“Excuse me?”
“Despite all the fancy pants stuff the world is into, there are still primitive tribes in existence. Why, I saw this group called the Jiminy Crickets, or something like that, who actually baste and barbecue any stranger who disturbs their sacred hunting ground. Speaking of hunting, I wished you would have taken old Junior, here.” Junior was Eloise’s late husband’s prizewinning duck dog. He’d turned fifteen last year and the only title he’d won recently was for oldest canine in the county. “I would feel so much better knowing you were protected.” A loud bark sounded in the background and Miss Eloise paused to baby talk the ancient animal. “Then again,” she finally continued, “if they’ll eat a dear, sweet girl like you, they would probably go nuts for my Junior. Have you got Mace?”
“They don’t allow Mace on the airplane.”
“What about a can of Aqua Net? I was watching Court TV the other day and they had a case where this woman used a can of the stuff on a would-be rapist and it damn near blinded him. The key is to aim right for the pupil.”
“I’m fine, Miss Eloise.”
“At least that’s true for one of us.”
“What’s wrong?”
“Harwin says Betty Lou needs new shocks. An entire set.”
Betty Lou was Miss Eloise’s 1972 Cadillac. The car was older than Deanie herself, but in mint condition. Eloise’s late husband had loved the automobile almost as much as he’d loved Miss Eloise herself. At least that had been the gossip down at the Fat Cow Diner when he’d opted to wash and wax the car rather than take Miss Eloise out for their fiftieth anniversary. Miss Eloise hadn’t been too fond of Betty Lou after that. But then her husband had died and the car had been all she’d had left of him, and so the two females had warmed up to each other.
“I just put a new set of shocks on her last year,” Deanie said.
“I told Harwin that, but he said you didn’t do it right.” She paused. “And he also said that I might have hit too many potholes.”
“Did you hit a lot?”
“One, give or take a few.”
“How few?”
“Maybe six or seven.”
“Miss Eloise, you have to be careful. The car rides low. You’ll bottom out.”
“I know that, honey. That’s why I try my best to go around them, but they always seem to snag that front left tire.”
“Then Harwin should try changing the front left connecting shocks first before replacing them all. An entire new set is going to cost you—”
“—my teeth money,” the old woman retorted. “I’ve been saving all year for a new set of dentures.”
“Shocks don’t cost quite that much, Miss Eloise.”
“They do if they’re being accompanied by a new muffler.”
“What’s wrong with your muffler?”
“It got jarred loose when I hit the pothole over on Main and Divine. The one in front of the dry cleaners.”
“There’s no pothole there.”
“There is now on account of Wilda Jean was getting a new press iron and the delivery people dropped it and made a crack in the asphalt. And then I came along and, well, you know how heavy Betty Lou is. So now there’s a pothole and I won’t be able to get my teeth in time for the Easter Jubilee down at the Bingo Hall. They serve the best brown sugar ham and now I won’t be able to have any and—”
“What about a payment plan?” It was Deanie’s turn to interrupt. “Just tell Harwin to sign you up for one of Big Daddy’s installment options. That way you can still get your shocks and your dentures.”
“There are no more installment plans. Harwin did away with them and Big Daddy’s going along with it.”
“You’re kidding?”
Miss Eloise sniffled. “We’re talking the brown sugar ham with the glazed pineapple rings on top and the little maraschino cherries.”
“You’re not kidding.” Miss Eloise had two passions in life—watching television and eating—and she didn’t joke about either. “I’m sorry, Miss Eloise.”
“Now, now, I know it’s not your fault. It’s not like you can just throw your life away because me and the girls down at the seniors’ center need you. You’re young. You’ve got your entire life ahead of you. You shouldn’t be burdened by a bunch of old women. Why, we can fend for ourselves just fine. Don’t you even worry about us. It’s not like I can’t gum a few pieces of ham if I set my mind to it. I’ll still get all the flavor. Don’t you even worry about it.”
Okay, so Miss Eloise had three passions in life—watching television, eating and laying major guilt trips.
“I’ll call and talk to Big Daddy for you. Maybe he’ll make an exception.”
“No, no, honey. Why, I would never dream of being such a bother. I just needed to vent. When you get old, there aren’t as many people around when you need to talk.”
“I’d like to try to help.”
“Don’t you fret over me. You just go on about your business. This is your time to be young, honey. To enjoy yourself, even if it is a long ways away from those of us who love you dearly.”
The old woman was right.
Deanie came to that conclusion a half hour after she’d said goodbye to Miss Eloise. She’d taken a cold shower, pulled on her soft cotton “comfort” T-shirt and sweats, and stretched out on the bed. This was her time to be young and she should be enjoying it.
Instead, she was channel surfing and eating a bag of Oreos she’d purchased from the minibar.
She glanced at the remote in one hand and the cookie in the other. It was every Friday night she’d ever spent all over again. Granted, she’d actually had a date earlier, and an orgasm, but now she was right back to acting like the old Deanie, despite the fact that Rance still wanted her and she still wanted him.
Want.
It didn’t have to go beyond that if she didn’t let it. If she cut herself off emotionally from the sex and kept her feelings locked up tight.
Then she could enjoy herself for the next thirteen hours. Couldn’t she?
She could.
She would.
She was tired of fantasizing. She wanted the real thing. The real man. Just for a little while. Deep down, she knew no matter where she went, or how hard she searched, or how many low cut dresses she wore, she would never meet another man like Rance McGraw.
He was a one-of-a-kind.
Her first love.
Her last.
She ignored the thought and threw her legs over the side of the bed. This wasn’t about love. It was all about sex. About having sex.
Deanie peeled off her clothes, pulled on her sundress—minus the undies again—and reached for her shoes. She glanced at the clock and entertained a rush of anxiety that quickly fed her determination.
Stashing her key card in her one and only pocket, she left the hotel room and went in search of Rance.
IT TOOK DEANIE nearly an hour before she finally found him on a deserted stretch of beach far enough from the resort that she was actually out of breath by the time she reached him. She’d walked the entire resort before she’d seen the blonde who’d shown them to the waterfall room at The Falls. The girl had pointed her in the right direction. Deanie had been skeptical as she’d passed the guest bungalows and traded the lights of the resort for a full moon and a star-dusted sky. But then she’d spotted him sitting on the beach.
He wore only his cowboy hat and his board shorts. His chest was bare, his shoulders broad. His shirt lay in a heap next to his flip-flops. Muscles rippled as he tossed a sea shell into the retreating surf.Music drifted from the far distance, but otherwise, the only sound was the lull of the waves against the beach and the pounding of Deanie’s heart.
She braced herself against any lingering doubts, held tight to her desire and stepped in front of him.
“I’ve been looking for you everywhere. What are you doing out here?”
He tipped the brim of his hat back and glanced up at her, his gaze dark and glittering in the moonlight.
“I needed some fresh air.” He stared past her and pitched another shell. “What about you? Can’t sleep?”
“Actually—” She swallowed and gathered the courage that had brought her this far. “—I’m too busy thinking to sleep.” Her gaze caught and held his. “I can’t stop thinking about you.” She stepped toward him. “Us.” She dropped to her knees. “This.” She leaned over and kissed him long and slow and deep, leaving no doubt how much she wanted him.
He returned her kiss, but he made no move to reach out. She leaned back just enough to murmur “I want you, Rance,” and then she took his lips in another deep, purposeful kiss.
She waited to feel his hands at her waist, pulling her to him, but he didn’t touch her. He wouldn’t. He wanted her to want him, to initiate the contact between them.
He wanted her to make the same offer she’d made all those years ago.
The one he’d turned down cold.
He felt anything but cold now. Her palms rested against his bare shoulders, his skin blazing hot beneath her touch, his muscles bunched tight with sexual tension as he waited to see what she would do next.
She had no intention of disappointing him.
Or herself.
Deanie fought against one last wave of fear. Then she straddled him.
11
RANCE BLINKED, but Deanie didn’t fade and disappear the way she did in his fantasies.
Because this wasn’t a fantasy.She was real. Warm. Here.
She sat astride him, her skin pale and silky in the moonlight. She shimmied her body and hiked her dress to her waist to give her legs some breathing room. With the material out of her way, she spread wider and settled more fully over him. Her bare sex rested atop his cock that throbbed beneath his shorts. She gripped his shoulders, stared deep into his eyes and rubbed herself against him.
She flung her head back and went wild for the next few moments and it was all he could do not to touch her smooth thighs or knead her sweet, round ass or slide his fingers into her wet heat.
But Rance had been waiting for this moment since that night on the river bank. He’d dreamed of it. He wasn’t about to hurry things up. He balled his hands into fists against the sand, braced himself and let her work herself up.
“You feel so good.” She hesitated then and her gaze met his. It was all he could do not to take her in his arms and chase away the doubt. “Do you like it, too?”
“Baby, you have no idea.” His words reassured her and she smiled, a brilliant slash of white in the moonlit darkness. His chest hitched and his breath caught. “You’re so beautiful, Deanie.”
“So are you,” she murmured, her smile fading into something more primitive and determined.
She kept riding him, rubbing herself up and down, creating a delicious friction before she finally leaned back and reached for the waistband of his shorts. He was already so hard that the zipper caught and refused to budge until his hand closed over hers.
He lifted his pelvis and together they slid his zipper the rest of the way down. He pushed his shorts down, pushing his underwear along with it, until his erection sprang thick and heavy toward her. Her fingertip was hot and arousing as she traced a throbbing vein up his rock-hard length, until she reached the silky-smooth head.
Deanie had seen a few male members in her time, but none of them had been near as impressive as Rance. Bold and beautiful, his penis jutted tall, throbbing beneath her tentative touch. She circled the engorged purple head and he sucked in a breath. The sound fed her confidence and she wrapped her hand around him. Heat scorched her fingertips and he arched into her grasp. His fingers curled into the sand. But he didn’t touch her.
Not yet.
Her gaze trailed up over a ridged abdomen, a broad chest sprinkled with dark, silky hair, a corded neck, to the chiseled perfection of his face partially hidden in the shadow of his cowboy hat.
She took his hat off, set it aside and stared deep into his whiskey-colored eyes. There was no mistaking the raw, aching need that gripped him. And the uncertainty. And the regret.
“I’m sorry I left that night. I never meant to hurt you.”
“You did the right thing.” Even as the words slid from her lips, she couldn’t quite believe she’d said them. Even more, she felt them. Deep in her heart. Beneath the pain and hurt. “I didn’t think so at the time, but I know now why you did it.”
“If I had touched you, kissed you, taken you, I wouldn’t have been able to leave, and I had to. I couldn’t stay. My granddad didn’t want me, and I didn’t want to. It hurt too much being around him.” As much as Rance had reminded his grandfather of the son he’d lost, the old man had reminded Rance of the father he’d lost.
“I know you had to go.” She felt the tears burn the backs of her eyes and she blinked against them. “But back then, I didn’t want to think about not seeing you every day. I was young and stupid and I offered myself to you for the wrong reason.” Not that she hadn’t loved him. She had. But she hadn’t stripped naked because she’d been eager to take the next step into womanhood. She’d done it out of fear. It had been her last ditch effort to keep him in her life. “I did it because I wanted you to stay.”
His gaze grew brighter, hotter. “And now?”
“Now I just want you.”
Before she could draw another breath, his mouth covered hers and his tongue thrust between her parted lips. The kiss seemed to go on forever and when he finally pulled away, Deanie couldn’t seem to catch her breath.
She fought for air while he reached down into the pocket of his shorts and retrieved a foil packet. A few seconds later, he slid the condom onto his erection, gripped her waist and pulled her closer.
He pressed his hard sex between her legs. The plump head pushed into her just a fraction until she felt her body pulse around his thick shaft. A shiver ripped through her and she slid her hands around his neck and threaded her fingers into his hair. Her nipples tightened, pressing against the thin material of her dress and her thighs trembled.
He kissed her slowly, deeply, before he finally drew away. His heated gaze held hers as he lifted his hips again, pushing into her a fraction more. But it wasn’t enough. There was still too much between them.
She braced her hands against his chest and climbed to her feet. She backed up just a few steps and reached for the edge of her dress. Bunching the hem, she pulled it up and over her head. Her nipples hardened against the sudden breeze blowing in off the water and she trembled.
Her breath caught and her heart stopped as a memory rushed at her and for the next few seconds, it was that one night all over again. She heard the ripple of the river behind her and the buzz of crickets. She felt the soft grass beneath her bare feet, the whisper of a breeze against her skin, and the nerve-racking sense of expectancy in the pit of her stomach as she’d waited for his reaction.
His rejection.
Rance’s gaze swept the length of her. Fire flared in his eyes, chasing away the sudden chill of self-consciousness that suddenly gripped her. There was no mistaking the emotion in his gaze as it met hers—a mixture of open hunger and fierce possessiveness that told her he wouldn’t dream of walking away from her this time.
Or ever again.
She forced aside the ridiculous notion. She wasn’t silly enough to believe there could be a happily ever after with Rance. They were even more different now than they’d been way back when. They had different lives. Different futures.
No, this wasn’t about tomorrow.
It was about right now.
She watched as he stood and shed his shorts completely. He spread his discarded clothes on the sand before settling back down and motioning for her.
“Come here,” he murmured, his voice raw and husky and stirring.
Anticipation rippled along her spine and every nerve in her body tingled. She straddled him again, her knees and calves cushioned now by the soft cotton of his T-shirt.
She slid the swollen bud of her clitoris against his engorged peni
s until she reached the head. She rubbed from side to side feeling him pulse against her most tender spot. She gasped when his teeth caught one nipple and he closed his lips over the sensitive peak. He drew her deep into his mouth and sucked so hard that she felt the tug between her legs.
She moved a fraction higher and pressed the wet opening of her body over the head of his erection. His hold on her nipple broke as a ragged gasp escaped his lips. She pushed down slightly, letting him stretch her, fill her just enough to make her insides tighten and then she withdrew.
He bucked beneath her and she did it again, pushing down just enough to make her body crave more before pulling back and gasping for air. His hands slid down her back and his large fingers pressed into her bottom as if to pull her back down. But he didn’t. While he was now an active participant, this was still her ride and he obviously intended to let her set the pace.
She kissed him then, sucking at his tongue the way her body sucked at the head of his erection.
Over and over.
His muscles bunched tight beneath her fingertips, his body hard and stiff beneath her, until she knew he couldn’t take any more.
With a shudder, she slid down over him until she felt the base of his shaft fully against her. His pubic hair teased the sensitive lips of her vagina. He pulsed inside her for a long, heart-stopping moment before he gripped her bottom with both hands and his hips lifted.
He slid deeper. The sensation of being stretched and filled by the raw strength of him stalled the air in her lungs for several heart-pounding moments.
The pressure between her legs was sharp and sweet. But not half as sharp and sweet as the sudden tightening in her chest when he looked at her, his gaze so fierce and possessive, as if he never meant to let her go.
As if.
Deanie dismissed the thought and fixed her attention on the desire coiling tight in her body. She rocked her hips, riding him with an intensity that made her heart pound and her body throb.
She held his gaze with each movement, determined to brand his every expression into her memory. Until sensation gripped her, so wild and tantalizing, that her breath stalled and her heart all but stopped beating. She couldn’t help herself. While she wanted to watch, the only thing she seemed capable of in that next instant was feeling. Her eyes closed and her head fell back.
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