Chapter 10

Up or Down

A Cold Drive and A Warm Night: Chapter Ten

Jenny let him drift off thinking she should put a cold compress on his head and it wouldn’t hurt to get some aspirin into him as well. She got up and went to the bathroom, got a towel and ran the cold water, looking for the aspirin. She found the packets and wrung out the towel, got cup of water and started to rouse Don to get him to take the aspirin and drink the water.

She placed the aspirin on his lips.

”Ok big boy,” she said to him “open up, here is the airplane, and you’re the hanger. Open wide air-plane landing.”

 Dozily Don put his hand to his mouth and touched her fingers as she placed the tablets on his lips. He opened his eyes, recognized her and then closed them again as she propped him up slightly to drink the water.

Then he sank back into the bed, looking exhausted and weary.

Jenny took the cold compress and placed it on his head, giving him a curious look.

She could look and not worry about his looking back.
 

But he was, despite the cold, sweaty in his clothes.

She decided they had to come off.

Before law school Jenny has spent two years in nursing school so she knew her way around the human anatomy.

“Might have to give him a sponge bath,” she thought to her self laughing.

“But first the clothes had to come off.

“I am the impetuous impulsive fool,” she thought and laughed but this part I think I am going to like if he lets me.”

She took the cold compress and started to swap his face and told him to turn over on his side.

There was no response, so she gave him a long look seeing he was sinking further into a fever sleep. That was worrying.

She began to unbutton his flannel shirt thinking to replace its wetness with a dry shirt-one she had seen in the tiny closet.
 

She got up to go get the shirt and returned placed it on the bed resuming the task of undressing him.

”Humm,” she thought, this might be good.”

She opened the second button proceeding from there down the next three and his long underwear peeked out masking what looked like a large chest, not too hairy but big. She ran her hands over the chest now hidden behind the clothing.

He didn’t stir.

She tugged at the sleeves of the flannel shirt and Don cooperated in his sleep seeming to understand that the shirt had to come off.

She had the shirt off and used the sheet underneath him to roll him over on his side, nurse style, to get at the undergarment which, after a little struggle and his unconscious help, she had those sleeves out as well, and then turned him over to expose his bare chest.

“My my, she thought to her self, My my.”

Involuntarily she ran her hands over it’s contours. He had smooth skin, a natural tan color, even here in the deep of winter, and she marveled at how it didn’t have any extra layers at all. It was just there.

Mesomorph.

Muscular, but not too muscular. She stopped herself just to take in the view.

But it was getting cold so she moved quickly to the next step to get his pants down, breathing a little more from the effort but mostly because of anticipation.  She wanted to have a look and the temperature in the room was definitely rising.

She repeated the rollover movement and looked at the magnificent body nearly naked before her, the pants were off but what was underneath was hidden only by the long underwear.

She gulped as her eyes drifted downward.

What does a girl do when her eyes won’t obey? She kept looking.

Distracting herself she then focused on the details of his upper torso. Nurses were trained to do their own assessment of each patient; made notes about what she or he found-things a harried doctor might miss.

Don had scars. There was one barely noticeable on his upper lip at a corner-probably from a baseball to the mouth. She had seen that many times in her brief nursing career.

He had a scar up the middle of his stomach, bad surgery job because the scar was old but raised and clearly visible probably an ulcer operation done before the medical profession realized that many ulcers were viral and did not require operating.

Chapter 11

What was the Name of That Chapter?

A Long Drive and A Warm Night: Chapter Eleven

She had his pants down but removing the lower part of the long underwear was going to prove difficult. He weighed about 180 pounds and that was heavy for her without his cooperation.

She pondered her problem.
 
She took his two legs and pushed them together pushed them toward his head. He seemed genuinely in some sort of deep sleep and that was a good thing for now.

She glanced at the clock.

It said five am and she exerted herself a little more to grab at the underwear while his legs were elevated.

Struggling a bit she finally got a grip on the upper half and pulled first one side and then the other.

Shimming first one side and then the other she reached the just below the belt area and blankly stared.
 
Boxers.
 

Relief on the one hand and other the other hand a teeny-weeny disappointed she hurried along and quickly covered him with the two blankets he had given her early.

It felt good to tuck him in. Maybe she should have stayed in nursing.

That done she looked upon her handiwork and made another pass at the bathroom to see if there was anything else in there in case the fever got worse. Maybe some sort of pain-killer maybe.

Nothing.

She returned and listened to the snow turning to rain now outside looking back at him suddenly realizing something startling.

The man did not snore; did not make a sound except some soft breathing.

She made a note of that and suddenly realized that the tiny bedroom was cold, now really cold.

She pulled the comforter around her and went back to the fireplace to put a few more logs on to heat things up a little.

She propped up the kindling and found the fireplace matches and got a small blaze going. She stared into it feeling oddly satisfied and at peace.

She felt comfortable here, almost like being at camp when she was a teen-ager.

Suddenly it dawned on her she could read more of the manuscript.

He had not seemed to mind and besides she was curious, very curious.

She tapped the space bar and began to read the first part of Chapter one.

 “A good place to start in any marriage, or even in living together, is not to rush into sex too soon. Even if you are married already, it might be a good idea to put things on a different track by following some of the suggestions in this book, holding off on sex and then starting things up with these suggestions.

The basic idea here is that bodies if are unacquainted or estranged it takes time to become acquainted or reacquainted before the shock that unprepared sex can often bring.

It is not only that two people and their minds are getting acquainted it is equally the case that two bodies are getting acquainted.

Even if the marriage is of one of long duration, often grievances, hurts, harms fears or sheer boredom had caused the body to shut down or be diminished in its capacity, and willingness, to participate in sex and love-making.
 

The techniques in this book can be used to “re-set” the relationship between these two bodies and get things off onto a better footing.”

‘Humm, she thought to herself, skipping the next few chapters and landing on one entitled “No Touch Love-Making and Sensual Contacts.”

That got her interest but first she looked up from the computer screen to see if there might be an unexpected intrusion. Satisfied at the soft breathing she could hear, she dropped her eyes back to the screen and choose some random paragraphs from the chapter.

“He took his hand and open palmed moved it in small circles around her face, her closed eyes, her mouth but never touching the surface of the skin itself. A single finger-tip moved just above the third eye which Hindu’s claim has special powers. He could feel her react to the intimacy of the non-touch; he could feel the two auras, come very close together and then electricity jumped the gap between skin and palm and she brought her face upward wanting to feel his touch, but not before  a spark literally crackled which moved down her entire body awakening those parts as it traveled to her toes.”

His hand moved up and down her body, hovering just above her most private parts without actually touching. It made her start to shiver and respond."

She kept reading wondering more than she should have about how he would do it.

She looked away taking in what she had read and then heard him cough.

He was awake and so was she.

Chapter 12

Ok, Chapter Twelve is back

A Cold Drive and A Warm Night: Chapter Twelve

She tapped the space key on the computer key board and the screen went dark. Turning toward the bed room she waited to see if there would be more sounds of his stirring.

But, there was none; she tip-toed over to the partially closed door to peek in to be sure of his status, awake or back to sleep.

He had dropped off back to sleep.

She focused on him for a moment. She liked the idea of him, she liked the idea of him sleeping in there, and she liked talking care of him. She liked him period.

She turned back to the key board thinking that all of this felt a little like fate.

But right away she told herself to stop thinking like that.

But she did want to read a few more chapters.

She tapped the key board once again, but stopped herself to get her purse to check her cell-phone one more time. It was getting on into early morning and she wanted to check for messages, especially from her dad.

The cell phone was dead. No risers.

Don had been right. The tower was down again. How long before the electricity went down as well?

“Oh,” she thought “I better get more chapter reading before the electricity does in fact go down.”

If, and when it did she, would have to get the generator going or awaken him to get it going.

Better to read now.

She tapped and Chapter Thirty-One caught her eye:

 “Helping Him to Breathe Cow-Girl Style.”

“Now what in blazes could that be about?” she thought.  She pulled the comforter around her feeling the warmth of the fire at her back and began to read intently,

What she read absolutely blew her mind.

Having read hurriedly, she made a note to herself to come back to that chapter later on, moving at that point on the next chapter which was entitled “Letting Him Have Your Aura.”

That chapter also had a major “wow” factor to it as well.
 

She heard him stir again and closed the computer down thinking to herself, realizing that she had, since her mother died, held her emotions in and, in fact, had become mother to her dad, but more, she had become in a way a substitute wife for him emotionally handling social occasions for him and parties and entertaining.

The thought was sobering and somewhat shocking. She attributed some of these realizations to some of the statements in those chapters.  The writing had a way of seeming to talk directly to the reader’s subconscious, her’s at least. It also explained why some of the relationships she had been in did not work out she thought quietly.
 
She had held back in those relationships. She knew that but she had not realized there were reasons. She now realized, in those relationships, she held back partially because she was thinking that her Dad needed her to be there for him. He did say so exactly but

“But my goodness,” she thought “mom died six years ago.”

That was a long time and part of her was telling herself right then and there, with the fireplace at her back, she needed to move on from being stuck.

Those two or three last few chapters, she recognized with a start was her, and had jolted her into realizing that maybe this situation with Don provided a way for her to get unstuck. She resolved to do that do that, or at least try to do that with this man. “It is time,” she thought to herself.

No sex to be sure would happen here between the two of them and the book had made that clear but it also made her realize that there did not need to be sex for a man and woman to share something. In fact, sex could often be a way of avoiding getting really involved. You got up and you left. Real sharing something intimate with a man was something she had not done in a very long time.

He might react negatively to what she was planning and see her as weird, or even ask her to leave. But her sense of him was that he would never do that, especially in a storm and especially after what they had shared. A short time true , but, they had gone through a mini  life and death situation together. If he did go along then it was the effort was worth although she had no idea what she would do or had in mind. All she knew was that she would not hold back. She would be open, let herself be open to it. In doing so she would be moving her life in a different direction, whether he and she became an item or not.  

This would be bold and something unlike anything she had ever done before with a man. “If not now,” she said to herself rising pulling the comforter around her, “when?”

She liked the ideas in the “cowgirl” chapter which was a breathing exercise the book described as designed to help a man whose breathing was shallow or who had a huge chest. He had a huge chest and she liked the idea of getting close to it.

Moving toward the bedroom door she peeked in without entering, to see if her courage was still there. It was.

She opened the door and saw him peacefully sleeping, but still with a sweaty brow of a sort.

“Business first” she thought, diverting her stride to the bathroom to get some more aspirin for him. He was looking a little better and she could see that he would be awake soon and probably feeling much better maybe.

She got the aspirin and placed them beside the bed on the bed-stand her eyes riveted on him and her mind on her plan.

She had some safety pins she had retrieved from the bathroom and put two in her mouth as she got up on the bed and straddled Don as he slept.

He didn’t move.

She took one of the pins and used it to fasten one end of her comforter to one of the bed posts of the bed above the head board; and then took the other pin and did the same to the other end of the comforter attaching it to the other bed post.

It formed a little tent over the two of them. It was just like what she remembered she had done in camp with her friends. It made for the sense that it was just the two of them on that bed in their own private world.
  
 And that was the way she wanted it.

The comforter off she was just in her underwear. Looking quietly at him he was still asleep and he looked so good, sick or not, he made her pulse race.

Then careful, following the books instructions she climbed onto the bed and positioned herself astride him, her legs straddling his torso. She held her breath a long moment waiting to see if he was aware of her atop him.

  She looked down on him, so much man, clad only in his boxers.
She wanted to kiss him but restrained herself and positioned her two hands just below his diaphragm and began to push forcing air out of his lungs. She followed and matched his breathing pattern and, once established, she continued to match his breathing with hers. Deep inhale, deep exhale, the two of them breathing together. He seemed to think he was dreaming. With succeeding exhales she pulled away and on inhales she lay more and more astride him forcing air out of his lungs, her ear on his chest, she could hear the air coursing through his lungs and hers as well. That sensation, the sound of them breathing was exciting to her. She felt hot and getting hotter despite the chill in the room.
Maybe she was a power freak but she liked being in control, on top.

 She pressed down gently now forcing air out of his lungs ten times as the book had said and she could see that he was breathing more on his own now. The exercise was turning him on; she could see he was dreaming a slightly delirious dream.

At ten deep additional exhales she paused looking at him to see if she could tell if he was aware of her.

He was. He reached out and put his arms around her rear-end and pulled her to him.