Romance Always and Forever

As the lights came down, a gentle strobe began. When it did, the sound of Bing Crosby's voice singing 'White Christmas' could be heard. Almost immediately thousands of tiny sparkling bits of paper began floating down from the ceiling. As the strobe continued to pierce the darkness, the effect of it actually snowing inside the gym was remarkable. Mark and Diane danced their last dance of the night together, holding one another close as the warm snow continued to fall, covering the two of them completely. They both laughed, brushing the bits of paper from their hair and clothing just as the song ended, and the lights came back up.

"Well? Shall we?" Mark asked, seeing Diane smile in agreement as they gathered their coats and headed outside.

Mark wasn't too surprised when Bobby didn't emerge from the driver's side door to let them inside. The weather had worsened considerably, and for the first time he nervously wondered if it was such a good idea to make the long drive towards the restaurant. Quickly climbing inside the limousine, Mark was about to press the intercom and speak with Bobby when he felt the car backing out of the lot. Deciding against doing so, he settled back into the seat already warm from the heat of the car comfortably suiting them both.

"How long before we arrive?" Diane questioned, clueless as to where it was they were going for dinner.

"Probably an hour, maybe even longer with the storm and all," he answered. Mark glanced outside, but it was nearly a whiteout as the snow was falling, coming down in a near blizzard condition. He heard Diane's giggle, turning away from the window.

"I've always wanted to ride inside a limo," she told him.

"Yeah, me too," he admitted feeling a little better as he sat there looking at her.

"You know what else I've imagined doing?" she asked, her voice taking on that same sultry tone he'd heard her use the first night he had seen her naked.

"No, what?"

"I've always wanted to make love inside of one," she admitted shyly to him.

All thoughts of the storm outside evaporated. "You're kidding me! You want to make love? Here?" he questioned her seriously.

"Yes Mark, I do...right here," she said already beginning to slip out of her evening gown. "After all, we do have an hour," she suggested lustily, "Don't we?"

Minutes later she was sitting in nothing more than the sexy pair of white garters and stockings her mother had loaned her. And, as she had told him about earlier, she was indeed wearing nothing else. Mark quickly slipped out of his own clothing, tossing them onto the seat well behind them. Diane reached out her arms towards him, bidding him to come to her, simultaneously revealing herself even more fully to him than she had on their first intimate night together. As she widened the position of her legs, Mark knelt down on the luxuriously carpeted floor. He smiled at the surprised expression on her face. She'd expected him to come to her another way, but his intentions at that moment where to pleasure her as she had once pleasured him.

"Mark?"

"There's plenty of time yet," he whispered. "And besides, this is just one of your Christmas presents," he told her.

"Ohh...just one?" she sighed as his tongue touched the furrow of her sex for the first time.

Mark was too busy to speak further however, and Diane suddenly found it unnecessary for him to answer her either.

The feel of Mark's tongue as it teasingly caressed her clitoris was heavenly. Diane moaned with each passing moment, each fluttering flick of his tongue as it danced inside her, exploring her entirely. Reaching up with his hands, he had captured her full breasts, kneading her pliant flesh and gently thumbing her erect nipples.

Perfectly choreographed, Mark continued to strum her pleasure nubbin with his tongue, his fingers fine tuning the nerve endings of each breast until Diane was moaning uncontrollably. The perfume of her scent was intoxicating, driving him mad with desire for her, but wanting her to experience the penultimate of pleasures before they consummated the evening as they both now knew that they would.

He could sense by her breathing that she was getting closer to her ecstasy. Her quim had grown even more liquid, alerting him to the arrival of her climax just seconds away now. Mark felt her tense, felt her shiver as she began to come, heard her only half-muted scream of pure unadulterated pleasure as he continued to devour her in a way that threatened to rob them both of their sanity.

Mark felt as though he were floating, still hearing Diane's cry of pleasure as it echoed inside his head.

Then he realized he was floating, and the sound of Diane's cry, no longer pleasure, but a screaming cry of fear and alarm.

"Well? What'd they say?"

Diane's father finished hanging up the phone, turning towards his wife, his face was etched with deep lines of worry and concern. They had been up all night.

"The manger confirmed they had reservations for nine, but they never showed."

Just then the phone rang. Diane's father quickly grabbed the receiver.

"Yes? Hello?" he added anxiously.

For long moments he sat listening on the other end. By the look on his face his fears became even greater. Diane's mother stood, her hand already reaching up towards her mouth.

"I see, thank you," he said. He turned, "That was the Limousine service, Bobby never came back to the shop with the car."

Diane opened her eyes. She felt stiff, sore, but even more importantly, confused. As her eyes cleared coming back into focus, she could see the outline of someone sitting next to her in a chair. She took a moment longer for her eyes to adjust, when they did, she could see her father sitting next to her, sleeping.

"Daddy?"

"Oh my God! Diane! Baby! You're awake!" he said bounding up from his chair in surprise. Racing towards her bed, he gathered her into his arms and began weeping uncontrollably. When he did, Diane realized something was horribly, horribly wrong. She had never in all her years seen her father cry.

"Daddy? What's happened, what's wrong? Why am I here?" she asked finally, realizing she was lying inside a hospital bed.

"You've been in a coma for nearly two weeks now," he told her. "But everything is going to be alright now honey, you're going to be just fine."

Diane's father stood beside her bed, stroking her hair.

"When the doctor's informed us that you could be waking up any day now, your mother and I took turns camping out here beside your bed so that one of us would at least be here when you woke."

Realization slowly settled in, though all Diane could even vaguely remember was the echoing cry of her own scream.

"Where's Mark?" she asked suddenly alert.

Her father stopped stroking her head briefly, staring into her eyes.

"He didn't make it," he said simply, not knowing how else to put it.

"Well call him then, tell him I'm awake!" Diane said trying to sit up.

For a moment, her father stood there looking at her with a dumbfounded expression on his face until he realized his daughter had misunderstood him.

"I didn't say he couldn't make it," her father began. "I said he didn't make it. I'm sorry honey... Mark didn't survive the crash."

Mike Jenkins arrived home from work, and like every day for the past two month's, he immediately asked his mother if anything had arrived for him in the mail.

At twenty-two, he was still living with his parents. Considered something of a 'wonder boy', Mike had already excelled through college, well on his way towards becoming what he'd always dreamed of being. A marine biologist. He'd applied at several research centers where he hoped to complete his internship. Having already received acceptance at three, each along the east coast, Mike continued to hope expectantly for acceptance on the west coast. For as far back as he could remember, Mike had dreamed of living, working and establishing a life out west.

"Any mail?" he'd asked, expecting the same answer he'd been getting of late. This time however, his mother stepped out of the hallway into the living room. She was holding a letter in her hand.

Mike refused to get too excited. It could very well end up being a fourth acceptance on the east coast. He looked into his mothers eyes however, never able to be one to hide much of a secret, and smiled.

"Is it? Really?" he asked her.

Katie Jenkins smiled, holding out the envelope to him. "I don't know why you're so insistent on moving clear across the country," she began.

They had had this argument before. Both of his parents had expressed their own reasons for him interning closer to home. He on the other hand had always said that one day, he'd move out west, no matter how long it took him to find a way there.

Mike quickly tore into the envelope, reading the letter inside. A second later, he threw it up into the air with a wild hoop and a holler.

"Yahoo! I'm moving to San Diego!" he shouted happily.

It was less than a week before Thanksgiving. The letter had told him that he wasn't expected to even arrive until after the holidays. And much to his parents chagrin, he told them that very evening of his intentions to fly out the following Monday.

Mike had managed to salt a considerable amount of savings away. So it was that he found himself standing outside the employee entrance at Sea World, San Diego, late Monday afternoon.

He'd been standing there a good ten minutes before anyone else arrived.

"Can I help you?"

Mike smiled at the petite, good looking blonde that approached him. "Yes thank you. I'm here to see..." Mike fumbled briefly with the letter he'd brought with him. "A Professor Davenport."

"Oh, you mean Dee-Dee!" The blonde said smiling at him. "I'm pretty sure she's down near the shark exhibitions. We just got an injured Great White, Dee-Dee's overseeing her recovery, so I'm pretty sure you will find her there."

The blonde gave Mike directions to the area of the complex, then left him to find his way. After searching for only a few minutes he came upon a woman who was standing in front of a large underground observation area, intently studying what must have been the shark they had recently procured.

"Excuse me, are you Professor Davenport?" he asked. Diane turned, "Yes, and you are?"

"Mike Jenkins," he stated, offering his hand.

"I didn't expect you until after the holidays," she said mildly surprised.

The moment he shook her hand, he noticed a curious look cross her face. She was tall, her short dark hair framing her features into a near perfect oval.

"I'm sorry, I was just anxious to arrive," he stammered noticing her expression hadn't changed.

"Oh no, its not that. I'm glad you're here. It's just that for a moment, you reminded me of someone," she said apologetically. "Listen, lets go back to my office and finish up with your paperwork, get you settled in, and we'll go from there. How's that sound?"

"Sounds good," he told her.

"Did you find the studio apartment ok?" she asked as they walked together across the massive complex.

"Actually, I came straight here from the airport."

Once again Diane cast him a curious glance. "Well, later on...I'll drive you over, show you where it is. It's not far from here. Several of the staff are living in the same complex." Diane stopped herself, realizing she was speaking in clipped sentences, almost babbling. She didn't know why she felt so funny, or what it was about Mike that was causing her to feel this way.

By the time they had reached her office, she had calmed well enough to have shaken off the strange feeling she'd been having ever since Mike arrived.

Diane quickly crossed over to her filing cabinet and extracted a folder from one of the drawers. "By the way, we're pretty informal around here, so feel free to call me Dee-Dee," she turned to face Mike, feeling a little light-headed as she did, quickly sitting down. "Calling me Professor Davenport makes me feel old," she added opening the file folder.

Mike laughed. "My friends call me M & M, I hope no one else around here goes by their initials or it could really sound funny," he offered.

"Why do they call you that?" she asked.

"Well, I was named after my father. Early on I was called junior of course, and I hated that. So when I got older, I adopted my middle name. But because of it, most everyone nick-named me M & M, and it just sort of stuck."

Diane was scanning through Mike's bio. She stopped when she saw where it was he had come from. A small gasp caught in her throat.

"You're from Massachusetts?"

"Yeah, born and raised there."

Diane felt a stream of goose bumps run up both arms. "What made you decide to come all the way out west? There's a lot of research centers on the east coast, some of which I would think would be better suited for you than working here."

"Well, for one thing, I'm not all that fond of snow. And for the other, for as long as I can remember, I've always wanted to move out here. So when the opening became available, I applied for it. And voila'...here I am!"

Once again Mike noticed a strange expression on Diane's face.

"Is something wrong?" he asked, startling her out of her fugue.

"Oh no. Just a little ironic is all. You see, twenty years ago, I moved out west too. I used to live in Boston."

It was the day before the Thanksgiving Holiday. Mike had spent the past couple of days settling into his routine, working side by side with Dee-Dee. Together, they continued to observe, make notes, and monitor the progress of their captive, Great White. Dee-Dee had informed him that the shark was pregnant, so having one currently in captivity, and about to give birth was a real rarity. Most of the staff was already away for the holiday, leaving just Dee-Dee and Mike to continue the observations and ensure the sharks continued recovery.

"Well obviously, you don't have any plans for tomorrow, so how'd you feel about coming over to my place and having dinner with me?"

Diane was somewhat surprised at herself for even asking him. She hadn't intended to do so, preferring as she most often did to spend her holidays alone.

"I'd really like that! Can I bring anything?"

Dee-Dee laughed, something he had not seen her do since his arrival. It was a sweet sound, eerily familiar. "Maybe you can pick up a bottle of wine or something. Believe me, I didn't invite you to any sort of elaborate turkey dinner. Oh, we'll have turkey of course, but it will be straight out of the package."

"Still sounds good to me," Mike responded happily.

He arrived at her apartment shortly before seven. He'd picked up a nice white wine to have with their dinner. When Dee-Dee led him into her apartment, he was greeted by the same familiar smells he remembered when having Thanks giving at home.

"Smells good!" he offered.

"Thank you, but like I said, don't be expecting anything fancy," she warned.

They shared a nice quiet simple dinner together with Mike helping Diane in washing up the dishes afterwards. Moving into the small sparsely furnished living room, Diane went back to retrieve the bottle of wine. Mike sat down on the small couch, his wine glass near empty, holding it out towards her as she approached. Diane's foot caught the edge of a nearby coffee table, she stumbled nearly falling, and then did fall, spilling the bottle of wine all over Mike when she did. Having lost her balance and composure simultaneously, she ended up tumbling into him there on the couch.

"Oh my God Mike! I'm so sorry!" she exclaimed. But Mike was laughing. He had watched her as she'd begun to fall, realizing in that split second that he had no choice but to reach out in some effort to catch her. Which he'd done. He'd just managed to wrap both arms around her, still holding her like that even as she leaned away to observe the damage.

"Don't worry about it, I've had worse spilled on me than this," he stated in some attempt to sooth her.

Diane lifted her head to look back towards him, her eyes locking almost immediately with his. In the next instant, she leaned forward, their lips met, and Diane found herself kissing Mike passionately.

Though surprised at her ardor, Mike returned the kiss, gently rolling her off to once side as they did until her head rested against the back of the couch where he began trailing additional kisses down her neck.

"Please," Dee-Dee moaned, her hands now worming themselves within his hair. He felt her helping to direct his attention, ever lowering the path of his lips as they continued to seek out the softness of her flesh. Surprisingly, he saw out of the corner of his eye as her fingers deftly popped open the upper-most buttons on her blouse. Mike continued to kiss, lick and nip at the exposed flesh, his heart beating a thousand miles an hour as he finally reached the softest flesh of her breasts, lingering there, delivering hot passionate kisses. Still kissing, yet looking with his eyes open, Mike saw she wore a front-clasped bra. He tentatively placed his hand over the top of one of her breasts, heard her moan in obvious pleasure at the contact, and proceeded to reach over, finding the clasp and undoing it a second later.

As even more of her tantalizing flesh came into view, Mike continued on with his exploratory ministrations of her breasts, caressing one with his hand, finding the taut hard nipple that welcomed his teasing fingers. His lips began to travel towards her left nipple, when suddenly he felt both of her hands pressed against his chest. In the next instant, she pushed, pushing hard.

"No! I can't! We...we can't!" Diane screamed somehow managing to stand. She gathered the front of her blouse together looking down at the bewilderment in his face.

"Oh God Mike, I'm sorry...so sorry about this. But I think its best if you go," she told him without any further reasoning.

Mike stammered out an apology to her before leaving, but he was even more confused than ever as he made his way home. All of which was made worse as over the next several weeks. Dee-Dee had him running tedious unnecessary errands. And when she wasn't, when his presence was required or necessary for continuing their research, she spent most of that time cooped up inside her office with specific instructions to be left alone.

They barely even spoke. When they did, Dee-Dee was not quite curt with him, but she spoke with him in such a way that he'd begun considering seeking out another internship with a different professor. Their relationship had deteriorated to such a degree that Mike didn't think he would be able to continue working with her for much longer.

With Christmas just around the corner, only a few days away now, Mike decided to give things one last chance. He was determined to sit down and talk things over with her. If they couldn't repair whatever it was that had happened, then he knew he would have no choice but to leave. As she was hardly available to him any more, Mike chose to leave her no ultimatum. Informing her that he would be at her apartment the following night, even though it was Christmas Eve. He also told her that if she chose not to sit down and talk about whatever it was that had gone wrong, he would leave first thing the following morning, Christmas day.

He never received a response to his note, not really expecting one. But as promised, he arrived at her apartment the following evening. He half expected not to find her even home, surprised when a moment or two after ringing her doorbell, she answered.

"Professor Davenport?" he began, "We really need to talk!"

"I know we do," Diane responded. "Please Mike, come in."

She quickly led him back into her small living room. Mike was surprised when she gathered both of his hands into hers; sitting down so that she sat kitty-corner to him on the couch, knees almost touching.

"Before you say anything, I owe you an apology. In the first place, that never should have happened. In the second, and I'm not trying to make any excuses for my actions, but you remind me of someone. Someone I knew a long... long time ago. And I freely admit, it felt good to be held by someone; it's been a long time for that too. Probably too long. But again, that's no excuse, I was feeling the wine a little bit perhaps, and when we kissed, I was suddenly a young girl again, back in another place, another time."

Diane was taken aback upon hearing Mike's soft laughter.

"What's so funny?"

"Nothing really, I'm sorry. It's just that, well...ever since we met, you've reminded me of someone too."

Once again Diane felt a dizziness descend on her. She let go of Mike's hands sitting herself back into the couch trying to regain her composure.

"Go on..." she urged.

"You'll laugh, you'll think I'm making this all up," he began. Diane noticed he was also blushing.

"I promise I won't, please...tell me."

"At first, I thought we had maybe met someplace, somewhere before. But then I realized that was impossible. The following day, it finally dawned on me. Every once in a while, I've had these dreams..."

"Dreams?" Diane questioned.

"Yeah, dreams. Anyway, in nearly all of them, I'm with this woman, we're...well you know, we're making love. In these dreams, I never quite see her face, but she had dark hair like yours, only it was longer, much longer. When I saw you that first time, you reminded me of her for some reason, which is when I wondered if we had ever met one another before."

Diane allowed herself a nervous giggle. "Yeah, dreams can be a little weird sometimes, I know. I've had a few of them myself. But no...I don't think we ever met before now," she finished saying.

"Oh, and there was one other thing,"

"What's that?"

"You don't happen to have a tattoo in the shape of a heart, or a mole or something that looks like that do you?" he asked. "Because I remember that very distinctly too. And I remember kissing it, every time I have that dream, I remember kissing it and telling her not to let anyone else but me ever do that."

Diane sat staring at him. She leaned forward placing both hands on each side of his face. Her blue eyes boring into his like she was trying to see inside his head. Startled, Mike made an attempt to make light of it.

"Ah, isn't this how we got off on the wrong foot before?"

"Kiss me!"

"What?"

"I said...kiss me!"

"Listen...Diane, I mean Dee-Dee...Professor Davenport!" he blurted out finally actually leaning away from her. "I like working here, I enjoy working with you. The last thing I want is to cause any more problems between us!"

"You mean that?" she asked seriously.

"Yes, yes I do!" he said firmly.

"Then do what I asked, shut up and kiss me!"

Mike realized in that moment that she was indeed being serious. And so they kissed. And like before, the moment their lips touched there seemed to be an electrical current that ran through his entire body as well as hers. As they parted, he felt her stand, once again holding out her hand towards him. Mike stood, taking it.

"Where're we going?"

"Into the bedroom," she said simply.

"Dee-Dee?" "I want you to make love to me," she said pulling him along.

"Dee-Dee, are you sure? I mean after all, it's Christmas Eve, don't you have plans for the holiday or something?"

"I do now," she said grinning at him. "Now come-on, there's something else I need to find out, something I need to make sure of," she stated mysteriously.

Mike followed her down the hallway towards her bedroom. "Dee-Dee? There's something else you need to know about me," he said sheepishly.

Diane stopped, facing him. "What?"

"I've never been with a woman before," he near whispered.

Diane smiled, not quite grinning. "For some reason, that doesn't surprise me. But don't worry, I'll teach you everything you need to know," she said winking, grinning broadly.

As they entered her bedroom, Dee-Dee immediately shut off all the lights. "I think we'll both be more comfortable this way."

Mike agreed, though he was only thinking it. He was nervous enough as it was, unsure of what to do, though he could hear Dee-Dee undressing herself in the darkness.

"Hurry up," she told him. "Undress, I'll be waiting for you."

Mike quickly slipped out of his clothing, jumping into bed beside her beneath the sheets. As he slid into bed, he felt the softness of her thigh as he grazed it with his own. With trembling hands, he reached out quickly locating her breasts. His body quivered uncontrollably as Mike began caressing her until finally, the sensations of uncertainty, and nervousness were overcome by those of desire and need. Only then did Diane speak, touching him as she did.

"Relax, lay back and let me pleasure you," she whispered into his ear.

Embarrassed, Mike felt Diane's hand as she gently caressed his not quite firm erection. She continued doing so until his shyness went away, finding himself more excited, firmer, harder than he had ever been. When he was ready, he felt Diane pulling him towards her as she rolled onto her back.

Almost immediately he began kissing the nape of her neck, gradually working his way down towards her breasts. She felt him pause momentarily.

"It's right here isn't it?" he asked. In the darkness Diane waited, holding her breath. She felt his lips press, kiss. He had kissed her directly on her heart-shaped birthmark.

"Make love to me," she whispered.

Mike situated himself more comfortably between Diane's outstretched legs, felt her knee's bend as she opened herself fully to him. Still having no real idea of how to proceed, he placed himself with his hand hoping against hope that somehow everything would come together. It did.

She was liquid silk, melted butter. As Mike eased himself into her depths, in his mind he saw an entire universe open up, thousands of tiny stars suddenly appearing, beginning to take shape. As they did, they formed themselves into the image of a woman. He watched as though floating above himself, out of body. There amongst the myriad of twinkling stars he saw the image of the woman he knew so well in his dreams. Only this time, her featureless face took on an image, one he now knew. It was a younger Diane, younger than she appeared now, but there was no mistaking it.

"Mark, Oh Mark! Come to me baby, come to me!"

He watched the image of her as she beckoned him, calling his name repeatedly over and over. He found himself merging with her, becoming a part of her where they danced together amongst the stars.

Before he realized what was happening, he felt the thrill of pleasure coursing through his body, felt the warmth of Diane's femininity as he poured inside her the essence of his soul. All the while, Diane continued calling out his name.

Mike lost track of the number of times they made love together, falling asleep sometime during the middle of the night. When he awoke, it was to see Diane leaning on one elbow looking at him fingering his mussed up hair.

"Good morning," he said smiling. "Merry Christmas!" he suddenly remembered.

"Merry Christmas," Diane responded back, her hand already seeking him out beneath the sheets.

"By the way, how'd you know my first name?" he asked. "I don't remember ever telling you what it was?"

She smiled, "Somehow I already knew," she responded noncommittally, leaning over to kiss him before he could ask her anything more.

"I love you Mark," she thought silently. "Always and forever..."
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