Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 73013 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 365(@200wpm)___ 292(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73013 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 365(@200wpm)___ 292(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
Because everyone knows that even if she was a virgin bride like me, her husband’s tender touch has started to awaken her… he’s made a woman of her at last, and on their honeymoon, he’ll teach her more, get her used to intimacy with him… to his touch, wherever he wishes to put his hands.
Scott and April didn’t know—even Rick didn’t know. Something had gone wrong with me—but I wouldn’t let it stop us from having a wonderful life together. I would let Rick have intimacy with me tonight… and tomorrow, too. I made up my mind. All I had to do was lie there.
Hoping to convey to my wonderful husband that he would ‘get lucky’ that night and hoping to show Scott that I hadn’t really tried to get away from Rick’s embrace, I snuggled closer under his arm. For a moment I had the old cuddling feeling, of being wrapped in his strong limbs, protected from the world.
“No,” I told Scott, smiling as easily as I could and even trying to slip a bit of mischief into my expression. “He’s not going to let me get away.”
“Oho!” Scott said. “Rick, my boy, you’d better take her back to your room right away.”
My composure vanished, and I had to look away again as my cheeks went hotter than the sun. The urge to pull away from Rick—to run away, even, out into the wilderness until I forgot all about this unexpectedly difficult part of marriage—swelled in my chest.
“Look at you, blushing bride,” April said, her voice admiring and a little wistful. “The two of you are as pretty as a picture.”
“Thanks,” Rick said. His arm tightened a little around my shoulders, and I had an instant of warmth toward him that pushed away the embarrassment April and Scott had caused. “We’re actually looking for a place to settle down and start a family. What’s the name of your town, Scott?”
I felt my face threaten to frown. The idea of living near these people didn’t have any appeal to me, whether or not the age gap between my husband and me made us particularly well suited for their town. Indeed, at this moment I wanted to live somewhere no one would notice that Rick had eight years on me, and suppose—correctly, I knew, from what Rick had told me—that he had had intimacy with several women before he had chosen me.
I had stopped him before he could give any details. I had said it didn’t matter. Now, to my dismay, it seemed to matter a great deal.
“Rocky Falls,” Scott said, smiling. “Just your typical midwestern town. Subsidized, of course, the way a nice town needs to be these days.”
“By?” Rick asked.
“Selecta,” the older man answered, nodding. “So it’s a New Modesty town, technically.”
I felt my mouth twitch to the side in mild disapproval. Truthfully, I didn’t know very much about the New Modesty except what my parents had told me. They had approved of the program’s traditional values, and so I—in mild rebellion—didn’t.
Mild rebellion represented all the defiance I had had the ability to muster, living in my parents’ home rent-free while I worked at a café and saved money. From time to time my mom had mentioned the New Modesty to me as a possible path to an adult life, since I hadn’t really met anyone since graduating from high school and entering the working world.
Then Rick had arrived, and my folks had liked him, and no one had mentioned the New Modesty again. I hadn’t felt any curiosity, either; I supposed I had traditional values, wanting to make a loving home for my family the way my mother had for my dad and me. I didn’t want to fight with my daughter, though, the way my mom had done with me, when she wanted to get her ears pierced or to wear jeans on a day other than Saturday.
Really, I guess I hadn’t thought very hard about values—and I didn’t know why I should have to. I had Rick. I didn’t intend to let him make all the decisions, of course, the way my dad had seemed to make all the decisions for my family growing up. I meant to make up my own mind and even maybe vote for someone different from whoever Rick voted for. But a division of labor made all the sense in the world, I told myself. My mom had taught me to cook and to clean, and Rick had worked his way up to a comfortable income and the ability to be his own boss and make his own schedule. Keeping house for him in the traditional way, as old-fashioned as it sounded, seemed to me a very happy fate, since Rick had shown himself such an agreeable and caring partner.
He would never be interested in moving to a New Modesty town. Would he?