by Kim Shaw
“Kennedy, that’s not funny.”
“Relax, Maddie, it’s okay.”
Kennedy moved farther into the room. Madison held her arm, guiding her over to the queen-size, four-poster bed.
“Here, sit.”
“So really, Kennedy, tell me how you’re making out…the truth. I mean, it’s got to be a trip and you’re down there in D.C. all by yourself. I was planning to visit and spend some time with you, but Dad said you wanted to be alone.”
“I’m not all by myself. I’ve got Muppet, here, to take care of me.”
“Kennedy—”
“Seriously, Madison, I’m doing fine. These past few weeks have been almost mind-blowing, you know. I’m learning new things every day, about myself and the world. I’m forced to pay attention to things now that I’d never taken the time to even notice much less think about. Do I wish I’d never had the accident? Of course, but that doesn’t mean that I’m sitting around licking my wounds and crying myself to sleep.”
“Of course you’re not,” Madison said, holding her sister’s hand in hers. “You are so strong. Sometimes I wish I could just have half of your strength. Hell, I’d even take an ounce.”
“You do, Maddie. You just don’t know it.”
“No, I don’t.”
Madison shook her head slowly, a sardonic smile on her lips.
“Maddie…what’s going on with you? Come on, talk to me.”
“Aah.” Madison sighed. “I don’t want to talk about it anymore.”
“Yeah, I got that from Mother, but, Maddie, you’ve got to deal with it. It’s not going to just go away, you know. What were you thinking? I mean, are you in love with this guy?”
“Come on, Kennedy. You’ve got to be joking. No, I don’t love Eddie Worthington. It was just one of those things that happened. I met him a few months ago at a bar in Charlotte. I knew who he was right away. He bought me a few drinks, we flirted and before I knew it, we were hooking up a couple of times a week. The sex was good and he is a generous and considerate man. I mean, I like men with power and money. There’s something about the way he carries himself. I find him extremely attractive.”
“But, Madison, he’s a married man. An older and very married man.”
“I know that, Kennedy, but the way I look at it is this. That’s his situation to deal with, not mine.”
Madison stood up, moving away from the bed and her sister. She stopped at her dressing table, picking up the soft-bristled brush from the glass tray and began brushing her matted shoulder-length hair. It had grown in since the last time Kennedy had been able to see it.
“My hair is almost as long as yours again, Kennedy. I’m think about cutting it all off again…maybe getting a Mohawk or something. That’d really trip Mother out!”
Madison turned around and faced Kennedy’s sour expression.
“Come on, sis, stop acting like what I’ve done is some sort of crime. Married men fool around on their wives all the time. It wasn’t any type of love thing…we were just having a good time. Now it’s over and he’s at home with his wife, where there was no risk of him ever leaving, anyway, I might add. And his wife’s not going anywhere, either, for that matter. All’s well that ends well.”
“Maddie, you don’t mean that.”
“I most certainly do. Look, I like men. I meet a man and if something about him strikes me, I go for it. I like to have fun, and I like men with whom I can have a good time with. Jeez, I don’t know why everyone is making such a big deal about this. Trust me, despite what Mother thinks, it’ll blow over,” she said, tossing the hairbrush down.
“Blow over? Madison, this is not some minor slipup. This is major and it’s not going to just blow over. Your name has been smeared all over the press.”
“Kennedy, you’re exaggerating. Daddy ain’t exactly Lionel Richie and I damned sure ain’t Nicole! By next week the media will have moved on to the next story and I’ll be all but forgotten.”
Kennedy held her tongue for a moment, trying to control her growing annoyance at her sister’s matter-of-fact attitude.
“In the meantime, what about Mother? She is absolutely beside herself,” Kennedy said.
“She’s always beside herself over one thing or another.”
“She worries about you, Madison. We all do. The way you’re going, the way you’re living your life is not good for you. What is it that you’re trying to prove, huh?”
Kennedy rose and slowly made her way to her sister’s side. She reached out clumsily until her arm found its way around Madison’s shoulder.
For a brief moment, as Madison let herself be hugged by Kennedy, it appeared as though her icy shell was going to melt and she was going to allow her true feelings to be seen. However, that moment was fleeting. It didn’t matter what Kennedy said to Madison, there was no penetrating the tough-girl exterior her sister had perfected.
It hurt Kennedy’s heart to see her sister trying so hard to be tough and carefree, but it was obvious that Madison was in too much turmoil to even see what she was doing to herself.
Kennedy spent the next few days hanging around the house. She spent most of her time with Madison, holed up in her bedroom in an effort to avoid dealing with Elmira. They listened to music and reminisced about old times, waiting for the storm to pass. They didn’t venture out much, especially after the day they were accosted in the bakery by a reporter who recognized Madison. By Friday, the situation seemed to have died down. At least Madison and Elmira were being civil to one another again.
Madison was contemplating going to spend some time alone at the family vacation home in South Florida, but Elmira was reluctant to have her out of her sight. Kennedy took an early morning flight back to D.C. on Saturday morning, the tension of dealing with her family’s problems traveling with her. However, as soon as she stepped off the plane and found Malik waiting for her, the worry immediately seeped from her pores. His strong arm around her shoulder, guiding her home, was as effective as it was comforting.
Chapter 14
“I can’t believe you have me out here in the middle of nowhere. Girl, I’m really going to have to stop messing around with you before I end up getting eaten by a bear or something,” Malik said, tossing another log into the fireplace.
Kennedy had rented a cabin situated on the shoreline of the beautiful Shenandoah River. The privately-owned campgrounds were located sixty miles to west of the D.C. metro area. To reach the rustic cabin they traveled on a secluded road, surrounded by towering spruce trees and bordered on one side by the river. Their nearest neighbor was a fifteen-minute brisk hike away. The cabin belonged to a colleague of hers at Morgan Stanley, Ben Dailey. Dailey rarely used the cabin for himself, rather he used it as more of an investment property. He rented it out for weekends, and in some cases, for the entire summer season. Kennedy had been there once before when she and Skyy had thrown a bachelorette weekend blast for a mutual friend, Deidre Thompson, before her wedding.
As a child, Kennedy had loved the outdoors, especially at night. Whereas Madison had been a timid kid, covering her face through horror movies and sleeping with a nightlight on. Kennedy had loved the blackness of the night. She loved darkness and barely being able to see her hand in front of her face. Now that she was surrounded by darkness all the time, she would have to grow to love it once more. Right now she sought serenity in the woods, away from people, traffic and other intrusive sounds. She wanted to reclaim some of the peaceful feeling that nature had inspired in her in the past and she wanted to share a little bit of her experiences in the country with Malik.
“And I can’t believe you’ve never gone camping before. You haven’t lived until you’ve slept beneath the stars and eaten food cooked over an open flame. When I was a little girl, I dreamed about marrying a lumberjack named Billy Braun, and spending the rest of my days chopping wood and fishing in a river.”
“You are absolutely crazy, but you know something?” Malik asked, his arms circling her waist.
> “What’s that?”
“That’s why I find you so damned sexy.”
“Stop it.” Kennedy giggled.
“Nah, girl, it’s true. You are so sexy. This gorgeous body, the way you talk and laugh. Kennedy, you are incredibly hot.”
“I thought you said I was crazy?” Kennedy asked, her laugh deep and throaty as she turned around to face Malik.
He pulled her shades from her face. She immediately closed her eyelids, a habit she’d developed since she’d lost her sight. He kissed her lids, one at a time, over and over until she opened them.
“Your eyes are stunning. I never know what color they’re going to be when I look into them.”
“I wish I could see you. Sometimes I wish I could look back into your eyes, just for a moment,” Kennedy answered.
“You do see me, better than anyone I’ve ever known.”
Malik kissed Kennedy deeply and felt his heart swell inside him. His body responded, as well, just as it always did when he touched her or even thought about touching her.
“We need to unpack and get settled,” Kennedy protested, even though her hands were running up and down Malik’s back and rear, pulling his body closer to hers.
“Not right now.”
Standing in front of a crackling fire, the warmth caressing their bodies, there was no place that either of them would rather be. There was nothing that either of them would rather be doing than touching one another and getting lost inside their passion.
Inside the cabin, the light from the fireplace created a soft sensual glow. Malik reached behind Kennedy’s head, removing the clip that held her hair in a neat ponytail. He shuddered as her thick mane fell around her shoulders, covering his hand. For a moment he buried his face in the side of her hair, the fragrant scent driving his senses to distraction. He cupped her left cheek with his free hand, pulling her face closer to his. He brushed his lips across hers, the electricity of their contact sending shivers through his body. He had never felt so alive in the arms of another woman. With Kennedy it felt as if every nerve ending was alert and attentive, waiting to be pleased by her. Malik knew that he had gone too far and fallen too deep.
On their second night at the cabin, Kennedy guided Malik step-by-step through the process of building a tent in the clearing behind the cabin. It was his first attempt and after an hour of giggling and mishaps, he erected a hexagon-shaped tent using a three-pole, pin-and-ring and shock-cord system. His work was so fine it could have won him the scout award.
“See, I told you that you could do it. You city boys really need to get out more.” Kennedy laughed.
“This nature crap ain’t hard. What else you got for me, huh? Want me to build a fire using two sticks? How about I catch a fish with a spear?”
Kennedy giggled, certain that if she asked, Malik would do both of those things and more. Instead, she handed him a torch lighter and he lit the pieces of wood that she’d instructed him to place within a circle in the clearing. Impressed with himself, Malik roasted a few marshmallows on sticks and fed Kennedy the sticky hot treat with his fingers.
“Tell me what the sky looks like tonight,” she said.
Malik stared out into the blackened night for several minutes, silently gazing upon the heavens. He had a hard time finding the words to describe the vision.
“It looks like you,” he said at last. “It’s black and beautiful, bright and open. It seems like it goes on and on forever. Its beauty won’t ever end.”
He pulled Kennedy to her feet, picking her up off of the ground in his arms. He slowly turned around in a circle, his head titled backward and his eyes directed toward the firmament. He gently returned her to the ground, but she felt like she’d never come down again.
“This feels like forever,” Kennedy said, kissing Malik’s chin softly.
Malik pulled the heavy green cardigan Kennedy wore over her head, freeing her arms and body. He wanted to see her and feel her skin against his. He never tired of looking at her beautiful body, slim and toned, yet soft and supple in the places where a woman should be. He’d never had a desire for only one body type or shape of a woman, but found beauty in a wide variety of sizes and figures.
Kennedy’s body, however, defied description or comparison. He realized that no matter how many other women he would come to meet for the remainder of his life, he would always draw comparisons between them and Kennedy, fair or not.
Her C-cup breasts were full and round, heavy in his hands. Her stomach held a little extra flesh, weight she admitted to having put on since the accident and vowed to shed. He hoped she didn’t. He loved to squeeze the inch around her midsection and he loved the way that area felt against his body. The roundness of her hips as he glided his hands up and down them when she rode him drove him crazy, as did the feel of her thighs pressed against the side of his face when he dined on her. There was not one aspect of Kennedy’s body that did not entice and excite him and each time they made love, he strove to give every inch of her equal and unparalleled attention.
“Can I make love to you right now, Kennedy?”
Malik loved to ask her that question because he wanted to always know that she was wanting him just as much as he wanted her—all of the time.
“Yes, Malik. I want to make love with you,” she responded, giving him all the permission his heart needed to move forward.
Malik unzipped the double-person sleeping bag they’d brought with them and spread it out on the grass in front of the tent. He lay down on his back, pulling her down with him across the top of his body. His mouth sought hers again and he surrendered himself to her expert kiss. He had never before found much pleasure in kissing. Perhaps it was because he had yet to kiss a woman who approached it as an art. Kennedy professed that it was Malik’s mouth that propelled her to claim it with so much artistry. Whatever the reason, he reveled in the undulating pressure of her tongue as it stroked his, the way she glided it across the roof of his mouth causing sensations to erupt that he did not know were even possible.
She was wearing the white lace thong he’d bought her. It was his first trip to the lingerie section of a store. Never before had he been prompted to buy a woman underwear, perhaps because he had never before felt this close to a woman, not even the one he’d thought he was going to marry several years ago. Now, it seemed like the most natural thing in the world for him to do.
He gazed at the center of her. He was convinced that there was not one inch on Kennedy’s body that was not pleasurable to look at, and that region was no exception. He bent his mouth down to kiss her opening and she gasped. Her sounds of delight drove him to linger longer than he’d intended to. He explored her with his tongue, slowly and deliberately until she begged for him to stop.
“No, go deeper,” she cried.
He obliged as he always did because he’d come to think of pleasing her as his life’s work and there was no greater duty he’d rather take on. He worked her into such a frenzy, kissing, sucking, licking and lapping until he was certain that her screams would wake every animal in the forest. Their lovemaking was as intense as it always was, as they gave themselves over completely to each other without reservation. Afterward, Malik stroked the side of Kennedy’s face as he stared up at the bevy of stars that blanketed their love nest.
“When you were a little boy what did you want to be when you grew up?”
“A fireman. I thought I was going to spend the rest of my life running into burning buildings, chopping down flaming doors and carrying people out, five at a time, in my big strong arms. I wanted to be a hero who everyone loved and depended on.”
“So what happened?”
“I don’t know. I guess you grow up and you realize that there aren’t any such things as heroes. All there is are people trying to live their lives the best way they can. I kind of bounced around from job to job for a while and then when I landed at Stillwater, it was like I was finally doing something to help people. It was a little bit like fulfilling my dreams. I
mean, I know it’s not much, what I do. It doesn’t require any particular skills or intellect, but sometimes it feels like I’ve helped somebody. Right now, that’s enough for me.”
Kennedy smiled silently, her head resting against Malik’s chest. She listened to the steady rhythm of his heartbeat and wished that she could have a little bit of that feeling he described. She wanted to know that in some small way she had helped or impacted someone, too. Being a financial analyst didn’t quite do it for her, but it was all that she knew how to do.
“Every day I’m just thankful that I was able to find something to do with my life, something I’m good at. Otherwise, those streets could have eaten me alive,” Malik mused.
“I think that the only difference between a successful person and a person who gets lost to the streets is that one of them stopped dreaming.”
“Maybe you’re right about that. I dreamt about you and look what happened,” Malik said, covering her lips with his own.
“You’ve practically moved in with her. What gives?” Malcolm asked as he crunched noisily on an extra-large plastic green bowl of Corn Flakes.
“I’m not about to move in with Kennedy.”
“Not that I’m knocking your hustle…I mean, she’s got her own money and with her condition, well, I guess she’s pretty needy right now, huh?”
Malik folded his uniform pants and placed them in a blue duffel bag. He considered his brother for a moment. Malcolm, three years his senior, had always been blunt. And he did not hesitate to share his opinions, even when they were unsolicited and unwanted.
Malcolm never lied about his emotions or his behaviors. For him, there was no point in putting in the effort it took to pretend or to cover his tracks. Perhaps that was why Malcolm’s life was plagued with problems. When Malcolm decided that he no longer wanted to be with the mother of his first child, Jacob, he packed and left. He’d been brutally honest about the fact that he’d found someone new. When the mother of his second child, twelve-month-old Star, suspected he was cheating, she confronted him. Although her suspicion was based on no physical or tangible evidence, he acknowledged that she was right on target without apology.