June in August (6 page)

“I’m in love with you June Monroe, crazy in love with you. I intend to marry you, if you’ll have me that is. Lord, I’d take you to Vegas right now, except I know you deserve better than that. Plus, my momma would kill me.”

I just stood there in the back yard. My feet bare, my hair damp, my face freshly scrubbed, dressed in nothing but Wiley’s dress-shirt. It was possibly the most important moment in my life and I’d never be able to share it with anyone. Not with it happening like this.

“Well?”

“Are you asking me to marry you?”

“Did you want me to wait until I had the ring? I can do it again if you want tomorrow. I’ll get down on one knee and everything.”

“No. That’s alright,” I said. My gaze traveled slowly about the yard. I breathed in the scent of the steaks cooking on the grill. Then I closed my eyes and listened quietly for a moment, committing everything about the moment to memory.

“June? You okay?”

I nodded and smiled, then I opened my eyes.

“Say it again.”

“I love you, June,” he repeated without hesitation.

“I love you, too, Wiley.”

“I don’t want to wait, June. I feel like we’ve been waiting forever for one another.”

“I’ve always thought that August was a fine month for a wedding. Too many people get married in June.”

“August it is, then.”

~

I fell asleep in a man’s arms for the first time that very night. And, except for the two weeks that followed, the two weeks leading up to our wedding, I’ve spend every night since in Wiley’s arms.

The world has changed since then, and so have we. In some ways for the better, and in some ways for the worse. But there’s one thing I’ve come to realize I can count on, my love for Wiley and his for me. We were meant to be, that’s the plain truth of it. Up till this very day, when Wiley and I make love everything seems so simple, as simple and pure and right as that very first time.

~

“I suspect that my dress is dry, now,” I said, softly as I rinsed the last dinner plate.

“I imagine it is,” replied Wiley, taking it from me and drying it off.

“It’s getting late. You should take me home.”

“Stay.”

I looked up at Wiley. He carefully placed the last dinner plate back in the cabinet and then walked up to me, repeating his request. “Stay.”

“I can’t.”

Wiley place his hands around my waist and lifted me up onto the counter. We were eye to eye.

“You can,” he said, leaning forward and kissing the corner of my mouth as he undid the top two buttons on the shirt. He placed his hands under my knees, and separated my legs so that he could step closer. His hands were sliding up my thighs, up underneath the edge of the shirt. His touch was almost scalding. “I drove your Daddy’s truck back over to your place. It’s in the driveway. No one will be home tonight. I’ll take you back before the sun comes up, I promise. Stay with me, June.”

Now whoever said, “Temptation, thy name is woman” has clearly never met Wiley Patton. I had never seen such hunger in a man before.

“I’m beginning to think that you suggested the wine with dinner so that I’d lose all sense and give into your wicked ways, Mr. Patton.”

Wiley grinned, then leaned down and kissed my neck. “I’m gonna make it so good for you, June, I promise,” he whispered into my ear. His hand reached up and molded itself to my breast.

I felt my resolve crumbling. My legs spontaneously lifted and wrapped themselves around his waist. Wiley slid his hands underneath my bottom and lifted me up into his arms. He crushed his lips to mine with such passion that it stole the breath right out of me. I was dizzy and felt for a second as it I were falling. Then I realized I wasn’t falling at all. I was wrapped tightly in Wiley’s arms, my legs around his waist, my arms around his neck. He broke off the kiss as he walked through the bedroom door and over to the bed.

Wiley was breathing heavy as he lay me down on the bed. He stood up and pulled his t-shirt off over his head and then he was on me again. Wiley stared into my eyes as he began to unbutton my shirt.

“I love you, June.”

“I love you, too, Willey.”

“I’ve never been with a girl for her first time. I hear there’s some pain. I don’t want to—”

I placed my hand over his lips and smiled up at him, trying to look confident. “Shh, it’s all right.”

Wiley leaned down and softly kissed between the valley of my breasts, his right hand working at the buttons and opening the shirt. I felt my back lift off the bed, my body seeking out more of is touch. His kisses became more ardent, his mouth was wet and hot. He palmed one breast in his hand and lifted it up slightly.

“You’re breasts are beautiful,” he said, then he latched on. I was startled at first, embarrassed too. I could feel his strong sucks down to the tips of my toes. It was making them curl and causing me to tingle. Wiley rolled my other nipple, the one he wasn’t sucking on, between his thumb and index finger.

“Oh!” I gasped.

Wiley released my breast with an audible pop. “Too much?” He moved to my other breast and started to lick around the areola.

“I…I…”

I tried real hard to put what I was feeling into words, but I just couldn’t. So I gave up.

Wiley grinned from ear to ear. “I do believe I’ve left you speechless,” he said as he slipped his hand between us, sliding it down between my legs.

I wanted so much for him to touch me again, just like before. And he did.

“You’re already so wet for me, baby,” whispered Wiley placing his hand over my mound and sliding the tip of his finger between my folds, rubbing up and down, causing those sweet sensations to grow and grow.

“Oh, Wiley!” I gasped as he inserted the tip of another finger.

He was sliding his fingers in and out, getting a little deeper each time. My hips started moving on their own accord pushing him in even further. Wiley was kissing me the entire time. When he wasn’t using his mouth for kissing he was whispering in my ear, whispering words of encouragement and love, words that set me on fire.

I heard the rasp of a zipper and felt a sudden coldness. I opened my eyes and saw that Wiley was standing at the side of the bed. I watched his jeans slide to the floor revealing him to me. My stomach clenched.

“Wiley?” I began to ask, my voice trembling from fear and unfulfilled want.

“Let’s pull down the covers, you’re shivering,” he said, reaching for the top of the bedding.

I let him unmake the bed and slipped between the crisp white sheets, Wiley’s sheets. Then as he moved to crawl in beside me I dared another look. My eyes filled with tears.

“What is it, June? If you don’t want to do this now, it’s all right. I can wait until you’re ready.”

“I…I’m not sure I’ll ever be ready,” I told him honestly. “I don’t think…”

“What? What are you worried about? You can tell me anything.”

I bit my lower lip, thought about it for a second or two, then decided to just come out with it. “I don’t think you’re going to fit.”

Wiley looked amused and for a second I thought that he was going to laugh. But then his expression turned serious. He eased me back down on the bed and settled himself between my legs. He kissed me softly on the mouth, then positioned himself between my thighs. I could feel the head of his penis as it touched my outer folds.

“It’ll fit, baby. Men and women have been doing this for a long time. We’re not any different. We’ll go slowly.” Wiley wrapped my hand around his penis.

“Feel how much I want you?”

“But, Wiley, you… You’re awfully big, Wiley, huge even. And…”

My eyes widened in panic as I felt the effect of my words on him, his erection growing even longer.

“Shh. Just rub it along the outside,” Wiley whispered into my ear.

The light in the room had faded but the moon was shining bright, a witness to our first attempt at lovemaking. I held my breath, closed my eyes and did as Wiley instructed. I was surprised by how soft he felt against me. I was slick and wet and with each stroke I just seemed to get more so. The tingling started up again low in by belly and I began to tense with anticipation.

“Breathe, baby,” Wiley whispered.

I looked up at him. His face was hovering over mine. I was struck by the intensity of emotion in it. Wiley was such a strong man. But with me, right then, he was as gentle as could be. He slid his fingers back inside, first two, then three. In and out they slid, deeper and deeper. My legs parted further and Wiley took one and wrapped it around his hip.

“Does that feel good, honey?”

“Oh, yes!” I gasped bringing my other leg up and holding on tight. I was breathing now, all right. Taking in great big gulps of air as Wiley began to rub my sweet spot. I began to tremble with fear and passion. I was getting closer and closer to the edge with each stroke.

Just as I was about to fall Wiley slowed down. He was breathing every bit as hard as I was, maybe even harder. In the quiet of the night all you could hear was our breathing. Wiley’s back was slick with sweat. I slid my palms over it and felt the muscles underneath ripple. He leaned down and kissed me. It was a deep kiss, a passionate kiss, a possessive kiss. It left no doubt in my mind that Wiley had been yearning for me every bit as much as I had yearned for him.

As the kiss ended I came to realize that he was positioned at my entrance, the tip of his penis just inside.

“It’s going to hurt for a second, June. But it’ll get better, I promise.”

And it did, both hurt and get better. Tears leaked from my eyes at first. Wiley kissed them away as he moved inside of me, whispering words that I had dreamt about. It didn’t last long, that first time, but it was sweet none-the-less.

Afterwards I went to the bathroom to clean up. When I returned to the bedroom Wiley was standing by the window, looking out.

“You all right?” I asked.

Wiley nodded, but he didn’t turn around. I heard him sniff and then watched as his hand moved up to his face and rubbed at his eyes, first one then the other.

I walked over to him, terrified that I’d done something wrong or that he thought we’d done something wrong.

“Wiley?”

He took me in his arms and hugged me tight.

“Oh, June. I love you so much. I’m certain I don’t deserve you but I promise that I’ll work really hard each and every day to be deserving. I promise.”

“I believe you, Wiley. I love you, too. Come to bed. Sleep,” I said as I stepped out of his embrace.

“I changed the sheets,” he said, pulling back the covers.

It was a simple thing, but it said a lot.

“Thank you,” I told him, as I slid in alongside him. I rested my head on Wiley’s chest and listened to his heartbeat.

“What are you thinking about?” he asked me after a minute or two.

“Just wondering how we’re going to plan a wedding in less than two weeks. Everyone’s gonna think we’re crazy.”

“We could tell people you’re pregnant.”

“Oh good Lord! Momma would kill me, Wiley, and you too!”

“We could tell people the truth. That since the day I got my discharge papers I’ve been thinking of one thing and one thing only.”

I sat up and looked at Wiley then.

“And what was that?”

“That I’d be having June…in August,” he said before pulling me back down and making love to me all over again.

We fell asleep in one another’s arms but true to his word Wiley woke before sun-up and saw me home. He kissed me goodbye at the back door and told me he’d be over after supper to talk to Daddy. As the sun came up over the hill I watched Wiley hop over the fence and head on over to his Momma’s. He slept in his old room that night and every night after, until our wedding night on August 31, 1969. Momma made a huge fuss about not having enough time to plan a proper wedding. She wanted to wait until the following year. But Wiley? He was dead set on August, and I was too. So, August it was.

The End

Samantha Sommersby
left what she used to call her "real life" day job in the psychiatric field to pursue writing full-time in 2007. She is the author of a dozen novels and novellas including several single title Contemporary and Historical Romances as well as the critically acclaimed Paranormal Romance series,
Forbidden
. She also writes the
Fallen Siren
series for Penguin/Roc as
S.J. Harper
in collaboration with author Jeanne C. Stein. The first book in that series,
Cursed
, will be released in October of 2013.

Sam currently lives with her husband and cocker spaniel, Buck, in a century old Southern California Craftsman. On the rare occasion when she manages to set aside some play time for herself, you'll most likely find her reading a book, at the movies, or out wine tasting. Most days, she happily spends her days immersed in a world where vampires, werewolves, and demons are real, myths and legends are revered, magic is possible, and love still conquers all.