love will set us free (pm to join)

[Sexy_Trinity69]

Gwen took a step into her old room and felt a rush of longing. It had been so long since she'd felt the sun warm her olive skin through her bedroom window. Even from the doorway, she saw the view of the city below was still just as beautiful. How her father managed to land this place was beyond her. He had the money, sure. Anyone who worked as hard as he did would. But the timing had been sheer luck. She took another step, biting her bottom lip as she recalled the day they finally accepted that her mother was gone for good. Gwen was used to her disappearing when she was a kid...but it had been weeks...months. Her mother was usually back within a few days and she knew her father wanted...needed to move on. Buying a new house was the beginning of a new life for them. A life where her mother couldn't disappoint them.

It took only a stride or two of Gwen's long legs to reach her old bed and she plopped down as if a 50 lb weight was dropped on her shoulders. A frown tugged at the corners of her lips, but she refused it. Today was a happy day. It'd been a whole year since she'd seen the house. Seen her father. College kept her busy. It was study, study, study. Run. Run. Run. Track and school work had been her life and now that she was on summer break, she could relax and enjoy herself. Gwen sighed and forced herself to ignore what mixed emotions the thoughts of her mother brought on. All she wanted to remember was the happiness she and her father shared here in this house. When he was home, of course. Which wasn't often.

Still, the hug they'd had only moments before her journey up the stairs had brought back as many memories as the room she sat in. It was tight...but not bear hug tight. It was more of an embrace...heated almost. It made her stomach churn. Flip. Like a gymnast on a beam. Gwen and her father didn't have the most traditional father/daughter relationship. She'd know that since before her mother left. 13. That was when she began to notice. All the other dads at her school didn't look at their daughters the way he did. Love. Pride. Joy. Her father's eyes shone with all of those...but there was often more. Hints of guilt. There were times he couldn't look her in the eyes. Or at all. Times she caught him biting his lip in nervousness and sometimes something else all together. Whenever her mother vanished, she saw it more often. When she was 16 and her mother left for good...Gwen could see him fighting whatever it was daily. Not that she acknowledged it verbally. No. Gwen never...fought it. Never thought it to be disgusting. She knew she should but...in all honesty...she liked it. And that's when she knew. Knew they would never be 'traditional'.

The thought made her tremble with guilt. With pleasure. Her hand pushed through her raven hair before settling on her forehead. She had to get a grip. After sitting a few minutes, Gwen riffled through her suit case and changed into a pair of gray sweatpants and a thin wife beater. The material strained against her chest. The old track practice shirt was a little small, but comfortable as were the worn out sweats. She finished putting away her jeans and lifted her chin at the slight creak of floorboards. Gwen could hear sounds coming down the hall. He was coming. Butterflies swelled in her stomach as she remembered her first night in this room. The floor's creak was exactly the same. She..was fighting tears that night and her father's embrace relaxed her...and his peck on her lips soothed her....or rather...his kiss melted her. It was deep. Loving. Saddening. Maddening. Gwen had never felt such love and compassion in her life and all of that was swept up in one whisk...one tangle as his tongue slipped into her mouth and met hers.

Never again did they kiss like that. Never again did they mention it. But she felt it. They both did every time they looked at each other after that. Even now, Gwen felt it. Burning through her cheeks as she heard a rap on her door and sputtered a soft "Come in."

 

[brw02]

Removed

 

[saedo]

Roger approached Gwen's room cautiously. He always felt a twinge of regret around his only child. With the wisdom of perspective, there were so many things he wished he'd done differently as a father.

It was tempting to blame it all on her mother. Certainly Caroline was due the lion's share of the recrimination. But his hands weren't clean either. If only he'd been stronger.

His life before Caroline seemed staid and dull by comparison. She had breezed into his life and soon he was the spiraling vortex at its center. Her personality and charm thoroughly seduced him.

But if he was being honest, the sex had been at the heart. He'd dated around some in college, so he thought he knew what he was doing. Then Caroline arrived and showed him levels of passion he never knew existed. His previous partners generally found his size intimidating, so he'd learned to be gentle and slow; Caroline would enthusiastically impale herself upon him and then urge him to fuck her ever harder. Their lovemaking had ever been raw and intense - almost addictive.

So it was that he'd let his lust cloud his judgment. Even then, there had been signs. Her fondness for drinking had been a bit much, but since it frequently ended in sex, he'd not been one to complain. He'd never had a lover as exciting as her, as eager to please. How could he give that up?

The bloom had started to come off the rose by the third year of their marriage. It was getting hard to overlook when she let her drinking get out of hand. Things might have moved to a more definite conclusion had Gwen not come along.

Having a child is supposed to change your entire life, right? So Roger let himself believe. Maybe Caroline even believed it, too. She committed wholesale to being a mother. Quit drinking cold turkey. For awhile, it seemed to work.

But as Gwen started school, it began to creep back in. Without an infant to attend to, life began to seem boring. The wild side of Caroline's personality grew restless. Eventually, she acted on it.

Caroline traveled for work, so initially she confined her little benders to when she was out of town. Roger could see the signs when she returned, but he'd overlooked them. Now he recognized his own cowardice in it. He'd been afraid of losing her, being a single father, depriving his daughter of a mother,. So he chose not to notice. Even when she'd disappear for days without warning. Even when it became clear that she was not just drinking, but having drunken sex with random strangers - men, women, multiple partners. Roger had ignored it. His fear of being alone was too strong.

Eventually, though, it started to affect Gwen directly. Roger couldn't overlook that. A series of separations and reconciliations followed, finally culminating in divorce. He'd cried like a child the day he signed the final papers.

Gwen was a teenager by then and seemed to weather it well. Certainly better than her father. He'd leaned heavily on her for emotional support during the aftermath. Probably more than he should have. She was his daughter; he was supposed to be her rock, not she his.

It hadn't helped that Gwen so closely resembled her mother. Gwen's fondness for track had tanned her skin and lightened her hair, but the same brilliant smile lit up beneath the same mischievous green eyes. As Gwen matured into a woman, acquiring the same luscious curves that first drew him to Caroline, he found it harder not to see his wife in her. That occasionally made things... confusing.

Her first year at college had been difficult. Home alone had been lonely for him. He'd found him thinking of Caroline on occasion. Even considered calling her, desperate as he was. Fortunately he'd resisted and eventually learned to get by. Hopefully with Gwen back, he could try and ease back into something approaching normalcy.

He knocked on her door. Hearing her invitation in response, he cracked the door and looked in. "Gwen, honey, jst thought I'd come check to see if you were getting settled. Let me know if you need anything."

 

[Sexy_Trinity69]

Gwyndolyn folded her hands in her lap as the door to her room creaked open. She sat with her legs tucked under her on the floor. She had grown considerably since that night. Her bodice was curvier...her breasts fuller. Looking up at him as he peeked inside made her feel small again. Small. Like a little girl staring up at her father for guidance.

Gwyn bit the inside of her cheek and nodded curtly. It had been too long since they'd seen each other and she couldn't ignore the studdering beat of her heart pounding in her chest. "Actually..." She slid her bag beneath her bed and pushed herself up to stand. "It's a little cold in here. I was wondering if you could help me with the window?"

It wasn't an unusual request. Since the beginning there had been issues with her windows getting stuck. The old wooden frames just weren't easy to slide, so she often had her father help her. Gwyn opened the door wider to grant him access inside. Even in that light, she could see the outline of his strong figure. His physique was spot on. It always had been. Why her mother sought other men to satisfy her was mind boggling.

As a teenager, it was obvious how her mother spent the majority of her time. Booze. Her breath wrecked of it and the few times she tried hiding it just made it worse. It got to be such a regular occurrence Gwyn could tell what she'd been drinking that night. Light. Dark. The latter always made her testy. Gwyn hated those nights she came home looking for a fight. It never got physical, but it didn't matter. And the slur of men, and women, calling at odd hours. Most of the time she and her father ignored them, but every once and a while, Gwyn answered without thinking. Never the same husky voices. Forever different. All calling for the same reason.

It had been almost a relief when she left for good. A painful relief.

Gwyndolyn ushered her father into the room and scooted over to the window. It wasn't open much. Just enough to let cool air slither in. She gestured to the offender and leaned against the window sill. Part of her always enjoyed watching her father thrust the wood as if it were nothing but a sheet of flimsy paper. Strong. Loyal. Handsome. He had so many qualities that her mother just....ignored. She ignored him. She ignored her daughter. Gwyn's arms wrapped around her body, pressing her bosom together slightly, to shield herself from both the cool air of the wind and icy memories of her mother. "It's amazing how some things never change, huh? You'd think this window would have fixed itself by now..."

 

[saedo]

Roger nodded. "Sure, let me give it a try." The house was older and the changing seasons tended to make it a bit creaky around the doors and windows.

He stepped to the window and double checked that the latch had been fully disengaged. He applied gentle pressure upwards on the frame. Nothing happened for a moment, then the wood's winter-long grip yielded. The pane lurched up a few inches. Now able to get his fingers beneath it, he was able to hoist the window open several inches.

Summers here tended to be mild and this year's was off to a slow start. Gwen had tended to be warm-natured as a child, hence her fondness for the cool evening air. He could remember countless times looking in on her as a little girl to find her lying atop her bed with her sheets kicked down to her ankles.

"I'll put some WD-40 on it tomorrow," he said, pointing to the window. "Probably hasn't been opened since you left for school last fall, so it's a bit stiff the first time out."

He turned to her, his confidence in the situation waning. He'd always felt most comfortable as "Dad, Solver of Problems". He knew what to do then. But Gwen was no longer a helpless little girl, so her need for help had declined. That left Roger a bit uncertain how to interact with his daughter. Caroline had always been good at that. Even towards the end of the marriage, she'd been pretty good at the mother-daughter thing. Of course, when her behavior started to infringe on Caroline's ability to do that, he'd known it was time to end it.

But that had left him a single father to a teenage girl. He'd been ill-equipped to deal with it, particularly given his own emotional fallout from the divorce. Consequently, he always felt out of his element trying to interact with her.

"So, looks like you're mostly unpacked. If there's anything you won't be needing during the summer, set it aside and we can store it in the attic." Roger stuck to his comfort zone: practical concerns.