"I love you, Charlie." Rebecca managed to gasp out even as she tugged on the belt of Charlie’s robe and slipped it from her shoulders. "Tell me how to please you."
"My love, my love. Anything. Touch me." Charlie slid her hand around Rebecca's breast, gently rolling the already hard nipple between her fingers. "Just touch me. Hold me."
She moved to Charlie’s neck and began exploring there with her lips. She loved the feel of the soft skin under her lips. It amazed her how loving and tender this was and how much she wanted to be here with this woman. Her hand slipped back to Charlie’s breast and grasped the warm weight through the material of the nightshirt. She threw her head back and moaned when she felt Charlie touch her nipple. "God!" She gasped and she felt a rush between her legs.
She felt her body responding to her lover. She brought her leg up and it settled between Charlie’s legs. She was going to shift until she heard a long deep growl from the woman.
The feel of Rebecca's thigh against her own aching need drove Charlie to the point of no return. "Oh, God, please, please." Charlie moaned. Her hips started to move in slow rhythm. Her hands wrapped themselves around Rebecca's shoulders, holding on for dear life, as Charlie quivered in Rebecca's arms. She buried her head in Rebecca's shoulder. "Please."
"Yes, Charlie, it is all right, my love." She whispered in her ear. "I have you, darling, let go. I will protect you."
The force of Charlie's hips against Rebecca’s thigh increased. Then Charlie's body stiffened, pressing hard into Rebecca. A high pitched, stifled cry, half sob, half sigh broke from the woman's throat. "Rebecca." For a moment or an eternity, Charlie lay rigid in Rebecca's arms as the universe exploded through her body. Then she sank, boneless into Rebecca's arms. "Oh, God. Oh, love." Reverent, shattered, Charlie whispered in Rebecca's ear.
Her arms wrapped around the woman and she sighed herself, quite satisfied that she had pleased Charlie. "I love you." She whispered. "I will never love another like I love you."
Charlie was embarrassed. "I am sorry. I did not want to startle you or push you too much. It is just that every night I have held you and wanted you and....I love you so much, Rebecca." In a smaller voice, "I need you so much."
"Shhh……" She comforted her, gently stoking her back and combing fingers through hair that still needed to be cut. "I wanted this too, Charlie. I wanted to know if I could please you, make you happy. You have helped me understand a great deal tonight with your gentleness and your patience."
"Patience? You touch me and I explode like a rocket! It was unlike anything I have ever felt before, dear heart."
Rebecca worked her way from under Charlie and shifted until she was lying in Charlie’s arms, her head resting on her shoulder and her hand slowly tracing over her stomach. "I just needed to know I could please you. That I would be enough for you." She did not quite know how to explain her feelings. She cuddled closer, feeling Charlie’s arms tighten around her. "I felt like such a failure in my marriage. My husband did not desire me. He did not love me and I never pleased him." She fought hard against the tears that wanted to spill.
Charlie hugged her close when she felt rather than heard the sob Rebecca choked back. "Mr. Gaines was a fool. You are amazing, dear woman. Your compassion, kindness and ability to give of yourself in these uncertain times when it would be easy to turn your back on all those around you is astounding."
"I think you are biased."
"I, my dear, am very biased. You are beautiful and I desire you very deeply. Your touch excites me, your kisses set me on fire and now I find that I have not the strength to resist you even for a moment when you hold me and want me."
"I will admit that I was confused and unsure of it all. But when I opened my eyes and you were there, everything became so clear. I realized that I could never find what I have with you with anyone else. I intend to hold onto you forever."
"I will be yours for the rest of my life, dear. But what confused you, love?"
"All of it. You were here and so charming, wonderful and kind. You were what I dreamed of for a life and a home. But, Charlie, you have to admit that ours is not a conventional relationship. I had to know and understand that. That everything I wondered about just did not matter in the whole thing. I love you; it matters not to me that you are a woman under your disguise. But I had to find that. I had to understand that it just does not matter to me."
"What convinced you, darling? I have always thought that because I was not what I seemed, that I was something that our society reviles, I thought I would spend my life alone. You are, to me, a miracle."
She sighed and pulled herself up to look into Charlie’s eyes. "I cannot tell you what it was. Maybe it was your kindness, your tenderness, your fierce loyalty to service and duty." She shook her head. "I do not know, all I do know is whatever it was, I have fallen head over heels for you. I cannot wait for our life to really begin together. I will be proud to take your name and call myself your wife."
"And my gender? What of that, dear? You know there are things that I can never give you, things that most men do not even have to think twice about."
"I assume, dear Charlie, you are speaking of children? You should know that if we want them bad enough and are faithful, one way or the other we will be blessed with children. But if having children should never come to pass, I will still happily live my life with you. You are my family now, Charlie. All that I have. All that I want."
"Rebecca, my love. You are the family, the love I dreamed of and thought I could never have. You are the miracle in my life."
"Then it seems that we have everything we need, Charlie." She giggled and poked her in the ribs. "Maybe one of these days I will even live down the stigma of having married a Yankee."
Charlie rolled over onto her back and covered her eyes with her hand. "Ah, the shame of it all."
Rebecca chuckled and pulled Charlie’s hand from her eyes. "I am sure I will survive it."
Charlie rolled onto her side so she could look directly at Rebecca. "Are you really? You know, it could get unpleasant." She stroked Rebecca's cheek. "I do not ever want to cause any unpleasantness for you."
The blonde ran her hand down Charlie’s arm. "My dear, I have survived a war. Nothing can be as unpleasant as that. I believe our life together will be wonderful."
The gentle stroke raised goose bumps on Charlie's skin. Her voice became husky again. "What of you, dear heart? As much pleasure as your touch brings me, I would also love to give you that pleasure."
Rebecca shivered at the thought and smiled. "Charlie, what I want from you right now is to be with you. I love you and I want to experience everything you have to offer, but I must admit I am nervous. No one has ever effected me like you do."
Very gently, Charlie stroked Rebecca's arm, caressing the tender skin on the inside of her elbow and wrist with just the tips of her fingers. "I am right here, love. All you have to do is ask me and if I do something you are not comfortable with, then tell me."
She nodded, a nervous smile still playing on her lips. "I have a question for you."
"Anything, love."
"The other night……when you……well……" she had the good grace to truly blush and look away for a moment. "How often do you do that?"
Charlie blushed from the roots of her hair to the tips of her toes. She laid her head down on Rebecca's shoulder and rested her hand gently on Rebecca's hip. In a choked whisper she finally figured out how to answer. "I used to do it occasionally, usually when being lonely got too bad. Now. Ummm. When the need to touch you and be touched by you gets to be more than I can handle without breaking my word to you." She lay there, expecting Rebecca to draw away.
She sighed and held Charlie as close as she could. "I just wondered. I have never……un……well, I have not."