“We can take it out,” said the doctor, “but we’ll have to put a new one in after the wedding. So, it’s up to you.”

Lucia shook her head, fighting back tears.

“I’ll keep it,” she had said. Having the nasal gastric tube inserted down her windpipe to her stomach had been a horrible experience. She had no wish to repeat it.

So, there she was. The day of her sister, Maria’s wedding. And she was showing up with a Goddamn tube running from her nostril to her stomach. It was held in place by layers of sticky surgical tape. And there was nothing she could do to hide it.

In some ways, the unsightly tube was the least of it. There was the meal with the lovely food, most of which she couldn’t touch on her post-surgical diet. There was the lovely old house where the reception was. The fancy cars and the big party. And the fact that it was her younger sister who was getting married ahead of her. Lucia was not even in a relationship.

She knew she shouldn’t be resentful; it wasn’t Maria’s fault Lucia had been sick. It wasn’t Maria’s fault Lucia had been picked on and kicked around at school. But her sister just gave the impression of having had it so easy in comparison. Maria had glided from school to college to job. From crush to boyfriend to boyfriend to marriage.

And Lucia had tried to follow that path but stumbled at every turn. There was the guy who was all perfect at first then turned controlling. There was the one who drank. Who, to be strictly honest, enabled and encouraged Lucia’s already considerable drinking. There was the guy who had told her she couldn’t see her friends anymore, the man-child who ignored her for video games.

And now it was Maria’s wedding, and she knew everyone would be thinking

“Isn’t it about time Lucia settled down?” and “It must be a sad day for Lucia.” and “Poor Lucia, the old maid.”

She put a brave face on at the service. It was a small, intimate affair. Maria and her partner, who was a perfectly decent fellow, said their vows and kissed. Lucia, self-conscious about the tube, did her best to stay out of photos.

The party was a much bigger affair. There were all the aunts and cousins etc. She found herself sitting in a table in the corner.

“Are you maid of honor, Lucia?” an aunt she hadn’t seen in years asked kindly.

“No,” she growled and lapsed into silence.  

Everyone ate and drank. Lucia got through most of a bottle of wine, and then the speeches began.

The father of the bride speech was mercifully short. Lucia managed a halfhearted chuckle at some of the dad jokes. Then the best man got up. His name was Oscar, and he was the groom’s brother. He was handsome. A few years older than the groom. Thirty, maybe. Well dressed up. He had a beard and a slight quiff in his hair, made with gel. She hadn’t met this guy before. Probably some big-shot banker with a trophy wife somewhere.

“I’ve been instructed to keep this speech smut-free, so if I come across any innuendo, I’ll whip it out immediately.”

Lucia giggled at that one. And the next one. And the next joke, and soon she was laughing along. Oscar’s speech cheered her up.

The party moved to the dance hall, and the dance hall had a bar. She watched as the couple took their first dance. She took her seat at the bar and ordered a martini. Her parents were at the side of the dance floor, watching Maria dance with her husband.

Oscar came over to her.

“Can I join you, Lucia? I should get to know my new sister-in-law.”

“Sure,” said Lucia. Her words ever so slightly slurred. The wine at lunch was making itself felt.

“Now, just so you know, I know a nasal gastric tube when I see one. You don’t have to tell me why it’s there. But promise me you won’t let it stop you from having fun,” he said. She smiled at him, touched.

“I won’t. How’d you know what it is?”

“Sick kid myself, you know. I’ve had one.”

“Really?”

“Yep. Come swimming with me someday, you can see the scars.”

“Ha! Bet mine are worse!”

“Well, there’s a pond outside. Let’s go take a dip and find out!”

“Get enough Martinis into me, and I just might.”

Oscar sat with Lucia and chatted with her, and they laughed together. Occasionally, she caught a glimpse of one or other of her parents looking their way. They flashed an encouraging smile her way.

They danced and drank the night away. God knows how much she drank, but it was a lot. At two o’clock, the DJ finished her set, and the party broke up. Lucia and Oscar were two of the last people still up. They got up from the bar to leave. They walked together through the trash and spilt drinks and broken glasses of the party. They halted at the bottom of the stairs. Her room was on the left. His was on the right.

“Well, good night,” said Lucia.

“Good night,” Oscar offered a hug and she accepted. He held her close, and she held him, her head on his shoulders. She felt warm and comforted and…she pulled back so that her face was close to his.

They kissed passionately. The emotion of the day and the wine and fatigue combined with the warmth of the hug, and the kiss was soft and gentle, as if…as if it were them at the altar, but their families had abandoned their wedding, their friends had deserted them and even the priest had fled into the night. And only the bride and groom remained, not noticing the detritus around them, locked in their private embrace.  

“We never went skinny dipping,” she said quietly.

“No. Never got to see who has bigger scars. Or who…has…the nicer bedroom,” he said. She looked up at him. His eyes were warm and gentle. She nodded. He led her by the hand up the stairs.

His room was gorgeous. It had a four-poster bed. There were old paintings of people who had lived long ago on the wall. Oscar went to the bathroom. When she looked out of the window, the fields outside were lit by moonlight and stretched as far as the eye could see. She turned off the light and pulled off her shoes. Then she hitched her dress up, and pulled her panties down, feeling the breeze slip under her dress.

When Oscar emerged from the bathroom, she waited for him to join her on the bed.  Oscar pulled off his jacket, then his tie. She watched him unbutton his shirt, and when his torso was exposed, she looked down. Yes, there were scars there. They had been big and prominent once, but now were long faded and covered with hair that grew across his stomach. Inwardly, she sighed. Her scars were fresh and far more visible.

Oscar got into bed topless. He sat next to her, and they kissed. He kissed her well; There was an urgency and desire in his kiss she had scarcely felt from the men she’d kissed before, not since the hormone-driven kisses of late adolescence.

“My panties are off. I’m ready,” she whispered to him. He took that as a cue to pull down his trousers. Then he was just in boxer shorts. She looked down. His penis was bulging. Oscar reached behind her for the zip of her dress. She moved his hand away.

“No. Try it like this.”

Oscar frowned. He reached for her dress again.

“No. Come on, stop messing. Get down there,” she said.

Lucia hitched her dress up to her knees and spread her legs wide.

“Let’s get this off you…” And Oscar tugged at the zip again.

“No. Please.”

Oscar lay back down.

“Will you at least tell me why?”

“It’s horrible.”

“Your body?”

“Yeah.”

“Will you at least let me be the judge? Make up my own mind?”

She shook her head.

There was a long, long silence. Oscar looked at her. Occasionally, he placed a brief kiss on her lips. But they were silent for a long time. Then he said

“I don't want to have sex if you can't get naked. And it's not the nudity; it's the reluctance and the shame. You got to own it, Lucia. I’ve been there. Bit different, I know, but I was shy to go swimming because of my scars, but I had to get over it. You’ve got to just say Fuck it."

Lucia said nothing.

"Honestly, I can't get properly into it with someone who won't bare themselves. It makes me feel like you don't want to be doing it with me.

"I'm not going to rip your dress off. But if you want more, it has to go. And by the way, I've been around hospital wards, as you can see. Your body really can't shock me. I’ve seen it all before. Just…it’s up to you.”

He rolled over onto his side his back to her. Then he waited, wondering what she would do. Lucia lay on her side trying not to cry. She was angry that he wouldn’t do what she asked and screw her with her dress on.

But deep down, she knew he was right. She knew that if a man proposed to have sex with her fully dressed, with his cock just let out through his fly, she wouldn't be having any of it. She rolled out of bed and went to the bathroom.
Lucia undid her dress and let it fall to the floor.

The first scar began just below her breasts. It ran down and skirted her belly button as if it were a car that had swerved a foolish dog. Then it continued down to just half an inch above her genitals. The scar was fresh and ridged and red, and there was no hair to hide it.

Then there was the second one that crossed across her belly horizontally, passing just below her navel. Equally raw, it looked as if she had been sewn up after attempting to ritually disembowel herself with a samurai sword. And then there was the tube running down her nostril...

She shook her head. Even if he pretended not to care, he'd never call her again. Oh, what had she been thinking, going to bed with a man in this state?

But then she remembered voicing her fears to a girlfriend before the surgery "Who'll want me after this,?" she'd said.

"Scars are sexy! If everyone who had a scar never got laid, there'd be a lot more frustrated people out there."

Oh, go on then. She hadn't gone through the surgery, through three months in hospital, through the countless tests and shots and therapy in order to just give up on life. So what if he didn’t call her? She might get an orgasm out of it. And he WAS her brother-in-law now. He kind of had to be nice to her…

Lucia picked up a large towel and wrapped it around her naked body, then she stepped back into the bedroom.
Oscar watched her enter.  As soon as he saw she was wearing just a towel, he realized her decision had been made. She walked to the side of the bed he was on. She stood a yard from the bed, the white towel around her body.

Slowly, reluctantly, she unhooked it and let it fall, but she quickly folded her arms across her belly. Lucia stood naked before Oscar. He looked up at her face and smiled. "Come. Join me."

He held out his hands for her to take. Hesitantly, she reached out and took his hands, baring her tummy. He looked her up and down. Their eyes met. “What do you want, sympathy?” he said quietly.

“No.”

“Then what are you waiting for? Get in here.”

She smiled, and he scooted over to make room for her in the bed. As Lucia climbed in, Oscar took off his boxer shorts. When she was in bed with him, she reached and took his penis in her hands. She shook it gently, pulling the skin up and down. Then she twisted it left to right. It was odd but concentrating on Oscar's cock at least took her mind off her self-consciousness. 

Oscar closed his eyes, enjoying the sensation. He reached over and gently pushed her head down to his waist. She resisted. He pushed her again.
“No such thing as a free lunch,” she giggled.
“OK.”
She swung around and lowered her vagina over his face. His cock was rock hard when she licked it the first time. More like a stick of rock candy than ice cream. She knelt and put it into her mouth.
Oscar loved nothing more than wedging his tongue jnto a woman. He could, from this angle, see her scarred belly and wondered what the fuss was about. She could still have an orgasm, couldn't she? She could still give him one too.
Lucia felt her vagina responding to Oscar’s attention.  He was good. And the fact that he’d stood up to her was hot. He hadn’t been the simpering nice guy, tiptoeing around her insecurity. He’d taken charge and said;

“I like you, you like me. I don’t care if our bodies are imperfect. Let’s fuck.”

 He was treating every area of her pussy as if it were a hot button to orgasm.  He wasn't just latching onto her clit but probing and exploring with his tongue.  It felt great. She was going to come at this rate.
Oscar felt her mouth around his cock, warm and wet. But then, to his amazement, he felt a gentle push at his anus. It felt like some little insect was trying to burrow in there. But no, he realized. It was Lucias’s finger. She was trying to get it in there, even as she was sucking his dick. She breached and...oh. she was looking for his prostate. It was getting harder to concentrate on pleasuring her, seeing as both his ass and his cock were being attended to. He took a long breath, and buried his face right up to her genitals, redoubling his focus on her clitoris, sucking now, then licking...
Lucia could feel an orgasm building now. She felt around inside his innards and yes...there it was... she stroked the prostate and a second later he gasped. But then his tongue was back at her, and he found the spot...
Oscar came first. His sperm ejaculated onto Lucias’s face, and still her finger twisted and turned in his ass, and he attacked her vagina again and this time she shivered above his face and squealed with pleasure as she came.
Gingerly, she extracted her finger from his bottom before rolling off him. He felt it pop out. Felt his sphincter contract. Felt his penis deflate. God. Hot as hell.
One by one, they went to the bathroom to clean up. When Lucia emerged from the bathroom, she was not wrapped in the towel. She walked in confidently, naked. Her shoulders back. Her back erect. Her head looking straight at him. She made no effort to cover her scars with her arms this time.

“Now that’s more like it. You are so fit,” Oscar said admiringly.

And she was. She had beautiful thighs and legs. Firm, well-proportioned breasts. And the scars? They were neither a turn-on nor a turn-off. The difference between the way she was wearing them now, and how she had at the start of the night, however, made an enormous difference to how attracted Oscar was to Lucia. Now she believed in herself. Now she was hot.

Lucia nodded, and then a broad grin broke across her face.

Fifteen minutes later, he was kissing her neck. His right hand rubbed her left thigh. His left hand moved in between her legs and tickled a little down there. As he kissed her neck, she kissed the side of his face, glad to be receiving such affection. She wondered what her newlywed sister was doing at the moment. Was she being pumped by her new husband?

“Condom?”

“Yeah.”

He pulled one out and rolled it on. His cock was hard and ready. She opened her legs, expecting to admit him. But she was surprised when he stopped. He looked her up and down, then knelt. Gently, he covered her upper body and her scars in kisses until he had covered every inch of it.

“You are so sweet,” she said.

He entered her, and his penis was very firm and strong. Oscar began to thrust inside her. She closed her legs and pinched it firmly between them. He smiled, feeling the enclosure of his cock. He stroked her bicep then leaned down to kiss her on the lips.

Lucia ran her fingers through his hair. She lifted her legs a little to allow him in deeper. Lying her head back, she closed her eyes and enjoyed the workout she was getting. Just feeling a man close to her…inside her…just enjoying the warmth of human contact. Enjoying the adrenaline coursing through her as her heart rate increased. She was so glad to be out of hospital. She was scared. But she was gradually recovering, and her imagination ran wild at the possibilities life had to offer. Lucia ran her hands over his skin. She felt his breath on her neck. She felt his thighs rub hers as he plowed her. She was alive.

They agreed to change position, and he lay on his back. Lucia eased herself onto his penis, and her vagina was wet now, and she slipped it in easily. Now, she began to ride him in the cowgirl position. Inside her, pleasure was mounting. Oscar’s cock showed no signs of tiring. She looked down. Oscar was looking her body all over. He reached up and ran his middle and index finger across her tummy, and with his other hand, he was caressing her thigh. He looked up, straight into her eyes, and smiled.

Oscar watched her arch her neck, and her back bent back too, which meant her scarred belly was stretched tight just a yard from his face. When she’d been so self-conscious just hours ago, now she was embracing her nudity and it was powerfully sexy for him.

Lucia reached down and planted her hands on Oscar’s chest. She began to move back and forward on his dick. Oscar threw his left arm up around her neck and reached down to fondle her breasts with his other hand. He closed his eyes, feeling his cock stiffen ever more, feeling her weight bear down on it.

Aroused, Lucia felt orgasm near. Oscar caressed her right nipple between her finger and thumb, and then she thrust her body forward hard and fast five times on his cock. It was coming…she was growing breathless from the exertion, but at last, she stretched back a little, felt the scars stretch ever so slightly as she leant back, and she threw her neck back as she came. Her orgasm ran down his cock and onto their thighs.

Oscar saw she was coming and smiled. He let her finish and felt her slow down her rhythmic movement on his cock.

Lucia climbed off.

“Sit on the side of the bed,” she said. Oscar did so, his feet on the floor. Lucia straddled him and wrapped her arms around his neck. She looked deep into his eyes, and he into hers, and they shared a passionate kiss and both felt his penis swelling inside her. There, in that moment, they both forgot what their respective bodies looked like. They embraced each other. They built on the growing connection between them.

Ten minutes later, Oscar was getting close. It was, they both knew instinctively, time to abandon the gentle growth of connection for some good physical sex. Lucia got off him and took to her knees on the bed. She wanted to be shagged hard, although she was slightly nervous about her tube coming loose in the exertion. He entered her and began to pump in and out, and he held her buttocks firmly and gently pulled her hair back and then he was not pumping but pounding and she cried out with pleasure, her body shaking with the bed…

Oscar shot his load out, and pleasure surged back, running from the tip of his cock to his balls and he felt the loss of control of his penis as he came hard in her pussy. He came all the harder because he liked Lucia so much. He didn’t know it then, but this was to be a benchmark against which he would judge his future orgasms. His orgasm was so strong he was afraid the condom had broken.

To their relief, it had not. He was breathless, and so was she. They lay down together and, without speaking, kissed each other for a long time. At last, they were both exhausted and fell asleep in each other’s arms.
The next day, they awoke. Lucia emerged from Oscar’s bedroom just as her dad was leaving the bathroom across the hall. Blushing crimson, she said

“Hi, dad.”

“Hi, love. Get lost last night?”

“Yeah. Too many rooms in this place.”

Her dad smiled despite himself. Perhaps he could stop worrying about Lucia’s health, at least.

The sun shone brightly outside the old house. People cheered, and Lucia smiled as she watched the car pull away. It was decorated “Just married” and carried her sister off to her honeymoon. She’d been quietly dreading this wedding. She’d pictured it as a lonely, unhappy night that she’d had good reason to fear was going to end a drunken mess.

But in the event, it had been a triumph for her. Lucia, her confidence newly restored by Oscar, felt certain that she really had gone home with the best man.