“Pet? Who makes a pet out of a tiny forest denizen like that?”
“You do. You were the one that hurt him. Now it’s your duty to feed him, and to help him get better. You have no choice, those are the rules.”
“Rules? Whose rules?”
He looked up into my face and I saw what might have been tears filming his eyes. Lord, what this man must have seen over there, I thought. And here he’s worried about this one tiny little lizard.
As if reading my mind, he said, “I couldn’t do anything about injustice over there, here I can.”
I sighed, and slumped in defeat. He had me there. “Okay, what do I have to do?”
He smiled and held the lizard up to my face. I squealed and jumped back. Then he reached out and grabbed my hand and drew me back. “First, you give him a name, that honors him and makes him yours. Then you touch him to show you care. And then you feed him.”
I gulped. “Are you really going to make me do this?” I whispered.
“Yes,” he whispered back, “I am. I most certainly am.”
I just stood there looking at the lizard that was now circling his palm and wandering over the edge of his thumb.
“A name . . .” he prompted.
I hesitated and said the first thing that came to mind. “Stumpy.”
“Okay, that works. I’ve actually known a few amputees that answered to that name.”
I knew then that he was deadly serious, and that this wasn’t a game. Stumpy was my new pet, my companion until his tail decided to make a grand re-emergence.
“Touch him . . .”
“I can’t. I just can’t.” I tried to work up a shiver to show my revulsion, but he didn’t give me a chance. His hand still gripping mine, forced it open and dropped the lizard into it. “If you drop him, he’ll probably die,” he warned. Every impulse I had came to life, with gut-wrenching fear. I had to tense every muscle to inhibit my desire to sling the beast far, far away. I stopped breathing and lowered widened eyes to my open hand. Then an odd thing happened, Stumpy looked up at me and blinked, and I calmed. I watched him crawl around and actually enjoyed the tickling feeling his tiny feet made against the pads of my palm. Then I felt something wet and slimy slither out of him. If Connor had not grabbed my wrist, that lizard would have ended up at the bottom of Crater Lake. As it was, we were struggling, the three of us, to keep Stumpy from falling four feet to the hard ground.
“Good, I was afraid he wouldn’t be able to do that anymore, so it was only his tail that was affected. That’s great news.” Connor slid him from my hand to his, and I ran for the closest water spigot. I shoved my hand under the hard spray, not caring that my dress was getting splattered. I let the water run until I was sure there was no evidence of the thin black turd that had just been gifted to me.
“If you’re going to have a pet, you can’t be squeamish about the messes they make.”
I wanted to hit him over the head with my purse, and he knew it. He gave a hearty laugh and tried to hand him back to me.
“No way. Un unh.”
“Well you’ve named him, and touched him, now it’s time to feed him.”
“And pray tell, just how do I do that?”
“I think you have to catch some bugs for him.”
“Are you trying to ruin my dinner?”
He laughed again. “Here, I’ll help you. I see some lightning bugs over there. That ought to do for now.”
“How many does he need?” I asked as I followed him closer to the trees.
“I really don’t know, but more than usual I’m sure, after all, he has a mighty long tail to grow back.”
“Here, take him while I catch a few bugs.”
Given the choice of either holding him or catching bugs, I tentatively eased my hand out. But before I could connect with Connor’s, the lizard jumped; he actually jumped onto my hand. I stood there amazed as it crawled back and forth, pumped the flesh of my thumb like a cat trying to flatten a pillow, and sniffed at my fingers while Connor caught bugs.
I wondered what would happen if I dropped to my knees and put my hand on the ground. Surely he‘d scamper off. And would that be such a bad thing? I bent my knees.
“Don’t even think about it,” Connor said. “He’s your responsibility now.”
I straightened. I had to admit he was right. And besides, I didn’t want to disappoint Connor. He was a decent, all-American guy, and Diana could do a whole lot worse. I certainly had.
An hour later, I sat with Stumpy nestled in a small storage bin. There was a jar of fireflies on the kitchen counter—the leftovers from Stumpy’s dinner. Fifteen had been more than ample. I was tempted to let the others go, until I remembered that he’d be hungry in the morning, and then where would I be?
I turned back to my laptop and started typing an e-mail to Brick. I told him about my dinner with Connor, Connor’s dilemma regarding Diana, and the pet that had been morally thrust upon me by him. Had I re-read my missive before sending it, I might have noticed that I had overdone the use of the word “Connor.”
I found out at four in the morning that Brick had noticed that fact, and had reacted unfavorably to what he perceived as a challenge toward my attentions.
Chapter Seven
Ironically, I was sleeping soundly; not something I often did in the wee hours of the morning. But the incessant tapping of a key on my bedroom window finally jolted me awake. I sat up, ran my hand through my hair, and attempted to get my bearings. Often I still awoke and questioned my surroundings. For almost seven years I had lived in a master bedroom so sumptuous that it was on three levels; my current bedroom could not even do justice to one of the closets from my former life.
Shaking my head, I quickly registered who I was, where I was, and what that continual, irritating tapping sound was. I lifted the shade, pulling first the room darkening one up before the lighter, light emitting one, as I had found you had to be Hercules to pull them both up at one time.
Brick’s stern upturned face greeted me from the ground; his fingers were gripping the back of a small flashlight he was using to tap on the window. He stopped as I managed to get the blind up. I smiled, and was taken aback when he didn’t return it. With the hand holding the flashlight, he jerked his thumb toward the front of the RV, indicating I should go open the door for him. Despite his grim countenance, I hopped off the bed and ran for the door. My heart was doing triple time. No matter the reason, I was delighted he was here.
He was there when I opened the door and then up the step and into the RV before I could fully step back from the door. An arm, hard and masterful, snaked out and encircled my waist like a band of steel, and he brought me in close to his body. I could smell that delightful woodsy cologne I liked so much; it was at once elegant and all male, and I knew I would never smell it again without thinking of him. I noticed him take a deep breath and wondered if he was scenting me, too. The thought was some kind of erotic.
In a voice husky and deep, he informed me that, “You are mine. I may not be able to do anything about it, because on both sides of the fence, there are still things that need to be ironed out, but never doubt that you are mine. I want you and I am staking my claim. So, tell your soldier boy to back off and go home, you hear me?”
My eyes were wide, taking in the words spoken so gruffly, with a command that brooked no insubordination of any kind.
“He’s not my soldier. For God’s sake Brick, he’s just a kid.”
“He’s twenty-three, graduated college at age twenty as a Rhode’s Scholar, and has a very bad habit of running stop signs.”
I was continually amazed at Brick’s resources. “A Rhode’s Scholar, huh?” I was impressed, and since I knew that had not been Brick’s aim, I couldn’t help needling him. “Wow, that’s really something, he’s apparently very smart then.”
“He’s not smart enough to take you away from me.” His arm around my waist tightened and then his lips lowered. In the meager glow from the nightlight in the refr
igerator door, I saw bright flinty shards in his eyes. The thought occurred to me that this was a man set to make a conquest, as he paused to rake me from head to toe. “You forgot your panties,” he murmured as his mouth captured my lips. While his lips crushed and masterfully took mine, I remembered that I had on my usual bedroom attire, consisting of only a soft t-shirt—a concession to my health-minded mother who insisted that a woman’s privates needed a nightly airing. As his firm lips urged mine to open to his, I felt the hand around my waist loosen and slide up my back taking a fistful of t-shirt with it in an effort to uncover more of my bare bottom.
Mortified that Brick had seen evidence that I was pantyless, I managed to free a hand and tug my shirt down. I could feel his chuckle as his teeth nibbled at my bottom lip, then soothed it with his tongue. His hand continued its soft caress up my side and to my shoulder, and from there to my neck and cheek, while his other hand followed a similar path on the other side, until my face was in a firm vise between both hands. Rapturous kisses rained on my lips as he held my face close to his. Inch by languorous inch, he threaded those long, capable fingers into my hair. My lips were captive to both his gentle and savage kisses while he took possession of my mouth. I whimpered from the onslaught and felt my knees soften. All I could think was that I wanted to be swept off my feet; I wanted to be prone, under him with his pelvis grinding into me. It was as if he was reading my thoughts because I was suddenly gathered into his arms and carried sideways through the hallway toward my bedroom in the back.
As I was gingerly placed on my mussed, still warm-to-the-touch bed, I was keenly aware that one hand was supporting my back, while the other was hugging me tightly behind my knees. Within seconds of being deposited all that changed. The hand behind my knees slid under my t-shirt to grasp my hip, fully exposing me, while the other slid up to cup the back of my head. He lowered his body over mine, matching each body part to a corresponding one of mine. I felt the stiff fabric of his jeans covering me and abrading my thighs, his zipper placket, and all that was behind it, was pressing into my mons. And oh, did he grind himself into me. It was a testament to the bed that it was well made because it did not creak or groan, although Brick most assuredly did. The RV, on its stabilizing jacks, shuddered at about the same time I did. I could hardly believe that the simple act of him pressing himself against me so intimately had made me come.
“Let that be a lesson to you,” he whispered, as he looked down into my slumberous face and kissed the tip of my nose.
“Oh, I’ve learned my lesson all right.” I pushed a curl off his brow.
He chuckled and ran a finger down my cheek. “I wish I could stay. I could give you a few more lessons, but I’ve got to get back. I left my team five hours away, setting up surveillance at a rally.”
“You just got here.”
“This was not a planned trip. I just had to see you and to impress upon you my feelings in this matter.” To emphasize his words, he pressed his hips into my pelvis again. I felt those wonderful stirrings begin to fire up again.
“Oh, I’m impressed.”
“Be sure you stay that way. Now, just where is this Corporal O’Reilly? I need to have a word with him before I head back.”
“You don’t have to worry, I’m kind of stuck on you at the moment.”
“I believe that leaving Connor O’Reilly with a healthy dose of fear, garnered from a swaggering suitor toting a gun, would be in my best interests.”
“Swaggering?”
“It’s only because of your recent history that I don’t take you right now and settle any future issues, but he doesn’t need to know I haven’t had you yet.”
His lips sucked on my bottom lip, when he pulled on it until it released I asked, “Is that important?”
“A man will hesitate to take a woman if she’s accommodating someone else, especially if that man has made it known he intends her to continue doing the same.” He paused for effect, “However, one who hasn’t, ummm . . . succumbed shall we say, can be considered still available in the weird ass way that men think. In other words, you’d still be up for grabs.”
“Hmmm. Interesting, these mating rituals.”
“I will mate with you,” he whispered hoarsely, as his lips followed the line of my jaw to my ear. “And you will be very accommodating, won’t you?” he prompted.
I laughed as he tickled me and began a chorus of, “Won’t you? Won’t you? Won’t you?” that alternated with me saying, “I’ll think about it,” “Maybe I will,” and finally my surrender with, “Yes! Yes!”
He left me moments later to find Corporal O’Reilly, which caused me a few seconds of consternation, because I did not remember telling him where he could be found.
Chapter Eight
The sun came up as I lolled on the sofa watching Stumpy doze in his plastic terrarium. In an effort to make it homey, I had found a few small rocks and twigs he could climb on, and unearthed a swatch-sized section of moss to fool him into thinking he was outside. It could have been my imagination, but it seemed to me that his tail was already showing signs of re-growth. Or was I just anxious to be done with my latest houseguest?
Stumpy didn’t chatter and run on about everything imaginable, as Angelina had, which I dearly missed; but then she hadn’t required anything more than Cheerio’s for breakfast either.
The fireflies in the jar had not made it through the night and I didn’t know whether I should feed them to him or not. I reasoned that people food was killed prior to our even buying it, so I dumped them in and waited to see what he would do when he awoke.
I made some coffee and took some into the bathroom where I forced myself to shower. I was reluctant to wash off the last vestiges of Brick’s cologne. As long as I could smell him, it made me feel warm and sappy, and giddily aroused. The man had done little more than press me into the mattress and I’d had an orgasm that had lit up the back of my eyes like a kaleidoscope. And he’d left without even taking his pleasure in me. In the world I was from, that was unheard of. It was odd to think that his needs had not only not come first, but that he’d foregone them entirely.
Jared would never have allowed such a thing. He had trained me to secure his release before even trying to seek out my own. Often, I didn’t have the heart for it after what he put me through. The scenarios, where I was either his captive or his adolescent student, had left me cold and emotionless, and the farthest thing from feeling sexy that I could possibly imagine. Reaffirmed that I had done the right thing by leaving Jared, I put all thoughts of him aside.
The idea of taking a boat ride on the lake suddenly appealed to me so I dressed in capris and a sweater and went to see about both my breakfast and Stumpy’s. He was awake, but he wasn’t having anything to do with the dead fireflies. I had expected as much. Great, I would get to go bug hunting before enjoying my own breakfast.
I opened the door and stepped off the step just as Connor stepped out of his Jeep at the edge of the road. He had a small container in his hand and waved with it. I watched him as he walked down the worn pathway. He really was young looking. He and Diana sure had that in common; they both looked like kids on a high school varsity team.
“First, I want you to know that this is not a gift, that you should not attach any romantic sentiments to it whatsoever.”
“Brick found you?”
“Oh yeah. He makes Diana’s father look like Ozzie Nelson.”
“What’d he say?” I was curious to say the least.
“Off limits—head on a pike—entrails entrailing . . . things like that.”
I smiled and tenderly said what I was thinking, “What a sweet guy.”
“Yeah, right!”
“So what’s the gift?”
“Chiggers, aphids, lady bugs, roly-polys, a few spiders—a real smorgasbord. For the critter,” he added as if I needed that spelled out.
“Well aren’t you thoughtful. I was just about to go scavenging. He apparently doesn’t like leftovers, especially once th
ey’ve died.”
He chuckled and handed me the container before turning to go. Impulsively, I blurted out, “You want to go down to the lake and take a boat tour?”
“What about Medieval Man?”
“He didn’t say we couldn’t be friends. I never thought we were going to be anything else anyway, did you?”
“Hell no!”
Well that hurt my feelings. “Why not?”
“Correct me if I’m wrong, but as you’ve been married, and are now clearly involved, you’re probably not a virgin. I’m looking for a virgin.”
I blinked wide at that. “You’re not serious?”
“Yeah. I am.”
“You know you’re really limiting your choices. There are probably only a handful of virgins on the planet. And isn’t that, uh . . . pretty arrogant, using the old double standard and all?”
“No. I’m a virgin. And so is Diana. We both pledged abstinence in high school. It’s one of the things I love about her, her sense of self worth and piety.”
Miffed with the unfavorable comparison, I tossed out, “Well, I was a virgin when I married.”
“Bully for you. No offense, but now look at you, technically you’re an adulterer.”
Ah, so Brick had embellished, if not outright defined our supposed relationship by insinuating, or actually stating, that things were further along than they were. I wasn’t about to contradict him for there was no point. “Do you want to go for a boat ride or not?”
“Are you going to try to toss me over board?” he asked with a widening grin.
“Possibly.”
Chapter Nine
It took us a while to get down to the lake, but once we were on the water it was worth it. We were anxious to get part way out so we could look up at the sides of the crater and get some perspective. While admiring the scenery all around us we were nonstop with our queries about each other. I learned more about Diana than I knew about my own sister, and after a while I finally opened up a little about Jared. Until then, Connor thought I was just a divorcee striking out on her own. Now he knew I was haunted and hunted. We joked that maybe Jared would be able to find Diana for Connor.
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