Wedding Bell Blues Pt. 03

The disclaimers: Every character who matters is at least 18. A work of fiction (more or less). Any resemblance to any person, living or dead, is coincidental (for the most part).

Part 3 picks up on Monday morning, the day after the MC's ex-fiancé's sister, Hayleigh, agreed to accompany the MC to Nassau on what was to be the honeymoon. More unsettling revelations and an adventurous Hayleigh take the MC on a roller coaster ride.

This one actually has some "good" sex in it, not the cheating kind. Be patient with me, that sort of writing is very much out of my wheelhouse.

~~~@~~~@~~~

~~~ SUNDAY EVENING ~~~

I read Hayleigh's message several times before it occurred to me to respond.

"Can't tell you how much am looking forward to tomorrow. Endlessly sorry if I upset you earlier. Do not want to ever hurt you."

Hayleigh texted back a row of smiley-face emojis that had tiny red hearts for eyes. I set three separate wake-up alarms on three different devices, and drifted off to sleep.

~~~ MONDAY ~~~

As it turned out, I didn't need the alarms. It's strange how sometimes a person's own mind will set a subconscious timer and you wake up yourself before the alarms. I decided to grab another shower to help shake off the sleep. Thirty minutes later I was in my travel clothes and had my bags packed. I decided to go with casual clothes, but something much better than jeans and a T-shirt. The resort in Nassau was upscale, and more than that, I wanted to make a good impression on Hayleigh. It was almost as if I was courting her, which was silly, given the "circumstances" as she and I had decided to call them.

Steve called to check in on me. He joined my parents in the camp of people less than enthusiastic about my plans.

"Dude, in the pantheon of raging stupid things to do, this rates as epic. I admit she's cute. But not cute enough to do this. I'm supposed to be the careless one who does stupid shit without thinking about consequences, not you."

"Wrong, dude. She absolutely is that cute. Still, it's just a fun trip with a fun girl, and better to go with Hayleigh than to let the tickets and reservations all go to waste."

"I call bullshit. This will send Jennifer into high orbit, and you know it."

"Major side benefit, true. I admit the payback factor looms large. Assuming she gives a rat's arse about me anymore. Or really ever did."

"Bullshit! Jennifer will have a stroke when she finds out you're with Hayleigh. This is like when my dad found out that my mom was screwing my uncle. You'll be able to see the mushroom cloud from Nassau. Just don't get in too deep. But do prang her a few extra times for me though, OK? Good luck, dumb-ass!"

Steve was right about not getting in too deep, but in the moment I didn't care.

I came downstairs and said my good-byes to Mom, who gave me a big hug and told me to "have a good time," as if I was headed off to summer camp for a week. Summer camp never featured pink sand beaches and banging a hot little blonde. I couldn't find Danni to say bye to her. My father told me she said something about grabbing some breakfast from the local taqueria before she had to be at her shift at her summer job. I surmised that the real reason she took off was that she was still upset with me about the trip and didn't want to see me. I would smooth it over with her later.

The drive to the airport with my father mostly avoided the touchy subject of the trip itself. Instead we talked about preparations for law school at Northwestern. My parents were pleased that I managed to get accepted to a top-tier school that was close to home. We all would have preferred Harvard, or Yale, or Michigan. Who wouldn't? But none of those schools were keen on me. Besides, Northwestern offered me substantial tuition assistance, and combined with my other scholarships, savings, and a few loans, the finances worked out OK, even after the debacle that derailed my marriage. So instead my father and I talked about where I should live, whether I should try to get a roommate, and other similar chit-chat that we had discussed many times before. Before we knew it we were pulling up to the passenger drop-off area and I was getting my bags out of the trunk.

Dad was philosophical. "Your mother and I are truly sorry about how things turned out with Jennifer. I hope this trip helps you get your head straight and your heart mended." He extended his hand, his peace offering for being hard-nosed about going with Hayleigh.

I took my father's hand. "I don't care what they say, Dad, you're OK by me."

The Old Man pulled out of his pocket what looked like about $1,000 in cash. "Your mother I and were going to give this to you and Jennifer as an extra wedding gift, just so that you two would have money to splurge on something if you wanted. We figured that you and Hayleigh ought to have it. Treat her well."

I was genuinely surprised. "Jeez, this is so unexpected. Thank you! And I will. Treat her well, I mean. As crazy as this sounds under the circumstances, I really like this girl, Dad."

He smiled. "I know you do. Try to remember that she's not Jennifer. Have fun. See some sights. Laugh and play. Exorcise some demons."

My father got back in his car and rolled off. As I wheeled my luggage toward the terminal entrance I thought I saw Danni's car in the distance. There couldn't be too many bright green Mini Cooper Clubmans with Wisconsin Badgers plastered on the rear glass. It couldn't have been Danni's car though. What would she be doing here?

There weren't many people in our local airport's small terminal, so Hayleigh would be easy to spot. But I didn't see her anywhere. She said that she would arrive at least an hour before boarding, and it was past that mark now. My paranoia reared up again. After all of this, did I get stood up after all? No messages or missed calls on my phone. Panicked, I was about to text her when she emerged from the women's restroom.

I was literally stunned. Rather, Hayleigh was stunning. She was wearing a pale blue skirt that perfectly matched the curves of her hips and led the eyes to what had to be the best pair of legs in all 50 states and 5 territories. A matching yellow and blue short-sleeved blouse brought out her upper curves without being at all tarty. A lightweight blue linen jacket was folded over her arm. Her thick blonde hair, which usually fell in soft curls that reached past her shoulders, was in a perfectly set ponytail secured with a blue ribbon that exactly matched her skirt. I had never seen Hayleigh like this before. She looked even better than she did in her bridesmaid's dress, and she was deadly in that bridesmaid's dress.

Hayleigh was scanning the terminal looking for me. I waited until her gaze pointed in my direction and then pretended that I just saw her, too. I didn't want her to know that I had just been standing there like a nitwit checking her out. When she saw me she broke into a big smile and propelled herself to me in that half-walk half-skip that only women seem capable of doing. She hugged me like we had been paired-up for years. She stood on her tip-toes to give me a quick peck on the cheek, and then flashed a killer smile that was nowhere to be seen at the wedding.

"You clean up pretty good," she said with a dollop of playful sarcasm.

"Thanks, but I don't hold a candle to you. Honestly, Hayleigh, you are unreasonably gorgeous!"

"Oh, stop!" she said with mock dismissal, but I could tell that the compliment made her glow inside. She didn't just throw her outfit and look together. She spent some time on getting things just right, and I knew at least this much about the female psyche, she would have been disappointed if I hadn't noticed. Believe me, I noticed.

I stood there like a moron, tongue-tied. Now that the moment was here, I was choking. Hayleigh to the rescue. "Well, if you're done checking me out we should get our bags checked and boarding passes issued, right?"

That snapped me out of my fog. Crap! She knew I was checking her out. "Yes, we should. We have a lot of flying ahead."

There were a couple of small groups in line ahead of us, which gave us time for some chit-chat. I mentioned seeing what looked like Danni's car here at the airport. That prompted an unforced laugh from Hayleigh.

"It WAS Danni's car." My face must have betrayed my confusion, so she explained. "I told you that a 'friend' agreed to take me here. Danni IS my friend you know."

I was backpedaling now. "I know she is. I'm just surprised that you asked her to take you, considering."

"You have it wrong, Tom. I didn't ask Danni, Danni called and offered. She told me how important this trip had become for you, and she wanted to make 100 per cent sure that I got here on time. She didn't want to leave anything to chance."

That was a troubling bit of information. "I wish she hadn't told you that. This trip is important to me, but I don't want you to come with me out of pity or feeling obligated or anything. I only want you to go if you genuinely want to be with me. Honestly, Hayleigh, hope this of your own free will, not because you feel you have to, or feel sorry for me."

Hayleigh got misty-eyed on me. "Tom, now you listen to me. I called YOU to ask if the offer to come in my sister's place was for real, remember? I'm here because I want to be here. I'm going to let you in on a secret. I'm more than a little fond of you, and I have been for a while. But you were engaged to my sister, so that was that."

That was an interesting admission. I had no idea she fancied me. Not like that anyway. Sure, Danni had said so yesterday, but I wrote that off as another of Danni's over-the-top exaggerations.

Hayleigh took my hand in hers and gave it the same gentle squeeze she did at the church. I returned the gesture. A warm flush coursed through me when she kissed my cheek.

Then she said something totally unexpected.

"Of course, you should know that I don't have complete free will in this deal. Danni was emphatic that if I hurt you my body would never be found. So I have to be good to you, or Danni will kill me. Literally, I think."

The tension dropped measurably. "That's funny, because Danni told me that if I hurt you she would dispose of me in that fire pit we have in our back yard. I'm not sure whether I would be dead already or burned alive."

Another misty-eyed look. "Then I guess we better not hurt each other, eh?"

"Right." I don't know what motivated me to do it, but I lifted her hand to my face and kissed it. I could fall for this girl if I wasn't careful. My father might have been right after all; this trip could end badly for both of us.

We soon found ourselves next to be checked in. Thankfully there was no trouble about Hayleigh's ticket, and in no time we had our boarding passes in hand and headed to the gate area to be poked and prodded by the TSA. The line was mercifully short, and soon we were seated at our gate waiting to board the little Embraer turboprop for the hop to Minneapolis-Saint Paul. We barely sat down when Hayleigh's phone rang. Her demeanor changed immediately; the call clearly was unwelcome. She didn't answer. Not that it mattered. Whoever was calling was blowing up her phone.

"Something wrong?"

"Not yet there isn't. But I did something that might cause a problem." She didn't look at me when she said it. "I couldn't just disappear without letting my parents know where I was. I mean where I was going. So I left a note on my bed telling them that I decided to go with you. That was my father calling, so they must have found my note."

"Yep, must have."

"He can't stop me from getting on the plane, or stop the plane from taking off, can he?"

I didn't know, so that's what I told her. "Maybe you should give him a call. We start boarding in a few minutes, so I don't think that he can get here before the plane takes off. I would still call him though."

Hayleigh's resigned expression said it for her; she was going to call him.

"Hi Dad....... Yes, I am.... A friend took me.... It doesn't matter who!... I will NOT!...... Because I want to!...... No, I ----... Absolutely not and you can't make me!......... So Jennifer screws somebody right before she's going to get married, and I'M a slut???......... Fine, then I will live somewhere else! Good bye!"

It wasn't difficult to fill in the blanks.

"I gather that he told you he was kicking you out the house if you go."

Hayleigh surprised me. She wasn't concerned about that in the least. In fact, she was more determined than ever to plow ahead.

"That's about it. He said that if I got on the plane then don't come home, which is fine by me. And he called me some really awful names."

"I guessed that part. I'm so sorry. This is my fault."

"It isn't your fault, Tom. I'm a big girl and I choose to do this." She face betrayed an internal turmoil. "Do you think I'm being a slut? Do you?"

"No, Hayleigh. If I thought that, I wouldn't be here with you now."

She took my hand in hers and intertwined our fingers, then rested her head in the hollow of my shoulder. I would have been contented to spend the rest of the day just sitting there at the airport with her. I almost forgot about what had brought us there.

We barely got comfortable when the boarding began. The flight was nearly empty, so it only took a few minutes before everyone was in the plane and the cabin door was closed. After a short taxi to the runway, we were in the air. Not much could stop us now. It didn't take long to reach cruising altitude and the seat belt light went out. Hayleigh saw a pair of seats further back in the cabin that didn't have anyone sitting nearby, and asked the flight attendant if we could sit there instead of in our assigned seats.

"I need to talk to you about some things," she whispered. "I don't want anyone close enough to be able to listen to us."

We settled into our new seats. I had no idea what I was about to learn, but I was certain I wasn't going to like it.

"You told me that there were some things that I didn't know, and that you would tell me when we got on the plane," I offered. "So, here we are."

Hayleigh lifted up the armrest between our seats and turned so that her face was close to mine. We probably looked like a pair of crooks planning a bank robbery.

"Do you remember how upset I was at the church when you showed my the video of my sister and that guy doing it?" Her eyes simmered with barely subdued anger. No, not anger. Rage. It was an emotion that I'd become too familiar with, so I'd become keen on recognizing it.

"Yes. Hard to miss. We all noticed that you were horribly upset. I assumed you were pissed off at me. That isn't it, is it?"

"Oh, I was pissed alright. But not at you. The guy my sister was screwing is David Pierson. He's also the guy who I had been been seeing until about three months ago. I didn't know about him and my sister that until I saw the video."

I sure as fuck didn't see that one coming, even if I should have. And I was right. I didn't like this news one tiny bit.

"So Jennifer wasn't just cheating on me, she was doing it with YOUR boyfriend? How long had they been--"

She cut in, getting angrier by the second.

"I don't know for sure. I think that they met at a sorority party about eight months ago. Do you remember that I had invited Jennifer to spend a weekend with me back then at homecoming? She came to the party, and I was the one who introduced them. Feature that one. It was no biggie; just 'Hey, this is my sister' and "this is my boyfriend.' They spent A LOT of time with each other at the party. I didn't think anything of it, because David and I had been seeing each other, and you and my sister were engaged. I didn't suspect anything because my mind doesn't work that way. At least it didn't back then."

Things were starting to fall into place now. But Hayleigh had more to tell.

"Anyway, in the following months I saw David less often. We stopped going to movies and stuff like that. He would say he was too busy with classes, or didn't feel good, or some other excuse. The bastard would still show up every few weeks to sleep with me though. After I saw the video it all clicked. The same weekends that Dave was 'too busy' were weekends that my sister told me she had plans with you. She was never with you on weekends, was she?"

It all started making sense to me, too. I suddenly realized that I was clenching my jaw hard enough to break my teeth.

"You're right. There were several months that Jennifer told me that she couldn't see me that weekend because she was too busy with a project or didn't feel well. I would try to call her and she either wouldn't answer, or she would text that she couldn't talk right then and would call later. I didn't suspect a damn thing! Besides, couples who love each other are supposed to trust each other."

Hayleigh wasn't finished.

"Tom, there's more. You're going to Northwestern and moving to Chicago, correct?"

"Yes. I was accepted at some other schools that were on par with Northwestern, but those were farther away. I gave Jennifer the choice of which offer I should accept. I mean, why shouldn't she have a say in where we would be living for those three years? She chose Northwestern. She said that it was close to home, so we could visit our families easily and all that."

Hayleigh bit her lower lip before continuing.

"Okay." She paused and took a deep breath. "Do you remember that I told you that I had stopped seeing the guy I had been seeing a few months ago, and that I hadn't been sleeping with anyone since?"

"Yes, I remember." I braced myself for the next shoe to drop.

"The guy of course was David. That was the last straw. I decided to break it off with him because he told me that he was taking a job in Chicago after graduation, and he wouldn't be able to see me as much. We already weren't seeing as much of each other, except when he would come around for sex. He tried to convince me that we could still 'get together' as he put it, but I wanted a committed boyfriend, not a fuck-buddy."

Now I was livid. "Chicago, huh? Imagine that," I deadpanned. "What an amazing coincidence!" The sarcasm in my voice would have melted steel.

Hayleigh took my other hand, holding both in hers.

"That's what I think, too. And that's why my father's threat to kick me out of the house doesn't bother me. I'm going to move out anyway. I can't live in the same house as Jennifer. Not now, not after this. I just can't. I will find a friend to put me up until I find a place, or sublease a small apartment until school starts in the fall."

My inner smart-ass escaped. "Well, Hayleigh, I have to say, you sure lay a lot on a guy on a first date."

"We both were played for idiots, Tom." Hayleigh forced a weak smile. "Oh, by the way, technically this isn't our first date."

She totally lost me there. "It isn't? How so?"

"Do you remember when I was a first year and was pledging the sorority? And my date for the big pledge dance came down with the flu the day before?"

"Of course. I mentioned it on the phone with you on Sunday. Jennifer begged me to be your escort because you couldn't find anyone to replace him on such short notice, and you had to have an escort because you dreaded attending the big dance alone."

Hayleigh's sparkle appeared briefly. "That's right! You know, I still have the corsage that you brought me. I had it pressed."

That surprised me. "You kept that? Why?"

More sparkle. "I told you, silly. I've had a thing for you for a long time. That was the best date I've ever had, except for the goodnight kiss."

"As I remember it, I didn't give you a goodnight kiss."

Hayleigh gave me a playful poke in the chest. "Exactly! I had readied myself for that kiss almost from the minute you agreed to be my escort. By the time we got back to my dorm after all that cheek-to-cheek slow-dancing, I was ready to be KISSED! There I was, gazing dreamily into your eyes, batting my eyelashes, heart pounding with anticipation, all puckered up, and you dodged my lips and kissed me on the cheek! You total jerk!" At least she was laughing.

"In my defense, you were my girlfriend's kid sister. No way in hell was I going to give you a real kiss. I ain't that stupid."

Hayleigh disengaged and faced forward in her seat. Her head again found the hollow of my shoulder, and she closed her eyes as she nestled in.

"You can make it up to me when we get to Nassau."

While Hayleigh caught a short nap I considered the complex series of treacheries that had been revealed to me in the preceding 48 hours. I was struck by the fact that I had so completely misjudged Jennifer, and those misjudgments were compounded by the fact that I had missed so many warning signs. And now here I was putting my trust in a girl who I really didn't know at all. Real smart, Tom. If I had any sense at all, I would have contritely told Hayleigh that I had a sudden attack of common sense, and gotten us on the first flight out of MSP headed back home. But if I did that, then I would never know how this exercise in stupidity would have played out. My father often remarked "Life is too damn short." Short or not, there are no replays, no do-overs. I was not going to end up as that 70 year old man lamenting that I didn't roll the dice. No coulda-woulda-shoulda bullshit. I wasn't going to die wondering "what if" about Hayleigh. Besides the philosophies, the warmth of Hayleigh's cheek on my shoulder was reason enough. I would see this out.

We landed on-time in MSP, and because we had a long layover before the connecting flight to Miami we decided to grab lunch. I didn't know what Hayleigh liked to eat, so I asked her to pick a place in the terminal's main food court. Come to think of it, I didn't know what music she liked best, what TV shows she watched, and on and on and on. It was as if I was in an arranged marriage and had never met the bride. I was having an immersion course in Hayleigh, like being dropped into Paris and not knowing a word of French beyond bonjour and merci.

Hayleigh chose a soup & salad joint. So Hayleigh likes rabbit food. That was a start. We had a leisurely lunch that thankfully did not include any mention of Jennifer, David, her parents, my parents, or the wedding debacle. She told me about her nursing coursework, her sorority sisters, and concerts she went to on campus. In between she pumped me for information about my law school plans and why I wanted to be a lawyer. She suggested there was still time for me to opt for something more socially useful and morally defensible, such as becoming a mafia hit-man or a telemarketing scammer. She had a fair point.

We people-watched and traded jokes about horrible clothing choices we saw and hairstyles that Mother Nature never intended. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed just talking to her, like we did in our wee-hours chats up at her family's lake house after Jennifer flamed out. I was the most relaxed and contented I had been for over two days. For longer than that, really. The time flew by, and soon it was time to head to the gate to board the next flight. I kept watch over her carry-on while she made a stop in the restroom, thoroughly enjoying the view of her backside as she headed down the crowded corridor. She did the same for my pit stop, though I doubted she was enthralled with by backside, and then off we went.

Hayleigh apparently shared my unease over us knowing so little about the other. After we had been in the air for about 30 minutes she pulled a deck of cards out of her carry-on. We were to play draw poker. The winner of a hand could ask the loser to name something loser liked, or to name something the loser didn't like. "And to make it interesting," she said with a devious smile, "the winner of the most hands gets to ask the loser to do something in bed. "Anything goes," she announced, "unless it's demeaning or it hurts." How could I refuse?

I learned a lot from our game. Hayleigh is a chocoholic, and the darker the chocolate the better. She hates anchovies on pizza, but her favorite food is sushi. Go figure that contradiction. She prefers baths to showers. She can't stand most rap music, mostly because it is too violent and misogynistic. She really likes old-style swing music, because it is so fun to dance to. She likes dogs better than cats. Christmas is her favorite holiday, followed by the Fourth of July because of the cookouts and the fireworks. She far prefers tea to coffee. She thinks most beers taste awful, but she is a big fan of Whiskey Sours and rum drinks.

We kept playing until the flight attendant announced that the plane was readying to land in Miami. She learned a lot more about me than I did about her. The final tally had her ahead by over 20 points. All she said was "I so own you!" I had no idea what she would ask me to do. Mostly I was concerned that I wouldn't measure up. Performance anxiety was the last thing I needed, but there it was. It didn't help that I knew David had a monster cock. I would not compare well. I wondered if she'd be disappointed if I slept on a couch after all.

We had to hustle through the terminal in Miami to make our shuttle to the Bahamas. We arrived at the gate just before last call for boarding. Twenty minutes later we were in the air, and about a half an hour after that we touched down at Lynden Pindling.

Hayleigh and I held hands the whole way. She had pretty hands, if there is such a thing. She didn't wear fake nails, but hers were perfectly manicured and painted a soft rose color that perfectly matched her outfit. We didn't talk much, except to comment on the fantastic views of the ocean through the shuttle's small windows. She obviously enjoyed flying. I wondered if she would like flying in a smaller plane. Dad had a fractional ownership in a Cessna 310, and he was always looking for a reason to take it up. In some alternate universe where Hayleigh and I kept seeing each other I would have to get my father to take her for a flight. We were both relieved that Bahamas Customs was efficient and quickly passed us through. The resort had an airport shuttle service, and in no time at all we were checked in to our beach house.

The desk clerk ran his spiel: "Welcome to the Oceanside Resort. Your accommodations are ready, and your luggage will be waiting for you etc. etc. etc. Enjoy your stay with us." Yes, this would do nicely.

We made our way to the small beach house, which was only a short walk away from the main building. It was close to perfect. There was a well-appointed sitting area just off the open bedroom. A kitchenette was provided, too, and even a small stacked washer & dryer set. The bedroom and a luxurious king-size bed filled most of the space. From the bed you could look out the windows to the private patio area and hot tub, and beyond that there was a pink-sand beach. It appeared that the bathroom was down a short hall that adjoined the bedroom area. Our bags were set neatly on stands near the closet. Everything was perfectly in order.

Hayleigh was impressed. "Damn, Tom, how can you afford this place? This is unbelievable!"

"Construction jobs. Lots and lots of nailing, dry-walling, and plastering."

Hayleigh continued to take in the room and the ocean view. "I would love to explore the beach with you right now, but I am dying to use the bathroom. Be right back."

Hayleigh returned a few minutes later. "You have got to see that bathroom. It's huge! There's a shower big enough for four people with about six shower heads, and a huge old-timey bathtub with feet! Go see for yourself!"

Hayleigh was right, the bathroom was a case study in excess. It even had two TV monitors strategically located for viewing from either the commode or the bath & shower. There was a vanity area with a built-in lighted mirror for a lady to apply makeup or whatever. A lot of natural marble, too. So this is how the rich live.

After I finished my business and washed my face off I walked back into a changed main room. The curtains had been drawn, and a single bedside table lamp provided a dim light. Hayleigh was standing at the foot of the huge bed, wearing only panties and a camisole that barely covered the bottoms of her breasts. Her nipples made subtle tents in the thin satin, and I could see the hint of a blonde landing strip through her ultra-sheer black panties. Her ponytail was gone. Thick honey & wheat-blonde hair cascaded over her shoulders and fell in gentle curls that reached almost to her very erect nipples. I was mesmerized, but I had stared too long for her comfort zone.

"Tom, what's wrong? You're staring at me!" Hayleigh's right leg crossed in front of her left. One hand shot down to try to cover her pubic area, while her other arm flew across her chest to cover her tits.

"Nothing's wrong! It's just that I didn't expect to see you like that. My god, you're beautiful."

She relaxed a bit and folded her arms in front of her, which had the side benefit of stretching her camisole more tightly over her deliciously perky nipples. The silly girl was apologetic. "Sorry, I didn't mean to freak out like that. I'm self-conscious. I don't compare very well to Jennifer and her big boobs."

Hayleigh's thinking needed rewiring. "Hayleigh, listen to me. I doubt I will ever see a woman more beautiful than you. I mean that. That's why I was staring. You are breathtaking." I meant every word I said. I was being drawn deeper into the fantasy with each passing minute, and I didn't want to tap the brakes.

I think Hayleigh regained her self-confidence enough to accept my initial clumsy gawking. She extended an arm and gestured for me to come to her. We stood face-to-face for a moment before she stood on her tip-toes and wrapped her lithe arms around my neck. I don't know how long we stood that way; all I could see were her enthralling emerald-green eyes. The warmth of her body against mine was intoxicating, and the soft scent of her filled my nose. The spell broke when she kissed me so softly that I could barely feel her lips on mine.

She pulled back to announce that I was "over-dressed." She disengaged her arms from around neck and reached down to fumble with my belt buckle. I did something that two days before I would never have done for all the money on the planet. I stopped her. I don't know if it was guilt, or cowardice, a crisis of confidence, or some toxic combination of those. What it really was, I feared that she felt that sex was part of our "deal" for the trip, a debt owed.

"Hayleigh, forget what I said on the phone. You don't have to do this."

I couldn't tell whether her expression was more shock or more disappointment. She wasted no time rewiring my thinking.

"Now you to listen to me, buster! I have wanted this since you were my date at the sorority dance. Even before then, really. I don't know how many times I nearly pounced on you up the lake house. If you hadn't been dating Jennifer, I'd have worn you out. I'm twenty-one years old, and I think I'm old enough to make my own decisions about these things."

Her eyes drifted down to my pants, which were slightly tented out. Heyleigh's smirk was both challenging and inviting.

She resumed unbuckling my slacks. I didn't stop her this time. Soon my pants and boxers were pooled around my ankles on the floor, and she set to work on pulling my polo shirt over my head. I was so hard that I ached.

She shimmied out of her panties. There wasn't much light, but I'm sure I saw a sinewy thread of dew stretch from her pussy to the crotch of her panties as she eased them down her legs. She raised her arms upward so that I could pull her camisole over her head. Her tits had the same luscious light caramel skin tone as the rest of her, and no tan lines. She was a living centerfold.

I didn't notice until she sat on the edge of the bed that she had already pulled back the covers at the bottom. She laid back on the bed with her lush bubble butt on the very edge, and propped herself up on her elbows. All 5 feet and 4 inches of glorious Hayleigh Michelle Fredrickson were splayed out before me, naked as the day she was born.

She had no reason to be unhappy about the size of her tits. I judged them to be at least full B cups that would easily fill my hands, topped off by dusky rose-colored areolae about the size of a quarter. And while Hayleigh's firm tits were superb, her pussy was perfection. She was shaved bare except for a short close-cropped medium-blonde landing strip that started right above the cleft at the top of her pussy lips. Deep pink inner labia protruded from thick outer lips, and spread open on their own, like dewy flower petals. Moisture glistened on her, and a slow trickle of her wetness seeped from her opening and ran downward to collect on the bedsheet beneath her. The nub of her little clit poked out, just barely, from her swollen outer lips. I was so worked up that my cock twitched in time with my heartbeat.

As I positioned myself between Hayleigh's toned thighs she spread them a bit wider, which caused her inner her lips to part more and expose even more of her opening. More dew seeped out of her and trickled downward. I positioned my cock at her entrance, and ran the tip slowly up and down the furrow of outer lips, bathing the helmet in her slippery juices. I wanted to savor this. Hayleigh opened her legs even wider as I did that, thrusting her pussy slightly against my cock. Her breaths were short and shallow, and she kept licking at her lips, eyes wide. She opened her legs a little more and eyed my cock as I plowed its tip up and down deeper through her outer lips, teasing at the threshold of her opening.

"Damn you, don't make a girl beg!" she said with feigned annoyance.

Suddenly her calves pressed against hard my arse, pulling my hips toward her and pushing my cock forward fully into her meaty folds. I sank slowly but steadily into the what had to be the warmest, wettest, tightest pussy on God's green Earth. Hayleigh let out a small gasp and her eyes went wider still. I really could feel her pussy contracting around me, making a squishing sound as I drove forward. I didn't want to move for fear I would pop right then and there.

"Just give me a sec here, or this will be over before it starts." It was all I could do not to let go inside her after that first plunge.

Hayleigh almost silently mouthed "It's OK," and resumed squeezing my cock with her pussy. Ecstasy.

I started in slow, short movements. With every thrust Hayleigh's pussy made a squelching sound from all of the juice she was making. Her face flushed and her breathing become shorter and ragged. I hoped to be able to hang on long enough to bring her off, but that was unlikely. That familiar tingling in my balls was becoming more insistent with every tiny movement.

She must have sensed how close I was. "Don't hold back, Tom! Let it happen. Just let go. Cum inside me." Another pussy squeeze.

Her legs wrapped around me again to pull me in hard just as I started moving forward, burying me in her to the hilt. That was it. I came so hard that it was almost painful. Hayleigh's eyes shut hard as the first spurt jetted out of me, and then a flood of warm liquid bathed my balls. I jammed myself forward again, trying to get my cock just a little bit deeper inside her as several more jets sprayed into her. A deep, low growl escaped from her, and then another flood of liquid poured out.

I was almost too spent to move, but I managed to lower myself gently down on top of her, supporting my weight on my elbows so that I wouldn't crush her. Hayleigh closed her eyes as her soft hands lightly caressed my back. I think my head drooped down and nestled into her neck, but to be honest I was so done in that I don't remember for certain what I did.

She let out a contented sigh before speaking. "See, that wasn't so bad now, was it?" Her eyes half-opened and she flashed a conspiratorial smile.

"No, no, it was fantastic. I barely survived, but it was fantastic. Sorry it was over so fast. I tried to hold off for you, but I couldn't help it."

"Shhhhh," she whispered softly in my ear. "In case you didn't notice, you made me cum twice."

Before I realized what I was doing I had moved my hands up to cradle her head. My thumbs lightly traced across her cheeks and I lowered by lips to hers. I think that kiss lasted for at least a minute. Perhaps more.

There was moisture in her emerald-green eyes when our kiss broke. "Damn!" she said in mock seriousness, "Now I have to think of something else to tell you to do when we're in bed."

"You were going to ask me to kiss you? All those hands of poker you won, a blank check in your hand, and that was going to be the big ask?"

"I was going to ask you to kiss me like you meant it." She cocked her head to the side. "Did you mean it?"

I didn't know how to answer. I temporized. "What do you think?"

"I think," she said with a hint of challenge, "that you're confusing our little escape from reality with reality itself. But so am I, and I'm going to enjoy it as many times as I can."

I felt her hips shift under me. I was still buried inside her.

"I also think that you're still hard!" I was. Even after a soul-draining orgasm I remained nearly at full mast.

The arch of her foot lightly dragged along my calf. If I wasn't fully hard before, that got me there. She raised her knees straight up and rested her ankles on my butt, giving me a better angle as I resumed pumping into her now sopping pussy. We planted little kisses on each other's neck and cheeks as we coupled. It was odd sensation for me. There was the raw excitement of a new lover, and yet it felt as natural as if we had been lovers for years. It wasn't long before she started making her deep growling sound, and moments after that her floodgates opened again. I tried to get every last millimeter of my cock inside her. Her nails dug into my hips as her pussy walls clenched. That pushed me over the edge for the second time. Now I was completely done in. I slowly pulled out and lay down next to her.

"By the way," she said meekly as we recovered, "I didn't pee on you. You know that, right?"

I had heard of "squirters" but I didn't really know what that entailed. It had never happened with Jennifer, whose only tell-tale sign of orgasm known to me was her "oh-oh-oh" stutters, if and when it happened. So my knowledge of squirting was limited to myth and legend.

"I know. But next time I'm wearing a wet suit." I nudged her in the side so that she would know I was joking.

As usual, she was ready to return serve.

"Jerk! After that remark there might not be a next time." She bumped her hip against mine.

Now my curiosity was piqued. "Do you always do that when you cum? I'm just wondering."

She wasn't done messing with me. "And how do you know that I really had an orgasm? I might have been faking it to prop up your fragile male ego."

A wicked smile crept across her face. She was toying with me, and loving doing it. She rolled over on her side and propped herself up on an elbow. Her leg slid upward across my outstretched legs until her slickened thigh came to rest just below my groin.

"Actually, that's never happened to me during sex," she admitted. "God, I can't believe I'm going to tell you this. It's happened a few times before when I've been... by myself. But only a few times." She bit her lip and looked away from me. "I'll understand if it, the mess, bothers you. We don't have to do anything any more if it does."

I gently turned her chin to face me. "It doesn't bother me at all. I think it's great!"

The Hayleigh sparkle came back. She lay back down, melting into me with her head resting on my shoulder and her arm lazily draped over my chest. I had almost dozed off when I felt her disengage from our cuddle and then hover over me, her perfect B-plus globes swaying as she positioned her face over mine.

"I need to clean up now that I've had my way with you. I'm going to take a quick bath. Do you think we could get some dinner right after? I need to eat if I'm going to keep up my strength for tonight, and I need to re-hydrate!"

With that, she crawled off the bed and padded off to the bathroom. From my vantage point as she walked away it looked like she had a hand cupped under her, probably to keep from dripping on the floor. A quick check of the mattress revealed a circular area about a foot around that was soaking wet. Thankfully, the wet area was at the very foot of the huge bed. I made a mental note to make sure that we kept a towel at the ready next time. If there was a next time.

She quickly finished her bath and emerged in a terrycloth bathrobe. She gently prodded me to hurry, stating she was famished. I took a quick shower, and when I came from the bathroom into the main room I found her already dressed and putting finishing touches on her lip gloss.

She had a knack for stunning me. She had swapped her pale blue skirt and blouse combination for a black pencil skirt and matching black satin blouse that really made her long blonde hair pop out. A pair of kitten heels gave her already shapely calves just the right amount of accent. I don't know how long I stood there just looking at her. I couldn't believe that not 30 minutes ago I had sex with that outrageously beautiful girl.

Out of the corner of her eye she noticed me leaning against the bathroom doorway watching her. "I'm going to have to get used to you checking me out, aren't I?" Her tone was playful, not upset.

"Can't help it. You push my buttons."

She finished touching up her lip gloss and moved on to gathering her hair in a black velvet hair bow.

"I suppose I shouldn't worry until you STOP checking me out." She did a quick twirl to show off her outfit. "What do you think? Am I fit to be seen in public?"

"I think every man with a pulse is going to be checking you out, that's what I think."

She tried not to show it, but she glowed. "Good! Now get dressed so we can eat! Your clothes are on the bed."

There was a complete set of clothes laid out for me, right down to a pair of socks and a belt. Her choices for me of course complimented her outfit. I dressed quickly and we headed hand-in-hand for the dining room. The resort's dining room was very formal, complete with floor-length linen tablecloths and candles at every table. I decided on a Caribbean seared fish and vegetables plate, and Hayleigh chose to be adventurous and sample a native-style conch dish. She asked if we could have wine with dinner.

"Of course we can! I'm going to get you drunk so that I can have my way with you tonight."

That remark earned me a playful kick under the table.

"As if! You haven't exactly had to seduce me so far. Besides, do you think you CAN go another round tonight?"

I felt her foot rub my the length of my leg. She had slipped off her shoe, and gently pressed her toes into my groin.

I leaned forward so that no one could overhear me.

"If you keep doing that I might have an embarrassing situation."

She almost appeared contrite. Almost.

"OK, I'll behave. For now."

The sommelier recommended a pinot noir that would complement both seafood entrees. I'm not any kind of wine buff, but it sure tasted good with our food.

Our dinner conversation switched from flirtations and teasing to more details of each other's lives. I discovered that Hayleigh wasn't merely a furiously cute little blonde who happened to be my ex-fiance's sister. She had an incredibly sharp mind and engaging wit that our late-night lake house chats had hinted at, but not fully revealed. She kept herself informed about national and world affairs, and she had carefully thought out views on a wide range of social and political issues. Hardly the usual stuff of dating conversation, but we weren't exactly meeting for the first time on a blind date, and just fell into it naturally. The long, late night talks she and I shared up at her family's lake house only scratched the surface of her intellect. Any foolish pretensions that I had that she wasn't at least my intellectual equal deservedly vanished. The better question was whether I was at her level. Served me right for making the stupid assumptions that guys often make about pretty girls. Guilty as charged.

As I listened to her it occurred to me that Jennifer and I did not have "serious" discussions about much of anything. Jennifer and I had a good time doing things together, but on the weighty questions of what we really wanted out of our lives we had more or less assumed that we were in agreement. No, that isn't correct; I had assumed, incorrectly. I was slowly coming around to the very unwelcome conclusion that I had made grave misjudgments about Jennifer and the role we were to play in each other's lives. Not so much because of Jennifer's obvious lack of integrity, but because we quickly would have become bored with each other or at odds about our views. In the end we would have either divorced after only a few years or lived unhappily until the weight of it made us divorce. Catching Jennifer and David having at it might have been a stroke of fortune. Not that it changed my feelings about what she did. I would be happy never to see or speak to the bitch again.

But the full realization that I had made hideously bad judgments about Jennifer forced me to look hard at what was going on with Hayleigh. I barely knew her, really. The adrenaline rush of a new relationship would wear off. Our first intimacy was fantastic, at least it was for me. But the newness of that would eventually wear off. What then? In fact, our entire relationship was the result of the most contrived set of circumstances I could imagine. And how would we navigate the unavoidable tensions between me and her family? It would take a miracle to get by all of that. Yet when I looked at the girl sitting across from me I knew that I would regret it for the rest of my life if I didn't give it a fair shot. My perfect match might have been hiding in plain sight. It occurred to me that these belated insights might have been the wine talking. Let it talk. I was getting hooked.

We chatted casually through dinner, and then through a second bottle of wine. We held hands on top of the table through most of it. We probably would have ordered a third bottle if the waiter hadn't politely told us that they were closing up. We held hands all the way on our walk back to the beach house. It had been a full day, and I thought we were going to call it a night, but Hayleigh had another idea entirely.

"What a beautiful night!" she said wistfully. "If only there were a handsome gentleman available to take a walk on the beach with me."

Why didn't I think of that! Of course I played along with Hayleigh's latest flirtation.

"I don't see any guys around who are handsome or a gentleman, but I'd be happy to fill in, if you'll have me."

She gave me an understated grin. "Oh, I'll have you alright, but later. Come on, Don Juan!"

Hayleigh kicked off her heels and quick-stepped down the walkway to the beach and the rolling surf as best she could in her tight-fitting pencil skirt. I got my shoes and socks off as fast as I could, rolled up the legs of my trousers, and joined her. We walked hand-in-hand through the surf under a nearly full moon, stopping every few minutes to admire the ocean view and to share a kiss. Lyrics from an old song of my parents' era came unbidden to my mind:

We've walked along St. Thomas beach a million times

Hand in hand, two barefoot lovers kissing in the sand

None of our moonlight stroll took place in the real world, I knew that. But I had decided at dinner to surrender to the fantasy. I had to. Any other choice was unforgivable.

Soon though the wind picked up and it started to get chilly, so we headed back to the cabin. It was getting late anyway, and after a full day of travel Hayleigh hinted that she was ready for turn in. She urged me to take the first turn in the bathroom because she had some "girl stuff" to take care of and she would need a few extra minutes. I had no idea what she meant by "girl stuff," and I didn't want fully reveal myself as an idiot by asking.

"Go ahead and get into bed," she told me when I was finished in the bathroom. "I'll join you in a few."

She closed the bathroom door behind her, and I stripped down to my boxers and got into that massive bed. I left the light on the night table turned on so that she wouldn't have to find her way in the dark. I was both exhausted and on a knife's edge with anticipation of what was to happen next. It was exhilarating in a masochistic sort of way. I fought back the natural hope of more sex, even if that seemed to be in store. No sense in setting myself up for disappointment, and besides, in truth I would have been contented just to fall asleep next to her.

I heard the bathroom door open about five minutes later. She did it to me again. This time she was wearing a dark mint green pleated baby-doll negligee. Two almost invisible straps suspended it from her shoulders. A deep plunging neckline defined lacy cups that barely contained her perky tits, now partially hidden behind handfuls of blonde hair that fell over and down her shoulders in soft curls. A narrow tie gathered the fitted material around her waist, to accent the sleek curves of her torso as it flared into her hips. The nightie stopped just below her groin, such that the slightest upward movement of her shoulders raised the hem to expose her nether lips. The fabric was so sheer that I could easily make out her dusky areolae. Whoever designed this negligee was reading my subconscious mind.

"Hayleigh, you're... you're perfect." She blushed, just a little bit.

"No, you're just easy to please. But thank you anyway for saying it! I told you on Sunday that I had to go shopping to pick up a few things, and this was one of them."

"You must be a mind reader," I told her. "That is exactly what I would have picked if I had been shopping for you."

She slowly walked to the huge bed and stood next to the night table. "Is there room in there for me?"

I pulled the cover back, moved to the middle of the bed, and gestured for her to join me. I was already at full-mast. She lay on her side and cuddled up next to me. I felt my BP jump when her left thigh dragged over my knees and settled just under my boxers. I was keenly aware of the warmth of her damp pussy against my leg, and of her nipples poking into my side. My fingers drifted along the smooth skin of her calf and thigh, while her hand left hand drifted down toward my cock as we shared little kisses. She stopped when she reach the elastic of my boxers.

"There's so much I don't know about you!" she said. "Do you usually wear underwear to bed?"

"Sometimes. I prefer to sleep naked because it's more comfortable, except when it's really cold." She didn't expect that answer.

"So, I'm confused. Why are you wearing boxers tonight, especially since you knew we would be sharing the bed? It's not like I don't know what ya got!"

"To be honest, I didn't want you to think that I expected something. I don't want you to feel obligated. There's no pressure, Hayleigh."

My explanation didn't sit well. The same hand that had drifted down to play with my cock now pounded my chest in mock frustration.

"Uuggh! What am I going to DO with you! You are the sweetest and absolutely the dumbest guy on the planet!"

"Danni says the same thing. Well, the part about being the dumbest."

I didn't know what else to say, except to mumble that I was sorry. Her demeanor softened immediately.

"This is my fault too," she explained. "I should have been more clear about things from the beginning, instead of trying to be clever and flirty." I wondered where this was going.

"I told you before, I've wanted to sleep with you since at least the sorority dance. Of course that was never going to happen because you were my sister's boyfriend, and that would have been a horrid thing to do, a concept that we know is alien to my dear sister. But I fantasized about it, all the time. And now that we've actually done the deed, whaddaya know, I LIKE having sex with you. It was even better than my fantasies, and believe me, I've had some doozies." I bit back the temptation to ask about those fantasies.

"So," she continued, "I'm not doing anything because I think I'm obligated. As long as you don't disrespect me or hurt me, I want you to think of me as your girlfriend. Your frisky, horny, insatiable girlfriend! If I'm not in the mood or don't want to do something, I'll let you know, OK? OK?"

This girl was too good to be true.

"Fair enough," I told her. "Same goes the other way; I'll let you know if something's not OK with me."

We had just resumed our make-out session when Hayleigh's cell phone rang. A frown crept across her face when she looked at the screen. "It's my mother." She took the call right there in the bed, so I was able to hear Hayleigh's end of the conversation.

"Hi.... I'm fine, Mom.... Really, I'm fine. Better than fine.... He's been super nice to me....... That's none of your business, but yes, we have....... He hasn't MADE me do anything.... He's not my sister's fiancé'! That was over when he caught her screwing my skeeze man-slut ex-boyfriend.... I don't care if Daddy's upset! Ask my loving father what he called me!...... I don't care what he thinks!......... I don't care what Jennifer thinks either!............ Don't worry about that I'm--I'm--I'm on birth control, Mother!...... Enough already! We can talk about it when I get home.... I love you, too.... Bye.... Yes, I'll call you.... Really, I will! Bye."

Like the conversation Hayleigh had with her father at the airport, it was easy to fill in the blanks. All except for the "talk about it when I get home" part. I decided to risk upsetting her further and asked.

"Well, first of all," she said to the ceiling, "My mother thinks that you're using me as a fuck-toy and to have revenge against Jennifer, and that you're going to kick me to the curb once you're done using me."

What does one say to that, except to deny it, and anyone who would treat a girl that way would deny it anyway. So I simply nodded my understanding.

"My sister is pissed because she thinks that she still has some claim on you, and if I don't interfere you two will patch everything up and I'm getting in the way of that."

That tidbit ticked me off. "Your sister is beyond delusional. Just sayin'. What about your father?"

Hayleigh sighed. "My father still thinks I'm a slut, apparently. He thinks Jennifer just made some mistakes, but I'm a slut. Explain that one. I can't. My mother is worried that I'm going to get pregnant, even though she knows I'm on birth control. And she's worried that I'm not going to live at home when I get back, which is a conversation I really did NOT want to have with her right now."

"I'm sorry, sweetheart. Anything I can do?"

"Yeah, darn right there is." She pulled me to her to resume our kiss.

That lasted only seconds before a cell phone buzzed. This time it was mine. My mother. Hayleigh flopped down on the bed dramatically, giggling.

"What does a girl have to do to get laid around here?!"

"Hi Mom!... Everything is great.... The beach house is fantastic.... Yes, right off the beach.... I'll take lots of pictures of everything." When I said that Hayleigh assumed a modeling pose and pulled her negligee aside to fully expose a tit while mouthing "everything?". It was all I could do to keep from busting out laughing. "Everything's fine, Mom. Hayleigh's just being silly.... Yes, I think she's having a good time.......... A fantastic dinner and a walk on the beach.......... I'm glad you do. I really like her too.... Yes, I'll call.... Love you too. Bye."

Now we were both laughing, but that didn't last long. We picked up right where we had left off. Hayleigh inched my boxers down to my knees, and I kicked them off the rest of the way. Then I remembered the towels. "Just a second," I said, and I rolled off the bed and headed to the bathroom, leaving her with a perplexed look on her face. She rolled her eyes when she saw me carrying several bath towels.

"Aren't you the confident one!" she declared. "Might not happen again ya know."

"Better safe than sorry though, eh?"

I gestured for her to scoot aside so I could lay the towels over the inner bedsheet. She pulled me down to join her as soon as I finished arranging the towels. Somehow she maneuvered me so that I was on my back and centered on the towels. She promptly stretched out on top of me, straddling my hips with her thighs. Her delightfully firm tits pressed against my chest as we kissed and nibbled at each other's face and lips. I was so caught up our smooching that I didn't notice that she had positioned her opening right at the tip of my cock. Without breaking eye contact she slowly slid herself downward, easing me into her for the third time that day. Warm liquid seeped out of her, flowing out over my groin and running over my nuts and onto the towels.

We remained that way for what seemed like hours, but of course was only minutes. We were coupled, but not moving except to haphazardly kiss and caress. My hands eventually wandered down to a toned butt that was made to be squeezed and kneaded. I rhythmically pressed her down into me, which caused my cock to slightly move deeper and deeper. She began gliding up and down enough for full penetration, and with each stroke her little pussy got tighter and wetter. Suddenly she dropped her head and buried her face into my neck. Between ragged breaths she whispered, "Oh my god, you've done it to me AGAIN!" I felt the muscles in her stomach jerk and her legs tighten. Then the flood, pouring out of her in a staccato series of gushes. That was it for her; she literally went limp on top of me and didn't move for several minutes. I stayed inside her, basking in the feeling of her body pressed against me.

When she eventually stirred she struggled to raise herself up on her elbows. There was a wicked gleam in her eyes.

"I may not survive another six days with you. You're going to kill me!"

I pretended to ponder our options. "Well, we could try to abstinence. Want me to sleep on the couch?"

"No, I don't think--" Her eyes went wide in mid-sentence. "You're hard! Didn't you finish?"

"Not this time. It's OK, Sweetheart. I'm fine and --"

She wouldn't hear it. "Like hell!" She lifted off me enough to pull her legs up into cowgirl position.

"Just a second," she said as she pulled her negligee over her head and tossed it onto the night table. She noticed me checking out her tits, which was hard to miss given that I was trying to burn the image into my memory.

"Sorry the Girls aren't bigger. I need to get a boob job."

"Don't you dare!" I reached up to cradle the undersides of both tits, dragging my thumbs gently around the nipples in lazy circles. "These are perfect! Trust me on this." I tried out my best fake ostentatious professor voice. "I've devoted years and years of study on the subject."

"You've studied my boobs for years? You're weird! And I've only known you for a few years, you perv."

"Not studied yours specifically. Tits in general. I'm a guy, y'know. The Y chromosome rules, and it is relentless."

She feigned disgust. "Guys are pigs. But flattery gets you a pass. This time."

She placed her palms on my shoulders and started to rock back and forth. She barely got into a good rhythm before I felt that familiar churning. I think she sensed that I was close, because she started rotating her hips along with the up and down strokes that caressed my cock to ecstasy. I might have thought the timing was coincidental, but for the way her eyes bored into mine. She milked out every drop I had left, and then lowered herself down give me the most intense kiss of my entire life. It was unhurried and but desperately needful, and it continued without interruption until my softening cock finally slipped out of her. Only then did she gently lift off me and lie down at my side.

"Would you mind if I freshened up before we go to sleep?

"Course not. I think I will too when you're done."

She gave me a quick kiss on the cheek before crawling over me and hopping clumsily off the bed. Grabbing her discarded negligee from the night table, she padded off to the bathroom. I heard the bath water running, so I figured that I had some time to tidy up the bed. As expected, the top two towels were drenched, but luckily the third mostly prevented the bedsheet from getting wet. I wondered what the housekeeping staff would think when they discovered the damp area at the foot of the bed. Perhaps they wouldn't notice. Hayleigh would likely be mortified.

She soon glided out of bathroom, radiant in that phenomenal green baby-doll outfit. She sauntered over to me and wrapped her arms around my waist. "Go get cleaned up and come to bed. I'm completely zonked."

She felt good. More than that, she smelled good. "You smell like peaches. It's nice!"

Hayleigh nuzzled into my chest, and I swear she purred. I mean an honest to goodness purr.

"Spring Peaches body wash. I picked it up for the trip. So you like?"

"Yes, I like."

She dropped an arm from around my waist and gave me a swat on the rump.

"Go get cleaned up. I'll be waiting."

I took a two-minute shower. Hayleigh was already in bed. She was lying on her side facing me, but her eyes were closed. I turned off the night table lamp and settled onto the bed as carefully as I could. I didn't want to wake her if she had dozed off. My precautions turned out to be unnecessary. She moved to me, molding herself along my length. After working a leg in between mine, and she draped her arm over my chest. I slipped my arm under her so that could rest her head on my shoulder, and she nuzzled into my neck. It felt completely natural, like we had been sleeping together that way for years.

Her voice barely broke above a whisper. "Is this OK? I can move if cuddling like this will keep you awake."

"This is wonderful."

Spring Peaches filled my nose. The last thing I remember from that night was her contented sigh when I hugged her to me.

~~~@~~~@~~~

That's it for Part 3. If there's continued reader interest, I'll submit Part 4, which picks up on Tuesday morning, when the roller coaster careens downward. Thank you all kindly for your comments and insightful suggestions. And to those who have followed me after my first submission, V is for Victory - Not!, thank you all for your generous words and support, and for your thoughtful critiques.