RONDA WICKS ELLER

excerpted from

Chapter 26. Reflections

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         Out of a sudden urge, he reached forward and picked up the diary (she) made about their time together and thumbed through it. Perhaps her thoughts could help him assuage the torture he was putting himself through. In one entry he found the following:
          “We made love for the first time today. I was so nervous but I wanted to be with him in that intimate way for quite some time. Being a Navy man, I thought he would be more cavalier about it but he seemed as nervous as I. Every passion he exhibited was perfect, emotionally touching and so special I swear I would have given him the world were I able to. His eyes were brilliant as wildfire and I think they consumed my heart of their own willpower. I can’t imagine being with anyone but him and he swears to love me forever. I pray for God to hold him to it. A woman’s world is so insecure compared to a man’s so today was a great step for me. I wonder if he realizes how much I love him or if he considers my love to be some girlish intrigue or worse, frivolity.”
          He remembered the day as vividly as if it just happened. Pirate Games were taking place in the harbour and because of his Navy experience he’d been commandeered to captain a ship in full pirate costume. Hordes of celebrators from across the West Country were there to witness and participate in full costume, including (name), who was visiting at her Uncle John’s summer house. She told him to find her in the crowd by looking for yellow flowers she would wear in her hair. As the ships sailed into the harbour, they feigned battle with other pirates over the possession of mock treasures and ran through the crowds searching for damsels to carry away. As his faux crewmen caused havoc, (he) located and carried her around a building to where his horse and carriage were tethered, waiting to take them to his Brixham estate. She’d already sent a message to her uncle saying she discovered friends and would return at a respectable hour. The excitement of the event added to the thrill of their “great escape”.
          They left the carriage by the stable at Gaillard Manor with faces that were flush and spirits filled with glee. She ran through the field and challenged him to catch her before disappearing into the woodlot on its far edge, and he gallantly gave her a head start before taking up her invitation to give chase, playfully uttering pirate threats that he'd certainly ravish her once caught. 
          To his surprise she snagged his sleeve with her hand as he was about to pass where she hid behind a great old oak, and by her action she forwardly declared her desire for intimate relations with him, but she threw herself into his arms as he turned toward her and the force of her body dislodged his footing. He fell backward toward the ground, holding her above him as he braced his body for the coming impact. She squealed involuntarily as they fell but had the foresight to make her hands a cushion for the back of his head. He lifted it immediately and she pulled them out, giggling a string of embarrassed apologies for the unintended calamity.
          He remembered his sudden worry over whether her dainty hands were injured and how he reached for them, to make sure they were okay. His back was screaming but his chief concern was for her and as she sat on him with the most quizzical look over his attention to her hands, he offered his best defense by telling her he worshipped her hands as much as every other part of her and, were it not so, he wouldn’t be lying on the woodland floor while his back yowled in pain.
          (She) practically jumped off of him in response, knowing that her weight must have made it worse and miserable that she hadn't considered his condition sooner. Meanwhile, he was regretting the lost opportunity to amorously slide his hands along the length of her thighs while she’d been in such a benevolent position. She wanted him to try sitting up and, wincing through pain, he obliged her. Then she insisted on looking at his back to make sure he had no severe bruising or other “abnormalities”, as she described it. After he removed his vest and shirt for her surveillance and she moved behind him, he felt her hands delicately touching, then lightly massaging his lower back, gradually moving to his shoulder blades. He moaned with pleasure under her caress and by the time his aching abated he could stand being apart from her no longer. He reached back to hook his arm around her waist and meet her body with his. His mouth found hers with great desperation and desire and she returned his passion with some of her own, a lot in fact!
          Oh yes, he remembered being very nervous when they moved beyond fondling. He may have been a Navy man but he was still a virgin too, a thirty-one year old virgin... and she was a high society, nineteen year old Lady that, because of his life experiences, he never felt worthy of. He aspired but wouldn't let himself think she might return his affections so intimately, figuring himself to be more of a trusted escort while she awaited the day some worthy fellow came to take his place. Until that day in the woods, he thought her overtures were harmless flirtations but when they made love he knew it was more than that – not only for him but for her too!