The Acorn Tattoo: The Neverland Series Part 1 Anniversary Edition

by Miller, Alyse

  From the corner of her eye, Claire saw a tiny pebble plink against the glass of her bedroom window from outside. So Jake really was coming to her window! Claire’s heart swelled with excitement despite itself, and her eyes darted to the small alarm clock on her bedside table. The clock’s red eyes told her it was 7:00 exactly, and it was the most delightful time she’d ever seen on the face of that stupid little clock.

  “Well, have a safe flight then.” Claire struggled to find words that would pacify Davie, but still get him off the phone. She hated to hang up and leave him like this, with whatever was upsetting him unresolved, but her eyes kept finding the spot on the windowpane where the pebble had hit. That little smudge was a magnet directly aimed at her heart. “I love you,” she chattered into the phone, a more hurriedly than she’d planned. “Call me when you land, okay?”

  Davie scoffed, but didn’t answer her. It was almost as if he was purposefully trapping her on the line, as if he knew there was something else that had caught her attention. “Welcome aboard, Mr. Hunter,” said a rehearsed sounding voice. “May I offer you something to drink?”

  “Gin and tonic, Hendricks if you have it, thank you,” Davie answered the flight attendant in his smooth voice. The words rolled off his tongue like water spilling off a glassy surface. He made no effort to acknowledge Claire’s goodbyes. She tapped her heel on the carpet. Another pebble pinked off the windowpane.

  “I’ve got to go, Davie…call me later,” she tried again. “Love you.”

  Davie sighed into the phone. “I love—” he started, but his voice cracked. He cleared his throat, muttered under his breath as if he was talking to himself rather than to her.

  “Goodbye, Claire,” Davie’s voice dismissed her from the other end of the phone, which went dead before she could respond. Claire held her phone at arm’s length and stared at the dark screen, wondering what was going through Davie’s mind. Today Davie felt more like a stranger than her lifelong best friend, someone wasn’t sure she knew very well, or maybe even at all. Claire shook her head, hoping to erase her unease like an Etch A Sketch doodle. If she could shake loose the unwanted sand, perhaps it would leave a fresh beginning behind. She promised herself, and the phone, that she would call Davie that evening and sort this out, just as soon as she got home.

  A third pebble clinked against the glass and Claire hurried to the window. Standing directly below her second-story bedroom, painted in the dancing rays of disappearing sunlight like a watercolor silhouette, Jake looked up at Claire. Wearing his trademark charcoal-gray pea coat, Jake looked like a shadow set against fading colors of yellow, orange, and red in the dimming light. The ends of a red scarf blew out in the cool wind while pale tendrils of his sandy hair curled out beneath his aged leather newsboy cap. A glossy red leaf was tucked behind one ear, as though it were unwilling to fall to the ground. He arced long fingers over his eyes and looked up at Claire as she peered over the window, looking down at him. With a handful of pebbles still clasped in hand and his Lost Boy grin on his lips, Jake waved up at her from a ground sprinkled in the disheveled brilliance of fall.

  “Come out to play, Claire Darling?” Jake called. Claire grinned and bit her lip.

  “Is that you, boy?” she returned. The setting sun lit his blond hair in a halo around him.

  Jake laughed, a warm, rumbling sound, and tossed the handful of pebbles up in the air. He pulled his newsboy cap from his tangled hair, releasing the red leaf into flight as he tilted his head back and crowed.

  Chapter 5

  “It’s the perfect day for a perfect night, I think,” Jake’s eyes twinkled mischievously as the streetlamps flickered on. He looked positively Pan-like, his clever grin reflecting brightly in the lamplight and little bits of falling leaves caught in the rifts of his unruly hair. “There is somewhere I would like to show you, if you’re up for a little adventure.”

  They had been strolling quietly down the sidewalk, not going in any particular direction. Jake’s arm was low around Claire’s back, his free hand holding hers and brushing it casually against his lips and cheek every so often. Claire had never walked so closely with someone before, laced inside each other’s arms like they weren’t really walking at all but like their bodies were molded together. They seemed to float along, untouched by the goings on around them. Claire had no idea how long they’d been walking, nor how far, only vaguely aware that the sun had set a while ago and stars were beginning to peek through the dark blanket of night sky.

  “Somewhere?” Claire was too enraptured by the feel of Jake’s warmth that she barely remembered to answer him. Wherever it was that he wanted to take her, she would gladly follow.

  Jake stopped suddenly and, taking her hands in his, turned to look at her. She faced him with the street to her back. The sounds of traffic fading to a distant hum behind her. For a long while, Jake stared at her through furrowed brows, his long, agile thumbs tracing small circles on the tops of her hands. He seemed to be thinking very hard about something that he couldn’t decide whether or not to share with her. Claire liked the feel of his sandpaper tipped fingers scratching lightly on her skin.

  “Yes, somewhere I’ve never taken anyone.” He nodded resolutely and gave her a coy wink. The Lost Boy grin had won out in his inner struggle and that telltale grin spread again across his face, carving accidental dimples in his cheeks, two ends on a continuum of boyish charm and curiosity. “Want to go?”

  Claire couldn’t stop her face from mirroring that mocking grin. She nodded. She would probably go anywhere with him without a second thought. Jake grinned wider. He lifted their clasped hands to his lips, hiding his grin like he might have been embarrassed. He could bounce between devastatingly confident and boyishly shy with the ease of a youth too enthralled with the promise of adventure to worry over the burden of fear. It was such a stark contrast to Davie, who could flip between charming and sulky on a second’s whim, Claire realized, though thinking of Davie seemed so out of place in this moment.

  With a small laugh, Jake pulled Claire inside his arms, pressing their chests together through layers of silk and wool. He hugged her tightly. Claire’s breath puffed out of her lips and left little rings in the cooling air, and she imagined they were little heart-shaped bubbles floating up to the clouds like comic strip emotions. With Claire held tightly to him with one arm Jake used his other to hail a passing cab.

  Almost immediately, a small yellow car was waiting for them, the driver smiling through the window. These were two small feats almost unheard of at this hour in the city. Jake winked over his shoulder at Claire as he spoke to the cabbie in hushed words that Claire couldn’t hear, and then led her into the backseat of the cab. She scooted beside him, settling into the middle of the seat beside him. The cab hurried them out into traffic almost before Claire completely settled. She wondered briefly where their mysterious destination would be. Where was it that Jake had never taken anyone? It made her blush a little. Jake was mysterious by his very nature and Claire couldn’t help but feel that she was even more special to him, for him to share this with her. She snuggled deeper into his side, burrowing against him.

  “There’s only one thing, Claire Darling,” Jake murmured slyly into her, talked low so the cabbie wouldn’t hear their conversation in the front seat. He unwound the silky red scarf from around his neck and draped it across the tops of his open palms, holding it between extended hands like an offering. Claire could see Jake’s grin wink in and out of view in the jumping streetlights that blinked through the moving windows of the dingy cab. For the first time since she’d seem that grin, it wasn’t even the tiniest bit bashful. Jake looked playful and a bit devious, presenting the scarf as both an offering and a challenge.

  Claire stared down at the scarf and, after a few moments, rolled her eyes up to Jake. She felt terribly naïve as she tried to riddle out the challenge in his scarf. The cunning look in his eyes became tender again, reassuring her that his playfulness held no malice. With that, something lurched i
n Claire’s stomach. Whatever he wanted to do with that scarf, she suddenly needed to do. Something about the movement in her belly while looking at that scarf made Claire…hungry. There was no other word for it. Her body warmed and her breath grew heavy as Jake leaned into her, stopping only when the tips of their noses touched and her vision became filled with that consuming emerald gaze.

  “It’s for your eyes, silly. It’s a surprise where we’re going, after all. I don’t want to spoil it.” He released her from his gaze with words whispered against her throat. “May I?”

  Jake pulled away and gestured again toward her head, waving the red scarf encouragingly like a matador luring a hesitant bull. He was back to his normal boyish self, all traces of teasing gone. Uncertainty seemed to pull at the corners of his lips, but Claire allowed him to take the weight of her head into his hands, and with nimble fingers, he wrapped the scarf gently around her eyes, secured it in a lose knot behind her head. When it was finished, he smoothed the loose hairs of her ponytail so they wouldn’t snare and pull.

  The soft fabric smelled as Jake did—like wind-dried laundry, bakeries, and summer nights—and Claire breathed deeply, inhaling his scent. She settled against the curve of his body, her hand toying lightly with the buttons of his pea coat. Her vision wrapped in a soft, dark blanket, she allowed herself to relax and doze in the sweet-scented darkness. In the handful of years she’d been in the city, this was easily the most pleasant cab ride she’d had yet.

  Just as Claire began to fade into a light sleep, a tricky thought crept through her mind. What on Earth would Davie think about this, her being blindfolded and whisked away in the backseat of a cab with a man she’d only recently met? Why, he’d be displeased, she thought, snickering to herself. That was the understatement of the century.

  When the cab finally braked to a stop, Jake gently retrieved Claire, still blindfolded and a tad groggy, from the open backseat. She had been so busy dreaming about Jake and his mysterious place that she hadn’t realized they’d stopped moving and almost forgot to be excited at arriving at the endpoint of their journey. Helping her out of the backseat with the blindfold still loosely tied around her eyes, Jake led her through the dampness of night air and back inside the familiar heat of indoors. They traveled hand in hand through locations in a series of sounds—a lock giving under the twist of jingling keys, a door pulling open and then swishing shut, the chime of an elevator, the shattering closing of an elevator gate. Jake was a gracious guide for the blind, leading Claire step-by-step with his arm sometimes holding her, sometimes guiding her shoulders in gentle nudges and pulls.

  After the creak of another door, they stopped. Jake squeezed her hand tightly and then let it go to fall at her side. She heard the rustling sound of fabric and the clinking sound of keys, noises she assumed were Jake shuffling out of his coat and discarding it along with his keys.

  Claire felt Jake’s body return in front of her. Warm, empty hands enveloped hers and raised them from beside her hips. For a moment, they stood in the still quiet of the room, mirroring each other hand to hand. From the light shining inside the room, Claire could just make out Jake’s body—a dark blurry shape against the redness of the blindfold. Claire wondered if this was what he might look like bathed in shadows. The swell pulled inside her again, causing her to stumble forward and clamp Jake’s hands harder.

  “It’s okay, Claire Darling. We’re here,” Jake whispered against Claire’s ear. He was so close that the small hairs on the back of her neck fluttered and stood on end around the small circle of flesh dampened by his breath. He kissed her lightly just below her earlobe. A small army of goose bumps marched up the length of Claire’s arms, and she shivered, even though she wasn’t the tiniest bit cold. Her vision still darkened by the scarf, Claire felt her other senses come alive. Every touch on her skin now an electric current of feeling, every sound a symphony of pitches and tones in her ears. She stood before him, a woman without a body, but woven together through feelings and sounds.

  Claire felt Jake’s hands tug softly on her jacket as his fingers began slowly to work the knot out of her trench coat belt. She reached up to pull the blindfold away, but he touched his fingertips to her hands and whispered, “Not yet.” So, she stood perfectly still and yielding as he began, slowly, to unfasten the layer of buttons, starting from the top and fumbling a bit, but becoming surer as he worked his way down to the last button where her hips met her waist. Opened, Claire’s coat billowed around her in a woolen cloud that framed the dark, midnight sky of the deep blue dress.

  She heard Jake suck in his breath as he fingered the silk of the dress, running and twisting the fabric through his fingers as he smoothed away the static from the coat, and down against her skin. He dragged his fingertips upward from her stomach to her chest, playing on the planes of her body shyly avoiding the curves of her ribs and breasts as a gentleman would. At her neck, he paused to twirl the crystal acorn pendant against her skin. It rolled coolly against the blooming heat in her flesh. When his hands finally reached her shoulders, his slid them between the silk and wool, and pushed gently at the white coat until it slipped down her arms and fell in a puddle at her feet.

  Free from the heavy thickness of the coat, Claire stood before Jake in the silky sheath of her dress and the dark of the blindfold. Her body prickled with tiny sensations as he ran his hands up and down the length of her arms. He stepped forward and pressed solidly against her, folding his hands inside hers where they still dangled on either side of her body. So close, she could feel every intake and release of his breath on her upturned cheeks.

  “Do you trust me?” he asked her softly. Each word brushed against her lips like a feather tickling at her mouth. Claire knew enough about men to know that at a moment like this, this wasn’t an idle question. It was a question of permission. And, she knew enough about Jake to know it was more than that too. Even though she was the one standing before him, blindfolded and with bared emotions, him asking for her trust was really his way of giving her his.

  He gave her time to answer, and she took it, using the time to rewind every moment of their love affair. She started at the beginning, going all the way back to the first time she spotted him with his legs crossed and body hunched over his guitar in the coffee shop—eyes closed and brows twisted together as his lips moved to the words in his head. He had been so cautious, quietly courting her for weeks inside those dim lights and sweet smells as they got to know each other through their coffee house routines and letting their meeting ripen like a sweet fruit. When they’d finally spoken, it had been a flame that lit the wick of an explosive love story, carrying them on a current of lights and wonder to a place that Claire had never, even in her wildest dreams, really believed could be real. It really was a Neverland, a place where it seemed like they could love each other forever.

  “Yes.” The word pushed out between her lips so softly she said it again, louder. “Yes.” She punctuated her confession by nuzzling her cheek against his. With that one simple word, Claire let go of her doubts and insecurities, of her worries about Davie and his complicated reactions, of her hesitations. With her love loosened in the air between them, she surrendered herself completely and gave her thimble wholeheartedly to the boy with the acorn tattoo.

  Chapter 6

  Through the rosy dimness of the red scarf still wrapped around her eyes, Claire closed her eyes, trying to channel all her senses into feeling Jake’s movements. She heard his body ease down, felt his fingers shift in the clasps of her hands as he sank in front of her. With his hands still wrapped warm around hers, Jake tugged softly at Claire, encouraging her to let her body fall alongside his to the floor. His hands slid evenly against the length of her arms as she let her body drop next to his, and her she landed easily on what felt like a small mountain of pillows piled beneath her. For a few moments, they lay quietly side by side, the same as they had done in the park the day before. But this time it felt closer, like the space between them had filled with sweet,
sticky syrup.

  Jake shifted beside Claire. He propped himself up on one shoulder and the departure of his heat beside hers gave her a chill, but Claire stayed unmoving and quiet. She listened intently to the sliding sounds of shoelaces unlacing, heard their slippery undoing followed by the dull thud of his shoes tossed aside. When that was finished Jake scooped Claire’s feet in his hands, holding lightly onto her ankles as he worked at the straps of her sandals and set them aside. His movements were so gentle that the tips of the heels barely made any noise as he cast them aside.

  Jake pulled his long, musician fingers up Claire’s calves, exploring every rise and slope of her legs. His fingertips stopped short when they ended along the flesh of her knees and met with the soft silk of her dress. After a brief pause, he pushed forward over the silk, the friction of his fingers peeling the soft fabric up inch-by-inch. Like a blind man sculpting a face from memory, he let his hands play against the soft skin of her thighs and the curve of her hips, then splay out on the flat planes of her stomach. With his fingers outstretched, his hand reached almost from one side of her waist to the other, the whole of her belly inside the cup of his palm. He curled his fingertips into her skin, pushing into her flesh in a movement that simultaneously reawakened the eager pull in her stomach and made her body lift into his hands. The lure of his touch was unbearable. Claire couldn’t help but writhe under the heated pulse of his hands. She stirred beneath him like fog over churning water.

  Now more confident, Jake’s hands journeyed lazily upward on Claire’s shuddering body, taking time to caress and explore her curves. His palms curved in half-moons around the mounds of her breasts then stretched back flat against her chest, making patterns heavy and solid against her. One of Jake’s hands moved higher to thumb the acorn pendant where it rested against her throat. He slid behind her neck to cradle her head, his fingers anchored behind each of her ears. Claire’s breath came in small, ragged billows as Jake’s other hand lingered along her jawline at her mouth. With one finger, he spread her lips apart, rolling the tender meat of her bottom lip under, and letting it flip back out reflexively. With a mouth full of need, Claire’s lips pulsed, desperate for him to give her relief with his kiss. Her heart beat wildly, a hummingbird on fire, sending little shivers racing through her veins.