enough to stop her in her tracks. It was an indescribable pleasure to
watch her new lover while she was unaware of the scrutiny. She
took the bacon out of the pan and turned off the stove, then took a
carton of eggs out of the fridge and popped some bread into the
toaster. Jennifer leaned against the table, folded her arms across her
chest, and enjoyed the view for as long as she could, completely
taken with the glow of Alex’s skin and the curves of her body. Once
again, she was pleasantly assaulted by periodic flashbacks from the
previous night and wondered how long her body could keep up the
state of perpetual wetness with which it seemed to be afflicted.
She wasn’t ready for the sizzling tremor that shot through her
body when Alex finally turned and their eyes met. Alex wiped her
hands on the towel and tossed it blindly onto the counter. Then she
slowly crossed the space between them, her eyes never leaving Jen-
nifer’s. She stopped mere inches from her. Looking down, she
smiled sweetly, and brushed her fingers through Jennifer’s blonde
and tousled hair.
Before Jennifer could utter a word, Alex’s mouth came down
hard on hers and they kissed deeply, as if they’d never left the bed
from the night before. The height difference between them was sig-
nificant, and Jennifer found herself surrounded by Alex. Rather
than feeling closed in or smothered, she felt safe and loved. She slid
her hands up Alex’s chest and around her neck, pulling her head
down more forcefully. Alex pushed into her, directing her back-
wards until the edge of the dining room table hit her rear end. In
the next instant, she was flat on her back on the dining room table,
her robe totally open, her body completely exposed to Alex. Her
legs found their way around Alex’s waist, Alex’s fingers were buried
deep inside her, and she moaned Alex’s name in ragged breaths.
She came fiercely, as she had done every time the night before,
gasping for air, her chest heaving and her muscles tensed into rocks.
She had to literally untangle her fingers from Alex’s hair, which
made them both grin with amusement.
Alex nuzzled her face against Jennifer’s neck, kissing the skin
softly, then pushed up on her hands so she leaned over her lover,
propped on her palms against the table. Jennifer’s legs dangled use-
lessly on either side of her thighs.
“Good morning.” Jennifer smiled.
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“It is, isn’t it?”
“That is an absolutely incomparable way to start the day.”
“It is, isn’t it?” Alex repeated. She looked like she might say
more, but instead, she stood, held out her hand, and helped Jennifer
to her feet. “Hungry?”
Jennifer closed the robe, tied the sash, and tried to get a fix on
what Alex was thinking. “Famished.”
“Follow me.” Alex headed back to the kitchen and picked up
where she’d left off. “How do you like your eggs?” she asked, with-
out looking back at Jennifer. Then she turned, panicking, “You do
like eggs, don’t you?”
“Over easy, please. Can I help with anything?”
Alex stepped to her and kissed the top of her head. “Nope. Just
sit there and look sexy.”
Jennifer blushed. “Yes, ma’am.” She watched Alex in silence
for a few minutes. “What time did you get up?”
“Kinsey got me up at his usual six thirty, so I put him out.
When I came back into the room, you looked…” She turned to Jen-
nifer with a sheepish grin. “I wanted you to be sure to get some
sleep, but I can’t tell you how badly I wanted to wake you up.”
Jennifer flushed a deeper red as she smiled.
“I decided I’d better get right out of the room. Less tempta-
tion.” She pulled the coffee pot out of its housing and reached for a
mug. “So I read the paper and had some coffee.” She set the cup in
front of Jennifer. “Let my raging hormones cool down a bit, you
know? Though I have to say that the sash on that robe is giving me
very naughty ideas.” She winked at the raising of Jennifer’s eye-
brows and kissed her mouth quickly, then returned to her work.
Jennifer swallowed as the erotic jolt that had zapped her lower
body eased to a dull ache. It was becoming obvious to Jennifer that
Alex wasn’t ready to talk about anything deeper than their sexual
connection at that point. Maybe she was right; that connection was
red hot after all. Jennifer did want to talk about things; she knew
they needed to talk about things, but it had been so long since she felt this desired by somebody—somebody whom she desired—all
she wanted to do at that moment was sit and bask in the glow of it.
She could understand Alex’s avoidance. They could talk later.
They’d have to talk later.
She sipped her coffee.
* * *
Alex and Jennifer spent the entire day in various stages of
undress. Like two children with brand new toys, they couldn’t keep
their hands off each other for longer than an hour or two. Alex
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delighted in Jennifer’s stamina. In past relationships, Alex had
always been the one with the higher sex drive; her partners inevita-
bly ended up pushing her away at some point, murmuring, “no
more” as exhaustion took over. Not so with Jennifer. She matched
Alex touch for touch, stroke for stroke, orgasm for orgasm, and was
ready for more.
When darkness had fallen and they’d opted to return to the
bedroom rather than the couch, the kitchen counters, or the bath-
room floor, things shifted. The raw, intense passion was replaced
with tenderness. They made love slowly, deliberately, sharing eye
contact and emotion, though avoiding the words that would make
things all too real. They mapped one another’s bodies, learning
what touches made the other gasp and filing the information away
for use in the future.
Jennifer was getting used to this new side of her, the boldness,
the aggression. The only time she lost her lead was when Alex phys-
ically took it from her, using their size difference as leverage. She
reversed their positions, flipping Jennifer beneath her and pinning
her arms above her head, Jennifer struggling feebly to play along.
“Careful,” Alex warned against her mouth. “You don’t want
me to have to get that sash out and tie you to this bed.”
Jennifer gasped at the words, the intensity climbing up another
notch as Alex’s tongue plunged possessively into her mouth. They
kissed hungrily, the tenderness morphing back into the animal pas-
sion from earlier. Alex used her mouth to travel the length of Jenni-
fer’s body and settle between the legs that opened to her unbidden.
Jennifer was already very close and crested almost immediately, her
orgasm striking without warning and burying her. When she finally
reached for Alex’s head to push her gently away, Alex caught both
her wrists and held them captive, preventing Jennifer from escaping
the probing tongue and lips still exploring her oversensitive flesh,
forcing her to ride out the sensation of “too much,” ride it through
to the other side. Her groans of protest quickly changed to gasps of
erotically pleasurable shock as a second climax enveloped her with
its power.
Alex stopped stroking and waited for her lover to come down,
still gripping the smaller wrists in her hands, reveling in the moans,
gasps, and whimpers as she felt Jennifer slowly relax.
“God,” Jennifer murmured in wonder. “I’ve never done that
before…in a row like that. Nobody’s ever…Jesus.”
“Good,” Alex replied, happy to have such a memorable sensa-
tion belong only to her. She slowly crawled up Jennifer’s body,
showering it with light kisses along the way. She scooped Jennifer
up and arranged their bodies in a comfortable position. “You’re like
a rag doll,” she chuckled as Jennifer’s limbs flopped uselessly.
156 Georgia Beers
“I can’t move. I feel like Jell-o.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment.”
They lay cuddled together for a long while, listening to the gen-
tle lapping of the water against the shore as the sound drifted into
the bedroom on the soft breeze that tickled the blinds. Jennifer’s
head was tucked under Alex’s chin, resting on her chest.
“I love the sound of your heartbeat,” she said softly.
Alex kissed the top of her head and squeezed her tighter. Kin-
sey hopped up onto the bed and settled down with a sigh, his head
resting on Alex’s ankle. She lay there, replaying the summer to that
point, amazed by the way things had ended up. Her mind stopped
on the argument she’d witnessed between Jennifer and Eric; the
image of Eric raising his hand to strike his wife was still burned
into her brain.
“Jennifer?” Alex whispered, wondering if her lover had fallen
asleep, expecting she had.
“Hmm?” She startled Alex by responding.
“What happened that night? In the backyard with Eric?”
Jennifer was silent for such a long time that Alex started to
wonder if she’d been out of line by asking the question, that maybe
Jennifer wasn’t going to answer at all.
Finally, Jennifer took a deep breath and spoke quietly. “I’m not
totally sure, not really, but I have my own ideas. I think he’d proba-
bly just had enough.”
“Of you?”
“Of everything. Eric and I are a lot alike. He’s been so stressed
out trying to do what’s expected of him—take over the family busi-
ness, be happily married to his high school sweetheart, have just the
right cars and just the right house in just the right neighborhood.
He’s been trying so hard to uphold that image—the image of the
Good Son. I honestly thought I was doing him a favor. My inten-
tions were good, I swear they were.”
“What do you mean?” Alex asked, noting the tone of guilt that
had crept into her voice.
“Remember when Eric’s father came to see me? The day we
took the jet ski out?” She felt Alex nod. “He seemed very concerned
about his son’s stress level. He said he was worried about him.
Frankly, I was ecstatic that somebody had finally noticed. When he
asked me if I thought Eric really wanted to take over the firm, I
thought honesty would be the best policy.” She sighed. “I told him
no.”
“Oooooh,” Alex drawled out, wincing with understanding.
“Yeah. Probably not my swiftest maneuver.”
“And Eric found out.”
“Yep.” Jennifer propped herself up on an elbow so she could
Thy Neighbor’s Wife 157
look Alex in the face. “Look, Alex, I know how you must feel about
him.”
Alex looked at her, but said nothing.
“He wouldn’t have hit me. He’s not like that.”
Alex bristled at the idea of Jennifer defending her husband; she
didn’t like the sensation. She didn’t know if she agreed with Jenni-
fer’s assessment of his actions, but she felt it was not the time nor
place to argue them. Instead, she simply nodded. “Okay.”
“He’s a good man. We’ve both just made some bad choices in
our lives.”
Alex stiffened further and hoped Jennifer didn’t notice. She
didn’t want to talk about Eric, but she knew it was a subject that
wasn’t going to just disappear. “Okay,” she repeated. Jennifer
returned her head to its previous spot on Alex’s shoulder.
Jennifer hadn’t been back to her own house since she’d shown
up on Alex’s doorstep more than twenty-four hours before. She’d
made no attempt to locate her husband and she had no idea if he’d
been trying to get in touch with her. Much as Alex would have liked
for them to hole up in her house and forget about the rest of the
world, she knew that would never happen…that it couldn’t happen.
They were quiet for several minutes before Alex spoke again,
gently. “You’re going to have to go back and face him sooner or
later, baby.” She hoped she didn’t sound as terrified at the prospect
as she felt. Thinking about Jennifer with Eric made her feel nau-
seous.
“I know,” Jennifer answered, her voice small.
Chapter
Sixteen
After more than three days together doing nothing but talking,
making love, and having food delivered, Alex and Jennifer finally
managed to wrench themselves away from each other. It wasn’t
easy, but their bodies were sore and their answering machines had
been working overtime; people were getting worried. Alex sent Jen-
nifer on her way across the yard mid-morning on Wednesday and
they managed to make it through to the evening with only six phone
calls to one another.
That night was their last volleyball game of the season. Alex
could hardly believe it was the end of August already. Summer goes
by so fast around here, she thought as she warmed up, bumping the
ball with Jennifer. She looked through the net at their opponents,
noting the weak links. They had no shot whatsoever at first place,
but the battle for third was on. The humidity from the weekend had
subsided and a refreshing breeze was blowing off the water. It was a
beautiful night.
Speaking of beautiful…They lined up to take turns spiking as
Jennifer set for each of them. She wore black, lycra shorts and a
white tank top she’d borrowed from Alex. “I want to keep you close