Crossed

"I'm sorry. I was trying to be cute, but it isn't my strong suit."

"No, not it's not," Trevor said.

Just as Marissa showed signs of being hurt he said, "I'd say your strong is being beautiful rather than cute, but that's just me."

"I love when you say sweet things like that," she told him. "I hate feeling so needy and insecure, but I feel like I've really been through the ringer, and I hang on every word you say."

"You have been through the ringer. And everyone needs to feel loved. I'm not saying Phil betrayed you, but I'm sure it feels that way because the end result is you being alone regardless of how it happened."

Now the look on her face told him something very different as she squeezed the hand he was still holding and said, "You really get this. You make it sound like you don't, but you know exactly how I'm feeling and why."

During the remainder of dinner, Marissa poured her heart out to her boss and her newest friend who was also male. She wouldn't call him her 'boyfriend', but he was definitely a very good friend who also just happened to be a very good kisser.

"So what, if anything, do we tell the girls at the office?" Marissa asked as Trevor walked her to her door after taking her home.

"Whatever you're comfortable with. I won't say a word about Phil, his 'hobby', or the impending divorce. I'll leave all that up to you."

"And...what about us?" she asked as she looked up into his eyes.

"That's going to be a lot tougher," he said.

"I understand. You're the doctor and it's your practice, and dating 'the help' can be tricky. Or even...icky."

Trevor smiled then said, "No. Not that. I want to tell the whole world how I feel about you. I just don't want anyone thinking we were seeing each other when you and Phil were still together."

"You and I...and Phil...all know the truth," she told him. "My bigger concern is wanting to be sure there's really an 'us' there before we say too much, you know?"

"Do you want there to be an 'us'?" he asked feeling vulnerable for the first time.

"Yes. Of course I want there to be an 'us'. But you may not feel the same way later on. I'm truly flattered by all this attention from someone so young and so handsome," she told him truthfully. "But when I become, let's call it...old hat...then what?"

He put his hands on her shoulders and said, "I've thought that with each passing day since I first met you that you've become more beautiful, Marissa, and I don't ever see that changing. I also thought you were an amazing person before getting to know you outside the office, but I couldn't know that for sure until I had. But now? Well, now I know you're truly incredible, and I can't wait to get to you know even better."

"In spite of my age?" she asked, now the one feeling vulnerable.

"Your age is a positive, Marissa, not a negative. Younger women are...trite. They're uninteresting. If this sounds rude, I apologize, but almost without exception they're shallow and boring."

He put his hand on her cheek then said, "But you are none of those things. Look, I'm not bragging here, but I've dated more women than I can remember, and not one of them has managed to catch my eye and my heart. Until you. You, Marissa. You."

"You have no idea how badly I want to believe you, Trevor. I feel like I've lived in a desert of intimacy and love for months now. The life I had was blown apart in an instant, and I guess it scares me that I'm in a place where I'm desperate to believe any man who tells me the things you've been telling me."

"But?" he said knowing there was one.

"But...I'm afraid that if I give you my heart...."

"That I might break it? Too?"

He added the 'too' knowing she'd just had her heart broken, and her fears made perfect sense. He knew there was nothing he could do but tell her and show her, one day at a time, that his feelings were real and that's what he told her.

"One day at a time, huh?" she said finally smiling again.

"It would seem so," he replied.

"May I ask you one more question, Trevor? For now anyway?"

"Anything," he told her.

"Am I some kind of...novelty to you? You know, the 40-year woman who isn't the kind of woman you really want, but someone who's just...different?"

Her eyes were filled with desperation needing to know how he truly felt, and Trevor sensed it in the strongest way.

"Marissa, the novelty was dating girls in college. Hot, steamy, sexy, do-anything girls. That was fun when I was in college. I won't deny it, and I'm glad I had those experiences. But deep down, I'm a traditional guy who wants a traditional kind of marriage. Not in the sense of a wife who stays home and cooks and cleans, but a marriage that's a lifelong commitment to one woman. The one woman I'll love with all my heart. The woman I want to have a family with. A woman who well...rocks my world."

"And do you think I'm that kind of woman?" she asked, her eyes still flicking back and forth between his.

"I don't think you are, Marissa. I know you are. No one else has ever made me feel the way you do. So this isn't some kind of game or novelty to me. This is real and so are my feelings for you."

"I believe you," she told him. "I just need some time to let my life and my mind stop spinning. I feel like a tornado just swooped in and blew my world apart, and you're like the eye of the storm restoring order and calm. But I need to be sure, Trevor. I need time to adjust to this new reality."

"Then time you shall have," he said gallantly. "I'm just hoping that while you're sorting things out that you won't shut me—out."

"No. I won't," she told him. "I need you to keep doing exactly what you've been doing. Let me get to know the real you, because if he's anything like the Trevor Richardson I've created in my mind, then I most definitely want him in my life."

"And I want you in mine, Marissa," he told her. "More than you can know."

"Would you please kiss me again?" she asked quietly.

"I would love to," he said before kissing her for several seconds.

"My body is screaming at me to ask you to stay, but my brain is telling me to thank you for the most wonderful day I've had in years and leave it at that," she said as their lips parted.

Trevor smiled then said, "I had just as great a day as you did, and I'm happy to well, call it a day."

"You're as kind and sweet as you are handsome, and you are very handsome, Doctor Richardson," she told him.

"I can't wait to see you again, Marissa," he told her.

She wanted to ask him to come inside so badly it hurt, but instead she kissed him on the cheek then said, "Same here. Thank you for a lovely day, Trevor. Thank you...for everything."

And with that, Marissa let herself in and Trevor headed home.

Work was different but nowhere as difficult as they imagined it might be. Keeping work and romance separate became part of a game they played where they each took on a role that made doing so fun. And then once the other girls had gone for the day, the real fun began.

So far, it had always begun with a long, deep, passionate kiss that helped drain the tension that had grown between them all day followed by just holding one another for a minute or two. The fact that Marissa wasn't an assistant working right next to him all day made it bearable. So did the occasional stolen smiles or even less often, the occasional touch of fingers or something else that let the other know the fire was there.

For two weeks, that had been enough until they could go home, shower, change, then see each other either at his house or her apartment. But during the third week, Marissa stopped him before he kissed her one night after the last person left.

"What's wrong?" he asked fearing her feelings had somehow changed.

"It's stopped spinning," she said.

"Excuse me?" he said not sure what she meant.

"My world. It's stopped spinning. And everything is so clear now," she explained without telling him what kind of clarity she was experiencing.

"And what is it you see now that things are so clear?" he asked dying to know if this could possibly be the end.

"What I mean is that I now know how I feel and what I want," she told him.

"Care to share?" he asked with a smile.

She put her arms around his neck, smiled back, then said, "You've been so understanding, and you've never once pressured me to go further than I was ready to. And yet in all that time, my body has never stopped wanting me to go further. My brain just needed time to catch up."

"And?"

"And...now my brain has caught up. I know I'm ready. And I know something else, too," she said sweetly.

"What is it that you know, Marissa?" he asked as he gently stroked her long, silky hair.

"I know...I love you," she said, her eyes filled with hopefulness that he might possibly feel the same way.

"Took you long enough," he said trying not to smile.

"Trevor!" she said playfully. "Don't tease. I'm serious. I do love you."

"I'm not teasing, sweetheart. I love you, too," he told her with complete conviction.

"Then...make love to me," she said.

"Here? At work?" he asked not sure if that's what she meant.

"Uh-huh. In your office. Come on," she said with a smile before grabbing what looked like a folded-up quilt.

She picked it up and when he looked at it she said, "I was hoping this might come in handy."

Trevor carried it with one arm while Marissa looped one of hers through his other and led him to the back of the building to his office. She closed the door behind them then locked it before saying, "Would you like to undress me or would you prefer to watch me?"

He spread the thick blanket out then kicked off his shoes and pulled off his belt before moving closer to her.

"I want to do it," he told her. "Slowly, one button at a time; kissing every inch of your body as I go."

"Mmmm. Every inch?" she asked playfully as he undid the first button on her pretty, white blouse.

"Yes. Every inch," he assured her.

As he undid the second button he kissed her passionately as she began unbuttoning his shirt. She tried to undo a second, but he wouldn't let her until they'd kissed for a very long time.

"One more," he told her before kissing her that way again.

Eventually, his shirt and her blouse came off at the same time after what seemed like forever as the sexual tension grew. After unhooking her bra, he surprised her by picking her up and quickly laying her down.

She shrieked with pleasure then said, "Shhhh!!!!" as though he'd made all the noise.

Trevor attacked her soft, round breasts and licked and sucked slowly and patiently until she came for the first time in life from nothing but stimulation of her nipples. Marissa let out another softer scream as she came that was more a moan from somewhere deep inside her as her body finally got a taste of what it had been craving for so long.

He let her remove his pants next and when she reached for his underwear she gasped when she felt him as he took off her skirt and panties.

"Oh, my God. Is that you?" she asked, thrilled with what was more than filling her tiny hand.

"It is and it's yours to do with as you please," he told her as she stroked him.

"Oh, I want to do everything with it—and with you," she said before pulling herself on top of him then sliding down between his legs.

She smiled happily at him as she stroked him harder before lowering her red lips over his waiting shaft and taking him deep into her mouth.

"You are so fucking beautiful," he told her as she bobbed up and down on his rock-hard shaft.

After a couple of minutes he raised her head up then kept moving and crawled over him until her soaking-wet pussy was right over his mouth. She lowered herself slightly then gasped as he returned the favor using his lips and tongue while reaching up and using his fingers.

"Oh...my...God!" she said as her body shook as a second orgasm erupted.

Still in the throes, she felt Trevor move from underneath her.

Within three seconds, he was deep inside her from behind, and Marissa was again moaning with pleasure.

"That is one big...fucking...cock!" she gasped as he filled her.

"You're not complaining are you?" he asked as he began stroking her warm, wet pussy.

"Uh-uh," she said. "I love it. Fuck me, sweetheart! Hard!"

It was close to 8 o'clock after they made love for a third time. Trevor had a small shower in his office, and the two of them spent a leisurely half hour in there soaping one another up, rinsing off, and making love yet again.

As they got dressed, Marissa said, "I think I'd like to tell the girls about us tomorrow."

"Sure. If that's what you want," he replied.

"It is," she said as she pulled on her blouse.

"Trevor? Do you still feel like you did when you said you wanted to tell the whole world about us?" she asked.

"I do," he told her. "Even more so."

"Okay. Just checking," she asked very sweetly.

When they were fully dressed, Trevor asked if he could take her to dinner, but with her hair a wet, tangled mess, she suggested going to his place where she could make dinner for them.

"And unless you'd like me to, I see no reason for you to take me home later on tonight," she told him on the ride home letting him know she was ready to take things to the next level.

Marissa stayed with him that night, and the next morning at work, Trevor asked the other three girls to step into his office where Marissa was standing next to him.

With the caveat that neither of them had ever so much as held hands before Marissa and Phil separated, he told them directly that they'd fallen in love and no longer wanted to keep their romance a secret.

The shocked looks on the three girls' faces told them they'd played their roles perfectly.

"Oh, my God! I had no idea!" one of them said.

"You know I hate you," one of them said playfully to Marissa before hugging her and congratulating her.

The third girl sighed then said, "Well there goes my dream of being Mrs. Trevor Richardson," before doing the same and hugging Marissa.

"So is this serious?" the hygienist said.

Marissa looked at Trevor who reached out for her hand and said, "You could say that."

After another quick round of mostly-feigned sighs of disappointment, each of the girls hugged Marissa again. It also gave them a legitimate excuse to hug the handsome dentist they'd all been crushing on but who was now off the market.

"So, with that, I believe we have a very busy day ahead of us," he said indicating their short staff meeting was over.

That evening the new couple decided it was time for Marissa to get out of her apartment even though it meant losing her security deposit for terminating the lease early. It was money well spent to Trevor who didn't ever want her going back there again.

By early April, Marissa's divorce was final, and to celebrate, Trevor took her to one of the nicest restaurants in town, and although he'd tried to keep it a surprise, Marissa knew he was going to propose.

Knowing it, however, didn't make it any less special, and in spite of herself, she cried when he got down on one knee and told her she was the most wonderful, special, beautiful woman he'd ever met, and that if she'd marry him, he'd be the happiest man on earth.

She managed to say 'yes' as several people watched then applauded or said, "Ahhh!"

As she sat next to her new fiancé, Marissa said, "I do have one question, though."

"Sure," Trevor said, so happy he didn't care what it might be.

"Well, maybe it's more of a request than a question," she said correcting herself.

"Shoot."

"I just need you to promise me you will never, ever wear anything of mine. EVER!"

Her fiancé laughed then said, "Deal!"

He thought about asking her, "Does that mean I have to buy my own stuff?" but knew it was still a very sore subject and just smiled as he agreed.

On the 4th of July, the happy couple was married in a small, rustic church with family and friends in attendance. To their surprise, Phil accepted their invitation, and showed up wearing a very nice-looking...man's suit.

"When I asked you to keep an eye on Marissa, this wasn't exactly what I had in mind," he told Trevor after the ceremony.

He smiled at both of them then said, "But if I had to lose my wife to someone else, I can't think of anyone I'd rather see her with than you, doc. I hope you have a lifetime of love and happiness together."

They both thanked him then he asked if he could talk to Marissa privately. Trevor nodded and he gave them some time alone.

"You know I never meant to hurt you, don't you, Marissa?" he said with tears in his eyes.

"I do," she told him.

"But I know I did and, and I'm as sorry as I can be for that," he confessed.

"But you're much happier now, aren't you?" she asked hoping he was.

"Mostly," he told her. "I could never live without, you know, my...alter ego. But losing you was...well...it was awful."

He blinked away the tears then said, "But I meant what I said. I know Trevor will take good care of you, and I can tell how much you love him."

"I do. And thank you for saying this, Phil. I know this hasn't been easy on you, either."

"No. No, it hasn't. But neither was trying to be someone I'm not. I know you'll never understand it, and that's okay. But...it... makes me very happy, and all in all, I suppose it was a reasonable trade?" he said both making a statement and asking a question.

"Well, I should probably get back," Marissa said knowing it wasn't an actual question to be answered.

"Right. And I should probably be going," he told her. "Take care, Marissa, and be happy."

"You too, Phil," she said as she blinked away a tear of her own.

As she walked back toward the most handsome, most wonderful man she'd ever known, the man who was now her husband, there was no doubt in her mind she'd made the right choices at every step of this journey even though they were choices she'd been forced to make.

While she wished her former husband happiness, she knew she could never have stayed with him. More importantly, she knew she couldn't imagine her life without the handsome, younger man who had just exchanged vows with her.

It was a bittersweet moment for Marissa Richardson, who, unless her ex-husband hadn't crossed a line she couldn't allow, she'd have never experienced the love of this amazing, generous, giving man who was now her husband.

Six months later, her life became ever more wonderful, as she learned she was pregnant for the first time. But it wasn't until she held their beautiful baby girl in her arms, that she could admit how happy she was that line had been crossed.