by Moore, Becky
She frowned a bit, and jumped when Lucas brushed his fingers down her arm. He smiled down at her, and pulled her to her feet. Together they packed up; Jane put away the blanket and Luke tossed the trash in the can. He had the gall to eat three of the four chocolate chip cookies and complain that he was full. They put the bag in the car, and held hands while ambling through the gardens.
Even when they had to move single-file to cross the Zig-Zag Bridge their fingers were tightly entwined. Lucas hadn’t felt this free and peaceful in two years. His heart was full, his burden light, his enjoyment complete just listening to Jane’s melodic voice and watching her animated face as she talked. She laughed at the silly stories she told about herself, never minding that the joke was often on her.
“Oh, God,” she was saying through hysterical laughter that had tears streaming down her cheeks. “That boy was so embarrassed. I think it was his first date, too, and when we saw my friend Jennifer across the restaurant, I skipped gleefully across the room and sat in a chair close by her. My velocity must have been pretty strong on that slick, polished floor and when my bottom hit the seat the chair took off.”
She stopped walking to double over laughing, crossing her arms over her belly.
“Ahh,” she took a deep breath. “Well, when the arm of my chair knocked the arm on Jenn’s, my chair tipped over the opposite direction. I had on a mini skirt—because, after all, that’s what any ninth grader wears on her first date—and my legs went straight up in the air with my new red polka-dotted panties flashing the whole world. Good Lord, it was totally humiliating.”
“What did your date do?” Lucas was laughing too, and his laughter drove her on.
“David? Well, he’d been slower off the block from me when we saw the rest of the group, but as soon as I went down he turned the other way and went into the bathroom.”
They passed by the Iris Fountain and were headed to the Pergola, where the wedding had wrapped up and the photographer was getting some parting shots of the guests.
“He left you?” Lucas asked incredulously. Jane nodded, wiping the tears from the corner of her eyes.
“Well I would’ve done the same.” He slapped Jane on the ass and quickened his pace.
“Oh!” She had to run to catch up with him. She didn’t want to interrupt the wedding proceedings, so she was as quiet as possible.
He knew her silence was killing her. He’d pay for that later.
Good.
Neither wanted the afternoon to end. They’d been at the park for almost three hours and walked the entire square footage of the Sarah B. Duke Gardens. Truthfully, there was no reason to stay any longer.
“Can we get some ice cream while we’re out?” he asked as they climbed into the car.
Jane looked at the hopeful expression on Luke’s beautiful face. He’d been fairly quiet since lunch, and just seemed content to have someone to listen to. To not be alone. He smiled and answered if she asked him something directly, but mostly he was quiet. He seemed sad, yet he didn’t complain. It seemed that whatever bothered him was deep down inside. So if ice cream would make him happy, then ice cream he would have.
“Let’s head over to Ninth Street. They’ve got a Ben & Jerry’s.”
He closed his eyes for a second, and turned to smile at her. It was glorious, and it made her heart beat so fast in her chest that she thought it would explode. He bent to brush his lips across hers, leaving them tingling.
“Oh, yeah. That sounds great.”
Car Guys was on the radio when she started it up, but he reached over and turned it off. The trip to Ben and Jerry’s was brief, and the silence in the car was peaceful. About halfway there he reached over and took her hand, pulling it across the console and cradling it in his lap.
“Your skin is so soft,” he said quietly. He was looking out the window and didn’t really notice that he’d made that comment out loud.
Chapter Nine
Jane got a single scoop of Charlie Brown in a sugar cone, and Lucas got a scoop of chocolate chip and a scoop of banana in a waffle cone. She laughed at his enthusiasm over dessert. A couple of times, he’d stolen quick bites of her ice cream, but wouldn’t share anything with her at all.
While they sat on the benches in front of Ben & Jerry’s, five or six children stopped in front of her to say hello and hug her. She was always gracious and obliged them with a nod of their parent’s heads. She signed autographs for a couple of them.
“What was that about?” Luke grinned at her blush while they walked hand in hand back to the car.
“My fans,” she said and laughed sheepishly. He let it go for now.
“Come on,” she said when they were standing in the parking lot next to her car. “Can you help me get a little more sunscreen on? I’ve got a Frisbee in the car.” She pointed across the street to the empty fields on Duke’s North Campus.
She reached down to her waist to pull her tank top over her head. Luke’s eyes bulged wide at the sight of her scant bikini top. Christ! He’d known she’d had a killer figure, but her torso and breasts had always been covered. His imagination hadn’t done her as much justice as she’d deserved. He swallowed hard and nodded.
Jane felt like an ass standing in the parking lot in her bathing suit top and low-slung khaki shorts. She hoped all of the kids had cleared of sight.
She’d never been shy about her body or sex, but then again she’d never tried to turn on a gorgeous man desperate in the parking lot of Ben & Jerry’s either. This was so sad.
She opened the car door and leaned into the back seat to get the Coppertone out of her bag. Luke’s dick sprung to life with painful and uncontrollable immediacy at the sight of her delectable position. He groaned and flexed his fingers as his hands hung loosely by his hips. His fingers tingled. He really, really wanted to run his fingers along the curve of her bottom and up into the loose legs of her shorts…then slide them inside to the pouty lips of her sex. He licked his lips in anticipation and felt saliva pooling in his mouth. If he was lucky, and if God was with him this day, Jane would be his tonight.
Jane stood up with the sunscreen in hand and turned. “Here we go.”
His eyes were glazed over with a carnal gleam that left no question as to what he was thinking. He moved in close and pressed his nose into the curve of her shoulder. “We should’ve taken the edge off before we left your house,” he whispered. She stilled.
“So you don’t want to play at the park?” she asked nervously.
Lucas watched a small droplet of sweat trail from the hollow in Jane’s throat down through the curvy valley between her breasts. His heart was pounding and his vision was blurred. All the blood rushed south to his throbbing crotch and he couldn’t hear a word she said. Jane’s bikini top was a simple design of two small triangles held together around her sternum by a single string. Her pert breasts pressing against the triangle cups held the string away from her torso by about a finger’s width—just enough for the sweat to continue it’s trail towards her waist. Exactly where Lucas wanted to be. Then the bead dipped into her shallow belly button. Oh, God.
He leaned into her body so he could whisper in her ear. “I’ll play anywhere you want to play, Janie.” He stressed the word ‘play’ by lightly thrusting his pelvis against her stomach. Jane was panting, beyond the capability to speak for a minute. She closed her eyes and nodded.
“Good,” she finally managed. “Let’s skip the Frisbee and go straight for the goal.”
Lucas thrust a couple more times and pulled back. He nodded dumbly and backed up to give her some space. Neither said a word on the way home, but Lucas did shove her shirt into her lap. Jane put it on and drove home as fast as she could and figured to hell with a ticket.
Lucas could hear Penny, the Basset hound, barking when they pulled into the driveway. He groaned.
Jane grinned sheepishly. “She knows it’s Saturday…she missed her jog this morning.”
Lucas chuckled, knowing he’d have to keep his cool
a few more minutes. He took comfort in knowing Jane was nearly as antsy as he was, though. He grabbed the bag out of the back seat while she jogged up the steps to let Penny out, who was howling in anticipation by the time the door opened. Pop Tart, Penny’s kitten, walked onto the porch to twine herself around Jane’s legs.
“Hey there, Pop Tart.” She bent down to pick up the furry little kitten. Pop Tart purred loudly and butted her little nose against Jane’s chin, which made her giggle. Penny had already bounded down the steps to do her business and was running around the fenced-in yard with Lucas. He looked like a kid playing with that crazy Basset hound, and she noticed for the second time today that something so simple, like ice cream or playing catch with a dog, gave him such peace. In all of their conversations, he had talked about what he liked, not what he’d done or how he’d grown up or lived. Her throat tightened as she wondered, yet again, what had happened to him? His bark of laughter had her shaking her head, clearing it of the maudlin thoughts.
“Lucas,” she called from the porch. She was sitting down in one of the rockers; Pop Tart was turning in a circle on her lap, getting ready for a fine nap.
He threw the tennis ball into the backyard so Penny had a nice long run down the side of the house, through the long branches of the Willow tree that were dusting the ground. “Hmm?” he said when he straightened up.
“Why don’t you talk about yourself much?” She rocked quietly on the porch and waited for his answer.
He bent to get the ball from Penny and took a minute to rub her long ears. “You’re a good girl,” he crooned. She looked up at him and smiled her doggy smile, tongue shamelessly hanging out of her mouth. Looking up at him like he’d hung the moon. She was in love.
It didn’t appear that he would answer so she got up to walk inside. She was going to grill salmon for dinner tonight, and it needed to be marinated. But when she stepped back to swing the door open, she backed into the solid wall of Luke’s muscular body. He closed his hands around her shoulders and held her still against him.
“Jane,” he sighed. “I haven’t had much of a life for the last two years and it’s not a pretty story.” He kissed the top of her head and let her go. He patted his hip for Penny while holding the door for Jane to go through. Penny trotted up the stairs and took her own sweet time going inside.
Jane set Pop Tart down on the couch. She turned to Lucas and touched him for the first time on her own—curling her fingers around the front of his right bicep with one hand and laying the other gently at the base of the strong column of his throat. He swallowed and his Adam’s apple bobbed up and down. She watched it, fascinated. She spoke quietly.
“I didn’t mean to intrude. I was just trying to learn more about you. I feel like I’ve been rambling for weeks. I’m sorry.”
He curled his long fingers around her wrist and sighed. “No, you’ve got nothing to be sorry about. I’ve been alone for so long, during that year and a half when I was undercover in Mexico with the Gachas cartel, and for the last year while I’ve been recovering and figuring out what to do with my life. Listening to you was—is, I mean—relaxing. I want you to keep on talking, please.”
He leaned over and kissed her beautiful mouth with a sweet, reverent kiss. She sighed and leaned into his chest, but he pulled back before the kiss could get too carnal.
“I’m not used to talking about my undercover work. My years in the military and then on the S.W.A.T. team were grueling enough, but they were child’s play compared to the things I lived with and allowed to happen around me in Mexico. I’d really, really like to talk about it, but not just yet. I’ll let you know when I’m ready, okay?”
Oh, she was going to cry. He looked so sad. So lost and alone. Her breath lodged in her throat and almost suffocated her. They watched each other for what seemed like an eternity, and then Jane’s breath wrenched back into her body on a sob that wracked her body. He pulled her close.
“Janie, baby,” he said. He squeezed her so tightly that it almost hurt. “I can’t remember the last time anyone cried for me.”
“You look so sad, Luke,” she said quietly. Her voice was muffled against his chest. “I—I can’t help it.”
“I’m not sad, baby. I’m just, I don’t know…lost. I think that’s it. I’m lost. I want to find my place in the world again but I don’t really know where to start.” His voice was so quiet, almost soundless.
Jane leaned back to look into his face. Tears were rolling silently down his cheeks, which was clearly irritating him. He was a private man, after all.
She flattened her hand over his heart. “You start right here…with me. I’ll keep you safe.”
Chapter Ten
Several hours later, they lounged on the Outer Banks Hammock in Jane’s backyard. Lucas held Jane’s foot in his large palm, using his strong fingers to stroke from the heel to the ball of her foot. He pressed deeply into the tendon in the center and she groaned.
“Oh, God, that feels so good,” she moaned. She shifted restlessly next to his body, though as carefully as possibly so she wouldn’t tip them over, and stretched a little more of her leg across his body.
Jane loved summertime for many, many reasons; the hot weather, the fresh vegetables from her garden, the beautiful sight and fragrance of flowers in the landscape, and most of all the longer hours of daylight. It was nearing nine and there were still pink streamers reaching far across the southern sky. The afternoon had not been overly oppressive with heat, and a nice breeze had kicked in just before she pulled the salmon off the grill.
She had a marvelous garden full of green beans, sweet sugar snap peas, half a dozen varieties of tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, peppers, corn, and a lush herb garden. Lucas had had his choice of veggies, and he’d chosen corn, green beans and tomatoes. Jane marinated the tomatoes in the recipe of an old family friend, with olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, oregano, and salt and pepper. Lucas had taken a really long shower, and Jane suspected he’d needed the solitude. So, she’d taken advantage of the extra time and made homemade cornbread and minted iced tea.
The whole dinner had been a culinary masterpiece. Lucas moaned with every few bites of food, and at first blushed at his enthusiastic response but eventually figured she was pleased. After a while he didn’t care. They’d finished off two bottles of cold Prosecco during their leisurely dinner. It had been a perfect aphrodisiac.
“Look,” he said and pointed towards the sky. “That’s Pegasus. And there’s Lyra, and over there...that’s Cassiopeia.”
“Hold on.” She stood up.
Lucas shifted his hands to grab the edges of the hammock so it wouldn’t dump him.
“Move over.” She nudged his hip and bent over him to crawl back onto the hammock. This time, though, she lined up her legs with his and laid down at his side so she could rest her cheek against the steady beat of his heart. She smiled when she heard his heart rate quicken. He sucked in a quick breath.
“Is this okay?” she pressed her hand to the center of his chest so she could lift up to look him in the eye.
Lucas smiled and nodded, and then pulled her down against his body, settling her tightly against him. He planted a foot on the ground so he could rock them. Jane sighed and closed her eyes and enjoyed the cool breeze on her arms. After their showers, Jane had dressed in a simple, crisp white sundress, which left her shoulders and arms bare…along with the rest of her.
Lucas rubbed his big, warm palms down her toned arms. “Have I told you how lovely you look tonight?” His deep voice rumbled in his chest, tickling her cheek. Normally when they were together, she was sweaty and wearing exercise clothes—not that she didn’t look totally edible then…but now…she looked wonderful in the outfit, and the crisp white cotton showed off the healthy, golden glow of her skin. She smelled so fresh and clean. He couldn’t help but enjoy the feel of her firm, round breasts pressing against his ribs. Lord, they would fill his hands nicely. He had to force himself all night to keep his eyes above her shoulders;
her tight little nipples had been reaching for him all night. His mouth watered even now. But in the hammock, with his drowsy lady love, Lucas was in heaven. He gently rubbed her back, loving the feeling of the warm skin of her back.
They lay quietly in the night, serenaded by the tree frogs, the cicadas and the crickets. For a few minutes he thought she might be sleeping, she was so still. But he was tired of being subtle. So he shifted his arm and used his fingers to trace the firm skin along her back, feeling the feminine lines of her body.