Jan

by oyster50

Copyright© 2012 by oyster50

Description: Dan is a middle-aged divorced engineer living in an apartment complex. There's a young teen who's recently moved in. She's living with her grandmother and things are in a turmoil in her head, if not her life.

Tags: Ma/ft, Consensual, Romantic, First, Oral Sex, Slow

Published: 2012-12-29

Updated: 2015-01-20

Size: ≈ 31400 Words

Introduction

Jan. Short little name for a tall young girl. Not quite alone, just escaped from a bad situation and sort of floundering in her feelings and where her life is going.

And she meets a guy in the same apartment building. Sound familiar?

This story was one of the first I wrote a couple of years ago. You'll note some similarities with the themes and premises and characters. I know it's there, so you don't have to tell me. I was having fun with the idea and had not quite headed off on the stories that ended up as "Community".

It's a neat little story, I think. I also think It would have a lot more impact if it wasn't going to be viewed as one of MY stories because I do this thing pretty often, but still, you're welcome to read and enjoy.

Chapter 1

As I unlocked the door to my apartment it occurred to me that today marked three years here. Three years. Over a thousand days. Three years since I realized that my wife of ten years was gone for good, taking our daughter with her, running off with a high-school flame that rekindled on Facebook. Two states away. I straightened my back and shrugged it off. Water under the bridge. I counted my blessings. I was forty, healthy, had a good job, friends, family. Those were positives.

The negatives. Women. It took me a year after the divorce was final before I even thought about dating again, and I found that it wasn't what I wanted. A thirty-odd year old engineer is a FIND to a lot of women, and I can't count how many I ducked and ran from, women who thought that a couple of dates and a couple of bounces in the hay could be parlayed into marriage, and I found enough baggage being dragged along to fill the belly of a 747. I guess the fact that I wasn't ready to buy that load was a sign that I had baggage of my own.

For the last year or so, I was celibate. Yes, I enjoyed sex, but I guess Mom and Dad ruined it for me because I couldn't separate it from love, even little bits of both, and I wasn't ready to sacrifice my deeper feelings for one-night stands, nor was I going to start up with somebody I wasn't planning on finishing with.

That left me as the guy who'd go out with whoever, do the dinner and a movie, but the bedding wasn't going to happen, and if the dinner and a movie didn't lead to another, well, there was always the next one. And I had a couple of female friends who finally saw what I was doing and we'd go out and have good times together, but that was the extent of the relationships.

My life consisted of working a job that was as much hobby as anything else, and travelling on weekends and vacations, and socking money away while I lived in a two-bedroom apartment in a pretty nice fourplex in my small home city.

And it was a springtime Saturday, a good laundry day, and according to a notice posted by the mailbox, it was also the day the apartment swimming pool opened for the first time after the winter. I surmised that at 9 AM I could go down and swim a few laps while my laundry was washing, so I grabbed the laundry bags and headed down the walk to the laundry room, adjacent to the pool. I tossed my towel onto a lounge and flipped backward off the pool edge into the water.

After the initial shock of the coolish water, I began to stretch my muscles in a slow crawl, a couple laps just to get things going in the right direction, then I sped up a bit, bumping up my heart rate and did a few more laps. I was in my own little world, feeling my muscles contract and relax, my lungs expand and expel, just minding the rhythm of my body when my reverie was interrupted by a splash and surge. I finished the lap and threw an arm up on the edge of the pool and turned to see who'd joined me.

Girl, Teen, I dunno, maybe fifteen or sixteen, in a decidedly un-revealing one-piece swimsuit. Her hair was darkened by the water, so it could've been brunette.

"Hi," she said. "D'ya mind if I join you?"

"Nah," I said. "I figured that somebody'd show up sooner or later. I didn't want to dodge kids when I was swimming laps."

"Oh," she said. "I'll stay out of your way."

I smiled, "Oh, I don't mean it like that. Besides, I'm finished with my laps."

"I'm Jan," she said. "In "D".

That was the other end of the building. "Hi, Jan," I said. "I'm Dan. I'm in "A"."

"Oooohhhh," she said. "I wondered who lived there."

"Just me."

She smiled pleasantly, her shoulders just above the water. "Wife? Kids?"

"Nope. Divorced. Wife's two states over with my six-year old daughter. Just me." I climbed out of the pool.

"Are you leaving?" she asked. "I'm sorry if I was askin' too many questions."

"No, I'm doin' laundry. I need to go put my clothes in the dryer. You're okay..."

"Oh, okay..."

I was back in five minutes, having performed essential laundry functions. I flopped backward into the pool at the end opposite her and surfaced, wiping the water from my face.

"You swim like you know what you're doin'," she said.

"I had lessons in high school, a long, long time ago," I said. "I still remember some of it."

"I never had lessons," Jan said. "I sorta learned enough not to drown, though."

"That's how most people do it," I said. I watched her swim the length of the pool. It was a decent crawl. She hung onto the pool wall beside me. "Well, I did take swimmin' at the YMCA for a couple of weeks."

"You're doing just fine," I said.

She smiled. A nice smile, too, even white teeth, pink lips, a nose that turned up just a tiny amount, blue eyes, a scattering of freckles across her nose and on her shoulders. "Thank you," she said. She got out of the pool and turned to me. "I gotta go do the laundry thing, too," she said. "I'll be back if you're still here."

I went back to swimming laps until I felt the splash. Jan was back. "Race?" she said.

I'm sorry. It wasn't much of a race. The pool wasn't very big, and I could accelerate easily and I was a body length ahead when I hit the wall.

She surfaced a couple of seconds after me and looked at me. "You didn't hold back, did you?"

"Nope ... Should I have?"

"No," she said. "I just thought you might, though."

"Why?"

"'Cuz a lot of guys would do that."

"A lot of guys might, but they'd be tryin' to play with your mind. I figured you wanted to see how your swimming was."

"You're right," she said. "They would. And I did. I'm gonna have to watch you and learn how you do that."

"It's not that hard. A couple of points on your form, and then it's a matter of building strength, and you'd be as fast or faster than me."

"You think?" she said.

"Yeah. I think. You're young and your body would respond pretty good to the exercise. Me, I need to do this so I don't just fall apart."

"You're not that old..." she said, regarding me with those blue eyes. I could see her hair better and I was betting blonde. Short, barely jawline, even bangs across the front at eyebrow.

I climbed out of the pool and toweled off then stretched out on a lounge in the spring sun. She climbed out behind me and did the same, then took the lounge next to me.

"How old are you?" she asked.

"I won't answer that unless you tell me how old YOU are," I said.

"Sixteen."

"Forty."

"Okay," she giggled. "That wasn't so hard, was it? How long you been living here?"

"Three years," I said. "And you?"

"Six months. I'm surprised I never saw you at the laundry room, though. I do the laundry every Saturday."

"I don't," I said. "Sometimes I do it after work..."

"Where do you work?" she asked.

I named the petrochemical plant.

"Oh, really ... what do you do there?"

"I'm an engineer. I keep the electrical stuff working."

"Really? You're the first engineer I ever met."

'Yeah, you probably met others. We don't usually make a big deal out of it. It's not like we have tribal tattoos or something."

"Yuck! I hate tattoos."

"Me too." I looked a little longer. Tallish, she was, maybe five-ten, not skinny, not fat, her suit filled out nicely at the hips and the top bulged over a smallish pair of titties, maybe a B.

"You live here with your mom and dad?" I looked and saw her face darken, the smile fading noticeably. I surmised I'd asked the wrong question.

"No, with my grandma."

"Oh," I said. "I didn't mean to hit a nerve."

"Did it show?" she asked.

"Yes, it did. I'm sorry. I guess things're different today."

"No, that's okay, Mister Dan. You couldn't know."

"You don't have to call me "Mister". It makes me nervous. I think there's somebody else here."

"Okay. Dan."

"Better."

She smiled again.

"That's better, too," I said.

"What's better?" she looked at me quizzically.

"That you're smiling again." I heard the buzz of the dryer's cycle ending. I got up and checked it. Clothes still wet. Another handful of quarters and I was back. Jan was still there.

"I live with my grandmother. Mom's mom." She sighed. "It's kinda strange."

"Strange? Stuff happens." I looked at her.

"It did. Not the kind of stuff you want to talk about to other people, you know."

"Then don't talk about it. It's nobody's business unless you make it their business." I looked at her eyes.

She sighed. "I know. But sometimes I just WANT to talk about it. But I sure don't have friends I want to talk about it with."

"What about your grandma?" I questioned.

"It's NOT the same. She already knows. Everything."

"How long have you been living with your grandma, Jan?"

"Six months. She's been here a long time. I moved in six months ago."

"Oh," I said. I could see something in her eyes. I didn't get a chance to see it long, though, because we both heard the dryer buzz. I glanced at my watch. "That would be yours. Mine has another fifteen minutes."

She got up and in a couple of minutes was back, sitting sideways on the lounge, her knees together, her arms crossed, propped up on them, looking at me. "Are you a good listener, Dan?"

"I've been told I was. You wanna talk? I'll listen." Her hair was starting to dry. It was blonde, teetering on the edge of what people wanted to call strawberry.

"Life sucks," she said. "At least it did."

"I've felt like that myself, Jan. But it does get better occasionally."

"Yeah, but it's got a lot of suckage, Dan."

"So what makes a cute blonde sixteen year old girl think that life sucks?"

"Mom's in jail."

"Jail?"

She sighed. "Prison, actually."

"I'm sorry." What do you say to that revelation?

"I am too, but it's not like she didn't deserve it."

"Oooo-kay..."

"And when they arrested her, the only place I could go was to Grandma's."

"What about your dad?" I asked.

"Huh! Mom says she doesn't know who my dad is."

"I'm sorry," I said again. "That's tough."

"Tell me about it." She looked at me, her eyes awfully hard for her youth. "Do you know what "slut" is?"

"I've heard the term."

"That was my mom. Except she did it professionally from time to time. In the same apartment with her daughter. And drugs. She did drugs. And booze. And both. I've seen it all."

"I'm sorry." Wow! I ran through a whole lot of thoughts. None of them seemed to fit her revelations.

"I ... You don't need to keep sayin' you're sorry, Dan. It's not YOUR fault."

"Well, Jan, I don't know what else to say..."

"I told you it sucked."

"And I told you I'd listen." And I listened. My dryer went off again, and I loaded my laundry in the basket and went back out to the pool and listened some more. Finally, others showed up at the pool, an older couple, and Jan stopped talking.

"I guess I'll go bring my stuff home," she said.

"Me too." I got up and we walked to the gate. I let her go first and as we got in front of my apartment, I said, "Jan, if you need to talk any more ... I'll be at the pool about eight thirty in the morning."

She smiled again. Pretty smile. "Thanks, Dan. I appreciate you listening. I may be there in the morning."

I entered my apartment, sat down and folded and put away my clothes, did the domestic thing, vacuuming, straightening. Finally lunchtime came and I ate a sandwich and then kicked back with a book. And made it through Saturday.

Sunday morning I slept until seven-thirty and then ate a bowl of cereal for breakfast, then changed into my swim trunks, grabbed a towel, and headed out the door. And ran into Jan on the sidewalk, in the same drab swimsuit, towel in hand. The difference from yesterday was that today her hair was dry, shiny, blonde with traces of red.

"Hi, Jan," I said.

"Hi, Dan." She smiled at me a bit shyly, but a smile nonetheless.

"Tell me," I said bravely, "That hair color..."

"It's real. Strange, ain't it?"

"Yeah, strange, like in some women pay a hundred bucks trying to get that color. It's unusual. Nice."

She grinned. "Thank you!" We were at the pool edge. She tossed her towel on a lounge and I tossed mine on the lounge next to it as I heard her splash.

I flipped backward into the water and started swimming slowly, stretching. She swam alongside until I made my second lap and I sped up. She stopped and clung to the edge at the deep end. I stopped.

"Are you okay?" I asked.

"Yeah, I'm okay. Why?"

"You stopped. I thought you might've got a cramp or something."

"No, I was watching to see what you do different."

"Oh," I said, "try keeping your legs straight and make your arms go straight out in front of you then straight back. And your head, don't try to hold it out of the water. You're not going to sink. Do two strokes then turn your head and breathe."

"Okay," she said. And she tried. I swam beside her, holding back a bit so she could keep up and we cut the water together. After fifteen minutes, we stopped.

"You're doing a lot better," I said. "I can tell the difference."

"It feels like I'm doing better." She smiled. I jack-knifed backward and swam to the pool bottom, letting the water wash over me and cool me down, and then I started cutting laps again. Jan swam behind me. I sensed her there and slowed a bit. Another ten minutes and I stopped hanging on the pool edge, cooling down. She clung to the edge, facing me. "Wow! I can feel that. I was sore this morning."

"If you're not used to it, you're going to be sore."

"I'm not used to it."

"Me neither. I haven't swum all winter. I should've been going to the Y or something. I'll be sore at work tomorrow." I smiled at her.

She shook stray wet hair away from her face. "I'll be sore at school. Let's get out." She hauled herself out of the water and I followed. We toweled off and she said, "Sit for a while."

"Okay," I said. I turned sideways and laid back on the lounge. "So what grade are you in school?"

"Sophomore," she said. "An' not a good one."

"Really? What's wrong?"

"I just don't do good. I missed so much school last year. I'm barely passing science and math. I'll make C's in English and history."

"Did you ask for help? From your teachers?"

"Yeah," she said, "but they want me to stay after school. And I need to ride the bus home. So I can't." And a strange look crossed her face. "Saaayyyyyy! You're an engineer. You know all that math an' stuff..."

"Yeah. It kinda goes with the territory. But it's been twenty years..." I thought a bunch of thoughts.

"But you know it, huh?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Could you help me with it?" Her eyes were twinkling below those bangs, wet, clinging to her forehead. "I mean, if you COULD..."

"Uh, I could, but Jan..."

"But what? Am I bein' pushy, Dan? I'm sorry..."

"No, Jan, it's not that at all. It's just that ... How would we do this? At your house?"

"What's wrong with yours? That way we don't disturb Grandma. You know how little those apartments are..."

"Yeah, I know, but... " I went ahead and said it. "Jan, you're sixteen. I could get in trouble if people thought we were up to something..."

Her face clouded over. "Dan. We're NOT up to something. I'm tryin' to get help with my schoolwork."

"And you're going to tell your Grandma where you're at?"

"You can come meet her and tell her yourself." She had a determined look on her face, a little crinkle between her brows, her lips tight.

I sighed. "In that case, okay. When's this supposed to start?"

"What's wrong with today? I've got six weeks to get my math up to pass this year."

"Well, let's go then." I got up.

"Nuh-uh," she said. "You need to go get dressed. You ain't gonna impress my grandma in your bathing suit." She was still sitting. She looked up at me with a wry smile.

"Good point," I said. "Let's go."

In front of my apartment she turned to me. "I'll come get you in twenty minutes."

"Okay," I said. I went inside, showered quickly, shaved, splashed on a little cologne and then dressed in slacks and a polo shirt. I'd just slipped my second shoe on when there was a knock at the door. I opened it to find Jan standing there, dressed quite nicely herself, jeans, a man's cotton long-sleeved shirt, her hair brushed to a shine, smiling.

She grabbed my hand. "Come on," she said. "You're the first guy I ever brought home to meet Grandma!"

I was parsing that statement when we climbed the steps to her front door. She opened it and dragged me in. Her grandma was standing in the little living room. "Grandma, this is Mister Dan. He's the engineer I told you about." Jan turned to me. "Mister Dan, this is my grandmother, Mizz Leona Griffin."

"Hello, Mizz Griffin," I said, extending my hand. "I'm Dan Jansen."

"Hello, Dan. Jan tells me you can help her with her schoolwork?"

"Yes, ma'am," I said. "I think I can do that, if she wants."

Grandma was mid-sixties, her hair a solid silver that I was sure wasn't completely natural, but tastefully done, and her face was aged, but not badly. I suppose she was actually pretty for her age. She was slender and conservatively dressed.

"She said that you could study with her at your house?"

"Yes, ma'am. And I told her that before such a thing happened, I wanted you to know where she was, and with whom."

"Dan, you can drop the "ma'am" with me. I appreciate you wanting to tell me."

"Uh, the "ma'am" part comes too naturally for me. My momma'd beat me on the head if she found out."

"Your momma taught you well. But please..."

"Okay, I'll try. But I just didn't want anyone thinking things when they saw a sixteen year old girl go in a forty year old guy's apartment."

"Hah," Leona snorted. "D'ya think people pay attention to that sort of thing these days?"

"You never know," I said. "And I'm not interested in learning a prison lifestyle."

I looked to see Jan standing there with a backpack full of books. "But as long as you know she's there, then I'm okay with it."

"Dan, I'm glad you offered. I'm an office administrator, and her math is something I've not messed with in too many years to help." Leona looked at Jan. "Looks like she's actually WANTING to get to it. That's new."

"Really?" I said. "She asked me."

Leona smiled. I thought it a strange thing to smile at. "Then go see what you can do with her."

"Okay," I said. "But here's my card." I wrote my home phone number on the back. "This is my home number, and my cell number, and if you get the urge, just come knock on the door and see what we're doing. Okay?" Front door lock. Stayed locked. I know that in days past, people could leave their doors unlocked when they were at home, but news of home invasions stopped that.

"Come on, little girl," I said. "Let's go learn stuff!" I turned to Leona. "Oh, it's almost lunchtime. Can I take her out to lunch?"

Leona regarded me with slightly hooded eyes. "Or she could eat a sandwich here."

Jan's smile told me what I wanted to know. "Leona, why don't you come to lunch with us. It's on me."

Leona smiled a bit. "Well, thank you. Let me get my purse."

Five minutes later we were on the road, Jan sandwiched between me and her grandmother in the front seat of my pickup truck. We hit a Chinese buffet and an hour later we were back home.

I unlocked the front door of my apartment and held it open for Jan to enter. I closed and locked the door behind me.

Jan turned, smiling. "Wow, Dan! This place looks nice."

I laughed. "What'd you expect? A bachelor pad with dishes piled in the sink and crap all over the place? Oh come on! That's a stereotype!"

Giggle! "You never know WHAT to expect."

"Put your books on the table. Let's get started." I was serious about my role. Nothing but "Help me with my homework." That's all.

"Wait," she said. "Show me the rest of the place."

'Oh, come, Jan! It's just like your apartment, except reversed."

Jan's face. Determined.

"Oh, okay..." I changed into tourguide mode. "Here's the bathroom." I was glad I'd tidied up. Well, I wasn't the type to let things go TOO far anyway, but I'd spent yesterday cleaning.

"Neat," she said. I noticed her carefully surveying the countertop. Toothbrush. One.

"And this is the spare bedroom. I use it for my toys."

"You have a desktop computer? Neat!" Nice desk. And a bike. I have a bike. We can go riding."

I noted that statement, too. "We".

I took a deep breath and pushed open the door to my bedroom. "And this is my bedroom." Once again, neatness paid off. The bed was made. No clothes on the floor.

"Uh-huh," she said. "You keep a neat house."

"I try. Now. School work."

"Yessir," she said, smiling.

We sat at the table and opened the books. High school algebra. Just like swimming, I had to stretch some mental muscles. Just a little bit. Excel and MathCAD had dulled a few edges.

She asked questions. We backtracked. I showed her examples, talked her through a few problems, then left her a couple and let her tell me what she was doing as she worked her way through them. And she did.

"Absolutely correct!" I said. Her grin was epic.

"I GET it!," she said. "I SEE how it works! Dan! I really SEE!"

"Great!" I was excited for her. "Wanna coke?"

"Yeah! Sure!"

I got us each a can from the fridge. I handed her one. "Let's sit for a while. We deserve a break." I sat on the sofa at one end. She sat at the other, facing me, her leg tucked underneath her.

She took a sip and smiled. "Wow, Dan! It's the first time I really saw what I was trying to do."

I smiled. "That's the key, babe ... uh, Jan. You have to understand the principles. Or you have to learn enough to go through the motions to pass. It's better for you if you understand the principles."

"I understand, for the first time. You explained it to me." She was excited about that.

We finished our drinks and went back to work, this time on science. It was easy stuff, and she just needed somebody to talk her through a few ideas and then I let her explain to me what she thought she was reading. It was good. I watched and listened as she wrote out her homework.

Finally it was finished, and we were bumping late afternoon. She was packing away her books.

"So what do you do for the rest of Sunday?" I asked.

"I guess I'm gonna go home and read," she said. "I go to the library a lot." She looked around. "You have lots of books here, don't you?"

"Yeah. And I go to the library myself. Call me if you need a ride."

She smiled. "I'll do that," she said.

And she walked out my door.

Chapter 2

It was completely innocent. Pleasant also, to be sure. I'd get home at a bit before five and head to the pool, and Jan would be there. Occasionally the old couple would be there too, sometimes with their son and his wife and a grandchild, but generally Jan and I had the pool to ourselves. That was fine with me. The daily workout, twenty or thirty minutes in the pool, a good fifteen or twenty minutes of fast laps, that was good for me. After a month I noted that I seldom needed to slow down for Jan.

And it was customary after swimming for each of us to retire to our apartments and a half an hour later for me to hear the knock on the door, and Jan would come in and books would come open.

Like this one Monday.

"Jan," I said, "you seem to have a handle on this stuff."

"Uh-huh," she grinned, pulling a paper from her backpack. Squeal! "Look! Another "A"!"

"Am I missing something?" I asked. "Every algebra paper you've brought me has been an A."

"I know," she grinned. "All I needed was a push."

"And science?"

"Here!" Another "A" grade paper.

"What about English?"

"A-minus."

"History?"

"B".

"You're passing, then."

"Yes I am. I've never had grades like this, Dan."

We went through the day's work. I watched. She talked to me through each exercise.

"Jan, can I ask you something?"

"Sure, Dan."

"Why don't I see you going out with your friends? I mean, you're sixteen."

The clouds came over her face. "I don't want to, Dan."

"You don't?"

"No, I most assuredly do not."

"Why?"

"I'm sort of an outsider."

"If you want to talk about it..."

"You never asked..." she sighed. "Kids think I'm supposed to be like my mom. Boys think I'm gonna be a slut an' do anything with anybody. Girls think I'm like that with every boy." Her head bowed and she said quietly, "I'm not, Dan. I'm sixteen. And I'm a virgin. Not a slut." When her head raised, there was a tear running down her cheek.

"I'm sorry, Jan. I didn't mean to make you sad."

"'S okay, Dan. You didn't know. We started talking that one time, is all. And I never told you everything."

"You don't have to tell me anything, babe ... Jan..."

"But I NEED to. I shuttled back and forth between Mom's house and Grandma's all my life. Mom had to go to jail a bunch of times. An' when she wasn't in jail, it was one guy after another. You don't know how many times I went to bed scared that one of her guys'd come in my room at night. It happened. And I screamed bloody murder. I hate guys!"

This was an unexpected turn. I looked at her.

"Not like THAT, Dan. I mean, I hate guys who just want that one thing. And I guess that's the only kind that came home with Mom." She sniffed. "And at school, everybody knows 'her mom is that whore that's in jail' and guys just thought that I had to be like that."

"Every guy is not like that, Jan."

She turned her face toward me, tears tracking down her soft cheeks. "I know, Dan. You're not. I know there are some good ones."

"You'll find one, Jan. Just don't give up. You're bright and pretty and you're worth too much to sell yourself short."

"I won't, Dan. But you know what hurts now?"

"What?"

"Since I don't go out with guys, they're sayin' I'm a lesbian."

"I know it's hard, Jan, but ignore 'em. We're gonna get you through this year of school, and everybody's gonna see your last six weeks' grades and they're gonna wonder what happened. And next year..."

"Next year?"

"Yeah. Next year. If you can do THIS stuff now, Next year you're gonna blow their socks off. From Day One. They can ignore a lot. And they can call names. But they're gonna see Jan on top of the stack in academics. That'll give 'em something to talk about."

She gave one more sniff as a smile crept out of hiding.

"You said I was bright. Like in "smart"?"

"Yes." You needed a kickstart, Jan. Do you realize that we've been at this for four weeks and you hardly need help at all?"

Her eyes were twinkling. "Uh..."

"Don't get me wrong," I said. "I enjoy every day that you and I get together, and I enjoy our swims, and I enjoy having you come over every day, but really, do you really NEED my help? Really?"

Small voice. "Wellllll..."

"I don't want you to stop, Jan. You're sort of my best friend now. I don't know how I'd handle myself if you weren't here every day."

"Me neither," she said. "Grandma just shrugs when I show her my papers and says, "That guy's good for you, huh?"

"I hope she knows what's going on here. School work." And I caught something in her look.

Wednesday she was at my computer tapping out an essay for English.

Thursday evening we were at the table putting the finishing touches on her homework. As she put her books away she paused. "Dan."

"Yes, Jan?"

"Grandma's got a date this weekend..."

"Okay," I said. I knew that her grandma did indeed go out on dates, and most of the time I got a phone call from her telling me that she was going and could I be so kind as to look out for Jan. She'd even given assent for Jan and I to go to dinner and a movie a couple of times. I guess she felt that she was abandoning Jan. But a weekend?

"She's gonna call you," Jan said.

"Why?" I asked.

"'Cuz she's plannin' on my stayin' by myself this weekend. She says I'm sixteen and I should be okay."

"She trusts you," I said.

"I guess so," Jan said, kind of dejectedly. "I don't cause trouble. I don't go out. I've never had friends over. But I've never spent the weekend by myself."

"You don't have to spend the weekend by yourself, Jan. We can go do stuff. Take a road trip ourselves, you know."

Jan smiled at me. "You don't get tired of me? I mean, you see me every day."

"Jan," I said, "you're my best friend. Who else would I do things with?"

"Thank you, Dan," she smiled. "I feel like I can relax around you."

"Me, too. You're easy to get along with." She was. Easy to look at, too, but that was something I just didn't want to address. I was happy with somebody who came over every day to swim with me, then the homework and a little quiet TV watching and chatting about the day's events.

The phone rang. Leona's name was on the caller ID. "Hello, Leona, what's up?"

"Did Jan talk to you already? About this weekend?"

"Yeah, she mentioned you were going for the weekend. A date?"

Leona snorted. "I don't know if I call it a date, but yes, we're leaving after work Friday and we'll get back Sunday evening."

"Okay..." I said.

"Jan's fine by herself, Dan. She's sixteen. And she knows she can call you. You'll be here, right?"

"Sure, Leona. Look, is it okay if Jan and I run the roads together? Like dinner and a movie or whatever?"

"I don't have a problem with that, Dan. You know I told you that she's turned school around. We get along better. I appreciate it."

"Good!" I said. "She helps me out, too. It's good having an exercise partner and a live human being to talk to." I looked at Jan. She was smiling.

Leona continued, "Whatever you two do is okay with me."

I thought that was an interesting turn of a phrase, but in the month or so that Jan and I had been working together, there was never so much as a touch of fingertips. I know I'd sit next to her at the table with her books in front of us, and I could smell her, sometimes just the subtle smell of a squeaky clean teen girl, occasionally a fragile hint of perfume.

Yes, I paid attention. I knew how her hair bounced when she shook her head, and how expressions walked across her face from her eyes to her lips, and the crinkle on her nose when she laughed, and that little crease between her eyebrows when she was determined. I'd seen her dozens of times in that unflattering bathing suit, and I'd seen her in jeans and a sweatshirt, or a blouse, or a jersey. I knew she was dressing deliberately to NOT show herself off, and all that time I was trying not to get THOSE thoughts about this cutie.

And now her grandmother had said "Whatever you two do is okay with me." And I couldn't do a thing, because I knew some of what Jan had been through and the last thing I thought she needed was the guy she'd befriended hitting on her.

"Thanks, Leona. I'll take care of her." I looked at Jan. she was listening in, smiling sublimely.

"'Kay, Dan. Bye!" Leona said.

"Sure! Bye. Have fun!" I turned to Jan. "Your grandmother says I'm supposed to be here if you need something, and it's okay for us to go run the roads together."

Giggle. "I knew she'd say that, Dan. We talked."

"About me?"

"Yeah. About you. She likes you. Says you're good for me." She smiled again. "I think so too." She stood up. Homework was finished. "Wanna coke?" she asked.

"Sure. Let's see what's on TV." And she and I again occupied the opposite ends of the sofa. I had my feet propped up on an ottoman and Jan was turned sideways on the sofa, her long legs filling the distance between us. We watched for an hour, talking about situations as they came across the screen in a sit-com.

"They make some of that look so good, Dan."

"What part?"

"That whole, jumpin' in and out of bed with one person after another. People ain't that mature. I mean, like, maybe one of 'em might think it's all fine, but usually the other wants something more than that." She crossed her arms. That was a registered "And THAT'S the way I feel" pose for Jan.

"I know. Believe me, I know. Sex isn't love, and love isn't sex. But they can go together. But love should come first."

"You got burned, huh?" she asked. "I never asked..."

"No, you never asked."

"Is it something you can talk about? I listen too, you know. Heaven knows, you listen to my story all the time."

"D'you want to hear? Really?" I looked at her. Her face was soft, receptive.

"Yes, I do."

And so I told her about marriage and how two people can go together and then fall apart and one of them doesn't know it. And how empty and heart-rending it can be, trying too hard to find a mate.

"And the last one was over a year ago?" she asked. Her expression was intent.

"Yes," I said. "I've gone out to eat with a couple of ladies I work with, but that's it, just out to eat."

"No, uh, prospects?" she looked at me with a little bit of intensity. "But you like women, huh?"

"Of course," I said. "I just got tired of being used."

"I thought it was men that used women."

"You're thinking about sex, Jan. There's much more to it than sex. "Used" can mean much more. I felt used when the first thing a woman wanted to know was where I worked and if I made good money, and then three dates in, she was pushing marriage. And hadn't bothered to get to know me."

Jan regarded me coolly. "Some guys would think that was wonderful."

"Not me. I want the whole thing. Or nothing. I'm tired of women who think that literature is a subscription to "People" magazine and music is one of the stations on the FM dial and conversation is "He goes, an' she says, an' I'm like..."

Jan laughed. "You've been listening to our cafeteria at lunch, huh?"

I laughed back at her. "Yeah, but it's kind of expected if you're fifteen. It's a drag if you're still that way when you're almost forty and a mother or a professional woman, or both."

"Huh!" Jan snorted. "I hate it when I listen to it at school. It grates on me."

One of the things I noticed in the several weeks of talking with Jan was that she didn't do the "girlspeak" common among her age group. Her vocabulary was more broad than I expected, too. And music. She'd perused my CD collection early on and commented on the dearth of country & western (I thought you'd have THAT) or contemporary, or even oldies. Classical. "Wow! You have a LOT of classical music!"

"Well, Jan," I said, "what do you expect? Really?"

"I know. But I don't enjoy it." She sighed. "I guess maybe I AM weird. Like they say."

"I don't know about 'weird'. I find you intelligent and refreshing to talk with." This got me a smile. "I can talk to you. I don't know if I'd spend as much time talking to any other teen, male or female, like we talk. It's real conversation."

"I know," she said. "You know stuff. And I read the news or whatever, and I can talk to you about it. That's different. I don't know if any of my teachers could do this. I mean, that algebra. I was struggling because nobody really explained it. But you did. And now I get it."

"I'm glad I could help. Getting to have you as a friend makes it worthwhile to me."

"You're a good friend, Dan. It's nice to have someone..."

"You've got your grandma," I said.

"Yeah, I know, but sometimes I feel like if she'd REALLY had a choice, I wouldn't be there. I mean, all my life, she had me, on and off. But just like this weekend. I think that if I wasn't living there, she'd have a whole lot different life. I think I tied her down."

"Tied her down?"

"Yeah. If she hadn't had to watch me, maybe she'd be going out more. Maybe she'd be remarried."

"That's not your fault. Does she ever bring male friends over?"

"Yeah. For supper sometimes. And they watch TV or a movie. Sometimes I even sit in there with them and watch the shows. But nobody's ever stayed overnight, if that's what you mean."

"I didn't MEAN anything. I was just thinking that you don't slow her down that much."

She sighed. "Maybe not now that she's not afraid to leave me overnight. But before, when I was younger, she never went anywhere overnight."

"At least she was trying to take care of you."

"Yeah," she said. "Mom didn't care. She'd drop me off at Grandma's and disappear for days. And sometimes she'd bring one of her boyfriends or whatever they're called, and he'd spend the night. A couple of them moved in for a while. I didn't like it. NONE of them were the kind of guy I wanted to be a friend with, much less call "dad"." Another sigh. "And they weren't bashful, either. I caught her doin' stuff more than once."

'Caught her?"

"Yeah, when I was little, you know how little kids wake up? I woke up and went looking for my Mom, and I saw the light on in the livin' room and walked in on her and some guy. They yelled at me. And it happened more than one time. I learned to stay in my room."

"Uh-huh ... I guess so."

Her blue eyes focused on mine. "I mean, I know about sex and stuff, and I know that people do it, but I'm kind of like, well, I understand what YOU said, that people USE each other. And I don't want to be USED."

"I know," I said. "I know exactly what you mean."

She shook her head, strawberry hair bouncing around her face. "Enough serious stuff." She grabbed the TV remote. "Let's see what's on!"

"Yeah," I said. "You want a coke?"

"Uh-huh!"

I returned from the fridge and handed her a can, then settled back down at my end of the sofa. She ran through the channels until she found something she wanted to see, a documentary on the educational channel. This was a norm for Jan. We'd watch together and talk about what we were seeing. History we'd argue back and forth on, sometimes, about how the story was portrayed on TV, and about how we'd seen it in books.

Finally it was nine PM and time for Jan to go home. "See you tomorrow, Jan," I said, escorting her to the door.

She paused before she opened it and turned to face me. "Thanks, Dan," she said. "You ARE my best friend." And she stunned me by giving me a peck on the cheek.

She closed the door behind her, leaving me standing there contemplating the first ever kiss. It was only a peck, I told myself. Completely innocent. And young Jan, sixteen. A sweet, smart, friendly girl, and I was just an older guy who gave her a little refuge in her world. And that was all.

That's what I tried to tell myself. I tossed and turned in bed, trying to go to sleep. I kept denying the tension I felt, and finally resigned myself to what I knew would relieve it. I took my dick in my hand and stroked myself to release, cleaned up the mess I made, and finally went to sleep.

The next day was just another day at work, a Friday, but nothing earth-shattering. Nearing quitting time, I straightened out the papers on my desk. Being an engineer, I didn't wait for a whistle to make my escape. Besides, leaving when the clock struck four would just put me in the big rush out of the parking lot, so I and a couple of the other engineers sat in the conference room yakking, mostly about plant politics. At four-fifteen I got up to leave and bid my buddies good-bye.

A half-hour later I was pulling into my parking slot at the apartment. I went inside and changed into swim trunks, grabbed a towel and headed for the pool. When I got there, Jan was already lying on a lounge. When she heard the gate open, she turned, and seeing me, broke out into a big grin. "Hey, babe!" she said.

"Babe? You never called me "babe" before..."

She smiled. "It's just an expression. Between us friends."

"Okay ... Babe!"

She smiled broadly and giggled.

"And you're a lot closer to being a babe than I am." I flipped backward off the edge into the pool and felt the water surge against me as she dove in. We began our routine, swimming laps, her strokes matching mine. Ten back and forth circuits and I hauled myself up at the end, joined immediately by a wet-headed, smiling, Jan.

"Grandma's on the road," she grinned. "Left me a note."

"You seem awfully happy about it, little girl," I said. "Your grandma left you alone for the weekend."

"She didn't leave me ALONE, Dan! She left me with you. And you said we'd do stuff this weekend. Like dinner and a movie and stuff."

"Okay ... okay ... You don't have to leave my side all weekend, then, if that's what you want. Where do yu want to go for dinner?"

She was glowing. I'd never seen her quite like this. "Italian?" she said. "If that's not too expensive?"

"Nope. Not in the least. Let's go get changed." I climbed out of the pool, Jan right behind me. She was practically skipping. We went to our separate apartments. I ducked in the shower, backed out, shaved, dabbed on a hint of cologne, and dressed. I was sitting in my living room when I heard the soft knock on the door.

I opened the door to a vision. A first. Jan in something other than jeans. Or that old swimsuit. This was new. Breathtakingly new. Jan in a dress. Okay, NOT a dress, but some kind of sheath thing, knit, and form-fitting in a way that made her glow, dark blue, accenting her hair, which she'd dried and brushed to perfection, the ends tucking under, her bangs laying precisely on her forehead, her lips moist, and her eyes like pools of happiness. Her feet fit in a pair of understated flats, her legs long, slender, flawless. A vision.

"What'dya think? You've never seen me in a dress, huh?"

"My, my, my ... You do that VERY well, Jan. You're a vision." I breathed in and my nose caught a subtle whiff of perfume. "And you smell good, too."

She grinned. "I snagged a bit of Grandma's perfume. It's not too "old lady" is it? D'ya REALLY think I look okay?"

I took a breath. I had to think about breathing. "Jan, You're astoundingly, unequivocally stunningly beautiful!"

She grinned even wider. "Thank you, Dan! I wanted to look good for you!" She paused. "Uh ... so you wouldn't be ashamed to be seen in public with me. At a nice restaurant."

"Good Lord!" I exclaimed, "I'd take YOU to see the Queen of England!"

She handed me a sheet of paper. On it in neat, flowing script, was a note from her grandmother addressed to her. I read:

"Jan- I know you're old enough to be a responsible young lady, so I'm trusting you to be on your own this weekend. Jim and I are doing a two-day trip, and I won't try to call you while we're gone. Because I don't know your schedule and you know to call me if there's an emergency. Dan says you and he are going to spend the weekend together running the roads. Have fun and be careful. Love, Your Grandmother."

She arched an eyebrow and said, "You and he are going to spend the weekend together. Hmmm?"

"Uh..." I stuttered, "You could take that a lot of ways..."

"That's what she said last night. She thinks you're a good guy. Said so. Said if she was younger..."

"Jan! Your grandmother?"

She giggled. "Relax. She said you were too young for her. That you were more MY speed."

I looked at her. "Oh, come on, Jan! I'm right in between you two in age."

"Yeah," she said, and I thought the smile on her lips was a little different than the normal happy Jan smile.

"Come on," I said. "Let's go eat."

She flashed her eyes at me. "Sure, babe," she said. We walked out to my waiting truck.

Now up to this time, we'd gone a lot of places together in my truck, library, shopping, the mall, just riding, and in every case she'd buckled in on the passenger side of the bench seat. Today she slid into the center seat. When I cocked an eyebrow, she grinned. "Is this a problem?"

"Nooooo," I said. "Just ... different..."

"Good different? Bad different? Hmmm?" She was pressing a point.

"Okay different."

"Like in best friends going out to eat. One of us is a guy. The other is a girl. And that's okay, huh? I mean, like friends?"

"Very much okay." We drove through town. She sat there, stealing glances, her hands folded demurely in her lap. I will admit that I desperately wanted to put my arm around her shoulder and pull her against me. But I couldn't. Wasn't supposed to. No.

I escorted her into the restaurant. Escorted. Like she was royalty. On previous occasions when we went out to eat it was "grab a bite", and she literally bounced up the sidewalk into a place like an excited teen. Today she was serene, calm, like she KNEW she was a lady and DESERVED to be treated as one. I held the door open for her and guided her through, my hand lightly touching the small of her back, relishing the texture of the light knit wool of her dress. She tossed a look over her shoulder at me and smiled. I smiled back.

I can tell you that Jan knew how to conduct herself in an eating establishment with proper poise and decorum. "Grandma taught me," she'd told me weeks before. Tonight she was serene, subdued, letting her beauty speak for her. We enjoyed our meal together and I allowed myself a glass of wine. One glass. So I can't blame the wine.

We shared a serving of tiramisu for dessert, I paid the tab, and we left. This time, as my hand touched her back going through the door, she sidestepped into my arm. Our eyes met and I saw it wasn't a miss-step, and she did NOT move away. It wasn't the wine. I could blame the wine, but it wasn't the wine. I curled my hand around her waist as we walked up the sidewalk to the truck.

I punched the keyfob to unlock it. Normally this got me a Jan bouncing around to her side to get in. Not this time. As I opened my door, SHE got in and slid over. I slid in beside her. I heard the click as she fastened her seatbelt. And then felt her arm slide around mine. And heard "Mmmmmm. Thanks, Dan. That was wonderful."

I took a deep breath as I backed out of the parking space.

"Is something wrong, babe?" she asked.

"Oh, gosh, Jan ... yes. No..."

"Which is it, Dan?"

"Your touch. It..."

"Does it feel good?"

"Yes. It feels good. But Jan ... I ... I'm not supposed ... I can't..."

"You can't what, babe?"

I took a deep breath. "Jan. I can't take advantage of a sixteen year old girl."

Coolly she said, "You're not taking advantage me. I am hugging your arm. That's all."

"Uh, Jan ... It may just be a hug to you, but you cause lightning bolts in me."

She giggled. And put her chin on my shoulder. "Hush up and drive, babe."

As we turned onto a westbound track, I saw lightning. This time it wasn't the touch of Jan's hand on my arm. It lit a distant bank of clouds, a late spring cold front making its way toward us from the northwest. It was nature in fiery magnificence. I commented my thought to Jan.

She turned her head, laying soft cheek on my shoulder. Another surge of sparks ran through my body at that sensation. "It's beautiful, Dan," she said. "But I'm scared to stay by myself in bad weather like that."

"Oh." Now THAT was a thought. I was already running deep into whatever reserves of self-control I had, thanks to Little Miss Touchy-Feely, and now she was scared to stay by herself. Oh, boy...

It was a bit shy of eight PM when we got home. Walking toward the apartments from the parking area, she said, "I don't have to go home right away. Do I?"

Inside my head was a little voice that said "Tell her to go home, boy! It's your LAST chance!" I ignored that little voice. "No, you don't, babe. Come on in for a while."

She sighed. "You called ME "babe"!"

"Yes, I did," I said. "You are quite a babe, Jan. No, you're THE babe!"

I unlocked the front door and let her inside, then followed. She made a little bit more of a show of shutting the door behind us and locking both the knob and the deadbolt. And then she leaned back against it, smiling.

"This has been the best evening ever, so far..." big blue eyes bored through me, melting every bit of resolve I might have had. All that was left was HER. So beautifully perfect, sweet, smart, funny, delectable dish. That voice in my head ... it died. The voice behind it said, "Dammit, Dan, you're crazy. You're in LOVE with a sixteen year old girl."

And the sixteen year old girl gave her strawberry hair a sideways shake, stepped forward, and put her arms around my neck.

"I hope I'm not mis-reading this," she said. And she kissed me. Softly. Tentatively. Her lips parted and her tongue brushed my lips and my mouth opened slightly, the tip of my tongue meeting hers. When we broke, it was to her sigh. "I wasn't." then, "Was that a good kiss, Dan? I've never kissed a guy before."

"Oh, god, Jan ... good kiss? It's YOU! My soul left my body..."

Her arms were still around my neck. She pulled me into a second kiss and I was just barely aware that my own arms had enveloped her, pulling her to me. I've never felt closer to a woman while fully clothed.

Wait! Woman? This delectable, eager form in my arms was SIXTEEN! Our kiss broke. I took a deep breath, gathering what little functioning thought I had left, preparing to speak. "Uh..."

That effort got me a quick kiss and "Hush, babe. Don't talk. Kiss me again." I complied, feeling myself being maneuvered toward the sofa. I was pushed over backward and found myself under the body of a hundred and thirty pounds of the most perfect person in the universe. My right hand went up, caressing the back of her head.

Finally, I got out, "Uh, Jan..."

She raised up far enough for our eyes to meet. "Dan, tell me..."

"Oh, god," I said... "Tell you what? That you're the most beautiful, perfect woman I've ever imagined? That you make my heart sing? That I LOVE you?"

Kiss ... Long. "Yes, tell me that."

"It's true," I said. "Oh, Jan..." I drew a breath and sighed. "But you're sixteen..."

She kissed me again. "Hush, Dan! I know how old I am."

"But, babe, I could go to jail..."

"You won't go to jail. Nobody finds out, okay. Just me and you."

I smoothed the soft hair at her neck and pulled her down to kiss me.

"Mmmmmm ... That's better. I didn't want to think it was all just me..."

Oh, god, no, beautiful girl. I've died a thousand times wanting you."

Kiss... "Mmmmmm! You've got me." Kiss ... And a peal of thunder in the distance. "Uh, Dan. I don't like to stay by myself when it's storming. Are you going to send me home?"

"Send you home? No. Never."

"Dan, you said ... You said you loved me."

"I love you." I sighed. "I can't help it. I wanted to be your friend. I wanted to help you because you asked for help. I wanted to see you happy. And heaven help me, with all that, I've fallen in love with you."

She stayed on her perch, her body laying full-length on top of me, her face raised a short distance from mine.

"Dan. You sound sad..."

"I'm sorry, Jan ... I didn't want to fall in love. I'm so tired of being hurt. You're beautiful, perfect, and I don't deserve somebody as perfect as you..."

"I'll never hurt you, Dan..." her hands held the sides of my face and she lowered her head. Our lips met again. I drank her. I felt like I was being consumed in return. "I never wanted to be like this with any guy. Never." We kissed again. "Guys are horrible creatures with one thing on their minds. And you! You ruined that for me." We kissed again.

My hands wandered over her sleek form, the knit wool of her dress about the second most sensuous feeling I could imagine with her where she was. She started to slide and pushed her right leg in between mine to anchor herself.

"Wait," I said. I shifted so that I wasn't laying half on, half off the sofa, and she wasn't sliding. But she didn't move that leg. And as much as I might have wished otherwise, a part of me came alive ... I tried subtly wiggling to move it to a less -obtrusive--position, but I think that just made matters worse. I felt Jan move, stop, and move again.

And she looked into my eyes. "Dan, I know what that is, you know..."

"I'm sorry, baby," I said. "It's got a mind of its own ... You're..."

"Shhhh!" she kissed me again. "I know. I'm having a problem I've never had before too..."

"Problem? You..."

"Dan, I never did anything like THIS before, and I'm afraid I'm going to stain this dress."

"How? ... Ohhhhhh..."

She sat up. "Yes. I am WET! Sopping wet. The insides of my thighs..." She read my face... "Uh, too graphic?"

I felt sweat on my brow and it wasn't from the room being warm. Not at all. "uh..." Inwardly I was cussing my loss for words.

Jan was a little more direct in her approach. She stood, reached back to the zipper on her dress and I heard --zip--, she shrugged her shoulders and stepped out of the pile of blue wool at her feet. Clad only in an almost unnecessary bra and a pair of powder-blue hip-hugger panties with a very wet crotch. She reached for my hand and tugged me to standing and dragged me to the bedroom.

Chapter 3

I found myself being pushed backward onto the bed. I finally caught my breath and enough neurons fired off for me to speak again. "Wait, Jan ... we don't have to do this..."

"What, Dan? Because I'm too YOUNG?"

"Uh..." There went the speech ability again.

"I'm sixteen. I know girls that haven't been virgins since they were eleven. I've known girls who gave their first time to sleazeballs and lost it while they were drunk or high. D'ya have ANY idea how many girls my age are still virgins? Ain't many."

Jan said "ain't", a word she tried to avoid, but this just told me she was on a roll, speaking from the heart. And as this one-sided conversation was going on, she was unbuttoning my shirt. She straddled me, resting on my thighs, and kept on.

"I love YOU, Dan Jansen. And YOU love ME. And sixteen is LEGAL in this state." She was struggling with the buckle on my belt. "And If I have anything to say about it, I am about to make love WITH the only guy I will EVER make love with."

I took her hands off my belt buckle and unfastened it. She rolled off me and I stood up and shrugged off my shirt and slid my pants down. I stepped out of them into her arms. "Then heaven help us, Janice Lee Griffin, because I love you and I intend to keep you forever." I pulled her almost nude body to me and kissed her. She melted into my arms as a clap of thunder echoed in the background.

I felt her shiver. "Thunder scare you, baby?"

She shook her head. "No ... Dan ... I've never ... I mean ... No man has ever touched me..."

"Jan, I love you, baby, and sex has nothing to do with that. We don't have to do anything. We can kiss and go to sleep in each other's arms."

This time she shook her head vigorously. "Nuh-uh," she hissed. "I'd try to rape you and do it all wrong and be traumatized for life."

"Then let's go slow, baby. You set the pace." I held her close to me.

She whispered in my ear, "Get me out of this bra..."

I already had my arms around her back and it was a small effort to unhook the two hooks of her a-cup bra. I eased the straps off her shoulders and she stepped back as the bra fell to the floor. She covered her breasts up with crossed arms and looked at me. "I don't have big titties, Dan. Guys like big titties and I'm flat."

"You have perfect titties, Jan, my love. They are YOUR titties, and therefore, by definition, perfect. I knew how big your titties were. I'll admit, I looked."

She smiled shyly, not something that went with her recent rant, and then dropped her arms to her sides. "Well, love, this is what you get..."

They were perfection in small packages. Firm. Not a bit of sag, perfectly formed, quarter-sized areolae, pink, with similarly colored, eraser-sized nipples poking hard and proud from them. I couldn't resist. I touched. She shivered and "Mmmmmmm" escaped her lips. I gathered her in my arms again and her mouth searched and found mine. She whispered in my ear, "They're okay, Dan? You're not disappointed?"

"No, babe," I said, "they're beautiful, and they're YOU and I shall worship them." I cupped one to reinforce my statement.

A wiggle indicated that she wanted me to release her. I did, and her thumbs hooked the waistband of those panties. And she bent over and stripped them off. Standing, she said, "Well, this is all of me..." She smiled.

I smiled, too. "Perfection," I said, noting a fine fuzzy patch of blonde hair on her mons, the beginning of a sweet and magical slit peeking out from under.

She took a deep breath. "Now, let's see you..."

I hooked my thumbs in my own waist band.

"Wait," she said. "Let me."

I looked at her quizzically.

She kissed me again, whispering, "It's the first time I get to see one when I WANT to, babe. Let me do it MY way."

"Okay, baby," I said, brushing her hair with my hand and garnering another short kiss.

The kiss broke and she kneeled in front of me. Her fingertips curled into the front of my waistband. The front of my briefs was tented out, my dick as hard as I ever remembered it. Jan tugged the elastic downward, dragging my briefs down past my dick. When she slid them to my thighs, I kicked a little and they slid to the floor. I stepped one foot free of them, looking down at the strawberry head at my crotch.

Her angelic face turned up to me, grinning, as her hand touched me for the first time. I shook, knees almost giving way. She pulled her hand back. "Did I hurt you?"

"No, oh, no, sweetness. It's just more feeling that that thing's EVER felt..."

"Dan, you've BEEN with other women..."

"And never have I desired one as much as you..."

"You're sweet, baby. Lay on the bed..."

Like I'd turn THAT order down. I threw the covers back off the bed and lay in the middle of a cool, smooth sheet and Jan bounced onto the bed, kneeling by my side, completely nude, and as far as I was concerned, completely perfect.

She looked at me, blue eyes twinkling, smiling. "Now don't have a heart attack, but I'm gonna touch you again." She giggled. Her fingers wrapped around my shaft, exploring. "Wow," she said. "It's hard and soft at the same time. And it feels like there's a bone in it."

I was beyond normal arousal. "Baby," I said, "it's very excited..."

"Because of ME?!?!?"

"Oh, yeah..." she played some more. "But how much do you know? I mean, about how a guy works?"

"We had sex ed. I know about sperm and semen and stuff, and it comes out ... I mean, I HEARD some of Mom's guys say "I'm comin'" and I put two and two together ... Why?"

"Because I am VERY, VERY excited. It hasn't been touched by a woman in I don't know how long, and NEVER by one as beautiful as you."

She smiled again, her fingers curving under my balls, weighing them. "So???"

"So it's about to explode. Stuff's gonna squirt."

"You're gonna have an orgasm, you mean. What's all this clear stuff, then?"

"Oh, no, babe ... What you're doing to me is gonna be waaay past a mere orgasm. I may end up in a parallel universe. The clear stuff's a lubricant. It makes that to make intercourse easier for us."

She giggled. "And I'm doin' that?"

"Yes."

"Like this?" Her hand slid up and down the shaft.

"Just a little bit looser, cutie. Slide the skin up and down with your hand."

Her grip adjusted and she did about four or five more strokes when my eyes squinched shut and I said, "Oh, godddddddd!!!" and the first spurt leapt from the head of my dick and landed who knows where.

"Eeek!" she squealed. "Should I stop?"

"Oh, please don't. milk it. Squeeze a little and tug."

Obediently she gave it her best try and it was plenty good enough. The second and third surges ended up on my chest and belly and the remainder flowed copiously over her hand. Finally I took in a deep breath and sighed.

Flexible, she leaned over and kissed me full on the mouth. Giggling, she said, "I made you feel good..."

"Yes, indeed, you did, baby."

She looked at the gobs of semen on her hand, looked at me, and her eyes turned wicked. She brought the hand to her mouth, gave a tentative lick, tasting, then licked it off her hand. Grinning at me, she scooped the drops off my chest and stomach and put them in her mouth, too. "If I made it, then it's mine."

My dick was semi-flaccid. She kissed me. I tasted my own juices in her kiss. Breaking the kiss, she said, "Uh, I'm sorry. Maybe you didn't want to kiss me after I licked your stuff."

"Baby," I said, "There will never be 1 time that I won't kiss you. And count myself lucky."

Her hand wandered back down to my dick. "Mmmmmm," I said. "That feels soooo good."

She tilted her head as if a thought was crossing her mind. "Can I try sucking on it, Baby?"

"You can. Some women don't do that, though."

"I'm not "some women", Dan. I'm YOUR woman. And if my mom could do it in our living room to some guy she brought home from a bar, I can do it to my man."

"Okay ... I hope you like it."

She pounced on it, her face inches from it, and landed a soft kiss on its head, then a tentative lick and then the head of my dick disappeared into a little bit of nirvana. I heard and felt her "Mmmmmmm." It went instantly hard.

Giggle. "I FELT it grow in my mouth!" Another suck. "So, like, tongue?"

"Yes. Tongue."

She experimented, laving her tongue around the head. Giggling. "I found such a neat toy! Lemme guess. This ridge thingie feels good when I mess with it." She played lips over my coronal ridge. Her eyes turned toward me. "Teeth?"

"Careful. Not too hard."

"How hard?"

My turn to demonstrate. I tugged and she came up to my head. Kissed me. And at eye level were those remarkably firm and delectable titties. I sucked one into my mouth and circled the nipple with my tongue.

"Omigod!" Her hands clamped me to her breast. I nursed for a few seconds, feeling her body shake. And then I bit.

"Too hard?"

"No. Harder."

"Like that?"

"Yessssss!" she hissed.

"That's how hard, then..."

"Oh, baby," she moaned. "I can do that..."

"Later," I said. "I like what I'm doing." And as I nursed and tended one tit and then the other, my free hand slid up her thigh. At my touch, her opened her legs and my fingers gently brushed the firm, moist lips of her pussy.

"Oh, Dan ... I'm dying ... It all feels ... It's almost too much."

"Do I need to stop?"

"I'll kill you if you do," she hissed.

I rose up in the bed and eased her onto her back and kissed her. Her arms went around my neck and pulled us together. As my fingers worked gently at her pussy, her body shook. I dipped a wet finger in between the lips and slowly explored. Her muscles spasmed as I gently circumnavigated her clitty. She WAS wet. I slid my finger back down inside her slit, finding the opening to her hole. As I gently slid my finger inside her, her back arched. I noted the slightest obstruction of her hymen.

"Auuuggghhhhh! Oh!"

I went back to slowly teasing her clit with my fingertip and kissed my way from her face to the hollow of her throat, then her titties, lingering on each one for a minute, her hand on the back of my head, holding me there pressing my mouth on her nipples. It was when I moved down to her navel, a delicate "innie", and licked deep in it, that the idea downed on her that I might have something further in my plans for my mouth...

Her hands gently urged me further down. I could smell her excitement and I savored the soft hair and the firmness of her pubic mound, kissing lightly...

Jan decided that this was not the time to appreciate subtlety. She pushed. "Dan! Do it! Do me! I need to feel your tongue!"

I shifted in the bed to lay between her thighs and kissed, teasing as much as I dared. Fingers gripped into my hair and pulled my face into her pussy's lips and I let my tongue explore the regions just vacated by my fingers. Her taste was exquisite as I scooped her essence into my mouth. Finally my tongue hit her clit.

"Yesssssss!" she hissed, "That's where!"

My reply was "Mmmmmm!"

"OHGOD! I feel that!"

I kept licking and sucking, working her center over with my lips and tongue and her hands tugged frantically at the back of my head as she neared the edge.

"Nnnnnngghhhh! Oh Dan! Ohgodohgodohgod! Yessssss! I'm..." breathe, "I'm commmmminnnnnggggg!"

Her fingers lifted my face from her pussy and she struggled for breath. Her fingers released me and my face fell right into that wet pussy ... and my tongue sought out its new little friend.

"Ohhhh, noooooo! Dan ... I can't ... not ... nooo ... Ohhhhgodyesssssss!" Two. "Come up here..."

I climbed up to her side and cuddled her into my arms. Her eyes fluttered open and a smile showed up.

"Are you okay, my love?"

"Oh, Dan, I've never been this okay in my life ... I mean, I, uh ... you know, I do myself sometimes, but WOW! Not like THAT! Oh, baby..." She curled into me, her arms trapped between us, her hands making fists against my chest as her breathing regulated. Finally she freed a hand and reached down to grasp my dick gently.

"Dan," she said softly, "If we do this next thing, in some societies we're married..."

"I know about that, baby ... But your virginity is yours. You get to decide. We don't have to. You've already brought me far above anywhere I've ever been."

I got a kiss. And a little soft voice. "I love you, Dan."

"I love you, Jan."

"Forever?"

"Forever. Until the sun is a cinder in the sky. And then more."

A tiny giggle. "This is something I only get to do once. I want it to be with you."

"It could hurt..."

"I know about that. But I don't think so. I've been to the doctor. I use tampons, and she said I didn't have much of a hymen."

"Still..."

"Still, nothing, babe." Determined Jan voice. "I am NOT going to be a virgin in the morning. It might hurt ONCE. But it won't hurt for the rest of our lives." She pushed me onto my back and straddled my thighs.

I looked at this perfect young lady on me. Her face was beautiful, eyes blue and twinkling, freckles that I found delightful, titties that had the barest, alluring hint of a jiggle as her arms moved, her hands jacking on my shaft.

"Babe, you feel soooo good ... what are you doing?"

"Making you juicy. You said that makes it easier when we make love."

"Yeah, and you're pretty juicy yourself, you know..."

"I know," she said. She squeezed and a big drop of pre-cum flowed out of my dick. She carefully spread it over the head, smiling at me, then those eyes took a wicked twinkle as she made a big deal about sticking her finger in her mouth to suck the remainder of my juice off. Then she slid up, her wet, hot pussy lips spreading to envelop my shaft in delightful heat.

"Mmmmm," she said, feeling the first contact of our sex. "I like this..." she slid back and forth. I could feel her hard clit dragging in the juice on the shaft of my dick. She rocked back and forth a few times and then rose up on her knees. "I love you, Dan. This is US!" Her hand went between our bodies and she lined my dick up with her waiting hole and she eased down. The head squeezed into the wet virgin passage.

I watched her face. Through my own feelings of pleasure I said, "Go slow, babe. Take your time."

Her mouth fluttered into a smile and she settled down onto me, then rose up, almost letting me out of her hole, then eased back down, this time smiling. "It's going in, Dan..." she rose and came back down now and I felt the opening of her pussy encircling halfway down my shaft, and it felt GOOD. "Mmmmmm!" she purred, then once more up, and back down and I felt our pubic bones meet.

"It's in me..." she smiled.

I curled up to wrap her in my arms. I kissed her and her mouth hungrily searched for the love between us. "I love you, Jan."

"I love you, Dan. This is a forever thing, okay?"

Here we were, mating...

I felt her pelvis move, my dick sliding out of and back into her.

"Mmmmmm," she said.

"You okay?"

"Very much okay. Didn't hardly hurt. Doesn't now." She arched her back to get another stroke, this time a longer, deeper one. "Mmmmmm. I feel so good with you in me."

I held her waist with my hands and she wrapped those long legs around me and I felt her pelvis stroking herself against me. I couldn't hold back and my strokes met hers.

Her mouth sought mine again and we slowed our stroking during the kiss, then she broke it off and started hunching into me like she was seeking something. In a minute, her breathing changed and I was concentrating, trying NOT to come ... yet.

She tossed her head back, that strawberry hair hanging behind her, swinging, as she gave voice to her feelings. "ohgodohgodohgod! Uhhhh! Dannnn! Againnnn! Nnnnnnnghhhhh! YES! YESSSSS!"

And her pussy's walls contracted and I felt her cervix pushing against the head of my dick deep up inside her, and as nature intended, I bathed that cervix with a flood of semen. She recognized what was happening to us and the little minx pushed her pussy harder onto me, milking me with muscles she'd just discovered uses for.

I collapsed backward on the bed and she flopped onto my chest. I held her in my arms.

Her breathing became regular again and she turned her face toward mine. "Mated," she said. "According to that book I read, we just consummated our marriage..."

"I believe that. We're as consummated as two people can be."

"I'm serious, Dan."

"Are you, Jan? I wish you were..."

"I am. I KNOW about random sex. I told myself that I wouldn't be like that."

"Good." I kissed the top of her head.

"You're the only man I will ever share my body with."

"You're serious?"

"I love you, Dan. I told you."

"Oh, god, I hope so, Jan, because I so much love you..."

With a soft plop, my dick fell out of her pussy. She noted the feeling. "It's out, Dan. And we have a mess."

"I'll take care of that, babe," I said, getting out of bed and coming back with a couple of face towels and moist warm washcloths. I gently cleaned and dried her pussy, noting that the white towel had tiny traces of blood. I cleaned and dried myself at bedside as she watched. Finishing, I tossed the used towels through the open bathroom door and I crawled back into bed to reclaim my lover.

She moved easily into my arms, laying her cheek against my chest and rubbing it against my chest hair. "Mmmmm," she purred. "You have NO idea how good I feel right now," she whispered.

"Me, too, baby. It's like all of a sudden I'm alive again."

"Mmmm-hmmm," she purred. Her hand reached down and gathered my soft dick. Giggle. "It's soft." She slid down in the bed and I groaned as her mouth enveloped me. Giggle. Head came up. "It's fun when it's soft." Head back down. More sucking. Another giggle. "It's growing in my mouth..." Then she nuzzled my balls.

"Careful, baby. If you're too rough with those, it causes excruciating pain."

"Can I do this?" she asked, licking my sack.

"Oh, yes."

"And this?" Her lips closed over most of one nut, sucking gently.

"Yes. But don't suck much harder."

"And this?" Her teeth picked up a fold of skin and she tugged.

"God, yes..."

I heard and felt her giggle. "Fun!" she said. She returned to my dick. "Oh yeah! I forgot that I can bite this, too!" And she did, working her way up and down the shaft in little nibbles and nips. Then she slid back up in my arms.

"Dan," she says, "It's wonderful, all this. But what comes next?"

I sighed. Serious talk time. With a girl who only hours before was just a funny, smart, special friend. "Serious talk?"

"Serious," she said.

"Okay. Here's what I'd like. Since we're all consummated and everything, I'd like us to be really married. So we can be seen together in public. And live together. No questions."

Squeal! "Dan! Married? Like in forever?"

"Yes, but we have a problem, little one."

Her glee subsided. "What problem?"

"You're too young. You have to be eighteen to get married without your parent's consent."

"But it's legal for me to do stuff. I mean, you and I make love, and that's okay."

"I know. But to be officially married, you have to be eighteen."

I saw that "thinking Jan" face. "But you said if my parent signs. Mom's in prison. Grandma is my legal guardian. She could sign, huh?"

"Uh, babe, I'm worried about your grandma. I'm thinking that if she thinks I've been doin' her grand-daughter, she's gonna shoot me."

"I don't think so. She kinda likes you. Remember?"

"Babe, that was before you waltz up to her and say 'Hi! Dan and I should get married!' and she puts two and two together and comes up with four..."

"Nuh-uh. But we have tomorrow and Sunday before that has to be done, and you let ME handle it, okay?"

"My Jan is awfully confident," I said.

"I should be," she said. "I'm with my life's mate."

"Speaking of mating, you could be ... you didn't seem to worry about pregnancy."

"I've been on the Pill for years," she said. "Regulates periods." She paused. "But you didn't worry either."

"Vasectomy after first wife's pregnancy. Doctor said a second one might kill her or hurt the baby."

"So you can't have kids?"

"Nope. Is that a deal-breaker?"

"Nope, baby. If we need kids, we can borrow some. But after Mom, I never wanted kids."

"Okay," I said. "I love you, babe."

She kissed ME on the nose. "I love you too. Uh, I've never slept with a guy before. Do you go to sleep with music on?"

"What kind of music?" This could be friction.

"Put it on the public radio station. Late night classical."

"Serious?" We'd listened to classical music from time to time, but I thought she was humoring me.

"That's what I use. Really."

I turned the radio on, set the sleep time, turned off the lights, and for the first time in years I snuggled to go to sleep with somebody who shared my love.

Morning came. She was right. She wasn't used to sleeping with somebody else. My night was a cycle of arms and legs not my own and every time she shifted I woke up, remembered WHY I was getting poked and WHO was doing the poking and what it meant, and I flat didn't care about waking up, because I could reach over and stroke a perfect female form and have her snuggle back against me and we'd go back to sleep.

Tousled hair framed a sleepy face.

"Good morning, baby," I said.

"Oh, good morning, love," she answered. "Kiss me."

"I got dragon breath in the morning," I said.

"I'll risk it. Kiss me."

We kissed. I guessed a quick peck and then she'd back off. I got an extended kiss, our tongues twining together, her hands and mine exploring each other's bodies, reminding me that not only did I just sleep all night with this girl, but we did it completely nude, something I'd seldom done before. I released her and headed to the bathroom, needing badly to pee.

Just as the stream started, I heard a giggle.

"What?" I asked.

"I never really saw an adult do that."

I pinched off the flow and restarted, demonstrating.

"Neat! Can I?"

"Be careful. Don't pee on the floor."

She reached over and took my dick and made swirlies in the toilet. When the stream stopped, I said, "Shake it."

"Shake it?"

"Yeah. Shake the drop off the end, and that's it."

"Nuh-uh," she said. She pulled a bit of toilet paper and dabbed the head, then put the seat down on the toilet and sat down. I started to leave and she said, "Nuh-uh. Come 'ere!" I stood close and her hand cupped my balls and tugged me closer. Her head dipped and I found my dick in her mouth again. She let me drop. "Something else needed kissing, too, babe." Her smile was priceless.

"Shower?" I asked.

"Together?" she countered.

"Oh, yes." And we fitted two soapy wet bodies in the stall and had a wonderful time. We emerged and toweled off. Her hair was still wet. I told her we'd buy a hair dryer today.

"Okay, babe," she said. "Let's go to grandma's apartment and I can dry my hair."

We dressed and walked out the door and into her former home. Entering, the answering machine was flashing. One message. "I don't recognize the caller ID," she said, then she hit the button.

The voice on the machine was her grandmother. "Hey, Jan, this is your grandma. It's one in the morning. I was just calling to check on you. I heard the weather was bad." (Weather? I hadn't noticed. I guess because my world turned upside down) The message continued. "I'm pretty sure you're in good hands, baby. Just make sure you're doing the right thing. I'll see you Sunday."

"What's that mean?" I asked.

"What's what mean?"

"When she said, 'Make sure you're doing the right thing'."

"Dan, can I tell you something? And you won't get mad?"

"Sure babe. What?"

"Uh, I kinda told Grandma that I had, as she says, 'designs', on you."

"You told her that? When?"

"A week or so ago."

"Uh, so tell me, little strawberry girl, did THAT information have anything to do with her taking off for the weekend?"

Small voice. "Yeah. Maybe. A little bit."

I looked at her. "So let me get this straight. She left town pretty much knowing that you were going to..."

"That'd be a 'no'. I told her that we were going to go running the roads and I was going to get to know you better and talk to you, maybe."

"Ooohhhh..."

"And I really am scared of lightning."

"Uh-huh ... Really," she said. "And I really DO love you."

"So all in all, how do you think your plans worked out?"

She smiled. And kissed me. "Pretty good," she said. "And that thing about Grandma signing for me to marry you?"

"Yeah?"

Giggle. "It's a gimme!"

Chapter 4

Jan's Side:

I really think that Grandma is not going to have a problem with it. Really.

I'm glowing today. I mean, I'm healthy. Usually feel good. But today ... I'm, well, DIFFERENT.

It's not sex. I know a girl who came to school almost a wreck after HER first time. She was messed up on several levels. Hurt physically. And the guy ... A jerk. I think they dated a couple of weeks after that and every time they went out, it was HIM wanting sex. No more hangin' out with friends. No movies. SEX. And he dumped 'er and moved on.

That's not what I've experienced so far. First, hurt? Like pulling a hangnail, maybe, and then WOW!

I love the guy. I know that whole thing about leering old guys with the hots for teenaged girls. Never got that with Dan. Never. As a matter of fact, he almost RAN the other way. I could tell he was nervous. I can also tell you that he has a weakness. He likes helping people. I'm people. I needed help. So I had Dan help me.

Sometimes people have shells. I think we, both of us, we had shells. I know that in my case, I expected the shell to be broken sooner or later. Seriously, I am sixteen. And Baptist, so that whole nunnery thing is not an option.

I dreamed of normalcy. Moving in with Grandma was a step in that direction. At least I didn't have to worry about getting molested by one of Mom's guys. Grandma was more than civil to me. I had a clean, quiet home in a nice neighborhood. It was almost too late for school, though.

But I met Dan. He started me off with principles that teachers might have discussed, but I didn't remember, and he took me through about two years of school in two weeks because he KNEW and all of a sudden I wanted to learn. Because one of the things I learned is that he thought 'smart' was cool. And I wanted to be 'cool' to a guy like that.

They're rare, you know. I looked around. At school, it seemed like everybody, at least the guys, are putting on acts. Even the smart guys. They get this idea that being smart is acceptable if they put on some sort of show about being all 'street'. And I simply did NOT give in to the 'he's a football player. Ooooo, he's so FINE!". And there were the 'playas' and several other subgroups, not one of whom made my bell so much as move, much less ring.

And then there's Dan. Dan, who wouldn't commit to tutoring me until he'd talked with Grandma. Dan, who told Grandma that she could come knock on the door any time I was supposed to be over at his apartment studying. Dan, who actually studies with me.

Dan. The guy that told me I was smart. Dan, the guy who got so excited after two weeks when I started bringing home A's from school.

Dan, the guy I fell in love with.

I never had a dad, so I don't know how a kid is supposed to be about a dad. Well, I know some of it. I talk to other kids. But really, I don't know. That's one of the things I asked Grandma.

"What's the difference? What can I see that tells me, Grandma?"

"I don't know exactly how to tell you, Jan," she said. "I remember my dad being the disciplinarian and the teacher and the provider." She sighed. "Your grandfather ... Oh, Jan, you make me think of when I was young, a few years older than you, but out of the crowd of girls my age and the group of boys HIS age, something made him just stand out. Like we connected. And that was after I'd been socializing with all the others. We were like a big family of brothers and sisters, except Harold just stood out."

Grandma looked at me. "You're thinking about Dan aren't you, baby?"

I can't lie to Grandma. Never have. And wasn't going to start. "Yes, ma'am. Am I wrong?"

"What's your heart say?"

"Heart says I'm not."

She smiled in that gentle way that I needed so much since I came to live with her. "Hearts can be broken, baby. What's your head say?"

"The age thing. We're at the edges of it, but I've heard of worse. Intellect. Oh, Grandma, he IS smart. The guy's an engineer and he's got me making straight A's. He's kind and he's funny and he's interesting to talk with. Money? He makes good money. Has savings. What am I missing?"

"Looks." Grandma was picking at me.

"Oh, YOU said he was good-looking yourself."

"Hearts can be broken, Jan," she said as she brushed her fingers through my hair. "But if it happens, then I'm going to try to understand it, princess. You've lived more in sixteen years than a lot of people twice your age. But just because you've seen a lot of things doesn't mean you're ready for them yourself."

"I'm not ready for ANYTHING Mom did, Grandma. I'm ready for what was missing. Love. Caring. Sharing."

"Take a hard look, Jan. You're a pretty young girl. A guy's ... Guy's head gets turned."

"I thought about that, Grandma. It's sweet to hear you say it, but I'm not anything special as far as looks are concerned. But you know that we study, well, I study, and he teaches and helps. And we've been alone in his apartment all those times. And he's never ... Grandma, the guy is a perfect gentleman. Except he LIKES me."

"How is liking you an exception?"

"I ... Poor choice of words. He IS a perfect gentleman. And when we're done with homework, we drink a cold drink or some lemonade and listen to music or watch TV. Grandma, If he was trying to get in a sixteen year old's pants, don't you think he'd've made a move by now? He's ha dplenty of opportunity."

"And he hasn't," Grandma said.

"Not even the tiniest suggestive comment. Nothing. All he does is smile and laugh and talk with me."

Grandma loves me, and I guess she worries, but I know that sometimes I'm a hassle. She has this guy her age. They date, hang out, he comes over, they cook and watch TV, just like I was doing with Dan. I can see things too, you know. I think that just maybe I'm in the way. But she loves me. But I wish...

I asked myself if that's why, maybe a little bit of why I'm thinking about Dan this way. I lost sleep over it, really. But I can't find that bit of dishonesty in me. I couldn't lie to myself or to Dan, if it goes further.

I wanted it to go further. Not because he's a guy and I'm a girl. I go to school with a lot of guys. None of THEM ever started out in my head like Dan did. None of them started getting into my heart.

So what was I supposed to do? Grandma was the only person I could ask about this. I could just see asking kids at school. I'd get the 'Uh-huh, you know how her mom was' treatment. Or the 'Ewwwww! He's OLD!' thing. And nobody would understand. Aside from Grandma, I was on my own here.

So I went with my heart when it said 'true love can be a once in a lifetime thing' and with my head when it said 'Friendly, smart, steady, secure, and pretty darned good looking' and I made up my mind.

I woke up with Dan by my side. You know how it is in the fog of semi-consciousness when you first wake up in unfamiliar surroundings.

First thing I did was back into HIM. He wiggled a little, and the next thing I knew I had an arm around me, gently puling me into him. Then I remembered the totality of what had happened. I had SLEPT with a MAN. And that's in the loose sense of the word. I squeezed my thighs together and felt a little sort of twinge. And it came back to me. Joy. Mine. His. Both of us.

I don't delude myself. (yes, I use words like that!) I know how many people mistake sex for love. And I know how many people don't even bother to TRY to equate sex and love, they relegate sex to a body function and love to some kind of unenlightened fairy tale, but if I thought that Dan was one of those, I wouldn't be lying here in his bed with his arms around me, both of us completely naked.

I just kept quiet. Just maybe he wanted to wake up slowly like I did and sort all this out.

I could tell the sorting was going on when he buried his nose in my hair and breathed deeply and went 'Mmmmm.' That was followed by an adjustment of body position to improve our snuggle.

"Hello, sweet girl. You're still here."

"I'm glad," I said. "Dan, I still love you this morning."

"I hope so, Jan. I don't want to think we got carried away and lost our minds here. I'd like to keep you around."

"How long do you want to put up with me?"

"Forever," he said. "Love is supposed to be a forever thing." He kissed me on the nape of my neck. My NECK! And he sighed.

I cuddled up against him. "Do I get to keep you, too? My Dan. Mine alone?"

"We possess each other. No others." He nuzzled into the back of my head again. "Until your grandma gets home, comes over, and shoots me."

I twisted around in his arms, finding myself nose to nose with him. And in this position, if you tilt your head sideways just a little, the noses get out of the way and the lips meet...

Shower. My first ever shower with another person. Friend. Lover. Mate. I watched HIM shave while I was drying off.

"We need to got to Grandma's so I can dry my hair," I said.

"If this is going to be a regular thing I need to get you a hair dryer," Dan said.

"I have all that at Grandma's. Explain to my why I don't just box it up and move it over here?"

"We need to see how your grandma is going react to all this." Dan. Cautious. Thoughtful.

We got dressed and walked to Grandma's apartment. When we walked in I saw the flashing light on the answering machine. Okay. Let me check. I didn't recognize the number on the display, so I hit the button. Grandma's voice:

"Hey, Jan, this is your grandma. It's one in the morning. I was just calling to check on you. I heard the weather was bad."

"I'm pretty sure you're in good hands, baby. Just make sure you're doing the right thing. I'll see you Sunday."

"What's that mean?" he asked.

"What's what mean?"

"When she said, 'Make sure you're doing the right thing'."

"Dan, can I tell you something? And you won't get mad?"

"Sure babe. What?"

"Uh, I kinda told Grandma that I had, as she says, 'designs', on you."

"You told her that? When?"

"A week or so ago."

"Uh, so tell me, little strawberry girl, did THAT information have anything to do with her taking off for the weekend?"

I went to my 'nervous little girl' voice. "Yeah. Maybe. A little bit."

He fixed me in his gaze. Those darned blue eyes. "So let me get this straight. She left town pretty much knowing that you were going to..."

"That'd be a 'no'. I told her that we were going to go running the roads and I was going to get to know you better and talk to you, maybe."

"Ooohhhh..."

"And I really am scared of lightning. Uh-huh ... Really," I said, bouncing my head to emphasize the affirmative. "And I really DO love you."

"So all in all, how do you think your plans worked out?"

I smiled. Was it REALLY a plan? "Pretty good," I said. "And that thing about Grandma signing for me to marry you?"

"Yeah?"

Giggle. "It's a gimme! But Dan?"

"Yes, punkin?" He was still smiling.

"Last night wasn't REALLY a plan. I mean, I didn't leave here yesterday knowing I'd end up in bed with you."

"I feel better," he said.

"I didn't target you and say 'tonight's the night', guy. I just wanted to be with you and determined that if it happened last night, that was okay. But you were going to be the one. Does that sound crass?"

"Nope. I made the determination that I would be there for you as long as it took. And if it was just hugging and kissing and holding hands, you're the person I would hug and kiss and hold."

"You don't regret last night, do you, Dan?" I asked. I was pretty certain of the answer when I asked, though.

"No I don't, princess. Do you?"

I shook my head. "Only if you don't remember what 'forever' means."

I attended to drying and brushing my hair. That's it. No make-up. A dab of the perfume on the bathroom counter was all the enhancement I ever used, Dan or no Dan.

"Let me change. I don't want to wear the same clothes I wore yesterday," I said.

"Okay, go ahead." He acted like he'd wait in the living room or something.

"Come in here with me," I urged him. "It's not like I am ever going to hide anything from you."

Dan watched as I shucked yesterday's clothes, all the way down to my bare skin. Okay, I'm naked. He gets that. I present myself to him. There's something about me showing myself like that while he's fully clothed. I feel like I'm sort of subservient, presenting total control of myself to him. I get the feeling. It's something I need to think about.

I'll think about it later. Right now I want to see what if feels like when I hug him like this. His hands on my bare skin cause electricity to jolt though me. His lips complete the circuit. My whole body starts to glow.

Our lips part. "Dan," I say softly, "We can postpone breakfast..."

"Back to our place, then?"

"Our place?" Did he just say that?

"I assume we have to live somewhere," he said.

"But it's YOUR place," I pressed.

"Not if you grandma doesn't shoot me."

"Let me get dressed."

"I suppose," he smiled. "Although I really do like you this way."

"Turnabout is fair play," I said.

When we walked outside, our blood supplies had finally reached our brains again and we decided on breakfast. At the diner we laughed at our sudden good sense.

"It's not about sex, is it?" he laughed.

"No. but after last night, I can see how it could be. Dan ... my world changed. Really."

"Does that mean we won't be doing museums and libraries today?" he asked.

I smiled. "We could. But all of that is about curiosity, right?"

"Uh ... yes, it is."

"And satisfying curiosity is a good thing, right?"

"Yes."

"And it's sort of like us being explorers, right? Uncharted territory and all that, huh?"

"I think I see where you're heading with this, little girl," he smiled.

"Okay," I said. "I'm trying to understand how all of this works. Most the examples I've been close to are BAD examples."

Dan paid for our breakfast and we got back into his SUV.

"I feel a little more comfortable talking about this here," he said. "Somebody might get the wrong idea about you and me."

"That we're in love?" I asked.

"Yes. But other ideas come to mind, too."

"We are in love, right?"

"Absolutely, little one," he affirmed.

"So that whole 'sex' thing ... All the time ... Is that ... normal?"

"Yes, I guess it can be. Is."

"When you got married..." I started. I knew that his marriage had failed. According to him, not his fault. I really didn't want to think about MY Dan and anybody else, but the guy is forty. I know he didn't just walk out of a monastery. "How did that work?"

"Baby, I don't want to be explicit."

"Then don't be," I said. "Was it frequent?"

"Yes."

"Whose idea? Yours? Hers?"

"Both."

"Okay, then. That's an answer. See? We can talk about this." My fingers brushed his arm. "Is this different? Me and you?"

"I love you much more," he said. "I didn't know how to love. Who to love." His eyes didn't lie.

"But if we went home right now, we'd sit in the middle of the floor in the living room and play Parcheesi?"

"If you want to play Parcheesi, then that's what we do."

"Suppose I want us both naked, the curtains closed and we run around the how accosting each other in every room?"

"Beats the hell out of Parcheesi," he laughed.

"Let's go home," I said.

On the short walk between the parking spot and the front door of his ... no, OUR apartment, I held his hand.

Forty minutes later we're lying together in our bed. We've made a wreck of the sheets. I'm at an angle to him, my cheek on his shoulder. Pensive.

"Why me, Dan? Why not one of those other women?"

"You're smart. I like smart. I like cute, too, and you have that by the bucketful. And you seem to have feelings and question them and talk about them and explore them. You're my adventure." He turned his head, kissed the top of mine. "Besides, you have this crazy pink hair that drives me nuts."

"You, sir," I said, "Have chosen me. I intend to hold you to your choice." I slid up a little bit to kiss him. While we kissed, I let my fingers assuage their curiosity about the male form. Finding out things is fun. Discovering how I can interact with MY male.

"I like being on top of you," I said. "is it uncomfortable?"

"Nope," he grinned. "And you should be there."

I took that as a subtle hint and tossed a leg over him, pulling myself prone atop his supine body. Puts our faces inches apart. Tilt head to right, lips touch. Hands course down my sides, taking my measure. I'm alive in ways I've never imagined. Underneath me I could feel HIM getting alive in ways I now understand. That whole idea of a hard one versus a soft one, I understand now.

The first time I really got a chance to look at Dan, it was hard. I touched it last night when it was soft, so I knew that such a state exists. It wasn't until today that I really got a look at it soft. And when he stands up ... cute. I understand, no, maybe I don't, but seeing it soft like that, for me it's just begging to be fondled, and yes, sucked.

I'd heard about getting 'eaten out', too, and while I imagined that it MIGHT be pleasant, I now know that it's a long way past pleasant.

"Dan," I asked him when he was face-down between my thighs, " do you REALLY like that?"

"I LOVE this, princess," he said. His tongue provided all manner of punctuation to his statement.

I gasped. Came. Hard. I wasn't without experience in the orgasm department, but relinquishing control of my orgasm to this guy, my lover, moved the experience to new levels, like from candle-light to lasers.

Right now, though, I'm laying on top of him and we're both VERY happy. "It's getting hard again, honey," I said. "Does that mean..."

"I hope it does," he said.

"I''m sore."

"You ... We don't have to do it again," he said. "I'm in heaven just like this." He emphasized the statement with his hands cupping the cheeks of my butt.

I moved, grinding my pubic mound against the hardening shaft between us.

"But if you really want to..."

"I REALLY want to," I said. I kissed him, slid my knees sideways and pushed up astride him. I looked down. That's one happy guy there. I rose up, reached between us, guiding that hard, sticky shaft to where it was supposed to go, settled back down with him inside me. "Mmmmmmmmm!"

"You are so beautiful, Jan," he said. "My angel."

I was at a loss for words, a rather unusual condition for me. I mean, I'm not talkative. That doesn't mean I don't have something to say. It just means that I don't want to say it. Right now, though, no words ... Or maybe it's ALL the words. All at once. Because what comes out of my mouth is gibberish. Clinched teeth. Hissing breath. Whimpers. Finally "Oh, god! Unhhhhhhh!" and I slam down at an angle banging my little button against the base of this thing that has impaled me and it's pulsing and squirting fire into me. I can feel it. I know what it looks like and I can FEEL it and know exactly what's happening through the explosions of my own climax.

I couldn't make myself move. Dan could, though, and pulled up to a sitting position with me still on him. I sighed as he fell out of me though, but the sigh was stifled by his mouth fastening on my own. You can breathe while you're kissing. I didn't know that. I do now, because sometimes you just don't want to ever stop. I know I didn't.

I'm glad I'm tall. My legs can go around him and hold me in place. "Oh, Dan ... I love you so much."

"I love you just as much, Janice Lee Griffin."

"I don't want to stay Janice Lee Griffin," I said. "Tell me that I'm destined to be Janice Lee Jansen."

"You are. If we can get unstuck, we can go look at rings."

"You're serious!" I squealed.

"Yes, punkin, I am. Aren't you?"

"Yes, Dan. But it's like I'm in a dream."

"It's not a dream. Have you ever given any thought as to what your engagement ring should look like?"

"Not a single thought. My wedding ring will be a simple gold band."

"No diamond?"

"Nope." I shook my head. "Simplicity. Unadorned purity. No end. No beginning."

He smiled like he was thinking of something. Said a single word: "You."

Chapter 5

Dan's turn:

A rush. The weekend was a rush. Noting I'd ever experienced in my life compared to this. No, it's not my first sexual experience. I was married before, and before that, well, others. And since then, others. But this is beyond all that. Considering just the sexual aspect, this was the first virgin I'd ever encountered, and frankly, I was sort of scared that I'd cause her pain.

I didn't. This was all in Jan's control. I did NOT seduce this girl. She was stone cold sober, as was I. I loved her, but I was mature enough to leave it at the emotional level. She loves me. And she wanted...

So it wasn't one of those encounters where at the end of the evening you're lying in your bed wondering what the other person is thinking about the event. It was one of those evenings where you curl up with your lover in your arms and it grew into a morning where you wake up with your lover in your arms and she's got no regrets, just expectations and anticipations.

I woke up with Jan's perfect butt easing back against me, spooning. I put my free arm around her and drew her gently back. My nose caught the scent of her hair. I nuzzled into it and breathed. "Mmmmmmm..."

She sighed.

"You're still here, pretty one," I said.

"Yes I am. Dan, I love you this morning. Still."

"You're awake. You're sober. And you love me."

She twisted around. We kissed. "Yes, life is good."

We played all day. ALL day. This was no slut, nor was she a shrinking violet. "I love you. And you told me that the key to learning was curiosity. So I'm curious."

Dinnertime came and we did indeed get out to a decent restaurant for dinner. It occurred to me that I looked so much older than her. We talked on the drive home.

"I thought about that, too, you know," she said. "On those nights where I was lying in my own bed, trying to categorize my feelings. I can be very analytical, you know."

"And so what's Jan's analysis of this?"

"Jan is totally in love and she is silly enough to think that Dan is in love with her as well."

"Jan is correct." I kissed her. "Dan is in love and is hoping that this isn't another train wreck."

"I won't let it be," she affirmed. "We can do this right. Life, you know. It can be good."

Actually went to a movie together. Got home just after nine.

"We need to go to Grandma's," Jan said. "I need a change of clothes for tomorrow."

"Let's go," I answered.

When we got in the door, the answering machine was again flashing. Jan looked at me. "I guess it's Grandma again." She punched the button.

"Hi, Jan, It's me again. Just checking up on you. I see you're still out. I hope you're safe and in good hands. We plan on getting back Sunday evening. We'll talk then."

"I guess that's better than 'I can't find you so I called the sheriff's office and declared you a missing person.' Huh?" she giggled.

"Yes. You said she acted like she knew..."

"I think she didn't want to come out and say it." She looked sideways at me. "Buddy, You'd better be serious. I am."

"I am, too. I have a winning lottery ticket and I am never letting it go."

Squeal. "You mean ME?" She slid so naturally into my arms, her face tilted up just enough for our lips to meet easily. Deliciously. She broke away with a smile, took me by the hand to her bedroom and rummaged around collecting some clothes, jeans, a loose blouse, socks, panties. And her hair dryer.

Everything went into a tote bag and we left for my apartment, hand in hand. Inside my - make that 'our' door, she dropped her bag.

"It's been too long. I need kissing." She wrapped her arms around my neck, pulling me to her. We broke with mutual sighs.

"Another team showering?" I asked.

"Love it," came the reply. "But I understand if you want to shower separately."

"Not if there's a choice."

The smile was huge. "Good! Because I'm not through being curious."

I can't help but smile. I'm curious, too. Svelte, young, maybe not centerfold or runway model looks, but she's got my complete adoration. And darned right I want to play. Starting with the shower.

She caught herself being bashful as we undressed together in the bedroom. "I'll get used to this," she giggled. "It's so new to me. You're the first man who's ever seen me totally naked, you know. Since I was a baby, I mean."

I tried not to stare. Failed.

Giggle. "You're LOOKING!"

I laughed. "And you're SHOWING! Besides, what about the last two days?"

"That's different! I was out of my mind..."

"I still am," I retorted. "And you, my dear kitten, are beautiful."

"And I'm coming down off of the insane hormone levels of our first matings..."

"Matings?"

"Yes," she said. She was becoming more cognizant of her choices of words. "Matings. In the complete sense, not the crude idea of couplings to produce offspring. I mean the more complete version that encompasses ('encompasses'? Really, Jan?) ALL the levels of love." Giggle. "And a healthy direction of pure lust." She pranced closer, within range of my hands.

We both laughed because when my hands touched her, we both went "Mmmmmmm..."

"We're crazy, you know," she said.

"We're in love. Same thing," I answered.

She pushed me back towards the bed. "This didn't happen overnight, Dan," she said softly, punctuating with a kiss.

"I didn't suspect it did, Janice Lee. It didn't with me, either. But here we are."

She had me in her arms, her face close to mine, her eyes sparkling. "And so shall it be forever."

"I hope so," I said.

"You look worried."

"Your grandma's coming home. This could be very bad."

"You heard her message, my love. If she thought something was happening that was so horrible, she'd have come screaming in Friday night." Her lips touched mine. "The only bad thing that could happen is that you decide that you really don't want to be my forever husband."

"Never happen," I said. I winced when her fingers closed around my shaft.

"Surprised you?" her eyes filled with mirth.

"Not used to it, little one," I said.

"And I love that." Two days ago this was a virgin teen. Now she's a playful lover. Her curiosity wasn't the only thing insatiable. Her excitement was contagious. I rose to new heights. Okay, maybe not new heights, exactly, but frequency, for sure.

One before the shower. One very happy shower. Life was a blur after the shower. We didn't exactly go to sleep. I think I slipped out of a coma and into slumber. Woke up in the middle of the night when the soft form next to me rearranged herself. I rolled towards her, gently measuring the curve of her waist. Her hand captured mine and pulled it around her, fitting us together. We eased back to sleep.

Sunday morning tranquility. Waking up next Jan added to it. The luxury of waking and knowing that absolutely nothing required me to leave the bed immediately is rich. It's even more rich to realize that there's a warm, eager young body in bed with you. Beats snuggling with a crumpled pillow.

Okay, let's see if she is indeed better than that crumpled pillow. I tossed an arm over her and eased up against her. The pillow never purred. Or wiggled backward. Or giggled and twisted around and shoved me over on my back and straddled me.

"I've been drifting along here, waiting for a sign that you're awake," she smiled down at me. "Are you interested in breakfast?" She wiggled a part of herself against me, something wet and warm and delightful in ways I lack words to describe. "Or maybe something else first? Hmmm?"

"I like that 'something else' idea a whole lot. But I need to relieve some pressure."

"Ooooo-kayyyy," she said in a sad little voice. "But hurry back." She slid off me. I got up, was standing, releasing a heavy, noisy stream when I felt her behind me.

Giggle. "That's just neat."

"What?"

"Watching you pee. Never saw an adult do it before."

I finished. Shook it dry. She shoved me aside. "I didn't know I needed to go so bad," she uttered as she lowered the seat and sat. While she was relieving herself I took the opportunity to wash my face, then I made a show of wiping my genitalia.

"Awww," she said, "You shouldn't have done that?"

"Huh?"

"You're clean, you know. That's just us there. Do you think I need washing? I mean..."

"No."

"Then stop that," she said as she stood. We were both nude, embracing. "Is that kinky? I mean, I sort of like the idea of it. The way you taste after we..."

"I don't know if it's kinky. I know that I like the way YOU taste. Before. After."

"You sure?" she said. "I'm really inexperienced about a lot of this."

"I don't think anything between us is wrong, if that's what you mean."

"Then I don't think you should worry about washing yourself like that. I mean we already shower together. That takes care of cleaning that thing." Those blue eyes fixed on mine. "So yesterday, after we did it the night before? Was I stinky?"

"Heavens no. You were delicious." I remembered the musky, salty taste. I twitched involuntarily in response.

"Oooo," she giggled. "That thing's a lie detector too?"

"Won't let me lie about what turns me on about you, for sure."

"I'm glad of that," she smiled. "Now, would it be considered forward of me to direct you back to the bedroom?"

"No, dearest, it would not be forward of you at all."

"Let's go." She took my hand and tugged toward the door.

It was after nine when we got out of bed for breakfast. "I don't feel like cooking. Or cold cereal. Wanna go out?"

She smiled. "We'll have to get dressed."

"Yeah, but then we can come back home if you want."

Her eyes twinkled. "And get undressed again."

"I wasn't gonna push you," I said.

"Come on. Let's get dressed. Me and you, we're not just about sex, buddy. But you introduced me to it and I really like it. Am I..."

"Don't even say it. You're my wildest dreams. With an exponent."

Giggle. "You educated me, sir. I know what an exponent is. Get dressed."

An hour and a half later she was unlocking the door to our apartment. Five minutes later we didn't have a stitch of clothing between us.

In the afterglow of that round, she was lying against me with my right arm holding her to me.

"How's this going to work, little one?" I asked.

"How's what going to work?"

"How soon do you want to get married? Do you want a big wedding?"

"Soon. And no. And Dan?"

"Yes?"

"If Grandma doesn't object, would you like me to move in with you?"

"I would love that," I said. "But it's a big step. Serious stuff. Are you sure?"

"You know, Dan," she said, "I had long talks about this subject with Grandma. She said it used to be very serious, that whole virginity thing. I treated us like that because I think you're a man who's so very different than any other I ever knew."

I looked into her eyes. Saw no guile there.

She continued. "I wouldn't have done Friday night if I thought I'd be rejected, but I had to read you pretty hard. You're just too honorable for your own good, my love. I had to add a lot of smiles and little touches and looks together to come up with the idea that you wanted me. I know one hundred percent how I feel..."

"You were a hundred percent correct about how I feel, too, Janice Lee. I wanted to say something. Almost did several times. We'd be sitting there at the table with your papers and books and you'd shake your head when you understood something and you'd look sideways at me and I'd just melt. You are so utterly, amazingly charming to me. And I just couldn't do anything about it."

She pushed up a little to get within kissing range. Used her new proximity to good result. "We have done something about it now. Dan, I'm serious. Forever."

"Forever, Janice Lee," I said. "I will stand in front of God and family and friends and say it to you."

"Too late. God already knows about me and you. And WE know about me and you. How much more serious can it be? An agreement between people of honor."

"You're a strange and wonderful thing," I said. I twisted to kiss her again.

She responded by climbing on top of me. "I am your strange and wonderful thing, sir. And YOU are mine."

"As it should be. And shall be."

"So if Grandma doesn't throw a hissy fit, I stay here?"

"You stay here. Never again will we part."

Giggle. "School. Work."

"You know what I mean. Besides, you have another week of school and then you're out for the summer."

"And you're gonna worry about me, huh? That I'll be the bikini babe at the apartment pool and have a bevy of young studs salivating..."

"There is that..."

"Nope. I'll be married."

"What?"

"Too soon?" she asked. Her eyes turned mischievous. "You'd rather live with me in a life of sin and debauchery?"

"I just said you had a week of school left."

"And again, if Grandma agrees, tomorrow we will get a marriage license and then we'll have a three-day waiting period and we can get married by a minister or a Justice of the Peace. And you'll be mine."

"You've researched this, it seems."

"Oh, Dan, I'm afraid so. You're the victim of premeditation."

"I never looked. I never in my wildest dreams imagined myself here. Not for real."

"I did. I need my birth certificate. Got that. Grandma's got the court order making her my guardian. I have my driver's license. Well, a learner's permit, at least. Do you have a certified copy of your divorce papers? You'll need that. And we all have to show up together. I'll call tomorrow to make sure I have everything. Can you get out Tuesday afternoon?" The words came out in a tumble.

I laughed.

"What's so funny?"

"That you have this all figured out."

She smiled. "I will not be some flighty little airhead, Dan. I might be sixteen, but I can be serious when I need to be. And I will be seriously yours."

Lunchtime showed me how much I was already paying attention in the relationship between my unlikely partner and me. She'd already impacted my grocery shopping. That meant that when we decided to have lunch, things she liked were already on hand.

"My birthday's next month. Three weeks from now. I can get my real driver's license. Then I can take care of our house. Run errands while you're at work. You know, like a real wife."

"Yeah, and I need to get you a cellphone."

"An iPhone?"

"Yep! Like mine."

She squealed. "You don't have to, though."

"Yes I do. You need it. And we need to think about another car, too."

Real squeal. "I didn't ... You don't..."

"Baby," I said, "Were you planning on shuttling me to work every day so you'd have the car to run those errands?"

"I didn't really ... Yeah, I guess I wondered. But Dan, a car?"

"But Dan," I mimicked in falsetto, "A wife?"

"Yeah, there is that, huh? Isn't that too much money?"

"Hardly. I'm not talking a new Mercedes. Something practical. And you know how much money I make." We'd talked about my engineering career. "And I have a pretty decent portfolio of savings, too. Money's not a problem." It wasn't. "I mean, I'm not Bill Gates, but it comes in faster than it goes out, and we're going to be in good shape. So an iPhone and a car won't kill us."

Giggle. "You said 'us'."

"It IS us, right?" I asked her.

"Yes it is. I'm getting used to it. I had my dreams. This is real."

"Yes, it is."

Together we cleared the little breakfast nook table. "Dan," she said softly.

"Yes, my love?"

"I'm gonna be a little bit forward again..."

"I think we can stand that," I said. "But we want to be smelling nice and clean when your grandma gets back."

"She said she'd be back this evening."

"So what am I to do in these last hours of my life on earth?"

"Earth? Earth?!?" she squealed. "Since Friday I have been skipping among the stars, sir!"

"You are nuts," I said, scooping her into my arms. "I didn't see you there. Of course I was too busy with this strawberry blonde angel."

In my arms, she kissed me several times, a cluster of sweet pecks. "I love you, Dan Jansen."

"I love you too, Janice Lee Griffin."

"Good. Take off your clothes. Or should I do it for you?"

"We're in the kitchen."

"The curtains are closed. The door is locked." She grabbed her jeans, popped the snap and shucked them down, started on the buttons on her blouse. "Or are you waiting for ME to do it for you?"

I know when I'm beat. I undressed, stepped out of my jeans and underwear as she started to kneel in front of me. She turned her face up to look at me. I'm so weak. I let her. Fought to keep my knees from buckling.

She giggled and stood. "Just so I can say that I've done it in here," she said.

"And who exactly would you share this activity with?"

"I dunno. Never know when the subject might come up." Her hands pushed on my chest. "Sofa. Let's do it on the sofa. Then your recliner." Her eyes twinkled with mirth.

We did. And ended up in bed. Again. I really think that I've got a risk of dehydration. Unless I could soak up some moisture from the long shower we took afterward.

After the shower. "Let's not get dressed right away," she said.

"We just showered so we won't smell like sex when your grandma gets home."

"So we'll be good. I promise." She did this 'innocent little girl' look.

"Okay," I admonished. "But be good."

So we lay in bed, talking. For maybe five minutes before her cheek was sliding down my belly towards something that, amazingly to me, was erect yet again. Giggle. "This won't make a smell. Not if I keep it all in my mouth..."

"And I can wash my face, too," I countered, tugging her hip sideways toward my head.

Okay, she and I both brushed our teeth and I washed my face.

She giggled again.

"No!" I said. "I can't trust myself with you. We get clothes on and we sit in the living room."

Giggle. "That's no hindrance." Giggle. "I HAD you in there already!"

"Nut!" I said.

"I'm YOUR nut, sir!"

"Yes you are."

We opened the curtains so we could watch for her grandmother while we watched TV. She leaned chastely against me, my arm draped around her. "There she is," Jan blurted. "Let's go!"

"You're going to hit her right away?"

"Sure. Why not?"

When we stepped out of the door, we saw Leona carrying her overnight bag.

"Hi, Grandma," Jan said.

"Hi, Leona," I added.

"Hey, you two," she smiled. Smiled. Either she's exceptionally dense and clueless, an unlikely thing, or she's not disturbed by Jan holding onto my hand. "Let's get inside. I suppose we all need to talk."

"We do," Jan answered. She let my hand go and skipped ahead to open the door to her old home.

Leona set her bag down. "I can put that away later. I think we all need to talk."

Okay, here's where I'm kind of wary. Who's on the offensive? And why?

"We do, Grandma," Jan said. "I think you know why."

"Would it have something to do with calling this apartment at one in the morning and finding nobody answering the phone? Or at seven this morning?" Leona had us, it appeared.

Jan dove in head-first. "It might. That could be a bad thing if that's all the data one had to process."

"What are the other data I may be missing?"

Jan glanced at me for quick reassurance and plunged on. "Dan and I want to get married."

"That's rather quick, isn't it?" Leona asked. "Dan, is that your idea?"

"Mutual agreement. As I think it should be." I paused. "Leona, Jan's been my friend and constant companion for the last couple of months. We've talked about everything except how we really felt about each other. I know her better than anyone else on this planet. I've seen the worried young student. I've seen the happy, satisfied, self-assured student rise out of that. I know what she eats, what she watches on TV, what she reads, what manner of music she finds pleasing. And I fell in love."

"With my sixteen year old grand-daughter."

"I fell in love with somebody my own age a time or two and we had less in common, less knowledge about one another. I don't think that Jan's keeping anything from me."

Jan jumped back in. "Grandma, you knew for a while that I've been more than a little interested in Dan, right?"

Leona nodded. "Yes. We've talked a bit." She looked at me. "And Dan, you likely had no idea..."

"You're correct. Leona, that's exactly what I didn't want to happen. I started out really caring for Jan because I wanted her to succeed in school and in life. If this had never happened, I'd've just been saddened that I let myself get so far into it with my heart instead of my head."

"But here you are. Jan, I'm afraid, had set up no such barriers. I did think at first it was infatuation, but I know about infatuations, and her descriptors told me this was different."

"It's not an infatuation, Grandma," Jan emphasized. "We want to get married."

"I am formally asking your permission as her guardian, Leona. She's under age. You'd have to sign."

"Yes, I know the legalities, Dan. She and I talked. Oddly, it wasn't about you and her, it was about one of her unfortunate school mates." She looked at my face, then Jan's. "I take it that ... this weekend..."

Jan's eyes cast downward, her cheeks reddening. "Dan, I'm sorry..."

"Oh, don't be sorry, young lady," Leona snapped. "You're in love. He's in love. I pretty much understood that if I left you two this weekend you'd be together. I'm not stupid." She heaved a sigh. "So is this going to be one of those eighteen-month engagements?"

"Not if you'll meet us at the courthouse Tuesday afternoon."

Leona's turn to be taken aback. "Tuesday? That IS fast."

"And we'll be married Friday. Justice of the Peace." Jan can do a determined look quite well.

"And Dan, you're okay with this?" Leona queried.

"Yes. Wanna catch 'er before she comes to her senses."

"That may never happen, you know," Leona said. "I was still crazy when Jan's grandfather passed away."

"I want to be a wife to Dan like you were to Grandpa," Jan spoke. "I was little when he left us, but I remember. That's the kind of husband and wife we'll be."

That melted Leona. "Dan, I'm sure you know. Jan, marriage isn't all hearts and flowers. Two people, no matter how much they love each other, are likely to have rough times. Takes two to get through that. You have to determine every day that you're married forever."

"Leona, I know that."

"Me too, Grandma."

"Dan Jansen, you have my permission to marry my grand-daughter. Be advised, YOU are the mature one here, not that she's nearly as immature as most people her age." She turned to Jan. "You've seen too much of the wrong way to handle relationships, young lady. You know what happens when you deal with feelings. You've never been self-centered. Now is not the time to start."

"Yes ma'am." Jan took my hand in hers. "I know how to do 'forever'."

"As do I," I said.

"Then you have my blessing, such that it is," Leona said.

"Grandma, one more thing," Jan blurted.

"Young lady," Leona stated, "I know what you're going to ask. I and your grandfather ... I saved myself until my wedding night. I assume your wedding night was Friday. Am I right?"

"Grandma, we swore ourselves before God..."

"And God is the ultimate arbiter of such things. Go be with your husband."

"Are you sure?"

"Jan, dear, I've watched the comings and going from your Dan for the years he's been here. I suspect he is not one to tolerate loose women. You are not one, anyway. I would not have left you this weekend if I worried about you being in safe hands. I see Dan as safe."

"Thank you," I said.

"Grandma, I love you," Jan said, rising to hug Leona. "I don't know where I'd be if it weren't for you."

"Jan, you've been everything I wanted in a daughter. I don't know what happened to your mom. I loved her as much as I love you. She just took off in a different direction. Dan, take care of my Jan."

She stood up. Jan went to her and hugged her. I joined them.

"So, Dan. You're a little old to be my grandson, but that's what you'll be. Do you two mind if Jerry joins me for your wedding?"

"We're going to need witnesses," I said. "He's a good one."

Leona smiled. "Yes, he is a good one. Jan, you need to bring your things over to your new home. At least enough for school tomorrow. You can move as much as you wish at your convenience."

I smiled. "Let me help you, sweetie."

Five minutes later we were walking up the sidewalk with a box full of things. Jan unlocked the door, letting me in. I sat the box down on the sofa as she locked the door behind us. When I stood up, I was wrapped up in the embrace of my strawberry blonde new wife.

She kissed me. "See! Here we are! I told you it will be okay!"

Chapter 6

Dan's Turn:

I couldn't believe it. I walked back from Leona's apartment with Jan's hand on my bicep as I carried a box bearing some of her things: Toiletries. Hair dryer. Socks. Underwear.

"I'll go back and get school clothes for tomorrow," Jan said to me.

"You will not. We will go together. I can't believe this, Jan."

"Believe what?"

"Your grandmother. Leona. She seemed positively serene about this."

"Baby, I told you that I had long talks with her. At first they were kind of general, but at the end, I was rather specific."

"Specific?"

She smiled. "As in 'Dan's the ONE!' Do you think I set you up?"

"No, I've been pretty well ready to tumble over you for weeks. My own conscience kept me from making the first move."

"You made the first move, sir, when you treated me like a human being. Precious little of that in my life."

Jan's turn:

"I, Janice Lee Griffin, being of sound mind and body..." whoops! That's for last will and testament. I'm NOT dying. I may have died and gone to heaven, though. I just walked out of my grandma's - make that my SMILING grandma's house, holding a box of clothes and such. Next to me, carrying another box, is MY Dan.

Let me say that one more time. MY Dan. You must understand that I've made it this far in life without falling in 'love' twice a month since puberty. Now I'm in LOVE. Not the silly, 'write his name in flowery script' kind of love, the kind where I see him for who he is and desire those traits in my life and he reciprocates.

We met over a month ago. I've watched. First day I met Dan, I was leery, you know, that whole thing about older guys and teens. I watched. He didn't do that creepy staring thing. He was never suggestive, not even a little bit.

Honestly, I think he just enjoyed the company and I certainly enjoyed having somebody who could help me get up to speed on my schoolwork, but it got serious fast for me.

Dan characterized us as 'best friends' before. "It's nice coming home every day and having you here to talk with."

"You mean, to help me do my schoolwork?"

"Jan, seriously? You're running a long string of 'A's'. You don't really NEED me for schoolwork any more."

I guess I looked sad.

"No, no, no, sweetness," he said. "I just told you that I relish having you here every day. Somebody to drag around with me on weekends..."

"Watch Friday night movies?" We'd done that a couple of times. Grandma gets a chance to go on a date. I don't date. I have Dan who will happily sit with me and watch movies at home. Or take me to one at the local theater, and buy me expensive popcorn and then sit beside me and laugh. And never try anything.

The most 'touchy' he ever got was to put his hand on the small of my back while we were filing out of the theater.

I tried reading the looks he gave me. I thought I kept seeing something, a certain look that was there, then not, like he was struggling to hide something. I saw it enough, though, to make me think that...

I had to make the first move. Grandma announced she was going away for the weekend with HER boyfriend, the first time she's ever done that.

"You're sixteen, Jan," she said. "I have learned I can trust you. You can get me by cellphone any time you need me, and Dan's right up the sidewalk. I'm sure he will take good care of you."

"Thank you, Grandma. I'll tell Dan, make sure he's around."

She smiled. "I'll call him myself, but I'm sure that if he knows you're here by yourself, he'll stay around."

We went to dinner on Friday evening after Grandma left. I put my best dress on, asked him for a nice restaurant, and we went out to eat. It was perfect. When we got out to go home, I could see the lightning of a distant storm line. Those flashes didn't compare with the ones going on inside me. I had a plan and if I put it into motion, I might lose the best friend I've ever had.

Or I might find my mate. No, check that. I have already found him. I might make him mine.

We went into his apartment. He was acting nervous, probably because I'd sat so close to him on the way home from the restaurant. When we got inside, I locked the door behind us, smiled, stepped forward. I put my arms around his neck and said "I hope I'm not misreading this," and I kissed HIM.

This is where it all comes apart, I thought. He could push me away or he could return the kiss. He kissed me back. We stopped. I took a breath. He started to talk.

"Hush, babe. Don't talk. Kiss me again." We were still kissing when I pushed him back onto the sofa. We finally stopped kissing.

"Tell me, Dan..."

"Tell you what? My God, Jan, I've fallen in love with a sixteen year old girl ... You're beautiful. Perfect. Make my heart sing."

"I know how old I am, Dan." Kissed him.

"I could go to jail."

I knew the law. He's right. Can't have sex with a sixteen year old. But ... You can get married. "Nobody goes to jail. Nobody knows but you and me..."

His hands caressed me, pulling me closer for him to kiss me. Oh, God ... Kiss. "I'm glad it's not just me," I whispered.

"No, girl, a thousand times I've wanted you..."

"You've got me..." A peal of thunder gave me at least a flimsy excuse not to go right home. He fought. I know he was in so much turmoil. I knew how he was burned by his first marriage and how he felt about some of the other relationships since then.

He said it again.

"I won't ever do that to you, Dan." He actually had a tear in his eye. I know some people, even girls, who could be cold and conniving enough to lie at a time like this. Mom was one of them. I wasn't. I kissed his tear. "I love you, Dan."

Another thing happened, completely physical. I got wet. Okay, I'm a normal girl in the plumbing department. I know where all my parts are, having played with them for years, with and without a mirror. I can diddle myself off quite nicely, thank you, and there are - have been - some days where my happy finger produced exactly the release I needed. Fantasies? Some generic male face, sometimes looking and sounding like one of those nice guys in the chick flicks.

Then dammit ... Dan came along. The first time he treated me like a real human being, I stopped being satisfied with that generic face. Actually stopped doing myself entirely, because I KNEW that if I did, I'd see HIS face and I wasn't sure that I wanted to cum my brains out for some guy I couldn't have.

Then one stormy night ... I don't know what I would have done if Dan had rejected me, for whatever reason. I was lost. When we kissed, I could feel the fire in myself. Those stories from Victorian literature talking about fire in one's loins, I learned they were based on fact.

I will avoid the blow-by-blow account. <<Giggle>> We mated that night. We talked. We mated again. And again.

Sunday we had to deal with Grandma. I felt different standing in front of her, my hand holding Dan's, like I was claiming him.

"Come inside with me," she told us. "I suppose we need to talk."

"We do," I said. "I suppose you know why."

"Could it have something to do with me calling here two nights and finding you NOT here?"

"It might," I said, "if that were all the data one had to process."

"What might I have missed?" Grandma asked. I saw the way she was looking at Dan. It wasn't an angry nor a hurt look.

"Dan and I want to get married."

"Your idea, Dan?" she asked him.

"Mutual agreement. As it should be," he answered. "She's been my friend and my companion. She's smart and sensible and mature. I know what she eats and what she reads and what she watches on TV and what music she chooses. I fell in love."

Okay. First time I heard him say it to somebody else besides me. I glowed.

"With my sixteen year old grand-daughter," Grandma said.

"Did it with somebody my own age, with less knowledge, and it tore me up when it ended. I don't think Jan's keeping anything from me."

"Grandma," I said, "You knew I was more than just a little interested, huh?"

"Yes, we talked a bit. Dan, you probably had no idea."

"I didn't," Dan said. "I was trying to keep this from happening. I was afraid that my heart was taking me somewhere my head couldn't deal with."

"I can imagine, Dan. You've always appeared to be a man of honor. I worried that Jan was infatuated, but after a bit I saw it didn't fit the infatuation plan."

"It's not an infatuation, Grandma," I said. "We want to get married."

Dan spoke. "We are formally asking your permission. As her guardian, you have to sign for her anyway."

"Funny," Grandma said, "how a couple of signatures can change you from a sex criminal into a husband of a young bride." She turned to me. "You know that, don't you, Jan? You two in bed makes him a felon?"

I shook at the thought. We'd talked, she and I, about one of my friends at school who turned up pregnant and tried to get married. Her parents finally relented, but they wanted to press charges.

"Grandma, we know. I want to marry him. End of game."

"But this weekend you..." Grandma's eyes. She knows.

"Dan, I'm sorry..." I started to tear up.

"Is this going to be one of those eighteen month engagements?"

"No," Dan and I said simultaneously. He continued, "Not if you'll meet us at the courthouse Tuesday afternoon."

"That IS fast," Grandma said.

"And we'll get married at a justice of the peace on Friday," I finished for him.

"And you're okay with this?" Grandma asked Dan.

"Wanna catch 'er before she changes her mind," he popped.

"That may never happen, Dan. I was still crazy for my husband when he passed away."

"And I want to be a wife to Dan like you were with Grandpa," I said. If I was going to emulate somebody, I could do worse than Grandma and Grandpa.

Tuesday Grandma picked me up at school. We met Dan at the courthouse.

Friday we met in a little office, Dan, Grandma, Gary, Grandma's beau, and me. Dan and I exchanged vows. I walked out into the late spring sun as a married woman.

Dan and I got into his truck. I buckled in. Dan's smiling. I'm smiling.

"Make sure you keep that marriage certificate handy, baby," he said. "I'm taking us to a hotel and I don't want to be arrested for sleeping with an underaged girl."

I giggled.

"Isn't much of a honeymoon, baby," he sighed.

"Oh, goodness," I giggled. "A week ago you didn't even know I loved you."

"I wished..."

"Well, now, it's true."

"I'll make it up to you," he said. "I can take a couple of weeks, we can go off..."

Another giggle. "You've had me going off several times a day since last Friday."

"OH, you're a sassy little thing!"

"YOUR sassy little thing. We'll spend this weekend goofing around if we get out of the room at all. And we can talk."

"Talk?"

"Yeah," I said. "When you used to think about you and me, where did you want to go honeymooning?"

"Someplace cool and arboreal. Overlooking a lake."

"Mmmmm! A mountain lake? You and me?"

"Always wanted a wood nymph. You get a say in this, though. What's YOUR idea?"

"I wanted us someplace secluded. 'Outdoors' secluded. Not just inside a room."

"Yeah?"

"I harbor a fantasy about you and me. Naked. Outdoors."

"Interesting," he said.

"'Good' interesting or 'bad' interesting?"

"Don't you have some method by which you can gauge these things for yourself?'

"Why, yes, I do," I giggled. I reached over and squeezed. "Okay. 'Good' interesting. Let's make it happen."

"It will happen, then," he said.

"You know, Dan, you give a place to do something I never thought I'd really want to do."

"What?"

"Sex. I see where we really work well together."

"And that translates into you and me doing it outdoors?"

"Yeah," I said. "A blanket under a forest canopy. A mountain meadow. A beach. The beauty of nature as a background to being with the one I love."

"And that bit of imagery from the girl who only managed a 'B' in English?"

I giggled. "We have all summer to work on the imagery. Next year I shall have an 'A'."

"And your driver's license. We need to do that."

Dan had let me drive a time or two on our excursions if we were in a park or in the country away from traffic. I'm pretty good, I think. "Yeah, I'd like that."

"If you're gonna have a car, you'll need it."

"There you go about the car again."

"Makes sense," he said. "I'm at work. You're on summer vacation. I don't think you need to be tied to the house."

"I could run errands, buy groceries, be all domestic 'n' stuff," I said. "Or the library. They have summer reading programs for kids. I could help with those."

"Whatever you want to do, little one," he told me.

"I don't just wanna lay around," I said. "At least not until you get home."

"I used to see work as my refuge, Jan-baby. You ruined that for me. I've got something more exciting, more satisfying in my life."

I touched his hand.

"Been that way for weeks."

"Weeks?" I questioned.

"Yes. Weeks. I tore myself up when I started getting attached to you. I was going crazy. Considered moving."

"I'm glad you didn't. I was smitten." I was.

We talked and laughed our way two hours up the road and checked into the hotel. Checked in without getting arrested. I haven't done hotels but a couple of times in my life and with Mom, we stayed in a couple of seedy ones. This one wasn't. it was really nice. Pristine. Smelled good.

"I feel like a hick, Dan," I told him. "This is nice. Really nice. And a king-sized bed." I stepped toward him. "Very recreational."

"What about dinner?"

I thought for a second. "Honey," I said to my HUSBAND, "you've taken me to some really nice places and I've learned that I enjoy a lot of different foods, but right now I really am thinking of a fast food hamburger and then getting back here and getting naked in the middle of this big bed." I smiled, but I was surprised at myself. This was the first time I've been so forward with my desires.

I caught his look. His eyes twinkled. "Hamburgers it is, then."

"And tomorrow we can do a restaurant for dinner. Nice one."

We were back in the room in an hour. Ten minutes later, we were squeezed into the shower, the sole disappointment of the room.

"Seriously, Dan, you'd think that if they're putting in a king-sized bed, they'd put in a shower big enough for a little hanky-panky."

He laughed. "I can't imagine you making that statement a month ago, princess!"

"Well!" I squealed, "Really!" But we made the best of it. I like showering with him. He washes my back. I wash his. I love having my back washed and my hair shampooed for me.

He shaved while I dried my hair. Clothes? We don't need clothes.

Okay, you have to understand this. A week ago I was a virgin. I'd never put my hands on an adult male's body. I'd changed a few diapers, and I'd been subjected to flashes from some of Mom's 'friends', but touch an adult? Never. Now, it's been a week and every chance I get ... compared to some of my classmates, I'm making up for a lot of lost time. I'm thinking 'quality over quantity' here.

I have a partner, and if I want to explore and experiment, he's all into it with me. If I want to sit next to his supine form with my legs crossed, playing like a kid with a new set of toys, he lets me, smiling, laughing, sighing, shuddering, telling me what feels good to him, what he likes.

"What I like most?" he says. "Simple. YOU! You bring something to me that no other female ever approached."

Of course there's the reverse of that. He does things to me. I squeal. I wiggle. I sigh. And I come so hard that it measures on the Richter Scale.

And we're in bed.

"Just so you know, baby," I said, "Monday or Tuesday my period starts."

"Okay, dearest," he said. "Should I plan a party? Flowers? Chocolate?"

"I dunno what I'm supposed to do. First time I've had a period when I'm married."

"We can work around it, I'm sure. You didn't murder me last month when I assume you went through another."

"Last month we weren't married."

"So? Married women have periods all the time."

"But what about..." I wrapped my fingers around my new toy. It signaled its happiness by getting harder and oozing a glistening drop of liquid. I like that. I scooped the drop onto my fingertip and stuck my finger in my mouth. Salty. Mmmm.

"Sweetie, we can still cuddle and hug and kiss."

I shook my head. "I need more self-restraint to handle kisses now. I have THIS!" I squeezed him gently, sliding the skin up and over that purple plum, then releasing it. Circumsized, the skin popped back in place, leaving my plum free and clear. I dipped my head down. Mmmmm.

"I can still do this, though..."

"You don't have to, baby."

"I like doing this."

"But what about you?" He asked. "Some women do it..."

"I flood. No. So we can hug and kiss and snuggle and I can..." There's another droplet. My head bobbed down again. Mmmmm! "But tonight. Tomorrow. Maybe Monday..." Mmmmm.

"C'mere, you." His hands touched me, urging me up to kissing range.

He's freshly shaven, smooth, I like his aftershave, and heaven knows, when we kiss, I feel it all over.

"You're so beautiful."

"I'm not. I'll buy 'cute', maybe."

"Nope. Beautiful. Mine. My very own Jan. The key to a lock I never thought would open."

"I love the words you use on me, Dan."

"I lack vocabulary to express how I really feel."

"As do I," I said. "So stop talking." I silenced him with my lips. Let his hands and my hands do the communicating. And oh, the sonnets ... he tugs gently and I'm on top of him. I rise up a little, he curls and nips, mouth is on one of my titties and I'm vibrating like a guitar string. His hands on my butt tug gently. I know what he'd like. I'm all for it. I scoot up, straddling his face. The things his tongue and lips do to me ... a couple more minutes and ... ONE!

His face glistens with my juices. I guess some people might think it's gross, but I slide down and get close to kiss him. It's what he MADE me do. What's the difference, tasting myself on his dick? Or on his face? Either way, I taste pretty good to myself, and a couple of wiggles and a tilt of my pelvis and I'm so wet that he slides right into me. Mated.

The weekend, my ... OUR honeymoon weekend went like that. Saturday morning. Make love. Breakfast. Museum. Lunch. Another museum. Back to the hotel. Make love. The dinner I was promised. Back to the hotel. Make love. Sleep in the arms of the man I love.

It had to end. Sunday we drove home. Monday he signed me up for a driving school to finish me up for my driver's license. We had dinner with Grandma.

"Jan, would you be interested in a summer job?" she asked us.

"Where?"

"At my office. I mentioned it. They get some kind of tax credit if they employ students for the summer. You're a student. If you're interested."

I looked at Dan.

"It's up to you, little one," he said.

"I'd like to try it. A real job. First for me."

Grandma smiled a little bit. "Jan, this is a REAL job, with real duties and expectations."

"Like school?" I said. "Where you learn a task, perform it, then get evaluated?"

"Dan," Grandma said, "She's getting a bit more confident."

"I can't help but think she'd be a good employee. Wish I could get her for a summer intern, but that isn't happening."

"That's the difference between your heavy industry and my office," Grandma told him. "I think that she will work out well, and we can make allowances if you two desire a couple of weeks for a real honeymoon."

"That will give us time to locate what we have in mind," I said.

Grandma looked at me. "What do you have in mind? If I'm not being too nosey."

"Cabin in the woods overlooking a mountain lake."

"To my knowledge, the longest you've ever spent outdoors was the afternoons we went to the park," Grandma said.

"I knowwww," I squealed. "Went to the park with Dan, too. Makes me want a secluded cabin together."

"Dan, you've warped my grand-daughter." Her tone was tense. Her smile wasn't.

"Thank you, Grandma," I said. I bounced up and kissed her. "I'm gonna take Dan home now."

Grandma smiled. I guess part of it is because she thinks I'm happy and secure now. The other part? She KNOWS what I'm taking Dan home for.

"Bye, Leona," Dan said. "I gotta go be the obedient husband."

"Dan Jansen, you look so abused," Grandma said. "Janice Lee, take care of him. Good husbands are hard ... Uh, a rare commodity."

I smiled at her as we opened the door. Okay, just maybe I was smirking a little bit.

Down the sidewalk and into our apartment. Door closed behind us. I push Dan back against it.

"Dan, love," I said, "we've met all the requirements. Mated. Legalized. Recorded. Honey-mooned. I think we're married."

"God, I hope so," he picked. "I don't know if I could keep that 'nice guy' charade goin' much longer. Gimme a blow job and then fix me a sammich!"

"Yessir," I laughed. "And then we can pick out my new tattoo. An' I know a really good cheap trailer park!"

"You're an evil little thing," he said.

"I'm YOUR evil little thing, and despite your feeble attempts at being a wise-ass, you actually have a good idea."

"Good idea?"

"Yeah," I giggled. "You take me back in that bedroom back there, eat me to a squealing mess, then I will assuredly give you the blow-job you so much desire. And while you're sleeping it off, I will make you your sammich."

Chapter 7

Dan's turn:

I really did sleep it off, the blowjob my new wife gave me. She knows and I know that it's a crude term. Her laughter, her obvious enthusiasm, worked together for a truly memorable experience. I was almost immobilized after her eager mouth drained me. She scooted up in the bed, kissed me on the cheek. I started to turn to her.

"No. Take a little nap. I got to make you a sammich!"

"I was kidding."

"I'm not. It's symbolic. Gotta do it."

A little while later I awoke to gentle kisses and the alluring odor of cooked bacon. "Come on. I made BLTs. We need to eat before they get soggy."

A good BLT is a weakness. I know a few eateries where a good one can be had. I never had one home-made, and I am happy to report that this sixteen year old strawberry blonde did it right.

"You're smiling."

"Best damn sammich I've ever had," I said. I was being honest. Her smile was sweet, self-satisfied.

"I'm glad you like it. I CAN cook a little. I need to learn more." Giggle. "Cooking, I mean..."

"You're..." I started.

"Curious? Excited? Hungry? Lusting?" she smiled, eyes laughing.

"All those. And I love it!"

"I love YOU," she squeaked. "I do. Every day, more and more."

"I know how you feel. You're my life now."

We finished our meal, got in each others' way straightening the kitchen, stripped the bed, put on clean sheets.

"We might be wise to get a couple more sets of sheets," I said.

She's got this look sometimes, past a smile, eyes twinkle, sparkle, her nose, already cutely upturned, wrinkles. There it is. "We're kind of messy."

"Uh, well, in the middle of all that, I have my mind focused on something other than the care of bed linens."

She leaned into me. "Gosh, I know..." as she twisted around to face me. I wrapped her in my arms.

"Am I your possession, now?"

"Yes."

"I wanna be. Do you mind being MY possession?"

"The way I want to be," I said.

Little girl voice. "Tell me you'll love me forever."

We've had this talk. She knows. "You will be my love forever. You started being my love before I knew you. I knew I was made to love you, I just never thought I would find you."

She pushed me back out of the kitchen into the living room. The back of my legs hit the sofa, so I collapsed backward. Got smothered with eager Jan.

Summer progressed per the established format, hot, cloyingly humid, made bearable by our almost daily trips to the pool where this all started.

Jan's summer job with her grandmother went, in Leona's words, 'better than expected', as Leona had told me privately.

"You're good for her, Daniel," Leona stated. "Jan was never flighty, not in that normal teen way, but she seems much more self-assured. I never thought her stupid, but she shows a much better use of her intelligence. Uh, she's changed for the better, and now that I think back, it all started when you started paying attention to her."

"I'm glad it works out," I replied. "I had no idea of how we were going to handle summer vacation for her. I do have to work."

"She thinks she does, too, Dan. Wants to contribute to her household."

"Sometimes I think she's mature past her years."

"Her mom was on welfare most of her life," Leona said. "Jan didn't want to be like her mom, not concerning relationships, not concerning her household." Leona continued. "That's not the only reason I called, Dan."

"No?"

"Yes. My manager wants to help her through college if she works next summer with us. She thinks that Jan is a good prospect for further education."

"Leona, you saw her final report card. She had straight As that last six weeks. She's NOT stupid. College, if she wants it, we've talked. Married or not, I'd put her through..."

"Well, Dan, you're not the only one."

"I wouldn't suspect that I would be," I said. "I expected the school people to recognize the change pretty soon into the new session."

The new session did indeed start at the end of August.

"Of course I'm wearing my wedding band," she said. "Why on earth wouldn't I?"

"You're going to be in school. Lots of crap can come your way."

"Like the crap you endured at work?"

The company puts together a summer feed. Naturally I attended with my little bride.

You can imagine some of the heads swiveling. I know a lot of my older co-workers who have daughters Jan's age. I introduced her as my wife, she stayed at my side, joining in conversations, smiling dutifully at introductions, laughing at jokes.

The next Monday at work, I was subjected to an avalanche of questions and comments ranging from "Seriously! Sixteen?" to "Is she pregnant?" to "You old DOG!"

And a few "She's quite sweet-looking."

I sent her off to school with a sheaf of documentation as to her new marital status. Seeing her dressed for school in the morning before I headed out to the plant, well, it kind of made me pull up short, thinking that here she was, looking like a conservatively dressed high school student. Seventeen now. High school student. My wife.

All during the day I kept trying to imagine her day. Mine? A couple of questions along the lines of "Your wife's starting school today?"

"Yep! Junior class." I have to be careful. Some of the queries come from people who think in the basest of terms, some not, so I have to be careful not to look like I drive around in a windowless van with a stained mattress in the back.

She gets out of school before I get out of work, and she's driving HER little car, a perfectly economical and reliable Japanese sub-compact. When I pull into the parking lot, her car's there.

I make my way to our apartment, open the door, get wrapped up in a seriously kissing young lady.

"This could mean any of several things, baby," I said between kisses.

"Means I WANT my Dan!" More kisses. I'm not complaining, mind you.

"That bad?"

"No." Kiss. "Just high school. Same people. Same drama. Same crap." Kiss.

"Questions about your ring?"

"Uh-huh." Kiss.

"Questions?"

"Yeah. 'You pregnant?' 'You already had the baby?' 'You get an abortion?' Like that's the only reason people get married. And I know bunches of each of those that DIDN'T get married."

"Are you okay?"

"Yes." Kiss. "Better than okay. Got my Dan."

"Classes?" I gasped between kisses.

"Books over there in my backpack. I'm really not in an academic mood right now." She emphasized that statement with a hand on my erection. "Do you really propose that we talk about books right now?"

"No," I hissed. "I think you need a couple of good orgasms."

Kiss. "One with this tongue." Kiss. "One with THIS!" Another kiss and a squeeze.

"God, yes," I hissed. She twisted out of my arms and pranced toward the bedroom, shedding clothes along the way.

Titties, hers, are a feast. I didn't get much of them, though, because the little thing was pushing my head downward.

I don't follow instructions well. She got TWO juicy ones with her legs holding my face at that precious flower of a pussy.

We shared the next one. Rested in each other's arms. Then she bounced up.

"Get your trunks on! Let's go for a swim."

Okay, that's our chance to talk about the school day.

"Same old stuff, baby," she said. "All about 'he says' and 'she goes' and 'I'm like', all about who's goin' with whom, who wants to be with whom, who was with whom and why they're not together now. A few pregnancies, one confirmed abortion, and me, the only marriage." She squeezed my hand. "I do not mind one bit that I have to miss all that."

"I'm glad. I worry."

"No, you don't worry. A little slut-puppy worries because a) did I take all my pills right and b) does me spreading my legs every time we get a chance mean he still loves me and c) what if that other guy that I REALLY like acts like he's interested? That's worry." She kept on. "And the part YOU worry about is that I'll get my head turned by some guy whose biggest success in life is his gaming skills. And the ability to get some good weed. And his own car with a Rockford Fosgate decal and a buzzy muffler. Hmmmph! You have NOTHING to worry about."

"Anything else?" I questioned with a laugh to ease the stress.

"Sorry, babe," she said. "You know how I feel. I'm kind of insulated all summer, you and me, we do our own thing, I had the job, so I didn't get racked over in teen angst."

"And today it's back into the fray," I said.

"Yeah, but there's the up side, too."

"What's that?" I questioned.

"Math teacher and English teacher both addressed me by name. Said they had expectations. I've never had a teacher say he has expectations of me before."

"How do you see your ability to meet those expectations?"

"Piece of cake," she smiled. "Got a tutor who really knows my reward regimen." Giggle.

That giggle does things. Okay, Dan, jump into the water before people see your erection.

She giggled. "I saw that." She swam over and accosted me in the pool. "Nobody around to see this, though." She kissed me. Water started boiling in the vicinity.

By Christmas that year, we were pretty much done with being the topic of conversation. Everybody knew. We no longer drew stares. Old news.

Jan, though ... school. That set of As at the end of last year wasn't a fluke. Six weeks into the school year we met with them to change her schedule to include advance placement classes. The move caused us to spend a bit of time making the leap to the more demanding workload.

Math. "You can do this, Jan," I said. "You said you wanted to do this."

"I know, Dan, but this is HARD!"

"You came in on the middle of it. You're trying to catch up on six weeks of work."

"I'm not sure I can do it."

"Last year you weren't sure you could even pass. You're pretty darned smart. Don't get wrapped up in being behind. You can catch up. We'll work together."

Okay. Some tears involved. I hurt right along with her. She's trying so hard to be perfect. She just doesn't know she already is. In a couple of weeks, though, I walk in, she's in our spare bedroom, her book open on the desk. No tears.

"You're right. I'm getting this."

"I knew you would, little one."

Christmas break. Jan was interested in camping. I can do camping. Found the spot. Sleeping bags. Winter sky at night. Magic, it is. More magic if you're there with the love of your life. No insects. No tents. Just the two of us, sleeping bag. BIG sleeping bag. Forty degrees, plenty cold enough to require power snuggling to sleep. A couple of nights, a day hike, then home.

"Shower!" she said, shoving me. "I absolutely LOVED camping. But two days, I need a shower." Her nose wrinkled. "YOU need a shower." Giggle. "And I need to make sure you don't miss any spots."

Showers aside, although there's certainly a lot of titillation involved in naked sex in a cathedral of tall pines, there's also something wonderful about being clean and freshly showered and wrestling together in the happy confines of one's own home.

Spring break. A billion college kids head for the beaches. Neither of us is a college kid.

"Let's do something historical," she said.

"Historical?"

"Yeah. Mississippi. Tennessee. Civil War battlefields."

"Oooo- kayyyy," I replied. My wife is into history. I can certainly accommodate that. We can start driving and hit several in a week.

Home again. Watching an old movie on TV, lounged on the sofa, my back against the backrest, my Jan lying back against me. Commercial.

"Dannnn?"

"Yes, princess."

"Am I really still your princess?"

"Only forever," I replied. "What brought that on?"

"One of my friends at school was talking about her mom and dad splitting up. Said that people just got tired of each other."

"Are you tired of me?"

"Never-ever," she said.

"I'm not tired of you, baby. Can't see that happening."

"Good. I'm all kinds of in love with you."

"You need to stop listening to those people."

"I was trying to be the shoulder to cry on. She's kind of torn up over it."

"It's tough, I guess," I told her. "Glad I never had to deal with it."

"I understand some of what she's feeling, but I think the longest Mom ever kept one was a month and a half, and it wasn't one I wanted to call 'Dad'." She turned toward me. "And don't even think that you're some kind of replacement for me missing a daddy in my life."

"Oh?"

"Nope. Never had a single 'daddy' thought about you from Day One."

"Was kind of difficult for me to picture you as my adopted daughter, either," I said. "Those thoughts I used to beat myself up for having, none of them was about you being my daughter."

Giggle. "So I was, like, ALWAYS a sex object?"

"And a conversation object. And a friend object. And I hated myself for the 'sex object' one."

"Hold me tight." She twisted back to where she could see the TV. "I'm glad we got each other. We're both so warped, we're probably the only two people on the planet that match each other."

I buried my nose in that strawberry hair and breathed deep.

"Yep! You love me. You adore me," she whispered. "I will not abuse that power."

The End

Posted on 2012-12-29

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