Dorsai: Jan

"No, I can't say that I have."

"Then all you have ever done, Mr. Moore, has been to have sex. You don't seem to have ever made love. There is a world of difference, and Susan knows that. she wants to make love – but knows that you would only think it was having sex, which is something completely different, and far inferior. So she keeps coming over to visit us, to draw on our love for her, so that she can go home and let you take some of that love from her. And all because you don't know the difference between love and sex – it's left her in limbo, so to speak, and until she gets it resolved, she isn't going to be able to make love – to finish learning what she needs to know to finally be a complete person, able to give love in infinite amounts.", Kelly told him.

"How can I fix it, or change it, or whatever?"

"I doubt that you could, with Susan, until you know the difference yourself, Steve. You may have noticed that she's a lot more perceptive than she used to be.", I told him.

"She sure as hell is. So what do I do?"

"Learn the difference between having sex, and making love."

"How?"

"The next time you're, uh, romantic with your wife, try thinking about her. Find out from her what she wants – and do it. Go slower. Kiss her more. Caress her – not just on her breasts, but all over; face, shoulders, stomach, everywhere. Pay attention to how she reacts to what you do – and if she likes something, keep doing it longer. Make HER happy, without trying to, uh, take care of yourself.", Kelly told him.

He looked at me, and I said "You love her, don't you?"

"More than anything!", he answered.

"Then show her that, with your words and your actions – let her know that she is the most important thing in your world when you're together in bed. Treat her the way you know she deserves – gently, tenderly, with your heart, not your genitals.", I told him.

He seemed to get the idea, then, and asked "How will that help Susan?"

"When you know the difference, and actually respect what she needs to do, she'll know it – and then she'll be free to finish. Then you'll have more love from her than you can handle.", Kelly told him.

A couple of days later, we were surprised to get a call from Susan, wanting to know if she could come over for a little while. Since we didn't have any plans, she was told she could come over whenever she wanted; it wasn't ten minutes later that Mabel told us someone was at the door – and it proved to be Susan.

When she came in, she was almost in tears – Kelly and I quickly got her into the den, and got her on the couch, before sitting down next to her.

After some gentle questioning, we finally got the story: after her dad and mom had sat down with her, and she'd told them both she loved them, they'd all been able to start talking more, and understanding each other better – but she felt that every time she talked with one of them, they were taking some of her love for them away from her – and she didn't feel like she had enough inside her for them, and felt like she had to come over to visit us to get some of our love so she wouldn't feel so empty when she talked to them. Further compounding the problem was that she didn't feel that she was being honest with us for coming over, that she was taking our love and not giving anything back.

Kelly and I looked at each other, and I gestured with my head toward the bedroom. She nodded, and I stood up, then picked up Susan to carry her.

Together, Kelly and I got her into the second bedroom, where I laid her down on the bed, and Kelly lay next to her. As Kelly slowly unfastened her clothing, Susan watched me as I undressed. When I was nude, I moved over to the bed, and helped hold Susan as Kelly managed to peel her clothes off her, then got up to undress herself. When all three of us were naked, Kelly lay down on the bed again, and moved next to Susan, on the side opposite me. Together, we caressed and kissed her as we took turns explaining to her that it was okay, that we understood, and that she wasn't doing anything wrong by coming to us for love – that she was more than welcome to all she wanted. We told her that her dad had talked to us the day before, after the graduation ceremony, and that we had figured out that he was 'confused' about the difference between just having sex, and actually making love – but that we thought he might learn the difference before long.

As we went along, we could see the tension starting to drain out of her, and between our soothing voices and gentle touches, she eventually fell asleep. When she did, Kelly and I went into the den for a bit, to talk.

"Damn him. Putting her through this – makes me want to go over there and kick his ass.", I grumped.

"I know, Dan – I want to kick him, too; but on the other side."

"The bad part is, he's a pretty nice guy, and a helluva lawyer – he's just got his head up his ass about this."

"Yeah. I hope he gets his act together, before he pushes her into a breakdown or something."

"No, that won't happen – I'll read him the riot act before it get too close to anything like that." I said, wanting to do it right then.

"I know. I think we'd better get back in there, before she misses us, don't you?"

"Yeah. I guess one of us had better stay with her until she's ready to go home – but if she wants to spend the night, she's welcome to do that, too."

"Damn right!", Kelly agreed.

That settled, we went back into the bedroom, and lay down next to her again – she started to wake up, and Kelly and I both shushed her and told her it was okay. She must have recognized my voice because she turned over and latched onto me before going back to sleep. I held her there, and after a couple of minutes, when I was sure she wasn't going to wake up again, told Kelly "Go ahead, I'll stay here with her for a while. Check back once or twice, in case I need a break for something."

She nodded, and got up to leave us alone.

Maybe an hour later, I thought I heard a car, but when nothing happened, decided I was just imagining things.

About the time I started to feel the need for a bathroom break, Kelly came in – wearing just a long T-shirt, to my surprise – and asked if everything was okay. I told her that I did need a few minutes, and she quickly offered to take over for a while. Going slowly and carefully, we managed to swap places, so that Susan wasn't disturbed. Back on my feet again, I headed for the bathroom, then the kitchen for a bottle of water.

When I walked into the den, I was greatly surprised to find Steve and his wife sitting there – but not as surprised, I think, as they were at my lack of attire.

I started to get a robe, and then decided "hell with it – it's MY house!", before sitting down in a chair, facing them.

I looked at them for several moments before Steve cleared his throat, and said "Dan, this is my wife, Linda."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Linda.", I said.

She hesitated a moment, and said "A pleasure to meet you, too, Dan.

Steve has spoken well of you, as has Susan."

After taking a healthy swallow of my water, I said "It seems that I've walking into the middle of something. Why don't you tell me how you happen to be in my house?"

Steve cleared his throat, and said "Uh, a little while ago, we got a call from Kelly, telling us that we – us and you and her – needed to talk, about Susan. We asked her what about, and she told us that she thought Susan was getting close to a breakdown, and that it needed to be stopped. Both of us take such talk seriously, of course, and came right over. When she let us in, Kelly was, ah, nude, and when she saw that we weren't comfortable with that, put on a shirt, telling us that your house was much more, er, informal."

"Yup. My house, I do as I please. But me sitting here with my willie hanging out doesn't have a damn thing to do with the fact that you two – particularly you, Steve – are pushing that poor girl toward the nuthouse." I didn't know what Jan had said to them, and didn't much care – I wanted to get their attention, FAST.