Promise To Be Tender: Part Twelve

In the few days since Jenny had left, Kris and I seemed to have gone back as we were. The truth was that we weren't the same. I no longer took advantage of the love I knew she had for me; a love so great that she had asked her own beautiful lover to become my own; a love with a desire to please me by providing sexual satisfaction with a woman she felt I would want more than her.

As enthusiastically as I had entered into our unusual threesome, I now regretted my fucked up blindness that kept me from appreciating Kris long ago.

Kris was back to being as conformable and sweet as ever. We both slept in her bed now, embracing, and I could sense her tension prior to sleep, waiting to see if I would try to make love to her, finally doing with her what I'd done so many times with Jenny under the power of her withheld passion for me.

It was as frustrating as fucking possible! I wanted to have her completely, though I was determined it had to be right. I wanted that experience to be as special as her.

Time was a factor, too. I had to go where the work existed, and it had begun to look like I'd be leaving for a project half a day's drive away. I might not see her again for several weeks.

I left as Kris began to prep lunch and dinner ingredients simultaneously, determined to go to the gym and work out before eating another of her delicious meals. My workout buddy, Joe, was already there when I arrived. He soon tuned into my mood, and I only told him I was sorry that I would soon have to leave the area to get work, though I really wished I could find something close that would enable me to have some permanency.

Joe stopped his fast-paced walk on the treadmill and sat on a bench near me as I lifted hand weights. "Mac, I may have some work that would keep you busy for the better part of a year, perhaps longer, if you're serious about digging in."

He waited for me to put the weight down, and I sat on the opposing bench.

Joe told me about a house by the sea with four visitors cottages that he owned, all in need of refurbish or rebuild, and that it had been the dream of he and his wife to fix them up and live there, entertaining paying guests from all over the world. He smiled as he mentioned that his wife had been an excellent cook when she was alive, and had looked forward to sharing meals with guests, hearing stories of their lives and homes. He would never sell the property, he said, but wasn't capable of doing all that rebuild on his own.

Then he said, "It's just too bad you aren't married, or at least with someone that would be interested, because when this property is done, I will need a couple to maintain it, cook for guests, act as casual concierge... My wife and I had a vision of a lover's retreat by the sea."

I interrupted him. "You aren't planning to do it, Joe?"

The man slowly shook his head and sighed, "No, it's a job for people that can do it because they love it, and it has to be a couple that's in love. The cottages are for couples, Mac. It's one of the most incredible places on the Pacific coast."

Within minutes, we had agreed to meet at what Joe had named, "Lover's Crest."

Dear Reader

This is the final part to Promise To Be Tender.

The story of Mac and Kris will continue within their own story, Lover's Crest.

Thank you for reading.

LP Steinbeck