Prelude to a Cruise

I gave her a thumbs-up, and she gave it a little throttle. We started to move, rolling to the end of a runway. After a short pause, she pushed the throttle forward throwing us back against the seats. It seemed only a tiny way until it lifted off the runway, and we were actually flying! We gained elevation pretty quickly until she leveled it off and let off the throttle a little. It made a huge difference as we could now talk and hear each other.

She told me that she listened to the radio just in case, but didn't need to communicate with the big airport's tower unless something happened. I was fascinated and loved looking down on the town I'd lived in for so long but had never seen from above. It's funny how you can see things you have seen before, but see them for the first time in a new light, like how all the streets interconnected with each other. She flew us over both our houses so I could see it from above, then she started North.

I was loving it! I'd never dreamed that flying could be so much fun. Well, actually I had, but it was only in my imagination before. Now I was experiencing the real thing, and it was every bit as much fun as I'd hoped it'd be, even more. I remember watching the flying scene in "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad World," with the cars below driving about double the speed of the old airplane, but this certainly wasn't like that. We were zipping past the cars.

Diana told me some of the details of her plane, but I was so engrossed in the scenery and excitement that I don't remember a word of what she said about it, other than her excitement and love for her plane and flying. We flew for about an hour North, over Dry Falls. Michelle and I had been there a few years before. It's where the ancient ice age Missoula floods had washed out a gigantic waterfall area about four times bigger and over twice as deep as Niagara. She flew down lower so we could see the tiny trickle of a stream in the bottom with people fishing. Even all the water that flows over Niagara wouldn't make much more than a trickle. During the flooding when it was formed, it was completely under water, not much more than a ripple in the giant flow.

The floods were a result of ice dams during the last ice age, in what's now Montana, that built up over forty to fifty year periods, then broke. They've estimated that the water flow would have been equal to approximately ten times the flow of all the world's rivers combined. It's truly fascinating. Look up Dry Falls, Washington on Google. Seeing it from the air was magnificent!

She turned around and we went home over a different route, past Moses Lake and the potholes areas. That's where the floods gouged out little potholes up to a mile or so in diameter and several hundred feet deep. Still, they were tiny in comparison to Dry Falls.

On the way home, she asked me if I'd like to fly her plane. I looked at her a little askance and she assured me it'd be okay. She showed me how to control the plane and let me use the wheel (not really a wheel but I don't know for sure how to describe it). It was incredibly exciting! I banked one way then the other several times, flying higher and lower over and over again. I could certainly understand why Diana was so excited about her flying.

When she decided it was time to return to the airport, she took the control away from me. Darn, I wanted to land it!

Maybe it was just as well I didn't. It did look a bit more complicated than going up and down or back and forth. Plus the minor fact that with her doing it, we'd actually survive. After we landed and rolled to a stop at her little garage area she shut down the engine and went through another checklist that was embedded in her mind. She said she'd come out the next day and re-fuel it.

Diana was quiet on our way back to her house. Her house was beautiful. It's two stories with a big yard in one of the nicer neighborhoods of Richland set fairly high on a hill where it overlooks the town and the Columbia River. She has a big picture window in her living room with a magnificent view of the river. I could tell she was nervous, definitely not the confident woman she'd been in her plane a short while ago.

She showed me her kitchen and asked if I'd like something to drink. I told her I'm not much of a drinker, but maybe a glass of ice tea would be good if she had it. She laughed a little and said, "I think I have something better than that." She went to the kitchen and poured some vodka, orange juice and ice into her blender. "It's whipped cream vodka. Mixed like this, it tastes like the Dixie cup orange ice cream we used to get when we were kids."

It actually did taste good and just like she said, like the mixed orange ice cream. We sat on her couch, at opposite ends. Her hands were shaking when she drank, so I told her, "Diana, it's okay. We don't have to do anything else tonight."

"No, I really want to. It's just that it's been so long, and I'm a little scared."

I think I understood what she was thinking. I remembered my first time with Jacqui, how scared I'd been that night, but also how good it had turned out. "Do you want to just sit and talk a while? Maybe tell me a little more about Phil?"

She closed her eyes like she was trying to remember. "We met in college at Oregon State. We were both taking a business class. I guess it was pretty typical, 'girl meets boy, girl falls in love'. We were kids. It was winter. We dated the rest of the semester. When I went home for spring break, I realized how much I missed him." She paused a little bit and when she started talking again, it was barely a whisper. "The first time we made love, it was March in Corvallis. It's so pretty there in the early spring that we just took a walk through the park and held hands. We sat on a bench with the moon shining on us." She laughed a little, "It seems like such a cliché, but it was special to us. He kissed me and asked if I wanted to go back to his apartment with him. How could I say no when I wanted to so badly?"

"We made love that night. It was the most special night of my life." I couldn't take my eyes away from Diana as she told me her story. I think she was very close to tears, remembering and telling me about something so special to her. "We got married that summer and our happiness never died down." She wiped her eyes a little, "Until Phil got sick. We went to the doctor with his headaches and after some tests, he gave us the news, brain cancer. It was too far gone, inoperable."

I scooted over to her and held her hand. She wasn't crying but was very close. "It was four months. He was in and out of the hospital but all they could do was control his pain a little. Before he died, he told me he wanted me to be happy. He died in his hospital bed a little over a year ago. I wanted to bring him home but he refused. He said he didn't want me to remember our house that way. He wanted me to remember all the happy times instead."

I was sitting next to Diana holding her hand totally amazed at what she'd gone through, and what a strong woman she was. She took another drink, smiled and asked me, "What about you? How did you and Michelle meet?"

What could I say after the heartbreaking story she'd just told me? Diana was smiling again and acted like she really wanted to know, so I told her about meeting Michelle at a basketball game while I was home on leave from the Coast Guard for my grandma's funeral. "I loved my grandma and always felt that I owed her everything. I'd never have gone out with Michelle or had the life I have if it wasn't for her." I told her about our first date after the game. "We were going to a movie when one of us mentioned how much we like the mountains at that time of year. We both laughed, and I turned the car around to borrow my dad's four-wheel-drive Toyota Land-Cruiser and we spent the evening playing in the snow instead of watching a boring movie. We dated until I left for New York and the Coast Guard, then wrote letters each other every day. "After radio school, I was stationed at a small, secluded station in Sitkinak, Alaska for a year's tour of duty. I still remember that airplane trip when I left her, thinking it'd be a whole year before I saw her again."

I told her about the lake at the base, how the mail plane would land on the lake, then quite often the wind would shift directions. "With the wind blowing the wrong way, they couldn't take off along the length of the lake, so they did the short direction...straight into a fairly tall bluff at the edge. With the wind, the plane would get in front of the bluff and literally lift like a helicopter to clear the bluff."

She laughed and said she'd have hated to be the first one to try that little maneuver!

"Then, unexpectedly, they transferred me to Kodiak after four months. I went home on two weeks leave and we got married in Reno. I went back to Kodiak, found us a tiny apartment and a couple weeks later, she flew there to meet me."

Diana looked at me a little quizzically, "Why are you here, with me? I don't understand. I know you love Michelle, so why did she set up a date between us?"

I took a deep breath. How the heck do I explain our situation? "Michelle told me that she'd told you a little about our open relationship. It's such a long story. It started in Kodiak when we had a rather erotic night with her sleeping with another guy. I discovered that night I was kind of a voyeur and liked her being with someone else. We never did anything like that again, until a couple years ago. She told me about a lover she had in college and to make a long story short, I encouraged her to meet him again for a weekend alone."

Diana's eyes were wide, totally engrossed in the story I was telling her. "Michelle knew how bashful I was with girls, and hadn't ever been with anyone but her. I told her about the sales girl at Victoria's Secret when I was buying her clothes for her date, so she literally dragged me there and forced me to ask her for a date."

Diana's face had lost that sadness from earlier and was grinning ear-to-ear. "Did you sleep with her?"

"Mmhmm, but not until after watching Michelle make love with her boyfriend that night." That got a huge giggle from Diana. "And it was so perfect. It was the first time I'd even kissed another girl. I'd never imagined what it could be like."

"Did you see her again after that?"

"We had an affair for about a year until she moved away last year, but we stayed close friends. She just got married not long ago. Michelle was one of her bridesmaids."

"Was that a little hard for you, seeing your lover marry another man?"

I paused a little, thinking back to that day, "It was. I'll admit I was still in love with her. We both knew from the beginning that we couldn't ever be together, though. I was pleased to see her so happy with her husband. I think we'll always be close."

"Is Michelle still seeing the guy from college?"

"No, they dated for several months, but he got too serious and wanted her to leave me and move in with him." I hesitated, wondering how much more to tell her. I smiled, thinking about Shaun. "She's seeing another guy now, a real hunk that she's madly in love with."

"Aren't you afraid that she'll leave you?"

"I guess that's where it gets a little weird. Well, maybe weirder is a better word. I know she won't, but at the same time, I'm not positive. I like for her to have affairs with other men and I guess never being certain makes it more exciting."

I could almost see her thoughtful mind working. "I couldn't ever have done that. I couldn't have seen Phil with another woman or me with a man while he was alive. I guess it would be exciting, though." Then she asked me, "Where's Michelle now?"

"She's spending the night with her boyfriend." I didn't mention that she was very shortly leaving for a month-long date with a very rich and sexy guy.

Diana looked me straight into my eyes. It seemed like I could see into her soul. I hadn't ever met anyone like her before. She asked me, "Will you kiss me?"

I was already beside her, still holding her hand. I leaned my head toward her and she did the same, closing her eyes when our lips met. Her lips were soft and I tilted my head a little so our noses didn't bump. She was tentative at first but after just a moment her hand went behind my neck and her lips opened a little. I let her lead until I felt her tongue probing my lips. I opened my mouth and met her tongue with my own. I was on fire with this woman's lips on mine and felt the fire building in her as well. Our arms wrapped around each other and we leaned back onto the couch, our lips never parting.

She finally pulled away from me, her eyes still closed and whispered, "Make love to me."

I was ecstatic. I wanted her so badly! "Are you sure?"

"Please, I want to be loved again."

She scooted out from under me, took my hand and led me up the stairs to her bedroom. Once inside we kissed again. I led her in front of her dresser mirror, turned her toward it away from me, and started to unbutton her blouse. Her hands were shaking once again as she helped me unbutton it while our heads nuzzled each other. When her blouse was open, she let me slip it off her arms. We stood in front of the mirror, my arms wrapped around Diana, her standing in her white bra. "You're beautiful, you know," I told her.

Diana unsnapped her jeans and pushed them to the floor while I released the hook of her bra. When her breasts were free, I couldn't help but caress them with my fingers, feeling their softness and the hardness of her nipples. Diana moaned and I felt her fingers intertwine with mine over her breasts as I squeezed her nipples.

She turned and with shaking fingers started to remove the buttons from my shirt. She started with the top buttons, and I started at the bottom. When she pushed open my shirt, she kissed my chest, sucking on one of my nipples driving me crazy. My hands were shaking, as I worked to release the button of my pants. I finally managed to push them and my boxers to the floor.

I gloried in the feel of her breasts against my bare chest while we kissed once again. Diana slowly backed us up toward her bed and I fell backward on it with her on top of me giggling. Her giggles only lasted a moment until I caught her lips again with mine. We rolled over, side by side and I kissed down her neck to her nearest nipple. Diana groaned when I took it in my mouth and sucked, saying over and over, "So good, feels so good!"

Our hands roamed each other, and I found her panties still in place. She lifted herself slightly off the bed, allowing me to push them down. Diana rolled over onto her back and pulled me on top of her, spreading her legs apart. We kissed as my cock found the entrance to her heaven. She was wet and slippery as I pushed inside her slowly, only an inch or so at a time letting her adjust and fit around me. She was so warm and tight, so incredibly good! When I was fully impaled inside her, she finally let out her breath, saying, "Oh...My...God!"

We lay like that, holding each other tightly, reveling in the experience of new love. When I started withdrawing a little, Diana held me tightly and said, "No, stay inside me." I pushed myself back inside her as far as I could, her pelvis coming up off the bed to meet me and drive my cock deeper. "I like this, it's been so long," she whispered.

It felt glorious being inside her as I was, but I didn't know how long I'd be able to stand it without fucking her. I could already start to feel that rumble deep inside me and my cock growing bigger and harder. Diana's hands were on my butt clawing at my skin. When I knew I couldn't last even a moment longer, I pulled out and rammed back inside her, trying to extend my reach. Over and over again I plunged into Diana, oblivious to her screams. Her body convulsed and her pussy tightened and released around my cock with wave after wave of her orgasm. I felt her fingernails scratching my back and couldn't hold back any longer. My body exploded, and I spasmed deep inside her with stream after stream of my cum.

Afterward, we were both sweaty and hot. We lay on top of the covers holding each other. I awoke the next morning to see Diana looking at me with tears running down her cheeks. I was instantly awake. I brushed away the tears with my fingers and asked what was wrong.

She was still crying, barely able to talk, "I can't do this. Last night was so wonderful. But I can't love a man knowing he isn't mine. I thought I could, but I can't."

I didn't know what to say. I felt about an inch tall, maybe less. After what she'd endured with her husband, I'd caused her this much pain. I could barely speak, "I'm sorry," was all I could think to say.

She put her finger over my lip, "No, don't be. You showed me I can love again. You gave me a wonderful night." Now I was crying with her. "But I can't do it again." Then her mood seemed to lighten a little, "Can we still be friends, though? I'd love to take you flying again. We just can't do...this, again."

I smiled at her. I didn't know if we could be platonic friends. I really doubted it but told her, "I'd like that. You're a wonderful woman. Some man's going to be very lucky."

"Can I make you some breakfast?"

She put on a pair of panties and a t-shirt to cook breakfast. I think she was oblivious to how sexy she was with her nipples poking through her thin shirt, but I tried to keep my mind and eyes occupied elsewhere. We talked about lots of other things. She told me about her experience buying the plane and some of the places she's been with it. I couldn't help but think how much more she'd enjoy it with someone she loved to share it with her.

After breakfast, I kissed her on the cheek, thanked her for the flight and especially the wonderful evening, then left. I simply couldn't help but revel in what a wonderful woman Diana is! Before I left I asked her if she'd do me one favor, "If you talk to Michelle, please don't tell her we're not going to sleep together again. I want her to think we're going to be 'an item'."

She grinned at me and swatted my bottom. "Nasty man! Okay, for Michelle, we're madly in love and going to sleep together every chance we get!"

I grinned, "Thank you. I'll explain it to you later."

Michelle wasn't home yet when I got there. I hoped she had a very wakeful and frustrating night with Shaun. Cruel of me wasn't it! I had one more week to torment her, and I was going to take advantage of it. I think what I was really trying to do was distract my mind from what could have been with Diana. I know I couldn't have left Michelle for her, but what fun we could have had.

Puttering around the house waiting for Michelle, my mind started to wander back toward Diana and what, if anything, I could do for her. A stray thought entered my mind and wouldn't go away. I'd just have to think about it...a lot, before doing anything.

Michelle finally arrived home about nine that evening. She said they'd slept in, went on a drive, then had a nice dinner. I was mostly curious about what they'd done the night before, so I asked her, "How'd your night go? Did you wear the nightgown?"

Her face got a little red with a blush, "No," she said. I frowned a little like I was going to chastise her when she added, "I didn't wear anything. Neither did Shaun."

That brightened me. I raised my eyelids at her and asked, "Did you?" She knew what I was asking.

"No, we both knew it was off limits. We lay in bed all night with the light on looking at each other and wanting to make love so bad, but we didn't even touch. Neither one of us went to sleep until early this morning." Then she asked me, "What about you and Diana?"

I wanted to tell her everything in intimate detail to make her squirm even more. Well, almost everything. I wasn't going to tell her that we weren't going to see each other again. I knew that part of Michelle's plan was to keep me occupied when she was gone with Brett for a month. She'd enjoy her time more with him if I was in the very capable hands of one Diana Fulbright! I wasn't going to burst that bubble and put a damper on her month away.