The Man from Shadow Valley

by Regan Forest

  To feel like a woman for the first time—was it a weakness? No...it was the way life meant for her to feel.

  The rain, which had let up for a while, began to beat hard again against the roof and the windowpanes. Ellen touched Cody’s hard, bare chest and smiled down at him. “You won’t be able to go anywhere in this storm.”

  He lay his hand over hers, on his chest. “Is that all right with you?”

  Ellen nodded slowly. Dreams were only premonitions, she thought. But storms brought them together.

  9

  ELLEN ASKED, “Do you want the tape on? Would it be more comfortable?”

  Slowly moving his body sideways, Cody grunted, “It’s not so bad.” He sat up, then rose carefully. “I’ll test it out on my way to your bathroom. The coffee has gone through me.”

  “The coffee was hours ago. I’m thirsty and hungry and I know you are. I’m going to get us some supper.”

  A few minutes later, while she stood in the kitchen preparing bacon and eggs, Cody appeared in the doorway. His shirt was unbuttoned and he was barefoot. This is like a movie, she thought giddily. He could be a film hero expertly fitted out and posed to look as sexy as possible. On Cody it was natural; he was a study in male beauty.

  “Can I help?” he asked.

  Ellen motioned toward the opposite cabinet. “I think I have a bottle of wine in there. Do you want to check?”

  He found the bottle and asked for a corkscrew. He poured out two glasses of Burgundy and handed one to her. “To the storm,” he said.

  “To this storm. Not the one that hurt you.” Hating to be reminded of the picture of him lying in the street, she turned to the bacon in the skillet. “I hope you like bacon and eggs.”

  “Just the right thing for a rainy night. I’ll make toast.”

  Cody found candles and set them on the kitchen table along with plates and flatware. Ellen moved about as if in a dream, because these domestic moments with Cody were so strange and yet so comfortable.

  Talking was easy, as if they had known each other forever. Talk of books they had read, music they liked, memories of long-ago days. Forty minutes later they were still at the table. The candles were burning down, and the radio was on.

  Cody said, “I like this song. Will you dance with me?”

  She looked surprised. “Dance? I’ve...never danced.” This fact had secretly bothered Ellen; there was a plan in the back of her mind to take dance lessons someday, in the city.

  Cody didn’t express his surprise aloud, if it was surprise. He had been learning how isolated Ellen had kept herself. The more time he spent with her, the more he understood her and her feelings of alienation from the mainstream of life. He offered her his hand and a gentle smile. “There’s nothing to it.”

  She hesitated.

  “Just follow me,” he said, urging her to her feet and into his arms. “I normally wouldn’t be moving as stiffly as this...but just get into the rhythm of the music with me.”

  His arms were tight and warm around her. Her heart beat against his chest. “Isn’t there some step I need to learn?”

  “Naw, not for this kind of dancing. There... That’s right. You just feel the music and my movements.”

  “I’m afraid you’ll hurt your ribs.”

  “Honey, I wouldn’t do it if it hurt.”

  Ellen wasn’t sure she believed this, but she would take his word. Before two songs had finished, she wondered why she had never tried dancing. There were so many things she hadn’t tried.

  “It’s still raining,” Cody said.

  “Buster is going to wonder where you are.”

  “He doesn’t like getting wet. He’ll be home, warm and dry.”

  “Did you really come straight from the hospital to the cemetery?”

  He nodded. “They’re probably looking for me. I suppose I should have left a note.”

  She raised her hand to her mouth in mild shock. “When were they going to discharge you?”

  “I don’t know. It doesn’t matter now.”

  “But are you okay?”

  He smiled mischievously. “Maybe I should go to bed. Do you want to lie down with me?”

  “I did that once.”

  “Hmm. And you were starting to get to know me with your magic hands. There is more of me to know.”

  Butterflies flew acrobatic drills around her stomach in response to such a suggestion. The wine had melted the last of her inhibitions. By now she wanted desperately to know more of him—more of the incredible mystery of him.

  Upstairs in her bedroom, Cody stripped down to his shorts and lay down on her bed.

  “Nothing very modest about you,” Ellen teased nervously.

  “Hey, not true! I normally sleep nude.”

  She flushed. “I don’t.”

  “I figured you didn’t.” He patted the mattress. “Get comfortable and come sit beside me.”

  Ellen took off her shoes, nothing more. Cody reached over and touched her hair. “You smell so sweet, Ellen. Your perfume makes me think of fresh flowers.”

  “It is flowers you smell. I don’t wear perfume.”

  He sniffed at her neck. “Flowers?”

  “I hate cheap cologne and I can’t afford expensive perfume, so I crush flowers with a drop of oil and rub them on my skin.”

  The expression of admiration that came into his eyes caused her to look away self-consciously.

  “You’re the most incredible woman I’ve ever known. The most beautiful, the most creative and the most caring. And by far the classiest. No wonder I’ve fallen in love with you.” He urged her close until their lips touched, and he kissed her more deeply than before, his fingers lightly caressing her throat.

  Her emotions soared out of control. His words were the most beautiful Ellen had ever heard, and the most dreaded. Tears sprang to her eyes. Her plea was raspy: “Oh, Cody, please don’t love me....”

  He was silent as he lifted her hand and began caressing each finger gently. Looking at her hand, he said, “Why? Because you can’t love me?”

  “That’s not why. You know why. I told you.”

  “Yeah. But I can’t turn my feelings off like a faucet.”

  “It’s all so...”

  “Overpowering?”

  She nodded. How did he know so well what she was feeling?

  “It’s overpowering for me, too, Ellen. I don’t know why meeting you has put me in a tailspin. I could say it was because I had dreamed about you when I was a kid, but I was spiraling before I became aware of that. I must have remembered subconsciously who you were.”

  “I must have subconsciously remembered you, too,” Ellen muttered. “It’s the only explanation I can think of.” Other than Meredith’s explanation involving the lure of the ghost, which I don’t want to think about. Meredith hadn’t let her forget. She had insisted that tomorrow, when Jeff was out of town, they would break into the mansion and see if they could find a...solution to this mystery. Tomorrow, though, was a long way off. Tonight could last forever as far as she was concerned....

  “Explanation for what?” he was asking.

  “For you popping up in my dreams.”

  “Speaking of dreams...” Cody began, and quickly forgot what he had been about to say. Conversation didn’t interest him at the moment; he began kissing her fingers lightly, one by one. “Ellen, no woman has ever looked at me the way you do. I know you want me. Maybe as much as I want you.”

  Her heart was racing again and the butterflies were back.

  His fingers, like licks of fire, moved up her arm to her shoulder, slid under the collar of her shirt and caressed her bare shoulder, then descended to her breast, touching the lace. He bent down and kissed her breasts, over her shirt.

  “You’re tense when I touch you,” he murmured. “I don’t want you to be tense.”

  What do you expect? she wanted to scream. Ellen couldn’t trust her voice not to crack under pressure of the overwhelming sensations assailing her body and her mind. A
nd her heart. She wanted this to stop. And she wanted it never to stop—not until she knew every secret there was to know.

  “Don’t be afraid to touch me,” Cody whispered, urging her hand to his chest. “Feel my heart beating? It’s exactly in sync with yours.” With the other hand over her breast, he said, “See? Same rhythm.”

  “That’s incredible.” Her self-consciousness began to ebb. “My heart doesn’t usually beat this hard.”

  He smiled. “Neither does mine. And my body doesn’t usually tingle all over like it’s doing now. Or get as heated up...” He coaxed her hand down along his solar plexus to his waist. “I still have the feeling you’re more comfortable getting to know me first. Here...don’t be afraid to touch me....”

  “Cody...” she began, and her voice faded into the sound of splashing rain against the windows. Her hands did want to know him; and with him, all the mysteries....

  He closed his eyes. “Hmm...the hands of an angel.” He wriggled out of his shorts and lay luxuriating in the sensations, feather light but more sensual than anything he had ever known. Feather light—and somewhat timid. Even as he began to take note of her timidity, his soaring passion overrode logic.

  He reached out to release the buttons of her shirt, and slid it off over her shoulders. Ellen, wildly aroused, wanted to be closer and closer still, to lose herself completely in the spell of consuming passion that engulfed her. How could it be like this? As strong as this?

  Unzipping her jeans, she pulled out of them and drew herself against his body, whispering his name, welcoming the gentle explorations of his large, experienced hands.

  “Honey,” he said, “you’re trembling all over.”

  “I can’t help it. I think it’s passion.”

  He frowned, and asked carefully, “Think? Don’t you know?”

  “Well, not...not for sure. I feel...I feel so alive, so full of energy and so helpless at the same time. It’s hard to describe. It’s what you do to me....”

  Cody swallowed. Earlier he had been thinking that because of his cracked rib and the problem of exercising his back too much, Ellen would need to take the initiative—eventually. God, he’d been more than blind! He’d been an idiot!

  He bent to kiss her, ignoring the discomfort of the position. He kissed her gently, savoring the taste of her and the faint scent of flowers, and the pure, magnificent essence of her innocence. She returned the kiss, her arms folding strongly around him, her breaths coming in fast waves over her heartbeats.

  “Honey...” Cody whispered. “I’m rushing you. It isn’t fair to do that. You’re trembling as if you’re afraid.”

  Her voice was weak and jagged. “Not of you...” She paused for what he thought would be forever, then said, “Cody, I should tell you—”

  His heart constricted with sensations of pure love. “It isn’t necessary to tell me.” He kissed her eyelids softly, then her temples and her cheeks and her lips.

  Ellen felt herself being guided down in the bed, felt him reaching for the sheet, which he pulled over them, and then she was wrapped in his arms, feeling his body relax alongside hers.

  “Just let me hold you,” he said. “Just wrap my love around you and hold you. That’s better, my darling. Just know I’m here with you and allow the trembling to go away....”

  Her words were muffled against his strong shoulder. “Cody...?”

  “I didn’t mean to rush you,” he repeated. “I didn’t realize but I should have. You said you’d never danced. I should have realized then. Lie beside me awhile and know I love you, Ellen. Cuddling is one of the best things there is. Isn’t it?”

  “It’s wonderful,” she said, nestling closer.

  “Cuddling on a rainy night.”

  “Hmm...”

  “Waking in each other’s arms.”

  Tears formed in Ellen’s eyes. She was glad he couldn’t see them, but he probably knew they were there. His sensitivity overwhelmed her. It was uncertainty that had caused her to tremble. Self-consciousness. Cody was so worldly, and she existed in self-imposed exile from life as others knew it. There were questions she had been afraid to ask in the whirlwind of emotions he’d swept her into. He was putting her feelings before his own.

  With Cody’s body warm and solid beside her, Ellen had never felt so protected or so happy. So this is what love is. And the rest? The ultimate ecstasy? Tomorrow?

  Cody unfastened her bra under the blanket, slid it away and cupped his hand gently against her breast. “Tomorrow...” he murmured, as if he had read her mind.

  Ellen closed her eyes and fell into the rhythm of his breathing. From her body came little shivers of desire that could not be quelled. Thank you, Cody, her heart said. Thank you for understanding....

  * * *

  IN CODY’S DREAM, he and Ellen were dancing in a grand blue ballroom under sparkling chandeliers. She was in a gown of ice-blue silk that flowed and fluttered as she moved in his arms to music he couldn’t hear. Light made her jewels sparkle, but brighter jewels shone in her eyes, which looked up into his and smiled. And her lips smiled as if saying, I belong here...in this room...in your arms...

  There were no other people in the room. Cody could smell the flowerlike fragrance of her hair. He leaned down and whispered, “Where are we, Ellen?”

  Her voice was like the sweetest music. “Don’t you know? Don’t you remember?”

  “Tell me.”

  She laughed. “We’re in the mansion. The ghost is watching us, but I don’t care. We don’t care, do we?”

  * * *

  IN HER DREAM SHE WORE ice-blue silk chiffon trimmed with pearls, and a diamond necklace at her throat, and satin slippers. Dancing in Cody’s arms was like dancing on clouds; one could dance like this forever and never tire. She easily recognized the blue ballroom of the Whitfield mansion. Above them were the crystal chandeliers, and somewhere near lurked the ghost who always watched. Cody seemed unaware of the figure. She gazed up into his eyes, which tonight were bluer than her gown, and he smiled because they were together...dancing...touching. He whispered, “Where are we, Ellen?” as if he didn’t know.

  * * *

  AT THE FIRST LIGHT of morning, Cody woke to find her still beside him in the bed. It hadn’t been a dream, his being here. The dream was about that mansion again. For a second time since the storm his dreams had come unblocked and he could remember. His attentions quickly turned to the beauty of the morning—the scent of Ellen’s body and her hair, the sunshine filtering through the lace curtains at the window of her pink-and-white bedroom. He kissed her cheek, aware that the movement wasn’t painful. She stirred. Her eyelids fluttered open.

  A sleepy smile formed on her lips. “Hi.”

  “Hi,” he answered.

  “Umm, you’re really here, Cody. You’re not a dream.”

  “Definitely not a dream.”

  “It isn’t raining anymore,” she mumbled. “The sun is shining. I must open the window and let the morning in.”

  The smell of rain-washed earth blew in as Ellen, wearing only lace panties, took an enormous breath before darting into the bathroom. When she returned he was sitting naked on the edge of the bed.

  At the sight of him, the butterflies flew in her stomach again and the promises of yesterday returned as fresh as the mountain morning air. As Cody left for the bathroom she stepped out of her panties.

  When he came back, Ellen, propped up with pillows and thrilled at the sight of his body, gazed at him unashamedly. Smiling, she held out her arms. “Come back to bed.”

  His smile met hers. “An invitation I can’t take lightly.

  “How beautiful you are,” he said as his hands moved across her bare shoulders and down over her breasts. His lips followed the path of his fingers in a trail of fire. Ellen sucked in her breath, trying to take in the sensations. Her trembling fingers teased his thick dark hair and then lost hold as he moved lower, raining kisses over her whole body.

  Only after a time did she become aware how stiff
ly he had to move. “Cody...your back...”

  “Who can think about my back?”

  “I can. Please...lie down flat.”

  He did as she asked without a word. He didn’t have to be reminded of the pain, even as lost as he was in the magic of Ellen’s beauty.

  On his back, he looked up into her misty eyes. She smiled down at him, her fingers spread out over his chest, moving sensually over his stomach, his waist, his abdomen. “I don’t know what you’ve done to my heart, Cody. You’ve made me want you so.”

  He smiled dreamily. “I didn’t sleep much last night, with my body telling me how near you were. And now, you here, touching me...I don’t think I can control my reflexes too much longer. I’m only a human male....”

  “You definitely are.”

  He groaned softly at her touch, luxuriating in the wonder of her, submersing himself in her acceptance of him—the most beautiful adventure of his life. Being with her was where he belonged. Finding her was like finding the lost part of himself.

  He looked into her eyes—sensitive blue eyes glistening like dewdrops catching the light of the summer sun—and in those moments he knew more about love than he ever imagined. He said gently, “You’re not protected, are you, honey?”

  “Oh. Oh, no.” She shook her head. “My whole body is spinning, Cody. I feel like Alice falling down the hole into Wonderland. Or was it Dorothy...or a naive kid named Ellen...?” She wasn’t making much sense; how could she, when her tingling, spiraling body was controlling her head?

  He smiled so lovingly it seemed unnecessary for her to try to figure out what it was that she was trying to say.

  “Not naive. Nor innocent. You are a woman who knows and respects herself. Waiting for what’s right. The wonderland is love...and I’m falling down into it with you...and I wish there was nothing we had to protect ourselves from. Since I wasn’t planning this, I don’t have anything, either. But it’s okay. There are other ways.”