Ecstasy

by Gwynne Forster

  “I put Casper on the back porch. He’s quiet, because he knows you.” She went to the closet and got a robe. “I’m sure David wouldn’t mind your borrowing this. I can put your clothes in the drier, and you won’t catch a cold.”

  “Don’t tempt me with that thing. If I pull off my clothes, it’ll happen after I’ve taken yours off of you. I’ll dry standing here, thanks.”

  She laughed. If he knew how good that sounded to her, he might regret having said it. She decided to test the water.

  “You don’t honestly think I have to lure you with a man’s robe, do you? I always thought I had more beguiling assets. ’Course, if that’s what lights your fuse, by all means put your arms in it.” The lights flickered. Suddenly, she hoped they’d go out, hoped the storm would isolate them from the world until they’d resolved their differences. His steady, humorless gaze nearly unnerved her.

  “You light my fuse.”

  Emboldened by the hunger in his eyes, she took recourse to daring. “Not recently, I haven’t.”

  His hands gripped her forearms, and her body burned from the intensity of his hot gaze.

  * * *

  Rain pelted the roof, fire crackled in the big stone fireplace, the flames danced like frenzied sex partners, and the scent of half-green pine logs filled her nostrils. He was there. Big, masculine, handsome, and virile, the only man she had ever loved. Sparks shot through the grill that separated them from the roaring blaze, and another kind of spark shot through her body, lighting her passion.

  She met him with raised arms and parted lips, and thrilled as his strong arms held her still for his plundering kiss. The evidence of his desire, strong, virile, and nestled near the portal of her womanhood, telegraphed a message to her brain, startling her. She knew what he’d do next, his lover’s technique. The picture of his perfect body supine in yellow sand, almost every inch of him exposed to her in early morning sun rays, floated back to her, and the movement of her hips begged for his entrance. Dizzying sensations of long-awaited release streaked through her when his hand covered her breast, and damp warmth settled in her core. He stepped back and gazed intently into her eyes.

  “Have you forgotten that you’re no longer my patient?”

  She didn’t flinch from his stare.

  “No. And neither have I forgotten that my doctor discharged me.” Excitement hurtled through her when the telltale greenish-brown colored his irises and his lips parted. She tried to move closer to him, but he kept a safe foot of space between them.

  “Nothing has changed; we’re right where we were yesterday morning.”

  The wind howled, rain pelted the windows and roof, but things weren’t the same, no matter what he said.

  “It’s changed for me, not completely maybe, but you’re here because you needed to protect me in this storm when, yesterday morning, you’d told me good-bye and hung up.”

  “And you’ll take me as I am? Offering nothing more than before?”

  She sucked in her breath and willed her fingers to the buttons on her blouse.

  “Aren’t you doing the same?”

  Her blouse hung open, exposing her bare breasts to him, and hot lights glittered in his eyes.

  “Answer me, Jeannetta.”

  The urgency of his low guttural tones sent the heat of desire coursing through her. “No strings. I want you. I need you...”

  He pulled the blouse from her shoulders, hooked his thumbs in the waistband of her skirt and panties, and peeled them from her body. Her busy fingers worked at his shirt until she could open it and touch her breasts to his hard chest. Frenzied with passion, she loosened his belt, unzipped him, and pressed herself to him as the remainder of his clothes dropped to his feet. He stepped out of them, fitted her to his body and held her there. Her whole self was a flaming torch as his lips claimed her mouth, his tongue dabbed at the pulse of her throat, and his hands alerted her body to its God-given potential.

  He lifted her, and eased them to the floor, and carefully placed her on the thick brown carpet before the fire. Her arms opened to him as he knelt above her, and spread her legs for his loving entrance.

  “Tell me, honey, can you remember being with me like this? Close your eyes and let it happen.”

  Her body twisted beneath him, inviting, urging.

  “I don’t and, right now, all I want is for you to love me, to show me what I don’t remember, what I’m like with you.” She brought him fully into her arms and lifted her body to him, but he took control. His fiery possession of her mouth erased thoughts of all but him, and she hooked her legs around his hips. When she couldn’t hold back the need to move beneath him, he locked her hands above her head and pulled her hard nipple into his mouth.

  “Mason, please...I...I can’t stand this.” He suckled her more vigorously until she cried out, “Honey, I’m going to explode.” She didn’t know whether rain and wind crashed through the window, if the door banged open, or if the storm only raged with intensity inside her, as his masterful strokes hurled her into ecstasy.

  * * *

  Mason looked down at Jeannetta asleep in his arms. The hurt from her lack of trust remained, and he didn’t know how to rid himself of it. He did know that by making love with her again, he’d eliminated any chance of being happy without her. She suited him in every way that mattered. Her soft, sated purr sent frissons of heat through him and he felt the hunger grip him again. The wind had died down, but sheets of rain pelted the windows, and the storm in him raged anew. He reached for a towel, covered her with it, and let his eyes feast on her beloved face. Her lashes lifted and frowns creased her forehead. Then a smile spread over her face, and she raised herself up and kissed his mouth.

  “Are you sorry, Mason?”

  His heartbeat accelerated at the sight of the naked anxiety in her eyes. “I couldn’t regret what I just experienced with you. No. I’m not sorry, and I’ll never be.”

  “But does it change anything?”

  He let his fingers trace her spine and tried not to let his mind dwell on how much he wanted her right that minute. “I don’t know. I haven’t begun to sort it out, so I’m as puzzled as you are that we could unite as we did with so much between us that isn’t right. Excuse me, but if I don’t put some wood on this fire, we’ll freeze.”

  * * *

  She wrapped a bath towel around her and, as she stood, her glance took in the ceiling-high window and the sheets of rain that cascaded down its length.

  “Mason! Mason! Look at that. Look!”

  “What? What is it?”

  “That water. I’ve seen it in my dreams, falling down a mountain into a river. And that hotel lobby with the malachite columns, the jacaranda tree, the...the veranda of that hotel with the flowers and butterflies...the morning I...you had a nightmare...you were afraid your knife would slip when you operated on me...you were talking in your sleep, thrashing in bed and I...” Her bottom lip dropped and her eyes widened as she stared into his anxious face.

  “I remember...I remember that night, everything, and at my house in Pilgrim, when I could hardly make out your image. Thank God, I remember it all.”

  His arms went around her, and he smothered his face in the curve of her shoulder.

  “Imagine not being able to remember something so wonderful as what we shared; I’d never had such feelings.”

  He raised his head and looked at her. “Why did you leave?”

  “I had decided to go back with you and do whatever you recommended, but after I listened to you struggling with your subconscious, I couldn’t be responsible for your turmoil if you failed.”

  “But you risked certain blindness, though it might have been reversible. Why?”

  She tightened her arms around her body, walked to the window, turned, and faced him. “No matter what you believe, I loved you then. I love yo
u now.”

  He looked down into the flames, and her pulse raced with her fear of rejection.

  “It’s best I don’t respond. I won’t say there’s no hope for us, because I try to be honest about what I feel. But I have to come to terms with my reservations about you; if I don’t, this resentment will harden, and that’s no basis for a lasting relationship. I expect the same goes for you.”

  Her breath lodged in her throat, and she could only nod. He was saying that they had a chance.

  “Can we still see each other? I mean, I need to know how you are, how Skip is.”

  “Alright. I’ll touch base with you, and you can call me while we try to get a handle on this thing. We have to accept that we may not be able to work it out, and be ready to get on with our lives.” She got the robe and handed it to him.

  “That dark gray color doesn’t do a thing for you, but then you’re not a blue-eyed blond like David.”

  “Tell me what turns you on, and I’ll stop by a store and order some of it.” If he was serious, his sly grin and teasing tone belied it.

  “Red string bikinis,” she threw over her shoulder, as she headed up the stairs, to her bedroom. The other two times when they’d made love, he had drowned her in a vortex of ecstatic passion, but when he’d held her in his arms at the end of it, she had ached with unbelievable pain. The same deadening emptiness began to invade her.

  * * *

  When she had given Casper his morning run and finished her chores, Mason had already been driving for an hour. The south shore had been spared the brunt of the storm, and West Tiana hadn’t sustained any damage. She had no inclination to work, but was tempted to daydream of her night and morning with him. He’d awakened her with loving that was tender, gentle, and caring, but he had been almost demonic in his drive to wring every semblance of passion from her, draw gesture after gesture of total submission from her, and to thrust her into orgasmic ecstasy time and time again. But she couldn’t fault him; he’d been as honest as he was determined, and when he’d been lost in his own vortex of passion, he had let her see and feel his complete surrender. But he hadn’t repeated his marriage proposal, and she didn’t know what her response would have been if he had.

  She got a rake and combed the debris from the lawn and hedges, well aware that if she didn’t stop procrastinating, she wouldn’t complete her novel by the Labor Day deadline. Nevertheless, she found other excuses. When his call finally came, late that evening, she understood the reason for her day-long mental vacation.

  “Hi. This is Mason.”

  She fell backward across the bed, kicked off her shoes and rolled over on her belly.

  “Hi.”

  “None the worse for your overnight activities, I trust?”

  She glared at the phone and told herself to let only sweet words come out of her mouth if he started talking like a doctor.

  “What activities, honey?” Excitement pervaded her, and she swung over on her back, as his rumbling laughter worked its magic on her.

  “That’s right, play dumb. You were there right along with me, sweetheart.”

  She rested both feet on the head of the four-poster bedstead and looked up at the ceiling.

  “You must be talking about some other girl. I was here in this house all last evening.”

  He laughed aloud, and she wished she could see his face.

  “Yeah, but whose boots were under your bed, baby?”

  Laughter bubbled up in her, and she gave it full rein. “Search me.”

  “You don’t know?” he growled.

  “Well, from the look of this bite on my neck, it must have been Count Dracula, but he’s supposed to be a myth, isn’t he?”

  “I’d laugh, but I’m not sure that’s funny. Apply an antibiotic cream and a Band-Aid. That ought...”

  “Cut it out.” She yelled it, and she didn’t care. “What would you do if you didn’t have a cent?”

  “Well, I don’t know,” he said, after obviously having thought about it. “I’ve never been flat broke. What would you do?”

  “Me? I’d write Avon and tell them how much I love their toilet articles and inveigle them into sending me some free samples.”

  “Alright. I forgot you write jokes for comedians. Don’t tell me anybody bought that one.”

  “I haven’t tried to sell it, because I just made it up, but it already served the purpose of getting you off of your medical soap box. I didn’t want Mason, the man, to get away from me.”

  “I’m not going any place. Sleep well.” She blew him a kiss and waited.

  “I kiss you, too. Good night, and be careful out there.”

  She sat up and tried to think. His mood had been intimate, but not his conversation. The job ahead of her would challenge any mortal woman: she had to teach him what it meant to love, and she had to earn his forgiveness.

  * * *

  Mason washed his pizza down with tomato juice, rinsed his plate and glass, and put them in the dishwasher. Skip usually rushed to do that. How could he miss the boy so badly when they’d been living together less than a month? He called him.

  “Hi, Dad. Did you know Aunt Laura’s worried about Jeanny? You want to talk to her?”

  “Not right now. What’s the problem?”

  “Gee, I don’t know. Uncle Clayton said it’s just gossip. I’m ready to go home. When you coming up?”

  “Tomorrow morning.” He had to do something about getting Skip in Sunday school, but that would have to wait another week. He’d postponed it, because churchgoing wasn’t one of his habits. Being a parent changed a lot of things; you not only had to know what was right, you had to do it. He hung up and took Steve’s call.

  “Thought I’d drop by for a minute, if you’re not busy.” Half an hour later Steve arrived with a quart of peach ice cream and a small coconut cake.

  “I figured you’d already eaten dinner,” he explained. They served themselves generous helpings of the desserts.

  “Say, how’d you and Darlene Jones make out?”

  Steve rested his spoon and seemed to pick his words. “So-so. I liked her alright, and I probably could’ve liked her a lot better, if I’d ever had a chance to say anything.”

  “What do you mean?” He watched Steve for signs of irritation, but saw none, and probed further. “She wouldn’t talk with you? She always seemed pretty gregarious to me.”

  “The problem was that she talked to me. All the damned time. I couldn’t get a word in edgewise. She acted as if I expected her to entertain me, and I couldn’t get it across to her that I wanted a companion, someone to talk with, to share things with. I quit calling her; I didn’t need the frustration.”

  “I’m sorry, Steve. I’d hoped the two of you would make it.”

  Steve helped himself to another slice of cake.

  “How is it you never introduced me to Viv?”

  Mason jerked forward. “Viv? I...it never occurred to me. You want to meet her?”

  “Well,” Steve began with uncustomary diffidence, “we’ve talked on the phone a lot since you got back from the tour; I’m either calling your travel office, or she’s calling me trying to trace you, so she said to me one day that we’d been talking for ages but we’d never met, and maybe we ought to introduce ourselves. I told her I’d been thinking the same thing, so we agreed that I’d pick her up at the office after work and we’d get a drink, or go to dinner or the movies or something, whatever we felt like.”

  Mason stopped eating and stared at his brother. “What happened, man?”

  “Well...I walked through the door, and this pretty woman sitting there looked up and saw me. Man, I stopped dead in my tracks; I couldn’t have moved, if you’d pushed me.”

  Mason didn’t bother to hide his disbelief; of all the scenarios he could have imagined, t
his wasn’t one. “Are you serious?”

  “Am I ever! She smiled like pure sunshine, got up from that desk, and came to meet me with her arms wide open. ‘You’re Steve,’ was all she said, and I walked right into those arms.” He shook his head as if he couldn’t believe it. “Man, I haven’t been the same since.” Mason knew his mouth hung open but, in the circumstances, not even Steve would consider that bad manners.

  He stared at Steve. “You fell for Viv?”

  “Hook, line and sinker, and if that makes me stupid, it’s too late to tell me.”

  “Stupid? Man, that’s a stroke of brilliance. Viv’s wonderful. Is it working?”

  “It’s working.”

  What would Steve say to the idea forming in his mind? “You two would make a great business team.”

  “That’s what she says, but it’s...I don’t want to louse this up by working with her.”

  He had never discussed Steve’s personal life with him, and he wasn’t sure how far to go, but he’d had his share of lectures, so he was entitled. “Some of the best partnerships are husband-wife teams.”

  “You think so? I haven’t gone quite that far.”

  “You headed that way?”

  “Looks like it.”

  Mason got up and slapped Steve’s back. “Right on man.”

  Steve cut his third slice of cake, put a forkful of it in his mouth and allowed Mason to wait until he chewed and swallowed it. “I’ve been aiming to ask what’s going on with you and Jeannetta.”

  “We’re in limbo. I’m not what she needs, or so she says, and I’ve wondered whether that’s a ruse, a cover to hide the fact that all she ever wanted from me was...”

  “Don’t finish it, Mason. Don’t say it.”

  Mason shook his head in wonder. Nothing and no one had perplexed him so much as Jeannetta.

  “Yeah. I know. When I start to think, to remember some things about her, I know I’m being unfair.”