Passion Moon – Part 2

Read Part 1 of the story here.

 

It was now five months later.  Allison had taken a trip to Laguna Beach to see her aunt and uncle.  And after a few weeks of ignoring it, she realized with a little shot of guilt in her mind that she hadn’t completely let go of Rad.  She had accepted his death with God’s help.  Then, after marrying Charlie, she’d tried to will all memories of Rad into forgetfulness.  It wouldn’t be right or kind to Charlie if she continued to love someone else.

But tonight the memories refused to stay hidden away.  As she stood alone on her balcony overlooking the moonlit beach, drinking in the salty wind as it blew through her hair, Allison relived moments when Rad was with her.  They would stand on the balcony, his arms around her waist and her hands clasped over his.  The moon rained down its romantic glow, shadowing their faces so seductively, making Allison’s eyes dark as they rose to Rad’s face.  He would kiss her neck and shoulders, then rotate her so he could look down meaningfully at her before taking her lips.  The kiss would grow heated; their hands would wander.  Rad would swing her into his arms and carry her in to the bed, and by the moonlight streaming through the open door, they would make love.

“It’s not right! It’s not fair!” Allison wanted to scream.  Actually she was screaming it, in her head.  These thoughts just shouldn’t be invading her brain, not when she was married to Charlie.  She ought to be thinking of his embrace, his kisses, his lovemaking, in its kind, steady strength.  Why was it so hard to think of him as her husband?  Why must Rad be so engraved into her being that he took Charlie’s place even in her mind?

She wanted to run, to get so breathless and tired out that she’d fall into bed and sleep deeply.  A hearty tramp on the beach seemed a good idea.  Without thinking of the hour—it must be about eleven—she tied back her hair and slid into some sandals.  Then she shut off the lights and left her room.

The hotel was open, the halls quiet and cool, lighting from sconces warming the atmosphere.  Allison figured her aunt and uncle were in bed by now.  They liked good habits and healthy living.  A social of some kind had been taking place down in the lobby and on the terrace, wisps of jazz music floating up the stairs to Allison’s ears.  A guest or two in formal clothes turned the corner on the way to freshen up in their rooms.

As she locked her door she heard footsteps pause at one farther down.  Someone probably heading to bed after an evening of drinks and dancing.

Then the person spoke.  “Allison!  Allison . . .” and abruptly broke off.

She started, spinning around.

Standing close to the wall as if he needed support, his face worn and weathered and pale with shock, Rad gazed at her.

A thrill shook Allison’s body.  Was she seeing a ghost?  “Rad . . . it can’t . . .oh dear Lord!” she breathed.  Everything but Rad’s face vanished from her vision and in three long leaps she had reached him and dove into his arms.

“Darling, darling, darling!” he gasped brokenly, his face pressed against her dark hair and his hands tremblingly clutching her slender body.

“Rad!  What . . . how did you . . . I thought you were dead!” she cried, breaking the embrace enough to search and touch his face.

“I was held by the Reds.  I’ll explain it . . . later—” He attacked her lips in a hot kiss, as if famished for her.  In rapture she gripped his shoulders.  She couldn’t believe it.  This was not real.  It must be a dream.  Her beloved was back, holding her, kissing her, his touch the same tenderly masterful delight it had always been.

“You’re as sweet and warm as I remembered,” he said huskily, his mouth still against hers.  “Only God’s grace and thinking of you kept me from losing it.  Oh darling, Allison, baby, I’ve wanted to feel you so bad!” and he resumed his passionate kissing.

Allison moaned.  She couldn’t help it.  The fire of Rad’s lips overcame her, injecting her with a hunger for more.  “Rad, Rad!  I can’t believe you’re here!”

“I’m here, and I’m never leaving again,” he promised.  “Baby . . . come on.”  He tried to unlock his door without pulling away from her lips, thus fumbling with the key in the lock for an extra fifteen seconds.

“Rad . . .” Allison didn’t protest.  The glory of having her husband back washed over her like a healing waterfall.  Her husband.

Then she remembered Charlie.

“Oh Rad . . . I can’t . . . wait . . .”

Rad took it as meaning she couldn’t wait for him, so he hurried to get the door open and draw her in and press her against the wall, where he could meld his body against hers and taste every inch of her with his hot, ravenous mouth.

“Darling, you don’t have to wait anymore.  I know I can’t,” he murmured in a kind of strained voice.  “It was worth it.  That hell in the prison was worth it.”

Allison inhaled shakily, her heart suddenly and quite painfully pulled in two directions.  What had Rad gone through?  The main thing was that he was alive.  So she must still be his wife.  And thus she ought to give him—oh, and how she wanted to give!—what he needed: herself.  But she had married another man.

The wandering, worshipful exploration of Rad’s hands all over her body jerked her back to the present situation.  Allison was truly bewildered, also a little frightened.  This might be wrong.  Yet she did not want to break away or tell Rad to stop.  As he wrestled with the buttons of her blouse and stripped it from her shoulders, she had no command of words.  Her own hands were stroking Rad’s lean body under his shirt in spite of herself.

Once Rad had torn off his shirt he clamped Allison close to him again, kissing her sensual round breasts while he searched for the hook of her bra.

“I love you, Allison, I love you,” he whispered.

“Oh Rad . . . I love you!” She couldn’t help it.  It was the truth.

In a moment she stood bare-breasted in his arms, her lips traveling over every inch of his rough browned face, nuzzling his jawline and kissing his eyelids.  A groan now and then vibrated in his throat, melting Allison anew.  Remembrance of other times together flooded her and made her mad for him.  She just couldn’t grasp what was happening.  He was alive.  The man she had given her everything to was back and it was more enrapturing than before.  She felt him draw her unsteadily towards the bed.

And Charlie popped back into her mind’s eye.

“Wait . . . Rad, please wait,” she implored, gently pushing on his bare chest.

“Why?” he asked, his lips active against her skin.  He clenched her in that lovingly powerful way, sinking down onto the bed and plunging his mouth into the tempting crevice between her breasts.

“Rad!  I’m married!” she burst out.

“You’re darn right,” he muttered, getting breathless, “and you always will be.  To me.  Kiss me, baby!”

He wasn’t understanding, so Allison, feeling like she was about to cut open her heart and his simultaneously, cried, “No, Rad . . . I’m married to someone else!”

This got him.

His eyes shot up to hers, the passion flaming, about to explode except for this abrupt check.  “What?” he asked, almost in a whisper.

“It was just . . . a few months ago,” she tried to explain, though her eyes filled with tears of pain and apology and confusion.  “Rad, I truly thought you were dead.”  In her tone was a plea, beseeching him to believe her.  His eyes were darkening in dazed pain.

“Who’s the guy?” he finally spoke.

“His name’s Charlie.  He was wounded while in the Navy.  Discharged.  Rad, he was good to me when the news came about . . . you.  Up until the report he never tried to move in.  He knew I was waiting for you.  And I was!” Allison had tightened her small hands into fists; the sight of Rad’s weary eyes full of hopelessness broke her.  “I never gave up believing you’d come back.  But then that . . . report came, and it seemed like the Lord was saying I must give you up.  Now you show up again . . . oh Rad, I’m so glad . . . but I’m so mixed up!” and she fell against his chest and cried.

Unconsciously his hands rose to her back and he softly held her.  He too was bewildered, not to mention stunned.  His wife . . . the woman he dreamed of in order to endure the months of imprisonment . . . now belonged to another man?

All this time of praying and pleading with God for release from the Chinese Communists so he could go home to Allison was for nothing.

He’d imagined every second of his reunion with her, the passion, the wild delight in being with her again.  After the deprivation he’d gone through, he knew making love to his wife would do so much in healing him.  Just touching her sent delicious shivers through his whole body.  Now he was placed in a very peculiar situation, and he did not know what to do.

“God, help me!  Help us!” he prayed half-aloud.

It comforted Allison to hear him pray.  The fact of God’s care and presence also bolstered her up.  She raised her head and wiped her eyes.

Rad got up and fetched both their clothes from off the floor.  “Here.  We’ve got to get dressed.”

“Rad, what’re we going to do?”

“I have to talk to him.  Charlie.”

Allison’s eyebrows lifted in some surprise and uncertainty, while her eyes scanned Rad’s face.  “He isn’t here.  I’m visiting my aunt and uncle.”

Rad paused, then went on buttoning his shirt.  “Okay.  Allison, will you call him?  Get him here? The only thing I can see clear is to be open about it.  He’s got to know. We . . . we can go on from there.”  Distress furrowed his forehead and tightened his lips, but he was calm.

“Oh Rad, I don’t know . . . what he’ll do, or what I should do,” she confessed.

“Allison, I love you,” he stated, standing before her but not touching her, eyes fastened longingly on her face.  “I pray that Charlie will let you go.  Maybe he’s figured this might happen, unbelievable as it is.  But . . . whatever you want, whatever you decide . . . I’ll live with it.”

Words have power, and Allison felt the power of these.  A gush of love for Rad saturated her body.  She gazed at Rad, her heart aching at the sight of his lean, beat-down frame and gaunt face.  He must have gone through so many horrific things in Korea.  Oh, how she wanted to be with him and never leave his side again!  To her own shock there was a wet sensation between her thighs.  She must control herself, at least for now.

With gratefulness and adoration in her eyes, she clasped his hand, then headed for the door.  He opened it and let her go, then returned to the bedside, where he plunked onto his knees and began petitioning his Lord.

When Charlie picked up the telephone, perplexed at such a late-night call, he wasn’t expecting to hear his wife’s voice on the other end.

“Allison?  Dear, are you all right?”

“Yes, Charlie,” she hastened to assure him.  Yet her voice was shaky and he noticed it.  “I just . . . I need you to come out here.  Something’s…happened.  Can you fly out as soon as possible?”

“Baby, is something wrong? You’re not being . . . is someone else there?” he asked, ever the protective husband.

“No, no.  I’m alone and no one’s threatening me.  It’s something else.  Please, darling.”

“I’ll fly out early in the morning.  But can’t you tell me what this is about?”

She was silent, struggling with her emotions.  How could she hurt this good man?  What was the answer?  “I want to tell you in person.  It’s so very important.”

“All right.”  Charlie’s voice was tender.  “I’ll let you know what flight I take.  Baby . . . I love you.”

“I love you,” she choked out.  Then she hung up.

The following morning, she asked her uncle to pick Charlie up at the airport.  Then she called Rad’s room to let him know what was happening and asked him to pray.  Rad promised he would, again stating his determination to honor Allison no matter what she chose to do.  Her heart yearned for him, especially as his voice, still so masculine but now so weary, floated over the line into her ears.  It seemed so cruel to greet his return with the revelation of her marriage to someone else, to deprive him of the one comfort he’d been struggling to live for.

Over and over, she pled with the Lord for an answer.  She had no idea what the moral thing to do was.  Or the legal thing.  Whose wife was she? Could she choose one man and desert the other? Both were such wonderful men, selfless, kind, brave.

“Savior, help me.  I love You first, and I want to do what You want me to do,” Allison whispered as she sat on the bed with her arms folded tightly around herself.  “I love Charlie—I couldn’t have married him if I didn’t—but my heart is still with Rad.  Oh Lord, am I wrong to feel this way?  Are You trying to remind me that I can’t live by feelings, but by faith?  Give me the faith to do right, whatever it is!”

There was a knock at the door, and Allison jumped up.  She got a glimpse of Charlie through the peep-hole and let him in.

“Hi, baby,” he greeted her with a gentle hug and kiss.  “Are you okay?  What’s going on?”

She went still in his arms, her lips unsteady.  “Charlie . . .”

His fingertips went under her chin so she was looking up at him.  His eyes were keen but tender as he asked, “Allison, you know you can tell me anything.”

Fighting tears, she blurted it out.  “Rad is alive.  And he’s here.”

Realization paled Charlie’s noble face, his jaw muscles clenched, and pain shot through his eyes.  Yet he remained amazingly calm.  Allison took a shaking breath as he let her go and slowly limped towards the window.

“Charlie, I don’t . . . I don’t know what to do,” Allison admitted.  She wanted to be thoroughly honest, keeping back nothing of her contradictory emotions.

He turned back to look at her, his eyes so gentle and full of longing.  “Do you still love him?” he asked softly.

Allison wanted to cry.  In fact, the tears were flowing down her cheeks, though she was trying not to burst into sobs.  “Yes.  Oh Charlie, I’m so sorry!  Yet I love you too!  So much!  I’m grateful to you . . . you were so kind, so good to me in those hard days. . .”

“Allison, I want you to be with the man you believe is your God-given mate,” Charlie broke in, his words quivering.  He hobbled back to her, his heart in his eyes.

“Darling, I don’t want to hurt you,” she whispered, her hands diving up to cover her mouth.

Now he was weeping.  He took her in his arms, gently running his fingers through her hair.  “I always knew that there was the faintest chance that Rad would turn up alive,” he said huskily.  “It’s rare, but it happens.  So I made the decision way back that I would . . .” and he held her back to look into her eyes. “. . . that I would let you go.”

Sobs broke from Allison’s lips now at these selfless words.  She wrapped her arms around Charlie and pressed her face into his chest.  They cried together.  The sweetness of their bond, combined with this indescribable pain, drew them closer.

“I can’t do this to you,” she burst out, her hands gripping his shirt.  “I do love you.  You’re my husband.”

“Rad is your first love,” Charlie countered, though it broke him to say it.  “And since he never died, he’s still your true husband.  I guess . . . I’ve just been filling in for him while he was gone,” and he actually managed a chuckle.

Allison couldn’t laugh.  The situation was too serious.

“Baby, I really do want it this way,” he continued.

She raised wet eyes to his face.  “How can you be this giving?”

“It isn’t easy, but I love you.  That’s how.”  His voice was stronger now.

“I will always love you.  I mean, I can’t love two men romantically . . .” Allison hesitated.

“The love of a friend will suffice.  Would Rad be okay with that?  If we remain friends?” Charlie asked hopefully.

“I believe he would.  He wants to meet you.”

“And I want to meet him.  I . . . I don’t want to lose you, Allison, even if it means we are only platonic.  Though that idea is hard after what we’ve had!” he confessed, his chin trembling.

She touched his cheek with a soft hand.  “I pray the Lord fills you to the brim with His love, so you won’t be empty.”

Charlie covered her hand with his.  “His love is sufficient.  It’ll take some time to learn to live without yours, but . . . I can.  I will.”

At Charlie’s request, Allison called Rad and asked him to join them.

The meeting between the two men was wrenching.  Though they had every right to view each other as rivals for the same woman, even enemies, neither had enough bitterness.  Both men loved Allison too much to cause her pain.  Rad was too thankful for the selflessness of this stranger, and Charlie admired the bravery and respected the suffering of the returned husband.  In an amazing and touching moment, Rad and Charlie embraced, while Allison stood by and let her tears flow.

The three didn’t talk much.  Charlie repeated what he had told Allison, then, once more, kissed her gently before he left them.  He was going back to the airport.

Rad’s eyes were red and watery.  He was torn, praising God on one hand, but weeping for Charlie’s heartache on the other.  As he caught Allison in his arms, he let himself cry.

“My sweet Rad, I love you,” she whispered, her hands caressing his back.  Now she was the stronger one.  Her heart still anguished over the scene that had just taken place, but strangely, she was peaceful.  Rad was the man to whom she had been bound in God’s sight, and nothing could cut that asunder.

“Allison . . . oh, I love you so much,” he husked out.  “Are you sure?  You can still go after him.  He’s fully worthy of you.”

“I will always treasure him as the man who helped me and loved me when I was grieving you,” she confessed, looking him frankly in the eye.  “And I want him to remain a friend, if you will let him.  But I am your wife, for eternity.”

He bent and tenderly kissed her lips.  Oh, those soft lips thrilled him!  It was new and delicious.  Without speaking, he picked her up and carried her to the bed.  The window was open, and through it wafted a coastal breeze.  It was almost like their honeymoon.  As the sun began to set, man and wife came together again, the cords between their hearts tied more tightly than before.

Allison couldn’t keep back the joyful cries as her husband honored her body with his hands and mouth, and finally entered her secret place in tender desperation.  To Rad, this joining was more grand than anything they had known together before, because the separation and the hardship had sharpened their need and given them hitherto unknown gratitude for this union.

With long, agonizingly delicious strokes, he made love to her, and she to him.  Their voices blended in soft, eager gasps and broken words.  Hands wandered and touched all the places they longed to reacquaint themselves with.

When the passion had built to such abundance that it had to explode, they took the plunge.  It wasn’t lost on them that God poured out His love in that moment, allowing them to crest the wave together.  Allison writhed and trembled and gushed as her body tightened around her husband’s manhood, while he clenched her in his arms and panted and spilled the evidence of his love into her.  They remained entwined, their sweating bodies shiny in the light of the moon.

Lips met in soft, sweet kisses.  Rad was gentle as he cared for her and pulled her against his chest to sleep.  Allison sighed, still awed that she should be given back the man who meant everything to her.  This was the closest they could get to paradise while on this earth.

Suffice it to say that the couple extended warm friendship to Charlie, who was rewarded with heaven’s peace because of his selflessness.  To the delight of Rad and Allison, Charlie later met another lovely woman, a former Navy nurse, and the two fell in love.  Yes, the story had begun with great trial and perplexity, but God worked things out for good to them that loved Him.