by Stark, Avery
Liam pulled his hand out and spun her around.
“Are we safe here?”
He leaned over and softly bit the sensitive flesh just below her ear before he responded with a whisper, “You’re safe now, Audrey. Just let go.”
The loudest crack of thunder yet ripped through the house and shook the glass in even the heaviest mirrors on the walls. Through the small gaps where the storm shudders were pulled shut, the light from four or five flickering bolts leaked through. They landed like a white slash across Liam and Audrey’s naked bodies.
She closed her eyes and whispered, “You’re sure?”
“Yes I’m sure,” he said. “What are you so afraid of finding when you do?”
She squeezed her eyes shut tighter. In reality, there were a lot of things that she was afraid of. But as the storm outside raged and tore up the surrounding landscape, her lover’s delicate caresses did the same thing to her reservations and fear. All at once, Audrey let the walls she built come crashing down and finally allowed him in to the one place that needed his healing most: her heart.
“Make love to me,” she said to him as a single tear--one forged by an overwhelming sense of relief--rolled over her cheek.
Liam kissed and pulled her against his hard, naked core with both hands that cupped her rear. He finally peeled her away from the bed post and guided her back, eventually lowering her onto the edge of the bed.
Audrey sat, spread her knees apart to invite him in and finally lifted her lids. Just before she felt his hot, throbbing tip, their eyes locked together. Though he didn’t say anything more, Liam’s look told her everything that she needed to know. There was no judgment or anger in his gaze, only the soft look of adoration.
She glanced down between her thighs just in time to watch him slide in. Then, leaving his cock buried inside, Liam leaned over and locked lips with her. Audrey could feel his thumbs in her hips as they closed tighter and pinned her to the soft bed. Through all of it, Liam took his time and drew out each subtle movement with a careful, determined precision.
He slowly began to pump in and out, ending each thrust with a hard, quick bump forward that made Audrey’s breasts bounce under him. She moaned after every one, but the howling winds outside drowned her out.
Still positioned on the side of the bed, Liam lifted Audrey up into a sitting position and pushed in once more before he threw her back onto the middle of his plush bed. He climbed up after, but stopped between her thighs to give a slow lick and tickle of the tongue.
By the time that he made it back up and pushed back through her entrance, Audrey felt like her head was spinning. She closed her eyes again and paid careful attention to the way that his flesh felt against hers; the way that she could sense the tops of his thighs while they slapped against her body as his pace started to quicken. Without looking, she could feel him on his knees between her legs, where he sat up and watched her every pant and cry of pleasure.
Liam reached down and, with just one thumb, started to stroke the quivering, rosy flesh that surrounded her clit. After waiting so long, it didn’t take much to push Audrey over the edge. She snapped her eyes open and reached out, digging her nails into Liam’s rippled abs as every last nerve in her body erupted like fireworks. Her body trembled and shook while she screamed for him and rocked her hips over his thrusting pole.
When she started to come back down, the throbbing in her delicate walls made Liam’s increasingly powerful movements feel even better than before. Every tiny hitch and bump was magnified and rippled through her pumping blood like a tsunami.
Not long after, Audrey watched him tightly close his eyes and bite the bottom of his lip as he came and planted his hot, sticky seed deep inside. She gasped at the warming sensation and pushed her hips onto him to accept everything that he gave.
With Liam still perched over her, Audrey reached up and combed his hair with her fingers.
“You know I really am sorry, right? I never wanted to hurt you.”
“I know,” he said and leaned down, tickling her nose with his loose hair. “Just promise that you won’t do it again.”
“I promise,” she replied as his head sank down into the warm nook of her shoulder. “I just didn’t know what I wanted until now.”
Liam looked up and peered through the hair in his face.
“And what’s that?”
“You,” she said and closed her eyes as he began to kiss the side of her neck. “Just you.”
---
Audrey rolled over, yet again, on the squishy floor of Atsena Otie Key. This time, however, the old mill was gone.
She pulled herself off of the ground and looked up, where the impressive eye of the hurricane sat. Like before, there was only silence as the whirling circle of black formed a ring around the island. All of the infamous cedar trees sat, completely unscathed, as if the storm didn’t pass by at all. But as she looked around at the flashes of lightning that surrounded the area, Audrey knew that the worst was yet to come.
She turned around and scanned the empty space where the mill once stood. There was no wreckage, no piles of fallen wood and rusting pipes. Instead, an empty, leafy void stared back at her.
“Hello?”
There is it again, she thought.
A familiar sensation of fear began to well up in her stomach. She sensed him out there as he watched her every move. Audrey glanced up to the tree line, where she was sure that Max was hiding just as he did before.
The still silence that surrounded was interrupted by the crunching of leaves underfoot.
“I know you’re out there, Max,” she called to him. “I can feel you.”
Though she was just as afraid as the last time, Audrey pushed herself toward the sound instead of running away. She gained ground on it slowly, but gained none the less. But even as she closed in--it sounded like he was only a few feet away--there was no sight of him.
She paused on the edge of the tree line that circled the empty clearing and looked up. There was a clear division in the skies that showed where the eye ended and the killer winds began. She watched as clouds near the base were whipped up and carried to the top in a matter of seconds, along with thousands of leaves and branches. From the heavens, she followed the distinct line down through the trees. Between the twisting cedar trunks, the place on the ground where the storm waited was visible, too.
Without thinking, Audrey started toward it. She was so struck by the scene: it looked like a fan blade was chopping through the trees while, on her side, the leaves hardly rustled. As she inched closer, the air around stayed still and silent. Before her eyes, the landscape on the other side of the invisible wall was torn to shreds.
She inched up to the barrier and extended a hand, but chickened out and pulled back at the last second.
Max’s arm burst through the division and grabbed her. Like someone threw a switch, her peaceful place in the storm’s eye was gone. Instead, she stood amidst the snapping trees and howling wind and tried in vain to pull her arm away.
He looked thinner than she remembered but his face seemed much older as an ugly sneer spread over it and wrinkled the skin around his deep-set eyes. His teeth were yellowed and crooked and his hair had started to fill back in where he usually shaved it.
“You can’t do this to me anymore,” she screamed over the noise at him.
He pulled her in by the wrist and yanked it up over his head.
“Maybe not,” he growled as his face changed into Liam’s again, “but I can.”
Audrey swallowed the lump in her throat as her hair whipped around her face, collecting leaves and debris.
“No you can’t,” she screamed and thrust a fist forward.
Audrey’s knuckles shattered the mask’s glass nose before they smashed all the way through. When they did, Max’s grip on her released and the empty, broken face began to spill out white sand. It poured faster and faster, surrounding Audrey’s feet as the storm clouds wrapped in on themselves and were sucked back up
into the sky.
In a flash, she was back on the warm sand near the island’s dock. But instead of a raging storm waiting to greet her, Liam’s red kayak sat peacefully by the water. Nearby, a single paddle was stuck in a small mound of sand. Audrey reached out and grabbed the handle as she closed her eyes and took a deep breath of the salty, warm air.
As the storm raged just beyond the home’s walls, Audrey sleepily entangled her fingers in Liam’s and sighed. Though she was still gripped by the profound feeling of lightness that came from the dream world, both the paddle and his hand were like a lifeline. With them, the storm waiting when she woke didn’t seem so bad.
Not as long as Liam was by her side.
Chapter 12
Audrey woke up just as Liam slipped out of bed. He let go of her limp fingers, but not before he let them brush past his lips in a gentle kind of kiss. They felt like feathers that tickled her rough cuticles.
“Where’re you going?” She asked without opening her eyes.
“I’m going to let some light back in this place,” he responded softly. “The worst of it’s passed.”
Audrey stretched her arms over her head and finally lifted her lids. Because of the storm shudders, it was just about as dark as when she fell asleep. It was, however, a whole lot quieter.
“I’ll go with you.”
“You don’t have to.”
“I want to,” she said and pushed herself up onto her elbows. It wasn’t until the comforter fell down and exposed her breasts that she remembered being naked.
Liam took off the shirt that he wore and tossed it to her.
“Your clothes are still wet. They’re in the dryer, but the power just came back on 30 minutes ago.”
Audrey climbed out of bed and pulled the shirt on. It wasn’t too long--it barely came to the top of her thigh--but she didn’t think that they would have much company for a while.
“Thanks.”
“Don’t mention it.”
Liam led the way as they cut a straight line for the front door. Outside, the dramatic change in view took Audrey’s breath away.
Trees and clumps of grass had been ripped up and strewn about like toothpicks. Around the back, where Liam’s patio looked out at the angry sea, piles of debris were stacked at in one corner. In it, leaves, sticks, plastic, glass and even seaweed were tangled together like the kind of stuff nightmares are made of.
“It looks like the storm wasn’t as bad as they thought,” Liam said and unlatched the first of over a dozen storm shudders. It rolled back up with a clatter and snapped loudly into place. Scattered breaks in the clouds let just enough light onto the Earth for Audrey to get a good look at the ocean.
The waves had foamy tops as for as far as she could see and their movements were chaotic. Here and there, chunks of the timber that made Cedar Key famous bobbed around on the surf.
“I hope nobody got hurt.”
“Me too,” Liam said and unlatched another shudder. “We should probably head to Arthur’s place now.”
Audrey was confused and a little concerned.
“Why?”
“Oh, that’s where people tend to congregate after anything happens around here. It’s something these folks have been doing for years just to check up on each other.”
A gust of wind rushed by and blew Audrey’s shirt up over her waist. She shoved it back down and asked, “Can we wait for my clothes to dry? I can’t really go out in this.”
Liam stopped what he was doing and looked over to her.
“Not into town, you can’t.” He stood up from where he was kneeled and walked over. “But you can go back into my room.”
Audrey didn’t resist as he swept her up into his arms and carried her inside, leaving the rest of the shudders to be raised another time.
---
The historic homes of Cedar Key survived Hurricane Margaret relatively unscathed, though Audrey could see tons of torn-down awnings and boards as Liam carefully weaved his motorcycle through the empty streets that led to the Island Hotel.
When they rolled up to the building, its flags were already back out and three men were busy removing boards from the lower level. Audrey could see people lingering near the front door, with many more likely inside. Tons of bicycles were leaned up against the facade, giving a small indication of just how much of the town showed up.
“See,” Liam said as he parked near the front door. “It’s a little tradition of ours.”
Inside, the sheer number of people made the whole space warm and toasty.
“Audrey! Liam!” Kim called to them through the crowd, “Over here.”
They wandered closer to the bar, where they found her seated at a table with two more people that Audrey didn’t know but faintly recognized. Kim hopped up from her spot and hugged her.
“I was worried about you last night, but I can see that you were in good hands.”
“Only the best hands,” Liam interjected playfully. “Is everyone okay?”
“That’s the word on the street. The Williams house lost its roof, but nobody was home. How did your place make out?”
Liam rubbed the back of his neck and glanced over to Audrey.
“I didn’t get a chance to really check it out, but it seemed okay. What about yours?”
“Just fine, Liam.” She took a drink of water out of a glass in front of her and added, “By the way, old man Zelecki wanted to talk to you about the cleanup effort tomorrow. He’s over playing poker with the guys.”
“Of course he is.” He turned to Audrey and said, “I’m going to go talk to him. I’ll be right back.”
“Sure. No problem.”
Liam pecked her on the cheek before he disappeared into the crowd.
“I see things went well for you,” Kim said with a laugh.
“Uh,” Audrey stammered, “yeah I guess so.”
Kim grabbed her arm and gave it a little squeeze.
“Seriously. I’m happy for you. He’s a really great guy.”
Though she was grateful for her friend’s approval, their conversation obviously danced around another issue that still had some loose ends. Before anyone could ask, Audrey answered the obvious question.
“If Max doesn’t file by tomorrow, then I will.”
“Good. You deserve so much more than him,” Kim said. “And it seems like you may have already found it.”
“Maybe I have.” Audrey looked around, but Liam was still out of sight. “Hey, where’s Arthur?”
“Oh, he’s at the bar giving out drinks.”
“It’s not even noon yet!”
Kim--and the two other people at her table--laughed.
“You have much to learn, my friend. Good luck getting to him.”
Audrey thanked her and went on her way. She tried her best to navigate through the crowd and, as predicted, it took her a few minutes to get through to the hotel’s owner.
“Arthur. Hey Arthur!”
He looked up from the drink that he was preparing. Next to him, his loyal employee Susan helped out doing the same thing.
“Well, well, well. Look what the cat dragged in. Excuse me, fellas,” he said to the line of old men sitting at the bar. “I need to talk to the lady, here.”
A few of them nodded as he slipped out from behind it and gave her a tight hug.
“How did your first hurricane treat you?”
Audrey thought back to her passionate romp with Liam as the winds howled.
“Pretty well, actually.” She looked up to the painting over the bar and was still shocked at her work. “How did you know that I could fix that painting, Arthur?”
He thought about it for a moment before he answered, “I didn’t.”
“Excuse me?”
“That first day that you came into my bar, you had a look that I’ve seen a few times in my life.”
She leaned against the rich, shining wood and asked, “What look is that?”
“The look of someone so beat down that they doubt every
good thing they have, whether it’s talent or something else. You didn’t need to say anything.”
“I don’t understand.”
“If nobody ever took a chance on anyone, that painting wouldn’t be there in the first place. This world is still full of a lot of good, talented people, but you might never know if you don’t give them an opportunity to shine.” He looked over to her work again and continued, “And boy, did you shine. I’m proud of you.”
His words were so flattering that Audrey couldn’t stop herself from giving him another quick hug.
“Thank you,” she whispered into his ear and tried to hold back tears, “for taking a chance on me. It was everything that I needed.”
Arthur patted her shoulder and replied, “Well, almost everything. Here comes the rest.”
Liam emerged from the tightly-packed mass of people with a wave.
“You’re awful popular around these parts,” Audrey called to him.
He smirked and flicked the hair out of his face.
“And you’re just figuring this out?”
Audrey elbowed his side and responded, “You’re the worst.”
“Not at everything, right?”
Considering that they weren’t even close to being alone, his comment made her cheeks feel hot. It didn’t come from a place of embarrassment but, rather, the sinful memories of the things he did to her.
“No,” she pulled the hair away from her heated neck. “Not everything.”
Audrey felt his hand slip down to cover one ass cheek, which he gave a tempting squeeze.
“You wanna go outside and get some fresh air?”
“That would be great.” She turned to Arthur and said, “I’ll catch you later.”
The two of them weaved through the stuffy bar and lobby, which teemed with residents who looked relatively happy. Most of them sat in circles where they laughed and told stories just as they did at the BBQ. Though it happened not too long before, it felt like ancient history to Audrey, who was the first one to push through the back door at the end of the hall. She was immediately greeted by a blast of damp air that tore the door from her grip and slammed it against the wall.