Open to Persuasion

Open To Persuasion</p>


1</p>

Betty studied her reflection in the mirror. She stood before it and brushed out her luxuriant auburn hair one last time, allowed the curling strands to spring back and frame her high-cheeked face. She thought that she no longer had that haunted look in her eyes, nor the hollows in her cheeks and her lips not as full and smiling. Many months had passed when she had toiled to keep a hold on her raging emotions and not give way to her tears.
Her life had slowly righted itself, was more settled and the tumult of emotions that had drained her slowly eased away with the passage of time. Gone too were the sleepless nights and a loss of appetite, although she had always eaten sparingly.
She could explain her transformation by accepting the place that Lucas Carpenter was slowly taking in her life and she in his. Hardship had made them stronger, closer, yet not wholly reliant upon each other. That, at least, was what she kept telling herself and that she did again now as the hairbrush was put on the dressing table.
She cared for Like now, more than she dared to admit to him although Luke had let slip how reliant he had become upon her. Adversity had blurred the lines between them, between a mother-in-law and the husband of a cherished daughter.
When Luke did say something, on his feelings or how she was of help to him, the floodgates would again open and she would be overwhelmed by all that bereavement had brought upon her, upon them both.
It was at such moments that a consoling touch, or soft words of understanding, helped her through and Luke was again the dependable man she had discovered him to be; correct and yet attentive.
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She had become emotionally lost, but not so far that she also felt cornered, in a trap. Acting the role of a surrogate mother to his children, her grandchildren after all, came easily enough. She and David had been there to help whenever Luke and Jenny had asked it of them, But their loss had turned once ordered worlds upside down, and both she and Luke had fallen into ways of relying upon each other to be there, close, but not 'living under the same roof.' Outsiders looking in, their acquaintances, friends, and even family might think so, but so much held them back and had pushed even the thought of seeking comfort from each other, in different ways, from their minds.
Until moments ago, and to feel his comforting arms about her as she gave way to her emotions, she had not thought about where his attentiveness could go. She was not scared by the prospect of any intimacy being shared, thought it unlikely except in how it was shown by each of them to the other as acts of consideration. But preparing supper together, now, as Henny and Martin fooled around in the garden, or came rushing through the open patio doors, and brushed past them, was soon met by them both speaking out in harmony.
'Don't say it, Luke..' she had smiled when the kids had rushed away once more. She had seen it in his eyes and understood what lay behind that look. 'We did that together...'
She watched him, as Luke sipped on his glass of white wine, his involvement with the task at hand and that she had agreed to him doing; preparing a shared supper. It didn't happen every day, he and the children living in the converted coach house that was linked to her home by a glazed corridor, its walls set into timber supports and beams that were in keeping with the design of the two properties. A large garden, studiously split by yew hedges, had offered them the privacy and parallel lives that she and David, Luke and Jenny had wanted.
The arrangement worked. Jenny and Luke had kept on saving for their new home, but a settled lethargy set in and none of them had sought to change the arrangement. All of that changed with the train crash, a freak accident that had seen Jenny and David killed, along with four others; their commuter train taking a bend too fast and by sheer coincidence that happening when another train was approaching them on the other track. David had been returning from a meeting in London, Jenny also, and they had agreed to travel back together.
Shared lives, shared homes if it could be called that, had become a shared tragedy that neither she nor, it soon became clear, Luke wished to affect their living arrangements. Their bond had run surprisingly deep.
'Almost ready...Lizzie,' he smiled, using a name for her that he sometimes lapsed into and she choosing to say nothing of. He reached for the wine bottle as he said it. 'Thirsty work, this...cooking for four.'
She watched him wipe his hands on the cloth draped over the rail of the stove, then how he brushed back the tumble of his hair from a slender face. She was a year or two shy of turning fifty; Luke already thirty and with some years of marriage behind him. He'd move on and she would be left to pick up the pieces alone here or sell up and live escort gaziantep ilanları smaller.
It wasn't something that she wanted to even think about, let alone set in motion. She knew it again as Luke, her engaging son in law, offered to top up her glass and she met his look upon her. Could she really allow him to leave and set up home somewhere else? She would miss his teasing ways, soft laugh, the look of his grey-blue eyes upon her, that swept back mane of sandy brown hair with its natural blonde strands. Nothing was confected about him, a graphics artist who had a studio at home, but was invariably at work with clients and out for the day. She had fallen naturally into seeing that Henny and Martin got to play-school, tended to them until Luke returned home, 'shattered' and feeling guilty for having imposed on her again.
She would put him straight on that; she wanted it to be this way as to do so gave her a purpose to her days again and until the pieces of a new life, as a widow, fell into place. Whatever she was paid for the loss of David, it would never be enough. She needed and wanted more than that; the cold payment of money no substitute for a soft word, a touch, a bonding to someone else.
She had always taken a pride in her appearance; ate and drank frugally; exercised and was proud of her home. She simply wasn't ready to live out her life on her own and she sensed that Luke was of the same mind, or was comforted by the idea, if not the reality, that four had become two where it concerned them alone, and his children and her grandchildren would have the succour that they could each offer, singly and together.
It was so again now as the 'children' were called for supper, and Luke topping up her glass whether she wished it or not. Easy familiarity, and company, could so easily be seen as an acceptance of the route that their lives might yet follow and with every day that passed.
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2</p>

She became lost in al that was happening, in the easy chatter between them as the children were encouraged to 'eat up,' cajoling words expressed by either of them, she watching Luke cut up Martin's food and then to take his right hand to persuade him to hold the small spoon and feed himself. Henny, the older of the pair, was ahead of him in this and did what Betty had instructed his girl.
'That's it, you're learning...' she saw Luke smile at Henny in that captivating way of his, his lean features suddenly creased and Luke pushing away his hair, swept back and flipping down on each side of his head but not quite covering his small ears. She was besotted with him, realised it, as she put down her wine glass and wiped the paper napkin, that Luke had the foresight to place on the table, over her lips. She saw the pink mark left upon it.
'We'll pass on to them all that we know,' she observed and shook her head on realising just what she had said, the use of 'we' as if it was settled.
She wondered if it was the wine talking now. She had lost count of how many glasses Luke had poured out for them both. Yet she could not ignore what she felt or had given voice to. How crazy it now was to see images flashing before her eyes of them getting together, of having sex. Her mind was playing tricks, and she could not, quite, believe the emotional bond that had welled up inside her; the rush of feelings and excitement vying with restraint and correct behaviour that had always been their relationship. She wanted to be taken out of how her life had become, to draw comfort from him and offer that in return. There was no one close that would be hurt by what they would seek from each other, and who was to decide when the time was right except for them?
Their times had changed; their lives together had changed, and their bond remade on account of all that had happened, their shared losses. It bound them closer, something that Luke's continued presence in the cottage next door made only too clear.
'I need to get these two to bed...but I'll help clear up first.' His lightness of tone intruded upon her thoughts of them pursuing an affair.
'Let me do that?' she suggested, startled to hear him speak, and on a moment's restraining touch to his arm, the hairs upon it blonde against his tanned skin. She would often see him mowing the grass, doing that for her and David, dressed in a T-shirt and shorts. His attendance to such chores had scarcely been interrupted, although she had sometimes caught sight of him as he paused in his work and knew that he had been overwhelmed by memories. 'You've cooked supper for us...I'll clear up, okay?'
'Yes...okay.'
He was seen to look at the children as they waited at the door, and she knew instantly what was expected of her. 'Luke, I'll clear up later. I see them to bed...most nights, so I'd better do that again now?'
'Yeah, I know...or should have remembered,' he said on an answering escort kadın gaziantep nod. What was happening felt only too normal, except that it wasn't. There were many evenings when he came home and found the kids in their beds, and with Betty reading to them, his children by Jenny still sleeping in the same room. He had decided on that following Jenny's loss and the habit had stuck over the months that had passed. It went with Betty taking on the roles Jenny had filled. He now felt that it might not stop there but draw him in still deeper with her.
He was used to seeing Betty in vibrant colours, blouses, dresses, or combinations of tops with slacks, but today she teased a hint of cleavage in a white figure-hugging wrap dress, cinched at her hip and flattering her hips and almost flat tummy. Her vitality and generosity had always captivated him, her willingness to take on a challenge always accompanied by a smile...dogged determination to see things through and it was no different now.
'I'll lead the way...and you come with me, miss.' Her voice was soft and coaxing and Henny soon took her hand.
'Come on, son, time for bed,' he said on lifting Martin into his arms, Betty leading Henny along the glazed passageway, the last of the evening's sun shining through windows. His son nestled I the crook of his shoulder. 'You're worn out, aren't you?'
His boy nodded and he saw that Henny was yawning too. A quick bath, he and Betty washing them was the prelude for the reading of a story and Luke felt them press close and listen for only a moment or two. He felt their restlessness and neither needed coaxing to get into their beds and snuggle own under their thin summer duvets.
'Night...night...sleep tight. See you in the morning...' he was heard to croon and Betty could not help but join in with a few of the words, saw him turn to look up at her as she did that.
They both kissed Henny and Martin, stepped away from their beds and softly eased the door until it was almost shut, left ajar. The landing was lit warmly by a small nightlight that reassured the two youngsters.
'Luke...Luke?' she stammered on looking his way' 'Should we...?'
Luke had moved to stand at her shoulder, just behind Betty. His hands has gone around her waist, and she was drawn, unresisting, to him. 'We do everything together, except...except this. We've known of so much...together.'
'But not this...gone so far as to admit this could happen...'
'I have, if only to myself. I can't let the feelings go...'
She knew it too. Betty felt the soft press of his lips to her throat as his hands held her, then the tugging free of the cloth belt that fastened her dress, She half turned and met his first kiss; heard his sigh as he took in what his actions had exposed to his gaze, the almost glacial whiteness of her skin, the rounded swell of her breasts.
She was being taken out of only too ordered ways with him. Had their denial, of what might be happening between them over recent months, heightened their sense of longing to an unbearable pitch? She had begun to feel possessive of hm and was now dizzy from the prospect of Luke taking her to bed.
'Can we...shall we...must we?' she asked through their kisses as his arms went round her waist, under her dress and she was held to him. Betty shivered on feeling his breaths waft her skin, to her throat and ears; then the simple moist touch of his lips to her mouth as she turned to meet his claims upon her.
'Is this too sudden...should you go before I lose myself with you?'
'No...I certainly won't 'go'!' she groaned, soon keeping his lips to her breasts, their nipples tender as she felt them harden against the cups of her bra, his touches welcome and arousing a flush of wetness between her thighs, the raging cramps of sudden longing for him and all that Luke's touches upon her had aroused.
They needed to break free of the restraining hold that memories of others had upon them. No one would know what they had succumbed to, here in the home that they continued to share, under an arrangement that the havoc following loss of their partners now made all but redundant.
The slate that was their lives together could be wiped clean and a new story written upon it and would concern only them, the primary actors and with Henny and Martin a prompt to better and settled times.
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3</p>

They took slow steps across the landing and Luke pushed open the main bedroom door. He felt Betty hesitate then realise, it seemed, that where it was to happen was of less importance than that it should. She could not resist his undressing of her, and she sought to do that for him, for each to take time to delight in all that was exposed to their gaze, not suggested or shaped by the clothes that they wore, but a naked body; every flaw, crease and fold, firm or indolent flesh unclothed and there to be loved and escort gaziantep kızlar felt against the other's skin.
His advances on her breasts, her nipples, her flashy buttocks and rounded hips as he held her to him made her clit tingle. She felt it swell and become more sensitive as his questing caresses to her belly drew closer and he had yet to really touch her. She knew, already, that she would be lost when that happened and her focus would be only on him being taken to her, to be in her body and for them to become lost in the frenetic pursuit of release. She never uttered the word, but what she wanted was to fuck until there was nothing left to give or to take.
'I want you,' he murmured, 'and I can feel that you want me.' She was wet, gushed even, moved her hips to meet his touches and she shuddered as his fingers finally entered her body, parted her labia without resistance and would feel her moist heat.
'Yes...yes I do!' she gasped, closing her eyes as she gazed up at the ceiling and knew that she was to be set free from what could so easily become a closed-in world. She would share those steps with a man that she knew, cared for, had even grown to love for his unselfish help through the worst of times. They had reached this point together; of that she was certain.
'We...we can be close now,' he murmured, his eyes taking in her changed appearance. 'You look wonderful...and your scent's intoxicating.'
'Luke, wait...' she started to say.
'I have done.' His hands were on her even as Betty sought to restrain him in his claims upon her. 'I have waited...lived close to you and looked at a beautiful woman...and we're two people who can mend each other.'
He embraced her; drew Betty to him and she knew that he would be strong enough to overpower her; to claim her body for himself and to behave just as he wanted. But his embrace held no threat; nor was it a means to claim her and to not share in this admission of an unrequited longing for each other.
Betty shivered as Luke kissed her throat, simply pressed his lips to her skin as if to affirm that it would finally happen; that she would be claimed. She breathed in his heat and the faint aroma of some body scent that he had applied. His embrace felt warm and protective, consoling and assuring her of this, a union of spirits ravaged by unbearable loss.
'No, Luke,' she whispered feebly. 'Not this...the rush...'
But Luke knew, he just knew, that she was on the edge of a shared and dizzying fall and that she would concede to him. Destructive as they would have been, they had skirted around their feelings for so long and through months of bereavement and trying to make sense of what had happened to them. Even now he sought a meeting of minds on what would follow. It would not come at an emotional cost to them, through the breach of fidelity to a husband and daughter but a reasoned decision on where their new bonds would take them.
To make love to a woman like Betty would be a wonderful departure from all that he had known of, and with, other women in his life. There really had not been any one like her to arouse these feelings of an errant longing. And Betty...she would find solace, with him.
Soon, he would share in the cloying intimacy and emotional maelstrom that taking her to bed would bestow upon him.
'I need this from you...with you,' he murmured, his mouth close to hers. They looked searchingly into each other's eyes; each clamped the other's hips to keep their bodies fully in contact and their breaths on each other's lips.
Luke's fingers slowly caressed the sides of her breasts, felt the fulsome swell before he slowly lowered his mouth onto hers.
'Oh god...we can't...Luke...its...ooh...Luke...Luke!'
Panic welled up within her even as they kissed quickly. She still met them eagerly and clung to him as she felt his hands slip from her waist and offer caresses to the bare flesh of her thighs, belly then down over her unshaven mound, the press of his fingers finding her.
She pushed her hips forward to meet these brazen claims upon her body, her secret place that no one had seen or touched except David. He was lost to her, but Like was no surrogate for him, but a new and desiring man to be in her life, if she chose.
Now she wanted to know of him but on her own terms...slowly and considerately.
'Luke...please...' She failed to finish what she felt compelled to say, to restrain him as she struggled to accept what was really happening and so quickly. Te words 'stop' or 'don't stop' were left unspoken. She was overcome with a brazen longing to know of it and with him. She knew that what she was pursuing with him was wrong; somewhere in her raging mind she was still clinging onto the cloak of fidelity to David's memory. She had worn the mask of faithfulness, but the more his hands caressed her skin, or his lips and mouth pressed against the swell of her breasts, or she felt his erection against her belly, so her resolve weakened.
'What madness!' she gasped on breaking free of his claims upon her, only able to think about what his touches had aroused in her; the rush of uncontrollable longing that his actions had sent coursing through her body. How incredible it felt to be sharing in this...in this...at last. 'I'm...I'm ashamed to admit it! I wanted you to do that for so long...for so long!'