by Sable Hunter
“I’ve never seen that part of Texas, I look forward to it.” Cassie smiled. Actually, she just looked forward to spending time with Bowie. “We can get to know one another better.”
“Deal. What do you want to do?” He just enjoyed looking at her. She wore a sweater dress that hugged her curves. In fact, he’d had a good time helping her dress this morning. Doing little things for her made him happy.
“How about we play a game?” She suggested with a satisfied, expectant face. “It could be fun.”
“Okay, I’m up for it.”
His phrasing made her giggle. “Yea, you were up for it this morning.” She had enjoyed their lovemaking this morning most of all. He had straddled her waist and came between her tits, holding her breasts together and rubbing the nipples while he thrust between the soft flesh. It had been the most erotic thing Cassie had ever dreamed. “Let’s ask each other questions, but it has to be a question we’re willing to answer ourselves. Okay?”
“Sounds good to me,” he agreed, wondering if he was about to get himself in trouble. “Shoot.” As soon as Bowie said the word, he wished he could take it back. It seemed like a bad omen.
Cassie didn’t even flinch, she looked too happy. “All right, me first. What would you do if you won a million dollars?”
“Hmmm, if I came into that much money, I’d get a new dozer, buy the Lecter place next to mine and open a game preserve for big game that zoos can’t handle.”
“Would you allow hunting on it?” He saw she was very attentive to his answer.
Bowie shook his head. “Hell, no. I don’t hunt.” Anymore.
“You do have a soft heart, don’t you?”
He was watching the road, heading east through Round Rock. “Especially toward the likes of you. So, what would you do with all that dough?”
“I’d build a big assisted living facility and not charge the residents to live there.”
“Now who has the good heart?”
She let that pass and asked another question. “What’s your biggest fear?”
Watching the hate bloom in your eyes when you find out it was me who hurt you. Bowie bit his tongue to keep the truth at bay. “It was my turn, by the way. But to answer your question, I do lots of things that people consider dangerous. I climb, I travel into wilderness areas, I dive. But the thing that makes me pause is going into underwater caves. I got lost in one once, lost my light. My oxygen almost ran out before I was rescued.”
Cassie shuddered just considering Bowie almost dying. “I’m so glad you made it out. How often do you have to cave dive?”
“Only when someone gets in trouble and I’m called to help.” He shook his head and smiled. “It doesn’t happen that often, maybe never again. Joseph McCoy used to do it as a sport. Crazy fool.”
“Being in the dark, deep underwater must be terrifying.” She hugged herself. “I fear being by myself and my wheelchair getting stuck on something and I can’t get loose and I can’t walk, maybe crossing a street and I’m in traffic.” She giggled nervously. “I know it doesn’t make sense, but the idea of being trapped scares me.”
Bowie placed his hand over hers. “I understand completely. Okay, my turn. Let’s lighten this up. What’s your favorite comic book superhero?”
“Oh, that’s easy. Catwoman.” She made her small hand into claws and snarled at him.
“Stunning rich socialite who nabs pretty baubles?” He raised an eyebrow at her. “Is that the attraction?”
“No.” Cassie laughed. “It’s the black leather and the whip.”
Bowie chuckled. “You surprise me all the time. So, does this mean I can tie you up and have my way with you?”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “Well, I was sorta thinking of tying you up.”
“I have a rope in the back of my truck.”
She blushed at the thought and went right on to the next question. “What’s the one secret you’ve been too embarrassed to tell me?”
Again Bowie thought of what he was hiding. They had just pulled into Centerville. It wouldn’t be long before they entered East Texas. Talking to Cassie was fun, he was learning so much about her and the more he learned, the more he liked. But some of the questions were hitting a little too close to home. “Embarrassed, let me see. Well, I cry at movies sometimes.”
“You what?” Cassie giggled. When he gave her a sideways glance, she grabbed his hand and kissed it. “I think that’s the sweetest thing I’ve ever heard. Tell me a couple that have made you cry.”
Bowie groaned, but answered, “The Blind Side, the end of Spiderman 2 when the little boy stood up to the villain and when Superman’s father got killed by the tornado in the Man of Steel.”
She smiled at him. “I’m embarrassed to get in and out of my van because the wheel chair lift makes a horrible noise and everybody watches me.”
Bowie added that to his list of things that needed to be remedied. Off the top of his head, he asked, “What’s the one thing you’d want to change about me?”
Cassie’s jaw dropped. Was he kidding? He was perfect. Ah, that was it. “Physically, mentally, socially, everyway, you’re too perfect—for me.” Then she hastened to add. “Not that I’d want anything to change specifically, but you make me realize how inadequate I am.”
Bowie didn’t say anything right away. They were coming out of Crockett and he just pulled over in front of a Whataburger. Turning to her, he leaned near until he could grasp her head and kiss her lips. Which he did, twice. “Cassie, you are so precious. The only thing I’d change about you would be to take away your pain. In all other things, you are without flaw. Do you understand me?”
“Yes, Bowie.” She was stunned.
After a few moments, he pulled back on the road. He was on a schedule. George was waiting for him. Her small voice broke the silence. “There’s an operation that I could have but it’s risky.”
Bowie almost ran off the road. “What do you mean?”
“It could help me or hurt me.” She shook her head, clearly not wanting to talk about it anymore. Pushing a lock of hair behind one ear, she burst out with another question. “The average frequency of sex for couples is about eight times a month. How often would you like to have sex with me?”
“Boom!” Bowie laughed. “And it wasn’t your turn, turtledove.” She blushed, but he answered. “Every day.”
“Twice a day,” she countered.
“That’s my girl.” He felt himself grow hard just thinking about it. “Of all the things you could do to or for me sexually what do you think would turn me on the most?”
Gosh, she hadn’t really done anything to him, yet. He had done most everything. “I don’t know. A blow job?”
Just her saying the words was the cutest thing ever. “Actually, I love to watch you cum. It’s the most beautiful sight in the world to see your pleasure and know I made you feel that way.”
“The thing you do to me that turns me on the most is how you make me feel wanted, like you want to be with me more than anyone else in the world.”
“You realize that we’re gonna have to pull down one of these logging roads so I can ravish you, don’t you?” Bowie teased, but he wasn’t really teasing. Let’s get off sex long enough for my dick to go down. “What’s the most awkward moment you can remember?”
“Oh, my goodness.” Cassie tried to think. They were entering the piney woods part of East Texas. Bowie slowed down, watching for the turn off that would lead toward Beaumont. “It wasn’t one moment, it was a lot of them. All the same, when a man would notice me like in a bar and come over to talk to me, maybe ask me to dance and then realize I was in the wheelchair.” She let the words fall. Glancing at Bowie, she saw the look in his eyes, his sweet eyes. “But you were different. You didn’t find me wanting. You saw something in me no one else has ever seen.”
“Oh, baby.” He touched her face. “The rest of them were blind bastards and I’m grateful they were or I wouldn’t be here with you now.”
&nbs
p; Embarrassed at revealing so much, Cassie forgot what Bowie had said about sex and jumped from the frying pan into the fire. “Tell me your best sexual fantasy?”
God help him. “You have no mercy, do you?”
“Yea, I do. Please, don’t make the fantasy something you could only do with me.”
Bowie wanted to curse. He wanted to just eat her up with his eyes, but he also needed to keep them between the ditches. “You are my fantasy.”
She pressed her plump pink lips into a tight line and glared at him. “Stop it. We’re having a conversation here.”
“You’re so cute.” Bowie couldn’t keep back the words if he’d been wearing a muffler. Good, he’d made her smile. “Okay, I’ll tell you one.” God, he hoped to high heaven they could do this someday. “I imagine you sitting in my lap, facing me. I’m deep inside of you and I kiss you and caress your breasts and you squeeze me so tight.” He didn’t say how she squeezed him, he was thinking of her pussy but if all it could be was her sweet arms, he wouldn’t complain. “And just being joined with you like that, feeling you close to me, enveloping me, makes me come so hard.”
Bowie was at a stoplight in Jasper, so for a moment, they just stared at one another.
“Whew!” Cassie started to fan herself which broke the sensual tension, making Bowie snort. He turned his head back to the road and she wondered what in the heck she was doing with this man. Surely he’d come to his senses soon and realize his folly.
“Spill, play fair.”
Her sexual fantasy? “You’ve met and surpassed any fantasy I ever had.” Good gracious, she needed a filter.
Bowie frowned at her. “Come on, I told. Give me something to work for.”
Cassie took a deep breath. “I always wanted to have sex in a pool or a hot tub.”
“Nice.” Bowie grinned. Okay, he had something to work toward. “My turn. Okay, Cassie-for-short, tell me what’s the one thing you’d do if you could, that you don’t think you’ll ever be able to do?” He knew he was pushing it, but if he was in the dream fulfilling business, he needed to know.
Cassie played with the bracelet on her wrist, the one she’d lost and Bowie found. “You’re taking me to Galveston. That’s a dream come true.”
She gave him a look full of hope and he found it hard to breathe.
“But, if we’re really going crazy here, I’ve always longed to scuba dive.” She threw the comment out, expecting him to laugh at her. “The ocean, the beach, the vast freedom of the continuous ebb and flow of the waves has always fascinated me. I can’t believe you’re making it possible for me to see it.”
“We’re going to have the time of our lives,” Bowie promised. Cassie didn’t know it, but he was making a list and would be calling in some favors.
“I believe you.” Chewing on her lower lip, she let her mind wander to the possibilities. Galveston. She could even sing the old Glen Campbell song by heart. “So, what’s your one thing you don’t think you’ll be able to do?” Cassie couldn’t imagine this man wanting something he couldn’t imagine obtaining.
Bowie tightened his hand on the steering wheel. The words stuck in his throat. He could say ‘seeing Cassie walk.’ But there was something else, something else she should know if… “I wish I could father a child.”
Cassie didn’t know what to say. “Bowie…” She didn’t know if he were referring to her, or what. “I…”
Bowie looked at her, anguish on his face.
“I’m sterile.”
CHAPTER NINE
“Oh, Bowie, I’m so sorry.” Cassie didn’t know what to say.
Bowie shook his head and smiled. “No worries. I accepted it a long time ago.” He let out a sigh. “Bad case of mumps when I was fourteen.”
For a while they were both silent. The truck was eating up the miles. “The turnoff to the oil rig is about three miles ahead.”
Cassie hated to ask, but they had been on the road a long time. “After you drop off the machinery, do you think we could stop for a bathroom break?”
Dang! “Sorry, baby. Of course. You should have said something.”
“No problem.” Cassie assured him. “I’m good.”
Bowie blew out a hard breath. Normally he was more considerate. “It’s been all of this interesting conversation. I just lost track of time.”
Worried about her, Bowie didn’t wait. He stopped at the first filling station big enough to have a decent restroom. She protested, but he went with her, helping her from the truck, into her chair, and pushing it across the parking lot and into the store.
“This is the part I dislike,” she muttered. “I hate to have to ask people to take care of me.”
“You didn’t ask,” Bowie said dryly. Let me take care of you. Oh God, please let me. Every moment he spent with her, his determination to make her a part of his life only grew.
Grumble. Grumble. Cassie blushed, did her business and came out of the bathroom. Actually, it had been a roomy area, a nice handicapped facility. She’d had no trouble using it at all. As she washed her hands, she thought about everything she and Bowie had shared. A plethora of thoughts and emotions were clamoring in her head, logic and reason warred with the surreal happenings of the last few weeks with Bowie. The only part of her that wasn’t confused was her heart and that little sucker knew exactly what it wanted—Bowie.
“Cassie?”
Tap. Tap. Tap.
Another woman, a brunette, about the same age as Cassie was washing her hands. She looked up into the mirror, startled and met Cassie’s eyes. “Is that you?”
“Yes.” She shook her head solemnly. “Just a second, Bowie. I’m fine.”
Holding her hands in the automatic dryer, the woman gave her a smirk. “Boyfriend?”
Cassie had finished and was waiting for her to exit first. Hearing Bowie Malone referred to as her boyfriend sounded odd, but right now it was correct—for the most part. “Yea, he’s sorta overprotective.”
Nodding her head as if she understood, her bathroom companion exited. Cassie couldn’t help but laugh when the lady opened the door, took one look at Bowie, shut it and turned to Cassie. “My God, he’s frickin’ gorgeous!”
An inordinate sense of pride consumed her. Facts couldn’t be denied. “Yea, he is.” When it was her turn, he was waiting right at the door with a grin on his face that clearly told Cassie he had heard every word. “Don’t get a big head.”
Bowie took the handles of her chair in hand. “Already have.” He leaned over. “Two of them, you ought to know.”
* * *
After leaving the trailer with his partner, Bowie and Cassie headed south into Beaumont, then turned west toward Houston. “We’ll get off I-10 at the Winnie exit and go through Crystal Beach and Gilchrist. I think you’ll like the ferry.”
Cassie’s eyes lit up. “I’m going to like all of it.”
Bowie motioned at the surroundings. “Most people don’t think this part of the world is very pretty. It’s so flat with rice paddies and crawfish farms. But I find a certain beauty in the starkness.”
They made small talk, discussing movies and television shows they both liked. It came as no surprise to Cassie that Bowie liked such shows as Justified or Game of Thrones while she liked The Good Wife and Dallas. After they went through Winnie, Bowie drew her attention to the horizon. “Look, do you see anything different?”
At first, she didn’t. And then she realized there was something different about the way the land looked in the distance. Gradually, she understood. Ahead, not too many miles, land stopped. They were heading directly for the Gulf of Mexico. An almost eerie feeling came over Cassie as she grasped that they were heading to the point where land would cease and the vast body of water would be spread out before her. She was tempted to hold her breath. They passed over the Intracoastal Canal. “Years ago, this was a draw bridge.” He pointed out barges floating beneath them and more in the distance. “This waterway is three thousand miles long. It goes along the Gulf Coast and up
the Atlantic seaboard. Barges and ships can traverse without the dangers of the open sea.”
Cassie craned to see. “How deep is it?”
“Only about twelve feet,” Bowie answered. “It connects many natural waterways. Someday, I’d like to take a houseboat along its length, just to see it all for myself.”
“I can’t imagine such freedom,” Cassie whispered.
A sense of awe began to mount in Cassie, an anticipation. And when they came to a small curve, it took her a moment to realize the road was taking a westerly turn because they were at the ocean’s edge. Right on the edge. “Oh, my God!” Cassie grabbed the dash of the truck and looked out.
Bowie didn’t even hesitate. He slowed down and pulled off the road, heading directly onto the sand. “There used to be more distance between the beach and road. Hurricanes have devoured the real estate.” True enough, the distance from the highway to the rolling torrent was just about thirty feet or so.
Cassie was mesmerized. She stared and stared. The water was so blue, yet it thundered, rolling in a continuous motion, white-capped and massive. “Can I get out?”
“Sure, it’s a pretty warm day.” Bowie went and retrieved her wheelchair and helped her into it. She was squirming like a little kid, so excited. He placed her on the ground, but he had to push the chair because the sand was deep and damp. With a smile, he watched her raise her hands in the air, as if trying to catch the wind. The most beautiful sound he’d ever heard, a laugh of pure delight, sprang from her lips. “I love it!”
He leaned over to kiss her. “I’m glad.”
“Is it always this loud?” The constant roar was a bit of a surprise to Cassie.
“Sometimes it’s louder. I love to watch a storm coming in.” Sounds of seagulls added to the roar of the tide crashing in.
“Can we walk a little ways?” She pointed down the beach.
“Of course.” He turned the chair and headed east. “Hold on.” He stopped and went in front of her and knelt down. “Let’s take off your shoes and you can dangle your toes in the water.” At her widened eyes, he said, “You can feel, right? I mean, you can stand.”