Drew sought to humour her; he teased Alyssa, his stepdaughter, in his playful ways of it; a smooth, softly spoken man, who offered wise words of encouragement whenever a task that she had been set, in college, became too much and might even overwhelm her.

‘Give me a few minutes, Drew, will you…and…and I’ll get through it. I know you want to help, but sometimes I’m best left on my own…’

‘And it’s then that I worry about you the most…and the lights of fun and happiness go dim.’ Drew looked at her across the narrow space between them. ‘I thought them words up all by myself…’

‘Just keep on doin’ that for me…’ she said and looked away.

It was at such times that Alyssa saw the younger man in him; a guy whose photo she cherished; the guy in his Bermuda shorts looking so darned fit and toned. He sure was the man that her mother, Janet, had so many pictures of; the man with whom she had fallen in love and who had helped her to rebuild a shattered life following the desertion of her husband and children’s father.

It hurt to know that one person could do that to another whom you had told were loved; their loyalty cherished; evidence to the children that were born, to them, that this was how two people should love and live out their lives together.

Well, she and her brother had learned the hard way that, ‘even the best laid plans can come to nothing.’

Somehow, she had consoled her mother on her loss, and she had come to rely on her only parent for guidance. Then, when Drew was met, and it was clear that her mother had found a saviour, all of her own, destructively nourished doubts about two people being together and that arrangement enduring, had slowly fallen away.

She’d found new hope and had taken her expectations into young womanhood; only to find that, as her college years passed, what she had seen, felt and heard, in the wreckage of her mother’s life had also exerted a lasting legacy upon her.

Trust sure was a scarce commodity. She found it a difficult emotion to feel, let alone manage. It was only to become glaringly apparent when she sought to grow into relationships of her own making.

It was then that cynicism really took a hold; a belief system that Drew sought to disabuse her of; to persuade her that she waited; was particular with whom she chose to share her deepest feelings; not to live out her life in meaningless experiences with young guys who used her and more often, than not, casually and heartlessly moved on.

‘You really don’t deserve that, Alyssa,’ he had told her, the last time Drew had offered any advice, and only after she had sought him out.

He was the only guy that she believed; her acceptance of his words based on her life with him and mother; two people whom she allowed into her private world and where it concerned affairs of the heart.

¦

‘Say something more!’ Alyssa asked sharply, settling into the passenger seat, beside him, as Drew gunned the car’s engine into life. The seat belt mechanism hummed. She grabbed at it and fastened it over her blouse; lifted her bum off the seat and adjusted her short skirt for the ride home.

Drew looked her way for a moment. The blossoming young woman, in washed-out olive-green camisole blouse, short tan skirt and lime green deck shoes was an undoubted feast for the eye.

‘You broke into my day, girl…made me break off a meeting in Tampa to get back here and pick you up from college…’ Janet was away for much of the day and had told him she’d not get home until gone nine that evening. He would have to deal with the ire of the college authorities and then bring Alyssa back to their place…go out for super or get Alyssa to make it for the two of them. The refrigerator was stocked, so finding something to eat would not be a problem. ‘Want to tell me about it? The principal said you beat up some guy…’

He spoke lightly as a way to get her to open up.

‘He came onto me…again!’ Alyssa cried out, glaring at him for only a moment. ‘The same guy as before…his pals daring him!’

‘You never said…hon’…’

‘I don’t bother you with everything, Drew…you know?’ She loved the lightness in bis voice; took in for a moment his stubble beard; his sun-bleached brown hair, so wavy and rebellious looking, and that he always brushed back.

‘Obviously not…but it’s still a shame. You should know by now that I’m on your side.’

She nodded and gave a pout of acknowledgment of what he illegal bahis had again told her. With him she had learned it was never an act.

He would let their annoyance with what had happened die down; ease the tension between them. The afternoon was hot and the sky clear. The pool would be a good place to unwind after the rush to get to Sarasota and collect her. Drew looked across the space between them; he held out a hand to her and she gripped it fiercely. ‘I guess that he didn’t know a fiery temper came with your good looks…your beauty?’

‘I get his kind coming on to me all the time…’ she said; her look upon him, when Drew met it, quickly softening. ‘It’s gotten to be pretty bad…’

‘You should have told me…or your mother. She’d have said something on it to me. What did the guy do?’

‘Touched me up in class…put his hand up my skirt when we were about to leave the lecture room. I saw, from how others behaved, that it was part of some game…to see how far they could push ‘Alyssa the Frigid’…’

Drew slowed down. He then pulled to a stop at the kerbside. The engine was left running.

‘Cruel…’

‘And untrue…if the right guy was ever to come onto me…he’d soon know that it was so.’

She met Drew’s considerate smile, the softened look of his eyes upon her. Mom sure was lucky to have him; the guy she has a photo of in her room; the white frame decorated with a small sailing ship and tiny conical see shells stuck to it; a touristy memento, for sure, but something she had chosen. He’s next to Janet, and the pair are smiling and looking with love at each other. They’re seated at a table on the beach, the sands stretching way out into the distance behind them; Drew with his arm about Janet’s shoulders and they’re smiling; a still young couple and obviously in love.

‘Sorry…but I had to let my feelings show, Drew. I know that it was wrong…but I sure felt mad; violated even.’

He touched her cheek on looking Alyssa’s way. ‘Nothing’s broke, darlin’…and you showed him who you are…not.’

‘Yes…that’s true.’

She watched him, as Drew twisted to glance in the wing mirror before pulling out into the traffic. She loved the soft tan on his skin; the sheen of his wavy brown hair that he brushed back and seemed to stay there. It helped to show all of his face; that smile so stark against his stubble; the lively intensity in his eyes that made her feel weak sometimes. ‘You always find the words for me…the right ones.’

He simply smiled at her on hearing it said.

‘We’ll soon be home. Your Mom said she’d be late getting back…so it’s just the two of us. You’ll have to help me get supper ready…’

‘So, you’re not mad at me anymore?’

She touched his hand for a moment as it rested on the gear shift, seeking to draw his attention back to her for an instant only. With Drew she could talk; her Mom would talk at her sometimes; like she might do tonight when the day’s events would have to be gone over once more. The college would be sure to write, so she might as well beat them in telling the true story.

‘No…I’m not mad. I’ve never been able to do that, as you know.’

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Drew and Janet had moved into ‘Westerlies’ two years ago, deciding that with Janet’s children growing up, and one already away from home, they had no need for a status place; one with hard floors to cavernous rooms, tall windows, and drapes, that took a team to clean, or cost them handfuls of bucks for a home valet service.

A cleaner still called by, but they now had some two thousand, or so, square feet, of lux accommodation and a swimming pool; the lot having a short driveway, trees along the perimeter fences and walls, and one tall mature Cabbage Palm in the front garden, along with Milkweeds, Palmettos and Flax Lilies to soften the approach and view of the house. They weren’t overlooked; and the beach, along with some convenience stores, was but a short walk away.

‘I’ll go make us a drink…put some fruits in the blender,’ he suggested, casting his jacket over a hall chair and putting his laptop case down by its side. ‘I’ll work on in the den, later…and you?’

‘I’ll go do some work in the sitting room. Least I’ll know where you are…’ she said, following him into the kitchen and watching him work; marvelled at his deft ways in peeling off the skins from the fruit and slicing it into chunks.

‘Come and help me…get the tumblers down from the cupboard for me, will illegal bahis siteleri you?’

She would do as he asked of her. ‘We don’t get the chance to be like this too often, do we…Drew?’

‘No,’ he replied, brushing past her, as Alyssa lingered by his side. She had yet to get the tumblers as he had asked. ‘What’s really goin’ on, now, in you? Has what’s happened at college gotten to you?’ Alyssa waited until he had put the tumblers down on the black marble worktop and prepared to pour out their drinks. Drew turned to her. ‘Why, Alyssa…you’re…you’re crying…’

‘Yeah…guess I am,’ she blurted out, clutching the hand that he now held out to her. ‘People back there said some things…called me gay…that I didn’t know how it went…and…and that maybe I had a thing for my father…though he’s long gone. But…but that’s not what they meant…’

‘Jeez! You young people sure know how to hurt each other with your words!’ Alyssa watched him stride to the double doors that opened out onto a shaded terrace. The azure blue waters of the pool lay beyond it. ‘I’ll get the seat cushions…you bring the drinks…okay?’

He watched Alyssa kick off her shoes; took in the slenderness of her thighs; the close fit of her camisole blouse. This pretty young woman really didn’t deserve what was being thrown her way, and he shouldn’t be looking at her in the way that he did.

Alyssa drew near and waited until he had placed the cushions on the seats.

‘I may as well do what you’ve done…’ Drew smiled.

She watched him, as Drew calmly kicked off his shoes and removed his socks; saw the neatness of his large feet and tended toenails. He was a tall man; a strong man; a good-looking man; and…and, yes…she’d taken to thinking, before the day’s events, that she did have a thing for him.

Alyssa kept him from sitting down; instead, choosing to clutch his arm and press against Drew. ‘Say something…please? I saw your look on me…’

Drew hesitated; broke free of her hold on him and picked up a tumbler; walked to the edge of the pool as he thought on what to say in reply. Alyssa had followed him and stood by his side; clutched his arm once more.

‘I wondered when that would happen,’ he murmured in reply. ‘I’ve sensed that it’s been at work in you for a while…and in me just now. You want me to make it up to you, but it’s all wrong…always has been, Alyssa…darling.’

She stood quite still beside him; saw him move the tumbler from one hand to the other, before he put an arm about her waist.

‘Even…even if you showed me how to love, just once, Drew?’

‘Yes!’ he snapped, ‘even then…just once!’

Breaking loose of his embrace, she turned…turned enough to be able to reach out and brazenly clamp the front of his suit trousers. Alyssa gasped; looked down to where her hand was on him.

‘In spite of what you’re telling me…you’re…you’re hard,’ she whispered; her eyes darted from his face to where she touched him. ‘You…you feel something for me too…Drew.’

He tore away from her claims upon him; rushed to the table and placed the tumbler of half-finished juice upon it and went into the house. ‘Enough…that’s enough of this!’ he yelled out over his shoulder.

‘No!’ she yelled in answer to his cry of having been discovered. A shiver of longing coursed through her. ‘I’m in your thoughts…as you are in mine! Help me…help me to take care of this…please?’

She kept him from going into the den; threw her arms about his neck and forced her mouth against his lips. Alyssa felt the hesitancy in his touches as his hands went to her waist then moved over her body to clamp on her breasts as she pressed against him. She moaned; gripped Drew’s waist fiercely to keep his hardness against her.

‘I…I want you…to want me like this…just once!’ she exclaimed.

‘Alyssa…Alyssa…’ he whispered, restraining her and meeting Alyssa’s look upon him. He had taken his hands from her.

‘Yes, we can do this…and we must! I can’t go on with this torture! I…I heard you and Mom a few nights ago…and I didn’t need to imagine any more… how it might be between two people. Those creeps in college want one thing…and it don’t matter at all to them when it’s done. I see love…boundless love between you two…and I want to know how that feels.’

She’d fingered herself, then, in the corridor outside their room…as Drew pounded Janet. She’d stifled her cries as they canlı bahis siteleri kept it on, until silence again fell. She had tiptoed away and gone back to her bed and fingered herself some more; but a picture of Drew doing it for her to be seen on the back of her eyelids…as if she was at the movies and watching a love scene.

‘You’re lost girl…totally lost…aren’t you?’ He gently eased her hold on him.

‘On you…lost on you!’

‘I’m…I’m here for you…but not in the way you want. Try to understand that…please?’

‘I’ll tell Mom,’ she heard herself blurt out, grabbing at his arm to restrain him and to make Drew think through on all that she had given voice to.

‘Don’t even go there!’ he growled in evident anger, wrenching free of her hold upon him. ‘You’re like this because of what those losers in college have said to you…isn’t that it?’

‘No…not all!’ she cried out, wiping fingers over her tear-streaked cheeks. ‘I have a picture of you and Mom! Two people so obviously in love with each other and I want to feel that way too! You mended her when my lousy father ditched us! I want mending just as Janet…Mom has been! The guys in college have no idea…none at all, about what I need and look for.’

‘It takes only one to mend you…just you wait and see.’ He said, not unkindly and his tone moderating. He sought to retrieve his laptop and get back to some work. ‘Let me pass, Alyssa, darling…please?’

Drew had turned away as he spoke. When he sought to open the door to his snug, he felt Alyssa’s restraining clamp of hands on his shirt.

‘Look…look at me, now, Drew?’ he heard her whisper on a nervy, trembling voice.

‘Alyssa…Alyssa,’ he could not help but groan. Her camisole top now lay at their feet; her firm young breasts, freed of all restraint, were exposed to his gaze; their hard tips turned up; an invitation for him to delight in and to touch.

He did so and she held his hands to her naked skin.

‘Just once…love me just once. I’ll try not to ask you again…because…because you’ll have loved me like you loved Janet the other night. I’ll carry the memory of us with me forever. Please…please love me, Drew…please?’

Whatever else the beautiful young woman learned at college, she sure knew how to get her way as if reading him like some trashy book.

‘Darling…darling girl…we can’t do this.’

‘We’ll always be…forever…close,’ she said and moving to kiss him; wishing to know of the rushing, aching sense of completion that she had heard Janet cry out for, only a few nights ago.

To experience such bliss, for the first time, would make her feel forever grateful to the man she too had grown to love. He would be her lover and teacher; a man who cared and would not use her. That was what she hoped to know of, and…and to share.

‘Yes, I guess we will, darlin’…you’ve already got a place in my heart and mind,’ Drew sighed. He now bent to offer sucking, nipping kisses to her skin and just as Alyssa directed. ‘You’ll show me how grateful you are, Alyssa…won’t you?’

‘Yes! Oh yes!’

Squirming, and gasping with longing that his touches soon aroused, Alyssa tugged on the belt of his trousers and claimed him all for herself…for only this one time; her reckless youthfulness, and Drew’s complicity, defying all reason and concern for anyone else.

She could get hooked on the man and what he did only too easily, but that would have to wait. Right now she was lifted into his arms and carried into his snug and the button back settee.

Right now, she wanted to be loved; to have her body possessed and have her virginity taken by the strong man who now stood naked before her and lowered her onto the cool leather.

She gasped as the wonderful sensation of his lips, tongue and fingers found her soft flash and opening. His mind would be in turmoil from all that she asked of him. She felt him linger, for only a moment, before her body was claimed; his strong arms drawing her to him; his embrace and then the slow slide of his prick entering her body; stretching and piercing her.

‘This…this is a first time for me too…Alyssa…darling,’ he kissed, yet managing to grab at a box of tissues placed on the side of his desk; shoving them under her buttocks and where he claimed her. ‘You’ll bleed…it may hurt…but I’ll take care of you…go slowly.’

She nodded feverishly; looked up at him in wide-eyed affection as her lover slowly entered and his thrusts deepened; her emotions raging; her body experiencing pain and newly discovered pleasure.

‘You’re…you’re the only one to show me how it goes, Drew! Look after me now. I..I love you for what you’re doing for me!’

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