith's newly moistened chin.
"That's my Lilly,” he grinned, adding, “Believe me, Talia feared just that sort of reaction, not only from Leo and her other friends at school, but from her parents. Regardless, she just couldn't bear to live without her Walter, even if his clothes occasionally reeked of embalming fluid."
"So on the night of the homecoming dance, I drove her to the airport. She met Walter in Miami, and the two have lived ve
ry happily together ever since."
Lillith shook her head, straining to process his nearly unbelievable claims. Finally, she said, “Taron, I'm glad you helped Talia. She was a good friend to all of us."
She paused, adding with a guilty smile, “I'm now sorry I adorned her yearbook picture with devil's horns and a decorative goatee."
Her beam dissolved as she turned fully on the couch to face Taron.
"The question that still remains, though, is why you never came back for me."
Returning her intense gaze, Taron shifted in his seat. It was a full moment before he replied.
"I had my own secret, a hidden side of myself I just couldn't reveal. Not even to you. It was getting to the point where I just couldn't perform, not as a student, not as an athlete, and certainly not as your boyfriend."
Squinting confusedly, Lillith quickly called up a mental slide show of memories; one that captured the more romantic moments of her relationship with Taron.
They enjoyed sex in her dorm room. Sex in a public park. Sex beneath the bleachers after his all-star game. And, in one memorable instance, sex on a roller coaster; the kind that ran upside down and backwards.
"Taron, if my best recollection serves me correctly, you were ‘performing’ just fine,” she assured him, tone slightly breathless.
Tossing his head back, Taron let loose with a loud, deeply throated laugh; one that sent chills down Lillith's spine.
"Lillith, my secret is so complicated,” he insisted. “I still don't know if I can explain it to you, at least in a way that you'll understand and accept."
She drew in her breath as he gathered her hands surely and lovingly into his firm, gentle grasp. Taron pinned her with an intense romantic gaze.
"I'd like to try,” he offered. “Lillith, I just bought a condo on the other side of Port Emerald Beach. I would love for you to visit me tomorrow evening, to tour my new digs and have dinner with me. And we can have a long talk that's greatly overdue."
Pausing, he graced her cheek with a moist, affectionate kiss.
"Is it a date?"
Grinning in spite of herself, Lillith warmed at Taron's invitation.
It's been a long time since I felt remotely close to ‘warm,' she thought.
Aloud she assented, “I'll be there at seven sharp, and you're cooking."
Chapter Three
That evening, Lillith once again enjoyed a relaxing fantasy session of erotic remembrances; yet this time, these nocturnal visions did not involve Gregory.
Instead, the woman recalled her initial meeting with her first love.
As an awkward junior English major, she was intimidated by the prospect of tutoring her school's star athlete; one who excelled at football, volleyball and swimming, but was dangerously close to failing Advanced Essays.
Their first tutoring session, in fact, took place on the bleachers beside the Port Emerald University football field, after Taron's daily round of afternoon calisthenics.
She gaped openly at the sight of the shirtless collegiate athlete sprinting around the football field, powered by strong, sturdy legs and well-muscled arms that seemed to work in perfect sync.
Lillith, by contrast, felt anything but ‘in sync.’ Although called a ‘cutie pie’ by her cronies, who praised her long mane of blonde hair and sparkling blue eyes, she lacked the deep tan and sizable breasts that seemed to define the term ‘babe.’ And while her best friend occasionally praised her tall, slender build, Lillith herself felt more gangly and awkward than svelte.
A man like Taron, she figured, was well and simply out of her league. Yet she nonetheless enjoyed the sight of his bare, massive, sweat-soaked chest as it glowed in the noonday sun. She was more impressed when he greeted her with a charming smile and genial, gentle manner.
She was most impressed—not to mention stunned—when he topped off their first tutoring session with an invitation to a local movie theater that weekend.
Lillith didn't remember much about the film they saw that evening, only the feel of Taron's strong, muscled arm as it drew her closely to him, the scent of his light, airy cologne, and the sensation of his full, sumptuous lips as they finally claimed her own.
Lillith squirmed delightedly in her seat as she experienced the quiet passion of Taron's kiss. Then she opened her mouth to join her tongue hungrily with his.
Their darkened surroundings dissolving around them, they moved closer, until, little by little, their bodies merged in a tight, almost clinging embrace. Then he tilted his perfect, sculpted head, further intensifying the lock of their lips.
At age twenty, this was not the first time Lillith had been kissed.
"It's just the first time a dude bothered to get it right,” she mused.
Another ‘first’ transpired several months later, when Taron marked the occasion of Lillith's birthday in a most unique manner. Specifically, by showing up at her door wearing a pair of azure blue boxer shorts with an ivory ribbon affixed at the waist.
And nothing else.
"Happy birthday,” he greeted.
Stepping aside with a nervous chuckle, Lillith waved her boyfriend into her dorm room and closed the door behind him.
"So where's my present?” she demanded, tone playful.
Returning her mischievous grin, Taron gestured toward his muscular, perfectly toned form.
"I am your present, Love,” he told her.
With this, he gathered Lillith into his arms, drawing the woman forward until their bodies touched.
Lillith trembled as she came into full contact with her lover's perfect physique. She grinned as he wrapped her in a loving embrace and planted warm, affectionate kisses across her blushing face.
Her smile dissolved, however, as he gestured downward and said, “Well Birthday Girl, when are you going to unwrap your present?"
Lillith froze, and she bit her lip self-consciously.
"Taron,” she whispered, “I've never done this before."
Nodding, her boyfriend kissed her lips as he ran a tender, loving hand through the strands of her wheat blonde hair.
"I know, Baby,” he said. “Just relax. I'll do everything for you, and everything for your pleasure."
With this, he swept her up gallantly into his arms and carried her to a corner bed. Setting her gently across the top of her simple cotton comforter, he drew back to stare down thoughtfully at the woman he loved.
Then he held her gaze as he slid his tight, clinging shorts slowly and temptingly down his legs.
Suddenly Lillith recalled the day of their meeting, when she first saw his hard, tanned, sculpted form.
"Though I didn't see quite this much of it,” she pondered, giggling in spite of herself as she now faced his massive, firmly saluting shaft.
All coherent thought abandoned her, however, when Taron joined her on the bed.
After engaging her in a passionate, full-mouthed kiss, he buried his head in her neck and playfully licked its nape. Then he laved her breasts one at a time until her nipples were hard and taut.
Her stomach was the next to receive his attentions. He kissed and licked the smooth planes of her abdomen before rubbing and parting her long, slender legs.
Then, after giving her a devilish grin, he brazenly licked the hood of her feminine jewel until she opened herself to him. Fixing his mouth around her wet, throbbing clit, he applied a light, gentle pressure that nonetheless drove her insane with desires, and causing her to arch her back and push herself farther into his mouth.
Her first climax, while explosive, only left her starved for more. Grasping his beefy shoulders, she pulled him upward until their heated gazes met and locked. Kissing passionately, they merged their bodies chest to chest and hip to hip, entangling their arms and legs as they did so.
Finally, heaving a sigh wrought with desire and frustration, Lillith parted her legs and exposed herself fully to him.
"I want you inside of me, Taron,” she whispered.
Pleased to oblige, her lover lightly
grasped and rubbed her hips, then reached between her legs to part and fondle her feminine folds. Her extreme wetness, along with her low, soft moans of contentment, told him she was ready. So slowly and gently, he filled her moist depths, thrusting forth his rod in slow and hypnotic motions until her hips moved in the same rhythm.
The first necessary pain quickly leaving her, Lillith abandoned herself to ecstasy, reveling in the pleasurable sensations that now tickled every part of her body. And as she reached a second incredible orgasm, she had no idea that the ultimate pain would hit a year later—when she was abandoned without explanation by her first lover.
And perhaps the greatest pain would come six years following, when her second lover abandoned her as well. And this time the desertion, while unintentional, was even more permanent.
Shifting now to look with tired eyes at her bedside clock, Lillith shook her head sadly before resting it in the depths of a feather down pillow.
"No matter how I try to think of other things, to go on with some semblance of a life,” she sighed, “it always comes back to the pain."
* * * *
At various times, a number of swimmers bore shocking witness to the phantom of Port Emerald Bay.
They saw the pure ebony hue of his long, silken hair; a color that contrasted with the azure waters that surrounded and enveloped him. These raven locks flew like a banner above his head, revealing a perfectly sculpted bronzed face with carved cheekbones and ice blue eyes.
These features, the swimmers noted, were winningly accented by his sturdy arms and a massive, muscular chest.
Yet despite the obvious beauty of the stranger's form, his witnesses always denied the truth of their visions; because of his other, more unique attributes, this denial seemed necessary to the maintenance of their sanity. So ultimately, Taron was free to swim alone and unbothered.
His gaze now rested appreciatively on the swaying lavender water lilies that sat among sleek lines of gold and crystalline coral—and that provided a resting place for his nocturnal neighbors, which included the sand dollar fish and the whimsical sea turtle.
Romp Fantasy Digest Page 7
