Without You Here

by Ashby, Carter

  She hesitated before taking it and hurriedly hiding it under the seat. "Is it legal? Your gun?"

  "Yeah. Hey, can you reach behind the seat there and grab that sweatshirt?"

  She did so and as soon as they got to the stop sign at the intersection of the county road and the main highway, he shoved into it. Then he reached back and took one of the sleeping bags. He wrapped it around Ettie who was trembling and pale. "You okay?"

  She nodded, eyes wide. She gave him a wan smile. "That was kind of...crazy."

  He rubbed her arms up and down for a moment to warm her. "I have never in my life encountered a trio of perverted hillbillies in the woods," he said. "And I've never been chased away from the lake by my father-in-law. So I have to say, this is completely on you."

  She laughed weakly. "I'd defend myself, but this doesn't happen to be my first time running into hillbilly perverts. So..."

  Wyatt hated to think of her as one of those people who run into bad luck all the time. He didn't ask. He didn't want to know. Didn't want to care about her more than he already did. "You're shaking bad, honey. You gonna be okay?"

  She nodded. "Yeah. That was just really scary."

  He reached for her. She came into his arms and he kissed her full on the mouth. "No more adventures tonight, Ettie," he whispered into her hair.

  She clung to him and her shaking settled down. "I loved our adventure. Jumping off cliffs is fun."

  "Yes it is."

  She was quiet for a moment. "Maybe," she said in a soft voice, "Maybe we could go back to your place."

  Wyatt tried to control his reaction, but he knew she felt the tension in his body. He held her all the tighter so he wouldn't have to look at her. He held her tight and squeezed his eyes shut because he didn't want to hurt her. Not ever. And he hated himself for caring this much. He took a breath and held it until he knew he was steady. "I can't," he said.

  She didn't pull away. "We don't have to sleep in your bed. I understand that could be...uncomfortable. We could sleep on the living room floor. Or—“

  "I can't. It's her home. Hers."

  She did pull away, then. All the way to her side of the truck. "I guess you can't be taking some bimbo you met at a bar into your family home, huh?"

  He turned and put his hands on the wheel. He couldn't speak. There wasn't any air in his lungs. She wasn't some bimbo. He supposed to anyone looking on, it would appear that way. What the hell were the two of them doing if not just having a superficial fling? But he liked her. He cared about her.

  "God, Wyatt, I'm sorry," she said. "Can you just forget I said that? I'm...I don't know...I'm romanticizing this thing with you, I guess. I don't know. But I know what this is. I know it's nothing. I mean...not nothing...but...God. What I mean is, I don't want to go home tonight, Wyatt. So take me somewhere, okay? Take me somewhere safe and cozy and let's just...," she shrugged.

  He finally looked over at her. Her eyes were wide. Her mouth set in a somber, resigned expression. Her bottom lip stuck out just a hint, like she was ready to cry if need be. Though Wyatt wasn't sure whether Ettie was much of a crier. Her hair hung in limp strands around her face and she clutched the sleeping bag around her like a cold, starving waif.

  He wanted her.

  He tore his eyes away and put the truck in gear. He looked over his shoulder and pulled back onto the highway. "Let's go see if my friend Cal's cabin is vacant. That's about as safe and cozy as you can get."

  She let out a little squeal of delight and bounced in her seat before re-fastening her seat belt.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  I was so glad I hadn't ruined everything. I was hurt, for sure. But I didn't really have any right to be. We'd known each other less than forty-eight hours. Of course he didn't want to take me home. Still. It hurt. But I didn't want our night to end.

  We went first to the Sheriff's station. I’d pulled my bikini bottom back on, but all I had on besides that was Wyatt’s t-shirt, so I opted to wait in the truck. With the doors locked. With that pistol clutched in my hands as though I had a clue how to shoot it. It made me feel better. Plus, how likely was I to have to use a gun parked outside the Sheriff's office?

  He was in there for fifteen minutes. I couldn't stop thinking about how creepy those guys were. And how they reminded me of the man who had claimed to be my uncle. I'd run away from home for the sixth time when I was fifteen. I was woefully ignorant. I sometimes think I still am. And while I was sitting on a bench outside a gas station eating a honey bun, some guy came up to me. He acted like he knew me. He looked a lot like that guy with the rifle whom Wyatt had faced down—amazing Wyatt who didn't bat an eye at anything. I wished there had been a Wyatt that day at the gas station.

  My heart warmed when I saw him stroll out of the Sheriff's station. The warmth spread to the pit of my belly and tears sprung to my eyes. I wanted more than this weekend and there was no sense denying it. Leaving for home tomorrow was going to hurt. Bad.

  He climbed in the truck and shot me a quick wink. "Alright. That's settled. Off to Cal's."

  "Does he live far away?"

  "Nope."

  I scooted over to the middle of the bench and slid my hand along his thigh. It was fun to watch him grin.

  "I keep thinking I'm going to wake up from this amazing dream that is you, Ettie," he said.

  I got to my knees and stuck my tongue in his ear. I only meant to throw him off his game a little, but he ended up gunning it and turning off onto the first, backwoods road we came upon. He threw the truck into park and then threw me onto my back. It took about five minutes but that didn't mean it wasn't amazing. While I was still lying there panting, he was back up and reversing back towards the highway. "Teach you to tease me, little girl," he said, all macho, like he could ever fool me into thinking he was a jerk. I could see the satisfied smirk on his face. He was getting lucky big time this weekend and it was clearly a much needed ego boost.

  We drove for another ten minutes until we got to this little farm house off the highway. There was a fenced-in field and a couple of out buildings in back. "Should I wait out here?" I asked.

  He shut off the engine. "Nah. Come on in."

  I looked down at my bare legs and back up at him. “You’re fully clothed. I look like a street urchin.”

  “There’s no dress code at Cal’s,” he said, as though that helped me at all. He climbed out of the truck and came around to open my door. I stepped out and tugged the t-shirt further down on my thighs and I think the bastard was holding back laughter.

  I held his hand as he led me to the front door. Cal answered. He was a tall man Wyatt's age. Handsome with blond hair and blue eyes. He grinned real big when he saw us. "What the hell, Wyatt?" he asked, still grinning and looking me up and down.

  Wyatt introduced us and we shook hands. Then Cal led us inside. He was obviously a bachelor, but he was a tidy one. I was surprised at how neat the living room was. There was an empty beer can on the coffee table and an open magazine on the couch, but that was about the extent of the clutter. I made sure there was plenty of t-shirt covering my ass as I sat down. Wyatt grabbed an afghan off the back of an armchair and draped it over my lap. He sat next to me with his arm around my shoulders.

  Cal smiled at me. "Jesus, Wyatt. I know we all been telling you to put yourself back out there, but this is above and beyond."

  "Aww, thank you,” I said, “But it's nothing. Just a fling. I'm going home tomorrow and never see him again."

  Wyatt nodded. "She's just using me to get back at her boyfriend."

  "Sounds like fun. Can you give me the name of the place where you two met?"

  "Just up at Crowley's," Wyatt said.

  "No shit? I go up there all the time and never seen anything as pretty as this one."

  Wyatt smiled at me and squeezed me close. "Just good luck, I guess. We were wondering if your cabin's available for the night."

  Cal's eyebrows shot up. "Sure. You two gonna go play house?"

  "That's the plan
. We had a pretty upsetting run-in with a few rednecks that took the wind out of our sails." He described the encounter to Cal who frowned and shook his head. "So anyway, I thought I'd take Ettie, here, some place cozy to relax the rest of the night."

  Cal shrugged. "No problem." He stood and grabbed a key off a row of pegs on the wall next to the door and tossed it to Wyatt. They chatted on for a few minutes and then we were off to this new destination.

  He rested his hand on my thigh as he drove us out into the hills, down a curvy highway. There were signs for a lake up ahead, which I guessed was where we were going. I braced myself for the possibility that this was some run-down fishing cabin. But my hopes soared when we turned down a lane lined with very nice, two-story cabins. Some had lights on. We turned into the driveway of one that didn't. The driveway was steep, but leveled off at the top onto a covered carport.

  Wyatt came around and opened my door for me. I let him. That's the one thing my boyfriend had always been good about. Opening doors for me. I thought it was weird at first, but I got to liking it. I'd never dated a guy who did that.

  We went in. The cabin was bigger than any bachelor would ever have need of. We didn't even use the upstairs that night. The main bedroom was on the first floor and the bathroom had a huge, corner whirlpool tub. Which was right where I headed when I saw it. I immediately started running a nice, hot bath. I was chilled to the bones from the night air and the swim in the river and the frightening Deliverance episode.

  Wyatt came in. "I'm going to run out and get us some food," he said. "You be naked in that tub when I get back, okay?"

  I nodded. I was beginning to feel I could always be compliant with this man. His wants and needs ran hand-in-hand with my own.

  I was naked in the tub when he came back. He stepped in the bathroom and stripped, no hesitation. He climbed in and lounged against the corner opposite me. The heat had already sunk into my bones. My head was back on the rim and my eyelids were heavy. "What did you bring us to eat?" I asked.

  "Got KFC. It won't be as good as yours. But I had my heart set on chicken."

  I bit my bottom lip to keep from smiling. "It will be every bit as good as mine, I'm sure."

  He narrowed his eyes at me. And then he leaned forward. "It's KFC in the cooler in your car, isn't it?"

  I gasped in mock surprise. "I'm offended! I slaved over that meal."

  He grabbed my wrist and pulled me toward him. I stretched my body along his and kissed his neck. He leaned his head back while I kissed and nibbled. I found the hickeys I'd given him. I'd just wanted him to have to remember me for at least a little while whenever he looked in the mirror. I ran my hands over those powerful shoulders and down his chest. I pressed my breasts against him and savored the feeling. "I tried," I said with my cheek pressed to his chest, "to make chicken. I spent two hours frying pieces of chicken and I never could get them done in the middle without turning them black on the outside. So I cried and threw it all away and went to KFC."

  His hands were making slow trails up and down my back. "I appreciate your honesty," he said.

  Oh, how I loved the slick feeling of his body against mine.

  "It was sweet of you to try and cook for me." His voice was low and kind of scratchy.

  "I thought it would be romantic. Instead I went out and bought Tupperwear and transferred all the food into it like it was homemade. My whole life is a lie."

  He laughed and squeezed me tightly. "Aw, Ettie. You're a hell of a find, you know that?"

  I nuzzled my head up beneath his chin. "You too, Wyatt."

  He pushed my head back just enough that he could take my lips with his. He kissed me gently. Lovingly. That's what it was. A loving kiss. And I ached in my soul from it. It made me...yearn. And that scared the shit out of me.

  Even though these were my thoughts, it still startled me when he said: "This doesn't have to end tomorrow, Ettie."

  I looked at him. He was totally open to me in that moment. All the pain he'd lived with bared before me. All the hope and need he fought so hard against, right there in his eyes. I wanted to shout, "Yes! Yes! Let's make this last forever!" But I knew he wasn't really offering me anything more than an extension of our weekend. Another weekend. And another. Until this burned out. It should be enough for me, but it wasn't. Only two nights and I already knew that I wanted everything from him. Too much of him still belonged to his wife and I wanted it. All of it.

  I didn't say anything, then, though. We still had tonight. So I smiled and kissed him. And then we got out of the tub, dried off, and went to the living room to eat.

  There were hard wood floors all through the cabin. The walls were stained wood as well. The yellow light from the lamp on the side table cast the whole room in a dim glow. I didn't have anything else to wear except a towel. So Wyatt wore a towel, too, and we both laughed at ourselves. We'd come very ill prepared for this little sleepover.

  There was a TV mounted above the fireplace. We fell into a deep, soft sofa and Wyatt grabbed the remote and turned it on. I gnawed on a drumstick while he flipped channels. I pointed and made noises for him to stop when he passed Pretty Woman. The all-time perfect date movie! It was just getting started, too. And I could tell he'd seen it before because he looked at me with pleading in his eyes. I just shrugged. What could I say? We had to watch it. So he tossed the remote on the coffee table and went to work eating.

  We both ate a lot. Which was no wonder and a good thing too. He needed his energy for what I wanted to do with him that night. There were two lamps on and when we finished eating, he turned one off and snuggled in beside me. By the time Julia Roberts was kissing her way down Richard Gere's chest, I had my hand inside Wyatt's towel and was making him smile and groan.

  We had sex all over that cabin. First on the couch. Then in the kitchen. I was sitting on the counter while he fed me ice cream before he lost control of himself and took me right there. Then in the master bedroom where we left the blankets a tangled mess and fell asleep in each other's arms.

  I regretted that the most of anything that weekend. Falling asleep. But then, I'm not sure we could have possibly gotten enough of each other, even if we'd stayed awake. A shaft of sunlight pierced through a gap in the drapes and hit me full in the face. It was only six in the morning. So I turned my face into Wyatt's chest and willed myself to go back to sleep. I didn't, though. I couldn't. And soon, Wyatt was stirring. It thrilled me that his first movements in the morning involved pulling me closer against him and caressing my ass. I vaguely wondered if that was what he'd done with his wife all those years.

  I rolled on top of him. He was already hard between my thighs. His eyes weren't open yet, but his hands were on my breasts. I took his erection and slid down on him. He gasped and arched into me. Then he groaned. His eyes opened to slits and he smiled. His hand slid up to my neck and held me. "Ride hard, Ettie," he said in his morning voice, which was super sexy.

  I obeyed and thrilled at the sound of the headboard banging against the wall. I rode until I thought my legs would give out. Sweat dripped down my back and my hair clung to my damp forehead.

  Then he sat up and wrapped his arms around me. The change of angle sent me into an orgasm I hadn't realized was building. The best of my life, up until that point. I thought it would never end and, in the midst of it, I felt him go rigid and pulse inside of me. He cried out and cursed and squeezed me so tightly I couldn't breathe.

  At last we collapsed into each other. The way he clung to me I could tell he was sad. I could tell this was our last time. He laid back, pulling me on top of him. He brought the blanket over us and we dozed in and out for a while. Eventually I was getting too hungry to ignore it, and I knew the same was true for him. We had to get up and shower. We needed to clean up the cabin and then go scrounge up some breakfast. Then we had to get back to my car and pray to God it was still there and still in tact.

  We ended up going for my car before breakfast. We hadn't spoken hardly at all that morning. We'd tidied
up our mess in the cabin and I'd put his old t-shirt back on. The drive was quiet. He held my hand. When we arrived at the covered bridge to find my car still there and looking undamaged, we both sighed relief and smiled at each other.

  Wyatt leaned against his truck and watched as I dug around in the overnight bag in my back seat. I pulled out a yellow sundress and changed into it, not looking at him. He had every right to watch. As far as I was concerned, I was all his. He could do anything he wanted with me.

  "You sure are pretty, Ettie," he said.

  I wadded up his t-shirt and held it to my chest. "Can I keep this?"

  He smiled sadly. "Sure."

  I lifted it to my face and inhaled. Then I tossed it in the passenger seat of my car. "So...meet you at the diner?"

  He nodded and then climbed in his truck. He waited for me to go first. There was a greasy, little diner in Hadley. One of those where the Formica on the tables was all chipped and the chairs were wobbly. The waitresses were about sixty years old and so were their uniforms. And the breakfast food was amazing. I had pancakes. Wyatt had the biggest Western omelet I'd ever seen. And we were both so freaking hungry that we didn't talk until we were almost finished.

  He didn't look up at me when he spoke. He was sopping up hollandaise sauce with a biscuit. "We should do this again, Ettie. Next weekend. How about it?"

  My heart was suddenly thundering in my ears. I watched him as he pointedly focused on cleaning his plate. "Are you asking me to be your girlfriend?" I asked.

  He finally looked up. Those blue eyes were hypnotic. And heartbreaking. "I'm asking you to have another fun weekend with me. That's what I'm asking."

  My eyes fluttered as they started to sting. "Do you need to get to know me better before asking me to be your girlfriend?"

  His jaw muscles tensed. "Ettie, I—“

  "Look, Wyatt. I have had just the absolute best time of my life with you this weekend. I have all the information I need to know I want to be in a relationship with you."