What Rough Beast

So, I was sitting there in my empty manse, one that I absolutely loathed, with no idea where the love of my life had gotten off to. It was summer, and I was wearing a Henley and a pair of boat shorts, topsiders on my feet. The thick silver chain with Thor's hammer was draped on my chest, just as it had been from the moment Odin gave it to me.

Then I remembered his words, "It will grant a wish if it is truly worthy." I couldn't think of anything worthier than reuniting me with my lost love. So, I gripped the hammer tightly, closed my eyes and wished as hard as I could; it was faintly reminiscent of the scene where Peter Pan heals Tinkerbell.

I had a vision of a neat little English rectory surrounded by a beautifully manicured garden. There was a lovely young woman tending the daffodils. She looked hopelessly sad.

A couple of hours later, my Audi TT RS was ripping up the M3 headed for Winchester and the south coast. I had a location. I had a name.

The surrounding village had the quaintness of a place that had been around since before the time of The Conqueror. The rectory was like something out of GK Chesterton.

My heart was in my throat as I made my way up the crushed gravel path. My whole world rested on one throw of the dice. The summer birds were singing, the sky was blue, the air was warm, and I was praying that Dani wouldn't set the hounds loose on me.

The rectory itself had an old-fashioned bell. I rang it. A kindly older woman answered. I knew who she was thanks to Thor's Hammer. She was the wife of Dani's, father's, brother.

She looked at me inquiringly. I said in my politest tone, "Could I please speak to your niece, ma'am? I'm a friend of hers and I need just a moment to talk to her."

The older woman's face broke out in a beatific smile. It was like she had been expecting me all along. She said, "Danae is out in the garden. She spends most of her time out there tending her flowers and waiting for you." My heart soared into the trees and joined the songbirds in a joyful chorus.

She pointed to an arched gate in a Victorian era wall. I could see the tops of hollyhocks, azaleas and black-eyed-Susans above the ivy-covered bricks.

I said humbly, "Thank you," and turned and headed down the path into the garden."

Dani's flowerbeds were a festival of English delights, neatly tended, with perfectly manicured leaves and a white crushed gravel path.

There was a golden headed vision sitting on the ground at the end of the path. She was wearing a light blue dress and a white apron, a wide-brimmed straw hat with a yellow ribbon was laid in the grass next to her. She had on green garden gloves and she was intently focused on trimming the lower leaves of a bed of hydrangeas.

I walked a couple of steps up the path and said gently, "Hello Dani." She raised her eyes disbelieving. Her face went from miserable, to hopeful, to overjoyed in an instant. She jumped to her feet spilling her garden tools as she did.

She looked puzzled, but radiantly beautiful in her dirty white apron. Then she put her hands over her face and began to cry -- women!!!

I closed the distance between us and took her in my arms. I said, "I know it's been horrible but it's all over now."

She continued to weep. I kissed the top of her head and said, "There were some things that I had to get behind me. It wasn't a situation I could control. But everything's resolved now, and I can spend the rest of my life making it up to you."

She turned her tear-stained face up to me and I could see the answer in her eyes. What does a man really need in life besides one person who you love beyond yourself, and who loves you in the same way? Then you can face anything.

I'd fought the Midgard Serpent for her. I'd even wrestled my own bureaucracy; which in many ways is far more powerful and dangerous. Death would be the only thing that would separate us now.

*****

Dani and I were married in her Uncle's church. That event came exactly two days after the Degree Absolute. Her cousins and her aunt were the only witnesses.

I watched my wife walk up the aisle blushing furiously. She was a humbly self-conscious little woman. Her eyes never left mine. They were infinite pools of love and loyalty. The promise of a happy life shone from them.

Dani was wearing a white linen dress and a pair of four-inch white heels. It had a square cut neckline and was fitted down to just above her knees. It wasn't a fancy wedding outfit. It was a simple, modest and sensible thing, just like the woman who wore it.

The heels were meant to put her closer to my height. That was one more of her more endearing foibles. Dani's very insecure about how small she is. The heels only made her slim muscular calves even more attractive and there was no disguising that fabulous body under the dress.

Dani's eyes never left mine as we said the words. She had insisted on a simple ring, not the jewel encrusted wonder that Vanessa had demanded. Vanessa's diamond would've sunk the Titanic.

I slipped the ring on Dani's finger and we had a chaste kiss. After all, her aunt and uncle were standing there. I looked down at her face. Tears of happiness were streaming down her cheeks. We shared another sweet kiss. It promised a greater love than I could have ever hoped for.

I'd gotten rid of the Dulwich mansion during the six months that we were waiting for the final decree. That benighted place was owned by a pretentious d-bag and his slut wife. All of that foolishness was behind me now. I was prepared to open the next chapter with a woman who truly loved me, and I was a much better man for it.

I bought a beautiful thatched crofters' cottage on the cliffs near Lyme Regis. It was like something out of Thomas Hardy; ninety acres of scenic beauty, complete with sturdy well-maintained outbuildings, a pen full of sheep and tenants to take care of everything.

Then I dropped another couple of hundred-thousand quid on making the place into a fairy tale. I had sold Vanessa's ghastly mansion for double what I had originally paid for it. So, in essence my first wife's taste for luxury was underwriting my little rectory cat's happy home.

The cottage itself was two-hundred years old. But the walls were thick whitewashed stone and the floors were hewn out of durable English oak. Everything inside was fully modernized, plumbing, electrical, heating and cooling. But we still opened the windows as often as we could, to feel the sea breeze and listen to the soothing sound of the endlessly breaking waves.

Our first married night was a revelation. Dani wouldn't permit anything more than avid kissing and a little fondling until we had actually taken the vows. She said that she wanted to come to me as a virgin. It was a long six months of bright blue balls. But I never betrayed her secret.

Dani isn't an ostentatious frilly nighty sort of girl. On her wedding night, she tip-toed shyly out of our little en-suite completely naked. The ambient light from the full moon illuminated every plane and nuance of her incredible body.

She looked nervous but steadfast. It was like her love was a gift and she was determined to give it to me.

I had seen her body before. But there'd been a few minor distractions; like a room full of drunken Vikings and a highly-possessive demi-god. Now I was seeing my new wife in her bountiful glory. It was a vision beyond reckoning.

Dani has a truly beautiful face, in a classic, round, high cheekboned, big eyed, fresh-country-girl way. But her succulent mouth is her most erotic feature. Her lips are like little pillows stuffed with sensuality. Their lushness hints at the sexual animal crouching below the surface.

She rushed giggling to the bed, running in that hippy female way. Her big firm breasts bounced in a hundred different directions as she slid under the covers. I could feel the heat radiating from her body.

She turned to face me with a big sigh of contentment; one huge boob draped over the other. Her luminous eyes were anxious. She said hesitantly, "Is this what you expected -- what you want?"

Thank God for female insecurities. I'm richer than the average guy, with a more "interesting" background. But an incandescent beauty like Dani's is a rarity. She was much more than I deserved, and I knew it. More importantly, I also knew that she was mine, and mine alone.

I got up on one elbow and looked down the length of her body. She was the female contradiction; petite in some places, and bountiful in others, both soft and hard. The feeling of those big floating breasts smashed against my chest was like nothing I had ever experienced.

I said, "You are perfect. I love you in your youthful beauty and I will love you when you're a wrinkled old crone. That's because the spirit that lives in this body is forever."

My new wife made one of those inarticulate woman noises. It indicated that I'd either given her the right answer, or she couldn't wait any longer, or maybe both?

Anyhow, she crooked a surprisingly strong arm behind my neck and dragged me down to her mouth. It was wide open and white hot. It told me that the woman I had seen in Loki's mead-hall was about to make an appearance. Only this incarnation wasn't summoned by enchantment. It was Dani's absolute desire to give herself to me body and soul.

I've had an admittedly wide and checkered sexual history. But Dani's kisses are like no other woman's. Her lips are alive when she kisses you; constantly moving twisting turning, nipping. That phenomenon more than anything else, conveys her sexual hunger.

We kissed enthusiastically for a few minutes. But it was plain that Dani's motor was revving, and she was getting impatient. It was ironic really. I was the bon-vivant with the long string of wanton women and Dani was the alleged quasi-virgin. But I was the one who was hesitating.

She made an exasperated noise and transferred my free hand to one firm floating breast. The boob was a lot more than a mere handful. The big brown nipple was hot, and bright angry red. I tweaked it. Dani groaned with sensation and absolutely freaked-out.

Her head rocked back, and her mouth opened in a scream that was so loud that it probably set off a stampede in the sheep pens. Then she began to frantically worm her body underneath me. It was pure mindless instinct on Dani's part. In fact, I remember thinking, "A more sophisticated woman would have handled this a little less directly."

That was my last rational thought. Because I was suddenly lying on top of a wild woman. Dani might have been an inexperienced girl. But she knew what she wanted, and she knew exactly where to put it. That's instinct too.

She reached between us and jammed me into her boiling, highly lubricated inner self. Naturally there was no obstruction. She'd already lost that.

I slid right to the top. It happened without hesitation, or pain. The look on her face was surprise -- for a second. Then it turned to sheer lust, as she felt a cock inside her for the first time; at least one that she could remember.

She gasped loudly. Her legs shot straight up in the air and then out to the side, in an outrageously wide "V." She held me there at the very top, not moving, making a constant high-pitched whine of mindless physical sensation.

Then she began to undulate. That was instinct too. She wanted to feel the movement inside herself. I started out with long slow strokes until she increased the pace, all-the-while emitting loud shrieks of mounting arousal.

The feeling of heat, the squishing sounds and the hormonal smells were getting both of us to the end of the line faster than I wanted. So, I slowed a bit. She opened her eyes questioningly. Then the first orgasm hit her like the proverbial freight train.

Her eyes rolled back into her head. Her body bent into a bow, every muscle was rock hard with strain and she began a series of rhythmic moans of increasing intensity, finishing with a frantic scream. I could feel the matching contractions as she writhed out of control.

When she finally stopped shivering, I moved to turn her over. She looked puzzled. I wasn't in a mood to wait so I grabbed her tight muscular flanks and impatiently flipped her face down on the pillow, her perfect round ass elevated high in the air.

That was something new. She made a loud, surprised grunt when I entered her, and her shining sheaf of blond hair flipped outward in a dense cloud, up and back over her shoulders. Her hips elevated even higher. She widened her stance and grabbed the rails of the brass bed for leverage. Then she began to actively push back, while rotating her hips to feel the new sensation.

Her two big buns were perfect, round and so firm that they didn't ripple when I slammed into her. As the tempo increased her moans got even more agitated. Finally, I reached around to give her a finger to suck on. She was frantically sucking on the finger when the next orgasm hit, and I almost lost its tip.

Her legs crumpled as her incredible apple shaped ass began to writhe in an ecstasy of erotic sensation. I'd reached the limit myself and I collapsed on top of my new wife, cumming like the Midnight Express. Then there was a short period where neither of us were rational.

As soon as I calmed down, I realized that I was crushing her. So, I rolled to one side. Dani was still on her front. She lay on her stomach quivering and moaning, still clutching the brass bars of the headboard. I was lying on my back on our trashed sheets, gasping and sweating.

There was a moment's hesitation. Then she popped her head up looking devastated. She'd just fucked our mutual brains out. What was this?

She said almost crying, "I'm sooooo sorry. I have no idea what came over me. What must you think of me, acting so wanton?"

That was just sooooo Dani!! I actually laughed out loud. She looked even more crushed. I was ashamed of myself. This was something that was important to her.

I said with all the sincerity I could muster, "That was the two of us connecting at the most fundamental level my love. The passion that we share is a physical reflection of the feelings that we have for each other. And those feelings are obviously very powerful"

I asked, "Could you do that with anybody else?"

She looked at me like I'd lost my mind and said angrily, "Of course not. This body is yours, and only yours. I would never share it with another man. That would violate every tenet of my beliefs."

I said, "So your incomparable passion is your marriage gift to me?"

She got it. She looked at me tenderly and said, "As many times as you want it. For the rest of our lives; till death do we part."

EPILOG

Dani really loved children. We had four. They were a handful. But they were also the joy of our lives. Each of them is successful now. Dani made that happen. She was the rock on which our happiness was founded.

A woman's single-minded devotion to her family is vastly undervalued in our egocentric society. Still, the lives that Dani made better through her humble, unpretentious goodness, might convince the most self-involved asshole, among the politically-correct, that there's more to life than kicking ass and taking names.

Dani believed in the value of self-sacrifice and she took humble pleasure in making everybody else's life better. She could have been anything she wanted to be. But she wanted to be a wife and mother.

She worked harder at that job than any career driven diva and she didn't care whether anybody acknowledged her effort. All she cared about was that her husband and her children were happy.

Most of the time she was gracious and unassuming. But she was never close to subservient. Especially, if any fool messed with her loved ones. Then my shy little rectory cat would transform into a rabid Bengal tiger with a thorn in its ass.

Dani never lost her exquisite beauty. It just aged, like fine wine. On social occasions, all conversation would stop when my wife entered the room. The attention embarrassed her. Especially since she'd done nothing special with her appearance. She was just that spectacularly gorgeous.

Men would flock around her. But there was never a question who owned her heart. Dani didn't need to go out of her way to make that point. It was just so blatantly evident in every glance and gesture. A lot of men envied me. But I never took Dani's loyalty for granted. I worked very hard to let her know how much she was loved in return.

Dani also kept her legendary inner fire. I relished that gift until I was too decrepit to get the booster out to the pad. Still, even in our old age she'd manage to occasionally launch the antique thing.

*****

It was sunset. The two of us were sitting on a Lutyens bench, surrounded by a dense arbor of boxwood and morning glories. The arbor's embrace was fragrant, private and peaceful. We were at the top of our property. From there, we could see the booming waves at the foot of the cliffs.

It was Dani's favorite spot. I had carried her up there wrapped in a blanket, even though it was a warm summer day. She was only seventy-seven and she would normally outlive me. But she'd been handed a dire diagnosis and she was too weak to walk now.

I wasn't remotely afraid of death. I'd lived a long and rewarding life with one of God's kindest and most loving creatures. But I was absolutely terrified at the thought of losing her.

So, I took Odin's necklace from around my neck and pressed Thor's hammer into Dani's palm. Then I took her frail little hand and closed it inside mine. I said, "This necklace grants a wish if you want it badly enough."

Dani looked at me intently. Her face reflected the shining beauty of the spirit that lived behind her eyes. She said, "And what do you wish for my love?"

My voice shook with emotion as I said, "I want the two of us to leave this world together. I couldn't bear life without you."

Dani's gentle eyes misted with tears. She squeezed her hand around the talisman as she whispered, "Me neither."

And so, it came to pass. Two old people sat side-by-side in the fading light of a beautiful English evening. Their hands were lovingly clasped, and their eyes were tightly closed, as Odin granted them one last worthy and heartfelt wish.