by Sky Winters
“Nope. I’m an old pro, just get it over with,” she squeezed her eyes shut and turned her head.
Luke adjusted her arm into position, “On the count of three. Ready? One… two… three,” he popped her arm back into place.
Jennifer screamed through her teeth. The initial wedging of the joint back in to socket hurt like hell, but the pain quickly subsided and she could breathe again.
“Thank you.”
“Maybe we should go back. You really need to rest that arm.”
“No. Let’s keep going. I’ll be fine. This arm has given me nothing but problems since the tenth grade anyway, I’m not gonna let it slow me down. I just need to wear a sling for an hour or so, so it doesn’t dislocate again.”
Luke peeled his shirt off over his head and fashioned a make shift sling around her neck.
Jennifer’s breath hitched as he touched the sensitive skin around her neck. Luke looked like he didn’t have an ounce of fat on him. Her eyes explored over the planes of his chest. Luke was not overly hairy, but he did have fair amount of light brown hair covering his chest and arms. In a moment of what she deemed as lapsed sanity, she stroked her hand over his forearm, indulging in the contrast of the soft hair and the solid muscle.
Luke went totally still, like a deer in a hunter’s sight, and just watched. Her touch was feather light, almost as if she was wary about making contact. What was surprising was how Luke felt his stomach flip. He chose her, but something in the back of his mind made him think maybe there was some type of design he wasn’t aware of in making that choice.
“C’mon, kid,” he kissed her cheek. Just a chaste expression of comfort, nothing more, “We’re about half a mile from our destination. Stick close,” he helped Jennifer to her feet and guided her to his left side to protect her injured shoulder.
His senses were on high alert. Her falling normally would have been no big deal, but Luke wasn’t exactly the best liked of individuals, and having someone injured with him may prove a liability. There were so many people from his community gathered in the Paradise area that had expressed ill feelings toward him in the past that it was likely some of them had made their way over to the canyon for a run. Most of them wait for the cover of darkness to make their mischief, but it never hurt to be wary anyway.
“So tell me about yourself. We still have time to kill,” Jennifer was gazing up at him patiently waiting for a response.
“There isn’t much to tell,” Luke shrugged, “I have lived my entire life in Chico and the surrounding areas. I went to San Francisco for a couple of years in my twenties with my band and when that didn’t pan out, I came back and became a welder.”
“What kind of music did you play?”
“Really bad heavy metal. We wanted so badly to be Judas Priest, but none of us had any actual talent,” he laughed, “A heckler heaved a beer bottle full of piss at my head and screamed that I couldn’t sing. Five stitches and a bender later, I finally believed him.”
“Gross. So you were the singer then?”
“Sing is really too strong a word for what I did. I would politely describe it as a midnight howl serenade.”
Jennifer giggled. Her laugh was so sweet, Luke thought he would do anything to keep hearing it, “What about you? Outside of volleyball what is there to know about Jennifer Armstrong?”
“Well, I don’t play volleyball anymore. Apparently you really need grace and coordination to play the sport and those are two skills I seem to have in short supply as you can see,” she pointed to her shoulder.
“I’m only here for the summer. I grew up in Paradise, but I go to college at Arizona State. I’m finishing up my Bachelor’s in Animal Sciences. I’m getting ready to apply for med school to become a vet. I want to work with injured wildlife,”
How appropriate, Luke thought.
“Ambitious. I like it. It’s a good field to get into.”
Jennifer appreciated that he didn’t say he was impressed or looked at her surprised when she explained her chosen career path. Too many people in Paradise and even in Arizona always look shocked when she would tell them she wanted to be a doctor and not a dental assistant or a teacher. His tone conveyed respect as opposed to skepticism, which was refreshing.
“Why wildlife?”
“Excuse me?” she was still lost in thought.
“Why wildlife? You’ve chosen such a specialized field, I was curious as to why.”
“I find wild animals fascinating. Every summer we would road trip down to Lancaster to visit my grandparents. I would drive them crazy when we would get there to go to the sanctuary in Rosamond at least once a week.
I would spend hours talking to the handlers and vets about the animals – mind you I was ten at the time – and I wanted to know everything I could. That summer they had gotten in a rescue named Teddy, a wolf, and he became my favorite. He was sleek and powerful, everything about him came off as being Mr. Cool. I was so sad when he died a few years ago.”
Luke was giddy inside. He couldn’t believe his luck. He stared at this woman he just thought was intensely beautiful with her bright green eyes and breathtaking curves. Fate, heavenly design, whatever you want to call it, put him in the path of this woman. There was no way he was letting his perfect mate go.
“We’re here,” Luke announced. The falls stretched out before them, the river it fed snaked through the landscape, parting the trees, demanding its space to run before turning a corner and disappearing.
“Come with me,” Luke guided Jennifer to the grotto under the falls, “Mind the rocks,” the ground was slippery with algae beneath her flip-flops.
Luke sat on a boulder and removed his boots and socks. As he stood to undo his jeans Jennifer stopped him, “Are we going swimming? Is that even allowed here?” Luke was dangerously close to being naked, a thought that both enticed and freaked Jennifer out. She had to stall.
“Technically, no we aren’t supposed to go swimming, but does that matter? No one else is here. It’s just you and me. You can swim, right?”
The two of us alone, that’s what’s freaking me out! “Yes, but I don’t have my bathing suit,” suddenly gripped by modesty, she became concerned by what he would think if he saw her without any clothes on. All of her goddamn summer camp and gym class insecurities came back and flooded her system. She hadn’t ever had sex with the lights on and now her date for the afternoon was all gung ho about skinny-dipping.
“Neither do I,” Luke’s eyes twinkled with mischief and mirth. He turned his back to Jennifer and dropped his clothes.
Jennifer choked and became more than a little turned on at the sight of his bare body. His naked torso was simply the sneak preview; she just got an eyeful of the entire fucking feature presentation.
“Last one in is a ‘fraidy cat” Luke teased and dove in. He broke the surface of the water a moment later with a whoop and a shake of his head, “That’s cold, whoa,” he wiped his face and blinked the water from his eyes, “Get in!”
Jennifer hesitated, but the sight of Luke naked in the clear spring was too tempting to pass on. She kicked off her flip-flops, tossed her makeshift sling to the side, and quickly shed her clothes down to her white cotton bra and underwear. She crossed her arms over her stomach, to cover herself and dipped a toe in.
The shock of the chill shot up her leg through the rest of her body, “You’re nuts! The water is freezing!”
Luke disappeared under the surface again for a moment and quickly materialized in front of her, “What did I tell you about hiding in front of me?” The water near her feet was the shallowest, maybe three feet deep, allowing Luke to get close and grab Jennifer around the waist, playfully tossing her in the water.
Jennifer squealed as she soared through the air and landed a few feet away ass first into the water.
The chill momentarily stunned her, taking her breath away. Her head came out of the water, “You shit!” she scanned the area and found Luke treading water a few yards away, laughing his head o
ff. She dipped beneath the water and kick paddled her way over to him. Not quite trusting her arm, she relied on her legs to do the work.
Coming up in front of him she splashed water in his face with her good arm, “You jerk!” she said playfully before laying on her back and kicking up a powerful spray of water in his face before taking off.
Luke chased after her and the two spent the afternoon swimming and playing in the creek, just enjoying each other’s company and the warmth of the Northern California summer.
The sun had sunk low, casting the sky in shades of pink and orange. Rays of light bounced off of the water’s surface around Jennifer. causing it to sparkle and twinkle, drawing Luke’s attention to the warm coloring of her skin. His eyes traced along the wet tendrils of Jennifer’s hair. She reminded him of the water nymphs of Greek legends, enamoring and mysterious, she drew him in to her by just existing.
“What?” Jennifer asked, “Do I have something on my face? Is there a bug?” she stopped talking, Luke’s staring unsettled her, “What?”
Luke allowed impulse to take over as he closed the space between them and bent down to kiss her.
Jennifer stiffened in surprise and then allowed her body to respond. The kiss started gentle, testing the connection between them, but the softness of his lips and the scratch of his stubble brought her body to attention. She had felt something pass in the air between them last night, and for sure this afternoon. It was dangerous, yes, but in the way that her vow to swear off men had been put in jeopardy, and maybe her heart as well.
Luke buried his hands in the hair at the nape of her neck, drawing her in and deepening the kiss. The gentle exploration was fading and was being replaced by lust and possession.
Pressing closer, Jennifer allowed that possession to happen. Luke was not her type at all, maybe that was a good thing since her type hadn’t worked out so far, but her response to him was stronger than to any other man she had been with.
The softness of her body pressed against him quickly stirred Luke’s arousal. His tongue brushed over hers, stroking and teasing a response from her mouth.
She sighed and wrapped her arms around his waist, running her hands over the damp hills and valleys of his back. Feeling bolder, she drew her nails gently down his skin, “Jesus, that feels good,” he purred.
Luke’s hands drifted down her neck and over her chest to cup her breasts. Her nipples strained against the soaking white fabric, begging for his touch. He ran his thumbs over the sensitive flesh. Jennifer moaned and dropped her head back allowing Luke to taste her neck. The kisses and nibbles drove her crazy, almost to the point of losing control.
“Excuse me! There are children in the park. Take your shenanigans elsewhere!” A tourist and his family had stumbled on the scene in the water. A woman – presumably the mother – was covering the eyes of two children, and a very angry bald man stood on the bank with his arms crossed over his polo-clad chest.
“Sorry, sir!” Jennifer called out. She and Luke swam back to the grotto to dress. Being caught had knocked all of the excitement out of their almost rendezvous. She felt a little bit ashamed of herself for letting things go as far as they had.
She struggled to slip her jeans over her damp legs. The racing of her heart made her clumsy and irritable, “Can you take me home please? It’s late and I need to get back.”
Luke didn’t push the issue; he tied back his dripping hair off his shirt, “Of course. When you’re ready we’ll go.”
Jennifer finished dressing quickly, “I’m ready.”
They walked back to the bike in awkward silence. Jennifer had never been caught getting busy before. Despite getting busted, she had an amazing afternoon. The spontaneity of the whole thing was just what she needed to shake her from the morose spell she had been under for months.
Luke mounted the bike first, passing the helmet her way as he did before. Jennifer buckled it on and slipped in behind him, wrapping her arms around him without prompting. He fired up the bike, the vibration of the engine hummed between her legs to remind her of the unsatisfying conclusion of their swim. He pulled onto the road and drove back towards Paradise.
She wanted to see him again, that much she knew. He was only going to be in town a few more days and she wanted to make the most of it. Maybe a fling with her handsome stranger was enough to get her back on the horse. She had nothing to lose he would be gone and in another month she’d be back at school. No muss, no fuss.
Luke drove up to the restaurant and parked, letting the engine idle. He got off and went to help Jennifer off the seat, “Can we exchange numbers?” she blurted out, wincing at her own inelegance.
“Of course,” Luke pulled out his cell phone and set up a new contact before handing her the phone. Jennifer quickly plugged her number in and shot off a text to herself and handed it back to him.
“Thank you, for today. I had a really good time,” she swung her hands at her sides, unsure of what to do with them.
“Me too. The pleasure was all mine, Jennifer. Really,” he reached out and pulled her towards him for a goodbye kiss. It was swift, but by no means chaste. He smiled at her before climbing back on and taking off.
Jennifer watched the bike shrink in size before disappearing down the road, nearly panting with lust.
Her phone rang, Tiffany was calling, “Hey, Tiff. I was just about to call you.”
“Hey! Where are you? I was beginning to get worried.”
“I’m at the restaurant, can you come pick me up?”
“You been there all afternoon? It’s nearly seven!”
Jennifer chuckled a bit, “No I haven’t. You won’t believe me. Come get me and I’ll tell you all about it.”
“Ooo! I’m on my way!” and the line went dead. Jennifer tapped her phone against her hand and smiled to herself. Tiffany was going to die when she told her what happened, and what nearly happened.
“You’re right. I don’t believe it. You? No offense, but you’re a little tightly wound, girl,” their apartment complex came into view. Jennifer had spent the ten-minute drive excitedly spilling every detail of her day.
“Thanks, Tiff!” Jennifer wasn’t offended. Tiffany was right. She had been beyond an uptight stick-in-the-mud all summer.
“Well, you can be! I’m proud of you for letting yourself have a little fun; and with a strange man no less,” Tiffany waggled her eyebrows at her.
“Cut that out. You look like Groucho Marx,” Jennifer said with a laugh, “I really want to see him again, Tiff. I think a little fling will be just what I need to finally get over Jason and the entire spring semester.”
“Atta girl! Like I’ve been telling you since May, the best way to get over a guy is to get under another one,” both girls broke out in peals of laughter. It was so nice to laugh again. Jennifer hadn’t noticed how deep she had slipped into her funk until now.
“What do you say to renting a bad horror movie and getting Chinese?”
“I think that is an amazing idea. You call China Palace while I run to the Redbox, Okay?” Tiffany suggested as she unlocked the front door.
“Works for me. What do you want?”
“Boneless spare ribs and fried rice, but add in some of those fried egg roll things. They were amazing last time,” Tiffany shouted as she shut the door behind her.
Jennifer called and placed the delivery order. As she hung up a text message came through:
I want to see you again. Tonight. Can you meet me somewhere?
A tingle went up Jennifer’s spine. Of course she wanted to meet him. Even rehashing their make out in the car with Tiffany got her hot and bothered. She decided to wait until Tiffany got back to answer. She had made plans and didn’t really want to bail.
Twenty minutes later Tiffany had come home, “I got some real Oscar winners here, girl. How does Cheerleader Zombie Hunters and American Werewolf in Tennessee sound?”
“American Werewolf in Tennessee?”
“Yeah the synopsis said it was kind of li
ke American Werewolf in London, but set in the Appalachian Mountains. I looked up the lead actor and he was super cute so at least there’s eye candy if it’s lame.”
“Let’s start with that one. The food should be here any minute so go set the movie up while I go change,” she had been so distracted she forgot how filthy her pants were.
Closing her bedroom door behind her she peeled her damp clothes off and changed into a black lace bra and panty set, she had every intention of seeing Luke again tonight and she wanted to be ready. She fired off her response before fully dressing,
I’d love to… later. I have movie plans with Tiffany. I’ll text you when we’re done.
She threw on her silky pink pajama shorts and her favorite Butcher Babies tee just as Tiffany hollered that the food had arrived, “I’m coming!” she checked her phone, no response, shrugged and chucked it on the bed. She wanted him badly, but she wasn’t going to come off as overeager or desperate.
“This movie is ridiculous!” Jennifer shouted. American Werewolf in Tennessee was proving to be a riot. The acting was the worst. The film was supposed to be set in the mountains, but it looked like it was filmed in someone’s backyard in Palm Springs.
“Yeah, but I told you the actor was cute. Look at his butt as he runs through the woods. Mmm. Mommy, like.”
Jennifer laughed, but something in the next scene had caught her attention. The lead had been attacked by a wolf earlier in the film and had shifted during the full moon. He had woken up, covered in blood and in the middle of the woods, his girlfriend’s corpse on the ground next to him.
An ominous shiver went up her spine. The movie was hokey as hell, but it did remind her that her chosen career path was really a dangerous one.
“Poor bastard. That is so sad,” Tiffany slouched into the sofa, “Can you imagine being cursed like that and killing the person you loved the most?”
“I’m sure it would destroy me.”
The next scene immediately obliterated the heart-wrenching kill scene with a poorly rendered wolf puppet and an Appalachian witch doctor.