The Buffalo Marathon

"Beth," Carter asked. "Are you married?"

She leaned ever so slightly back from Carter, but met his eyes, and shook her head. "Divorced."

"How long now?"

"7 years. Amanda was 16 when it became official. We'd been separated before the divorce."

Carter nodded. "I'm sorry," he said softy.

She shrugged slightly, and smiled. "The divorce has been more fulfilling than the marriage, to be honest."

Carter half laughed, then let his arm fall from Beth's waist. He leaned back onto the bed, his legs and feet dangling down to the floor, gazing up at the ceiling. "Nothing is easy is it?"

"With respect to marriage? Love?"

"Those especially."

"No, they're not," Beth answered. She was looking at Carter, the triangle of skin she could see at the top of his unbuttoned shirt, his lean, slim torso, his legs. She lay down on her back beside him, gazing up at the ceiling as well.

"Tell me about your ex," she said.

Silence.

Carter breathed in and out. Slowly. An image of saying goodbye to her at the restaurant last night crossed his eyes, and another, of the time he waved as her car pulled away from the sidewalk in Boston.

"Margaret. Maggie," he said. "Well, we had almost three years together, in Boston. A year ago she moved here to Buffalo, took a job here." His right hand was resting on his stomach, a fingertip or two rested between the buttons of his dress shirt. His left lay beside him, softly brushing against beth's right arm, as she lay on his left side.

"In hindsight, I don't know. Maybe we both knew then, a year ago in Boston, when she left, that it was over. But we weren't saying that out loud. Out loud it was 'I'll see you next weekend', and 'it's only 7 hours', and that kind of thing. But, after my first trip to Buffalo to see her, it was months before we saw each other again. And...," his voice drifted away, something dying from his lips.

"And what?" Beth asked, turning her face to her right, looking at him beside her.

"We both cheated. Fairly quickly. Both of us within the first 6 months."

Beth turned her eyes back up towards the ceiling, though her hand, which had been brushing against Carter's already, moved on top of his, her fingers brushing softly against the back of his fingers. "People cheat," she said. "It doesn't always mean that relationships end, or that they need to."

Carter turned towards Beth. She was, in fact, beautiful - beautiful in a soft, understated, quiet way. A tenderness lay in her features, a vulnerability in her body language. She almost made you want to curl up against her, and protect her from the wider world. "Did your husband cheat?" he asked.

She nodded. "Yes. But we got divorced because he didn't love me. And I didn't love him. The cheating itself wouldn't have split us up."

Carter looked at her for a few moments, then turned his eyes back to the ceiling. A moment passed, and then another. "My leg really hurts," he said.

Beth sat up, twisting slightly to her right, towards Carter. She let her left hand settle on his knee. "I.T. band you think? You've had IT problems before?"

He nodded, looking at her above him. "Yeah, I don't know. I'm half-worried I will need to give up running."

"Can I tell you a secret?" Beth said.

"Yeah."

"Running is pretty bad for you."

Carter laughed. "I'm probably becoming a walking, or hobbling, poster for that idea."

Beth rubbed her hand slightly into his knee, then ran her hand thoughtfully up his left thigh to his hip, then down again. "There isn't really much I can do for you," she said. "You need daily massages, self-massage, that standing stretch that no one ever does right, you need to take care of it."

"Yeah, I know."

She moved her hand up his waist, to his stomach, where her fingers found the back of his right hand, which was still resting on his tummy. She traced her fingertips against his hand, pushing through the web of veins which sent blood back to his heart. He moved his hand slightly, catching hers in his.

"Beth," he whispered, his eyes meeting hers. He pushed himself back on the bed, holding her hand, and moved both of them fully onto the bed. He settled his head into the pillows, lying on his left side, looking at her as she spooned close to him, lying on her right side. He lifted his right hand up to her face, stroking his fingers against her left cheek, softly over her lips. He brushed locks of her blond hair from her forehead.

"How do you feel?" he asked.

She met his eyes. "Good," she whispered, immediately hating how simple, how inadequate, the word was. "Warm. Comfortable. Unbelievably comfortable."

Carter ran his fingers over the curve of her ear, then let his thumb slide along her jaw, to her chin, then back to her lips, brushing it softly against them. "I'm not exactly sure what I'm doing here," he said. "I, well, I wasn't, I didn't expect anything. Didn't mean to push anything."

She lifted her left hand, and held his wrist. She parted her lips, and pulled his thumb closer, taking it into her mouth, looking into his eyes as she slid her tongue along its length.

After a wave of something indescribable washed through him, something which almost made him faint, Carter let his fingers fall against her cheek, stroking her skin softly as he watched beth lovingly pull his thumb into her mouth, coating it with saliva. He shifted slightly, freeing his left hand to slide it under her neck, using the weight of his body to roll her over onto her back. As they moved, his thumb slid from her lips, and he dragged it down her chin, down her neck, onto her black top, to her breasts. He cupped her left breast in his hand, feeling her bra through the material of her blouse, His stomach pressed against her right side, Carter massaged his hand warm into Beth's right breast, rubbing his palm against her nipple, and watched her face begin to both melt, and glow.

He slid his hand down her tummy, to her jeans, and pressed his fingers immediately between her legs, massaging his palm deeply into her pussy. "Spread your legs a bit wider, Beth," he whispered, and when she did, he began stroking his hand up and down, massaging her over and over again.

Beth reached down, and unbuttoned her jeans, looking at him as she did so. He watched her fingers struggle with the button, and when it was loose, he slowly lifted his right hand, took the zipper in his fingers, and drew it down. beth lifted her hips, and pushed her jeans down off her waist, and ass, pushing her panties along with them. Nearly at her knees she settled her ass back on the bed, and lifted her legs, pushing them down and tossing them away as Carter watched.

Lying on his left side still, pressed against her body, Carter settled his fingers onto Beth's right thigh, and dragged them softly up to the joint of her hip, loving the feel of her beautiful skin under his touch. He lifted his fingers to his own mouth, and slid his right index and middle fingers into his lips, licking them, making them wet, and then slid them down to her labia, a fingertip on each side, and stroked down the soft tender flesh. She flinched, and twisted, still wearing her black blouse, but naked from the waist down now. He caressed his wet fingertips up and down her labia, and then let his middle finger slide into her slit, finding her clit first, massaging warm into it, and then stroking down the length of her slit, up and down, slowly, gently, deliciously.

Carter turned his hand, so that his palm was cupping her inner left thigh, and massaged his hand down the length of her left leg, shifting so that he could caress all the way down to her ankle. Then he switched to her right ankle, and stroked all the way back up to her inner right thigh. Then he sat up, kneeling beside her now, and undid the buttons of his wine coloured dress shirt, tossing it to the side. Still wearing his slacks, he took Beth's right ankle in his hands, and lifted her leg, and shifted her, so that her legs fell on either side of him. He put his right hand on her tummy, just under her blouse, and massaged her softly as he eased himself down to a lying position between her legs. As Beth's fingers went into his hair, Carter let his lips whisper dry against her labia. Skin to skin. Just softly touching. Bobbing his head slightly, his lips brushing up and down against the length of her labia.

"Oh God," she hushed to herself, as Carter let a puff of hot air escape from his lungs, misting against her pussy. And then, "oh God" again, as she felt his tongue.

Carter slid his hands under Beth's ass cheeks, and gripped them tightly in his fingers, kneading her flesh, as he pushed his tongue deep into her slit. He drew drew it up the length, tasting her sweat, and wetness, on his thick tongue. At her clit he lapped at it, hungry for it, before beginning the long stroke of his tongue again, drinking back this gorgeous woman's taste.

"Carter...," Beth moaned, her fingers becoming fists in his dark brown hair, her ass twisting, sliding, beneath his tongue.

Carter lapped at Beth's clit again, and then locked onto it with his lips, and pulled it slowly back into his dripping wet mouth. He sucked her. Over and over. His hands under her ass, gripping hard into her cheeks, as he flooded her clit with saliva and stroked his tongue against it. Beth pulled him tighter inside her, and he loved it. Being buried between this woman's legs, his face buried in her pussy, tasting her, endlessly, as his cock thickened and swelled inside his jeans, and he ground it, urgently and unthinkingly, against the bed.

"Undo your blouse," Carter gasped, releasing her clit for just a second to speak the words. "Open your blouse Beth."

He drank her clit back into his mouth again as her fingers left his hair, and began undoing the row of buttons down the front of her top. When it was loose, Carter shifted, and kissed his way up to her tummy, then further, to her breasts, where he opened his lips, and let his dripping mouth sink down onto her bra, on her left breast. He flooded her bra with saliva, pressed his tongue against the small bump of her nipple, and then moved to her right breast, sucking hungrily, teasing her nipple with his tongue, before hungrily dragging his tongue up across her chest, up her neck, until finding her lips with his, and sliding his tongue deep into her mouth, kissing her breathlessly and passionately.

Beth's hands went to his waist, slid from his hips to the front, where she popped the button loose, tugged the zipper once before giving up and simply pushing his jeans from his waist with her hands. Carter lifted his hips and helped her slide his jeans and briefs down to his knees, then moving again, he kicked them fully down and off his legs He collapsed back down on top of her, his tummy pressing warm against her pussy, his lips on her breasts, his hands on her sides, then sliding up, under her arms, taking the underside of her arms in his hands and pushing her arms up as he kissed his way up to her neck again, her mouth.

Carter pushed her arms up above her head, and caught her wrists in his left hand. He lay on top of her, face to face, breathing heavily, his left arm extended up, his hand locked on her wrists. "Beth," he whispered, looking down into her eyes. "Beth...,"

She scissored her right leg up along the side of his left - her smooth inner thigh stroking along his muscular leg. It sent ripples through her body, especially as Carter softly groaned, increased the pressure of his hand on her wrists, and urged his pelvis into her. "Oh God," she moaned, her lips flushed, burning.

Carter kissed her again, then released her wrists and lifted himself to a kneeling position. Gazing down at her, with her bra still on, her blouse open but still draped over her shoulders, he touched his hands to her hips, and softly stroked his fingers down her thighs. "You're so beautiful," he whispered.

She moved under his hands. Her hips, her legs, softly sliding this way, then that, waves upon waves of sensation racing through her. He asked her to hand him one of the pillows, and took it as she passed it to him, and slid it under her ass, raising her up from the mattress. His left hand still on her right thigh, Carter took his cock in his right hand, and pushing it down, touched the dripping tip to her slit. He stroked it down the length, and paused, and then up again. And then again... And again... teasing her, and himself, until Beth lifted her hips, pushing her pussy up onto his swollen purple head, his name escaping in a long moan from her lips.

Carter teached for her hips, then asscheeks, and wrenched her up harder, sinking his cock deep inside her wet pussy. A long, thick, dripping and delicious stroke. He urged himself forward as he pulled her up, his cock burying deep inside her. He pulled back, and began long beautiful strokes, slow, careful, drinking in every tiny sensation as he fucked her, his cock swollen with blood and cum.

Beth lay back, her mind gone white with bliss. She felt the blood race through her body, felt Carter's thick, dripping cock filling her over and over again. She hadn't been with a man since the divorce. It had been 4 years now. Toys, her fingers, a few online chats in the late hours, when insomnia mixed with need and led her to find gratification in some man's words. Mmmm, Carter's hands on her hips, holding her as he fucked her. When she opened her eyes, she could see him, naked and fit and handsome and pounding her. How do we let the years slip by, she wondered. They slip by, and you start to believe you don't need this, that your body is changing, your needs diminishing.

But, his fingers sunk deep, and rough, in her flesh. The feel of his cock inside her.

She was still beautiful. She knew Carter thought so. She knew other men did as well.

I've needed this, she thought, her eyes closed, her hands going to her own breasts, squeezing them through her bra.

I've needed this.

Carter's breath was changing. He was tensing his arms, holding her higher up on his thighs. Oh God, his cock against her clit, stroking it wet, slick. He was going to cum. She could hear it, feel it.

"Cum inside me," she moaned, her pussy clenching on his cock, milking him. "Cum inside me," she moaned.

*

Carter, Amanda, Beth, Denise.

On the street outside the hotel.

It's 7:00pm, Sunday evening.

Carter is still hobbling. Beth is close to his side, ready to let him slide his arm over her shoulders if need be.

"There's a restaurant called Washington Square nearby," Denise says. "It's good, they have some great entrees we can share, and a good beer list."

When Beth and Amanda's eyes meet, they aren't embarrassed, precisely, but there's something there. Something different. A wondering.

"Is it named after the Henry James novel?" Carter asks.

Denise laughs. "I've got no fucking idea," she says. "But they have beer."

Carter nods, smiling. "Fair enough. Beer works for me."

Beth looks at Denise. What did my daughter find here, in you? she thinks. And then, her thoughts turning to herself, she wonders what she has found here.

Anything?

Beer tonight, and then what?

This afternoon was something she'd needed for ages, something she'd wanted. And, luckily, Carter is, or, if he slips away after this, was, a good man.

Beth slides her fingers into Carter's, just as Amanda places her hand on Denise's lower back. "Let's not overthink it," she says. "Washington Square it is."

Amanda smiles, her hand softly sliding up to Denise's shoulder. "Washington Square it is," she agrees.

The End