“So where are we going?” Maggie asked. Her casual dress suited her and Cole found her very lovely with her hair curling down in back. “Simple is fine.”
“It’s a surprise,” Cole told her. “Just wait and see.”
As soon as they entered the restaurant he knew he’d chosen the right place. The ambiance offered simple elegance and Maggie in her dress Cole guessed came from JC Penney’s or Famous Barr if not K-Mart sparkled as much as any woman present. They began with a shrimp cocktail and progressed to a delightful dinner including chilled shrimp, fried butterfly shrimp, blackened Cajun shrimp and scampi. The wine tasted exquisite but what pleased Cole most was Maggie’s enjoyment. Most of the shadows vanished from her face, erased by both her pleasure and the quiet candlelight. They talked about good times in the past, reflected on things they’d shared over the summer so far and laughed in one accord.
When the waiter offered dessert Cole thought Maggie might choose something but she shook her head. “Thanks but I’m finished. Everything tasted so scrumptious I don’t even want something sweet. Cole, this was a wonderful idea. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. Did you really enjoy it?”
“Yes, I did. I love the places you take me, Cole and the good times we have together.”
For a moment he’d thought she’d say she loved him but when she didn’t, he considered speaking his heart. He might have but she grasped his hands in hers, impulsive and said, “Cole, I want to make love with you right this minute. Can we get another cheap motel?”
His cock aroused and he grinned. “Honey we can get the most expensive room in town if you want but let’s go find one.”
He paid the check and left a hefty tip before they strolled out, hand in hand. Cole’s pulse beat with such a rhythm he almost thought he could hear it. This time he didn’t bother with coupon books or cheap rates but drove to the first reputable place he found. He refused to stay in a dump but the chain hotel he pulled into appeared well-kept and clean. Cole booked the first available room and never realized until they walked through the door that each room had a theme. An abundance of mauve in the comforter and curtains, the pseudo vintage style furniture and the artwork offered up a Victorian feel but by then Cole wouldn’t have cared if the theme was 1950’s or Pioneer.
Maggie tossed her small clutch purse onto the dresser and vanished into the bathroom. Cole shut the drapes and shucked out of his garments. He walked around the room, his erect cock throbbing with desire and waited. When Maggie returned, she paused long enough to hang her dress up and put her other clothing on the shelf above. Her smile radiated happiness and she ran to meet him across the carpet.
Cole caught her up in his arms, his fingers combing through her hair as he kissed her. His mouth sought hers with the frenzy of a fever patient seeking water. Need banished gentleness as he took her lips and commanded them to do his will. His mouth caressed hers with rough passion, savoring the heat flaring between them. Maggie rested her arms on his shoulders but as their kiss rose from hot to torrid her hands strayed over his body. She rubbed his back, softly at first and then with a wild woman’s excitement. Her short nails clawed at his skin and Cole delighted in the sensation. Maggie’s left hand snatched hold of his cock and held it for a moment. The coolness of her palm against his heated dick sent waves of pleasure through his body. When she squeezed him, Cole thought he’d die of delight and moaned aloud.
Mouth freed, Maggie swept her hair across his chest to suckle one nipple, her lips tight against the tender flesh. She used her teeth to nibble with erotic precision, each bite adding to his growing passion. He couldn’t reach her mouth or her breasts so Cole plunged his hand lower to rub her pussy. She pushed herself against him in a silent plea for more so he used his hand to rub across her clit and then worked a finger deep inside her. He found her wet, her shaft ready for him but he didn’t want to yield so soon.
When she came up for air he locked his mouth on hers again and picked her up into his arms. Cole cradled her against his chest and kissed her until he couldn’t breathe. He deposited her onto the bed without removing the comforter. She scooted up until her head rested on the pillows. Maggie arched her back and opened wide her legs, feet on the bed and knees up. Her hair spread around her head and trailed down over her breasts. Cole ached to plunge into her open vessel but he paced himself and instead he lowered himself above her.
His mouth kissed her belly and worked upward until he suckled at first one breast, then the other. His hands kneaded her tits as he took his pleasure. Her tiny cries of pure delight fueled his desire and Cole shifted to apply his tongue to the tender side of her throat. He sucked hard and used his teeth to scrape the flesh just a little. He meant to leave a hickey, a love bite and did. When he raised his head he saw the purple bruising there, his mark on Maggie.
Cole’s already tight cock reacted and he couldn’t any longer. Maggie sensed his next move because she opened herself even wider. He put his knees outside of hers and shoved into her with greater force than he intended. As his member slid into her moist warmth the sides of her vagina contracted with spasms of sensual delight. Each movement brought pleasure and he made hoarse noises he couldn’t control. He moved in and out of her in the ancient rhythm savoring each sensation until he couldn’t bear to wait.
Maggie’s skin glistened with a fine sheen of perspiration as she clawed at the comforter with both hands, head thrown back in the throes of passion. Her ragged breathing matched his as he found enough wind to say, “It’s now, Maggie, I’m going to come.”
“Do it, Cole,” she breathed. “Don’t wait. I can’t stand anymore.”
As he thrust hard for final entry Maggie lifted her bottom and bucked against him with strength. His aroused cock exploded as Cole climaxed, his body beyond his control, heaving with the force of their coming together. His cum poured into her, Colt felt his wet seed flowing into Maggie. Her fingers turned into talons and she held him tight as they hit the moment together. She shrieked with delight and he groaned aloud before shuddering into stillness.
She convulsed beneath him and when she stopped Maggie lifted her mouth, half blind to kiss him. Cole’s mouth latched onto hers and held so they lay together, spent and weak locked in a kiss. If he didn’t need to breathe he’d kept his lips over hers forever but he needed air. A rosy flush from her throat to her breasts indicated she’d enjoyed a full orgasm and Cole shifted, lying down beside her.
Maggie curled against him, her naked flesh burning against his and held onto him. Cole’s brain was mush, his body too weak to even consider moving, and his legs were rubber. They didn’t move or speak for a very long time. He thought she slept a little and his mind drifted. Every time with Maggie’d been fantastic but this night trumped the other interludes and topped them all. He’d never enjoyed such mind blowing sex before or experienced a total blending of bodies.
After awhile Cole detached himself and since he was all sweaty and sticky, he showered. Cole toweled off and put his clothing back on. He watched Maggie at rest, committing each curve of her cheek, the lines of her body to memory with a mental snapshot he’d keep forever. When Maggie roused, she offered him a brilliant smile. Then she showered, dressed, and without a word but in complete accord, they left and headed home.
Cole’s heart brimmed with emotion, too full to speak. He delivered her to her door but didn’t ask to come inside and Maggie made no offers. He figured they both knew he’d never want to leave her bed and once there he’d do the deed again if it killed him.
Before she went inside, Maggie blew him a kiss. Cole mimed catching it and touched his fingers to his lips. Maggie nodded and vanished, leaving Cole alone in the summer night.
He drove on up to his cabin in a delicious daze. The evening gave him a firm certainty everything would be all right. Nothing bad could happen and her silly premonitions would amount to nothing. Tragedy wouldn’t survive, not against the force of love they shared.
Cole knew without any doubt he�
��d stay.
Chapter Twenty Two
The day of the Tatum reunion arrived accompanied with stagnant heat and humidity powerful enough to suck all the oxygen from the air. When Cole stepped out on his porch to check the weather, a habit he’d developed over the summer, all his senses prickled at the heaviness in the air. Some inner intuition warned bad weather must be on the way and his trained mind agreed. Inside Cole booted up his laptop long enough to check weather conditions, both current and projected. Based on the humidity, the falling barometer, the dead calm over the lake, and a massive storm system still edging out of Colorado into Oklahoma Cole realized the at the National Weather Service and his prediction agreed for once. Uneasy and curious how the storm might affect the family reunion Cole hurried down the hill to have coffee with Maggie.
In the week since they’d made the best love he’d ever known, she’d alternated between her normal complacent happiness and moments of darkness. She still swore she picked up on bad vibes and retained her premonition that something terrible would happen. Cole had done his best to debunk it but fear haunted Maggie. And, Cole had to admit it creeped him out as well. He recalled how many times she’d been right about something but try as he mind, he couldn’t remember any occasion when she’d been wrong.
This weekend the resort loomed almost empty. Only two of the cabins had guests, three if Cole counted his own. He didn’t bother to knock at the back door but stepped inside and found Maggie posed at the sink, staring outside with a fixed gaze. Her back was to him so Cole couldn’t read her expression but her tense stance warned him something was wrong.
“Maggie?” he said. “Honey, what’s the matter?”
She turned around, eyes red-rimmed so he knew she’d cried hard not long ago. Her fair skin lacked any color at all, whiter than he’d ever seen it. She wore a sad expression and her gray eyes, duller than he’d ever seen them, lacked any hope at all. In a fretful little voice, she said, “I don’t feel good at all, Cole.”
Without conscious thought he stepped closer and put his hand across her forehead to check for fever the way his mom or Babka would have done but she wasn’t hot. Instead her skin chilled his hand. “Are you sick, honey?”
Maggie shook her head. “No, I don’t think so. I felt okay when I woke up but then this terrible sense of doom hit me hard again. I can’t shake it this time, Cole. This terrible heaviness hangs over me like a black cloud and I’m trapped in the middle of it. Whatever it is, I think it’ll happen today.”
Her dull monotone alarmed him but her appearance worried him more. Cole took her by the arm. “Come sit down. You look terrible.”
“Do I?”
“Yeah, Maggie you do,” he told her. “Maybe we should stay home today and not go to the reunion.”
She shook her head. “I can’t – I promised them I’d be there. Besides, whatever happens, it will. It doesn’t matter if I go or stay.”
With his help Maggie sank into a kitchen chair. She pillowed her head in her hands at the table. Cole moved behind her and tried to massage her shoulders but the muscles were hard and taut. “You’re not in any state to go anywhere unless you calm down, honey.”
“I’ll be okay.”
She sounded like an old woman with her voice weak and toneless. Cole asked, “Did you make coffee yet?”
“No, I forgot. I’ll make it now.”
“I’ll do it,” Cole told her. She didn’t move as he did but she accepted a cup when he poured her one. He watched as she sipped, relieved to see a faint hint of color return to her face.
Anxiety gnawed within Cole’s gut. Between the weather threat and Maggie’s heavy gloom Cole didn’t feel so great either. It’d help if she could pinpoint the tragic event but since she couldn’t zero in on it, Cole had no idea what to do. He’d suggest they all stay home but Cole wondered if the coming storm front might hit the old resort. It would pack a hell of a punch and the danger she feared might lie here at home. If so, they might all be better off on Indian Point. Cole worried, though, if Maggie didn’t perk up, her Tatum kin might think she suffered from insanity or some other ailment. In her present state Maggie wasn’t likely to make any decisions but he hoped he could talk her into making one. He didn’t want her kids to see her zoned out in this dark mood. Cole sat down at the table. Maybe he could get through to her.
“How’s the coffee?”
“Fine,” she said as she curled her hands around the mug.
“Want some breakfast? I’ll fix you something,” Cole told her in a voice meant to be cheerful but it rang false even to his ears.
Maggie shook her head. “I’m not really hungry but thanks.”
Cole tried again to make conversation. “Are the kids up yet?”
“Up and gone,” Maggie said. “Stacy picked them up really early, around six this morning.”
“I thought we were all going together,” Cole replied, surprised by the change in plan. “Why’d she do that?”
“I called and asked her if she would,” Maggie told him. “She said sure so I woke them up and made sure they were ready when she showed up.”
His head seemed thicker than normal because he couldn’t understand. “Why, Maggie?”
She raised tortured eyes to meet his. “I thought maybe they’d be safer on Indian Point.”
Dread prickled the back of his neck. Maggie’d said she didn’t know what danger loomed but she sent her kids packing. Cole suspected she might have an inkling what might go awry and he wondered if her hunch involved him, not Kaitlin or Kiefer. “Okay. Maggie, are you sure you’re not sick or something?”
It’d be a hell of a lot easier to deal with if she was, Cole thought but she shook her head. “I’m sure. But are you okay? You look strange.”
“I’m worried about you, Maggie,” he replied. “I have to tell you – you’re scaring me to death.”
Something awakened in her face, an awareness she lacked before and Maggie cupped her hand against his cheek. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to upset you.”
“I know,” Cole said. Her fingers were like ice. “Are you cold?”
“I’m freezing,” Maggie said. “Would you bring me my sweater? It’s on the chair upstairs in my room.”
He still wasn’t sure she might not be well. Maggie shouldn’t be this cold in such heat but Cole fetched her sweater. When he came into the kitchen she wasn’t at the table anymore. Rattled, Cole looked around the room just as Maggie met him with a hug. Her arms cinched around his body with quiet desperation and in response Cole held her, snug and hard.
“Promise me you’ll be careful today,” Maggie breathed in his ear. “I couldn’t stand to lose you, Cole.”
“I will. You want to tell me what all this is about?”
“I don’t want to.”
“C’mon, honey,” he said. She shook her head against him and Cole realized with a cold chill it was him she worried about. Maybe Maggie didn’t want to bring it up but damn it, he would. “Is it me? Does your bad feeling focus on me?”
One word, whispered confirmed it. “Yes.”
Cole shut his eyes. He should’ve known. He remembered her dream, the nightmare about the lake and he said, “I’ll be fine, I promise. I won’t let anything happen.”
Tears choked her voice as she said, “Oh, Cole.”
“I won’t. I’ll do whatever you want me to so I stay safe. If you need me to stay put here, I’ll stay. Or I’ll go to the reunion with you. I promise not to get in or near the lake and to be careful doing everything else. I’ll wear my seat belt, drive slow, and stay out of the sun. When we get through today and I’m healthy you’ll see. I’ll be fine and everything will be all right.”
“I hope so,” Maggie murmured. “I don’t know.”
“I do.” Cole said with determination. “You’ve got to pull out of this mood you’re in so we can go to your Tatum reunion. Can you try?”
She sighed, “I guess.”
“Good. First thing, you need to eat something so wh
at do you want?”
Cole cajoled her into eating a bowl of instant oatmeal and he kept her talking until Maggie acted more like herself. By the time she changed into new jeans and a pretty blouse for the reunion, her face wasn’t so pale. Maggie stopped talking like an old, frail woman but she still sported a worry line down the center of her forehead. And no matter what they were doing, she clung to him like stick tight needles in the fall forest.
When they headed to the reunion, Cole drove slower than usual and with extra care. Maggie rode right beside him, her left hand on his leg for apparent reassurance. After they navigated the Saturday bustle of the Strip without mayhem or accident, she sighed with relief. After a call from Kaitlin, she brightened up even more.
“We’re on our way,” Maggie said, forcing a cheerful tone into her voice for her daughter until she sounded almost normal. “Are you having fun?”
After she hung up, Maggie told Cole, “We’re supposed to meet the kids near some gazebo and have lunch. Kaitlin said it’s all catered.”
“Sounds good,” Cole said.
Although Maggie wasn’t as morose as she’d been, she still wasn’t herself. For now the sky overhead lacked clouds but the heat baked down with an oppressive quality.
Traffic snarled around Silver Dollar City and upped his tension levels but once they passed the park things evened out. Cole followed Maggie’s directions down a narrow road, little more than a lane to the resort and found it. They parked beneath a shade tree and he rolled the car windows down to prevent the car overheating. Cole had made a mental note to remember so if the storms arrived while they were here, he’d need to make a dash to roll them up.
“We’re here. Let’s go mingle,” he told Maggie. She rewarded him with a faint smile and clutched his hand when they started down to where a gazebo loomed. Cole surveyed the crowd to find Kiefer and Kaitlin and when he did, he pointed them out to Maggie. He inhaled the rich, smoky aroma of barbecue and despite his turbulent tummy it smelled delicious.
Lake Dreams Page 21