Eve

by Iris Johansen

The rain had stopped, but it was still misty as they reached the car.

  She cast a look back at the motel.

  “It wasn’t so bad, was it?” John asked as he intercepted her glance. “It’s just a place. We made what we wanted of it.”

  And what they had made was a wild and unforgettable sensual memory. “Not bad at all.” She got into the passenger seat. “But I still like the reservoir better. Maybe it won’t rain tonight.”

  He got into the car. “It had better not. I want it right. We don’t have that much time left.”

  She stiffened, her gaze flying to his face. “How long? When do you have to report for basic training?”

  “Four days.” He started the car. “We both knew it was coming.”

  Yes, but she must have blocked out the approach of the inevitable ending. “Where are they sending you?”

  “I’m not sure. I signed up in Milwaukee, so I have to go back there. They’ll probably send me to a camp in Wisconsin.” He frowned. “I don’t want to talk about it. I don’t want to think about it.”

  “But you are thinking about it, or you wouldn’t have mentioned it.” She drew her sweater closer to her body. “And we should think about it. It’s going to take a little time to get used to the idea. It feels … different than it did when we first talked about it.”

  “Then you think about it,” he said roughly. “Tear it apart and tell yourself how smart and practical we’re being. All I can think about right now is that next week I’m not going to be making love to you.”

  “It isn’t making love.”

  “Whatever. Screwing you. Any word you want to use. It’s the same result.” He was silent a moment. “What if it is making love? Neither of us knows what that’s like. What if this is it?”

  “Just because it seems different? It has to be because we just know each other better.”

  “Maybe.” His hands were tightening on the steering wheel. “Yeah, but it does feel different. And I don’t like it.”

  She didn’t know how she would feel after he was gone, either. Her body had become so accustomed to him that it he seemed part of her. “We have four days.”

  “Big deal.” Then he grimaced. “I’m acting like a kid. Like I said, I didn’t expect to feel like this.” He looked at her. “Chemistry is supposed to wear away. It didn’t do it. We need more time.”

  “Well, we don’t have it.”

  He was silent. “Maybe you could come with me and stay near the camp.”

  She stared at him in disbelief. “So I could put my life on hold and make myself available to you? Hell, no.”

  “Okay, I know I was out of line. I’m not thinking too clear.”

  She wasn’t thinking clearly, either. For an instant, she had actually considered it. No, not considered. There wasn’t anything that resembled cool consideration in the way she was feeling. “And I’d be interfering in your life, too. I won’t do that, and I won’t give up my plans to follow you around and be your private whore.” She was shaking. “Someday you’d leave me, and I’d end up somewhere in another development like the one where I grew up. That’s not for me. We do what we said we’d do. It’s over when you get on that plane and go off to basic training.”

  He muttered a curse and didn’t speak for a long moment. Finally, he said quietly, “Okay. I know I’m not being fair. I’m reaching out and grabbing what I want. I told you once that you couldn’t trust me if I wanted something bad enough.” He glanced away from her. “I’m even tempted to try to persuade you to do what I want. I might be able to do it. I have those four days, and I have some pretty potent weapons on my side. You love what we do together as much as I do. It could be enough to tip the balance.”

  “No way.”

  “Don’t challenge me.” He smiled recklessly. “I’m trying to overcome my darker side. I know you’re right.” He parked in front of the development. “It’s just hard for me to care.”

  She got out of the car. “I care enough for both of us.”

  “Tonight?”

  She should say no. He was behaving with a volatility that made her uneasy, and her response was equally unsettling.

  “I’ll make it special for you,” he said softly.

  She could feel the melting begin. Special? He meant erotic, wild, and possibly wicked. And he always kept his promises. Why should she cheat herself? “Tonight.” She started across the street. “Four more days.”

  * * *

  EVE SAT UP IN BED AND BRUSHED her hair out of her eyes. “What time is your flight?”

  “We’ve got time.” He pulled her back over him. “Ten tonight.”

  “An hour before I get off work.” She glanced at the clock on the nightstand. “It’s three now.”

  “We’ve got time,” he repeated. “You don’t have to be at work until six. I’m packed and ready to go.”

  She stopped arguing. She didn’t want him to leave. Their coming together in the motel room had been hot and frantic, and yet the hunger was still there.

  She lay against him, feeling the male hardness and strength of him. She was breathing hard, and she could hear his heartbeat pounding beneath her ear.

  His hands were moving over her body. “I know every curve and crevice of you,” he whispered. “I’ve memorized every single part of you. I know your smell, your taste, your texture. If I were blind, I’d be able to recognize you.”

  And she’d be able to recognize him, she thought. But she wasn’t sure that she wanted to remember John Gallo once he passed out of her life. The experience had been too intense, and the emotions she had felt had been confusing. Not only passion, but there had been surprising moments when there had been tenderness.

  “They’ll probably send me somewhere else after basic training, but I might be able to come back here for a week or so.” He was stroking her hair. “I’ll call and let you know.”

  “And after you’re away for a while, you might decide that it’s better to keep your distance. I won’t expect anything from you.”

  “Because you don’t want me to expect anything, either.” He tangled his fingers in her hair and lifted her head to meet her eyes. “I’ve got the message. But I’m not sure that I’m going to pay any attention to it. Are you afraid of me, Eve?”

  She was afraid. Afraid of the sex, which was a stronger drug than anything Sandra took, afraid of the way she was beginning to reach out to him in ways that weren’t sexual. She liked to watch him, liked his flashes of wry humor, even his silences. “I think we’ve gone too far.”

  “Maybe. But that’s not going to stop me.” He was kissing her, rolling her over on the bed. “Tell me that two minutes from now.”

  She wasn’t able to talk at all after that two minutes. All she could do was to move with him and try to keep from screaming with pleasure. This time she felt totally powerless. He was controlling the pleasure, demanding the response.

  And she was giving it to him, giving whatever he asked. She couldn’t help herself.

  It was only later, when she lay panting and shaking from the aftereffect of that storm, that she realized what that helplessness meant. He had made her feel weak, and that was the true danger.

  And it was good that John Gallo was leaving that night.

  * * *

  IT WAS ELEVEN THIRTY, EVE realized as she climbed the steps to the apartment. John would have been in the air over an hour and a half. It had been strange not to see his Chevy parked in front of the restaurant when she’d left work. Stranger still to come straight home instead of going with John to the reservoir.

  Don’t think of the reservoir and what we did there. She had kept busy and had been fine all evening. She had allowed herself no time to remember all the erotic games they’d played in the motel this afternoon. Only they hadn’t been games. Everything she’d done with John had been done with searing intensity.

  She unlocked the apartment door and went inside. She turned on the light and kicked off her shoes. Empty as usual. Her mother hadn’t been ho
me at all that week. She’d shower and go to bed. She hadn’t gotten much sleep in the last month, and she might be able to doze off.

  Maybe.

  She didn’t feel sleepy. Every nerve was keyed, and the effort to keep from thinking about John Gallo was added stress. Homework? She’d gotten behind in that, too, but there was nothing urgent. She’d get back in the routine now that she had no distractions.

  Distractions?

  That was a tame word for John Gallo. Oh, yes, he had distracted her and seduced her and taught her a hundred ways to enjoy her body … and his.

  But that last time at the motel had revealed that pleasure could be as much a trap as the one she was trying to escape. He was too good, and he had warned her that he would do anything to get what he wanted.

  Right now he wanted her.

  It might change with time and distance, but that might be too late if he persuaded her to do what he wanted. Even now she could feel her body flush, ready, as she remembered what he had done this—

  The doorbell rang, startling her.

  No one came to the door at that time of night.

  Unless her mother had lost her key again. She misplaced it at least once or twice every few months.

  She slid back the viewer in the door. “Again, Sandra? We’re keeping that locksmith—”

  It wasn’t Sandra.

  John Gallo.

  Eve slid back the bolt and threw open the door. “What’s wrong? Why are you—”

  She was crushed against him, his mouth on hers, hard, frantic.

  And she was frantic, too. Her arms slid around him, and she was making sounds deep in her throat. “Why?” she gasped. “I thought you were gone. Why are—”

  “This is why.” His voice was guttural; his hands ripping open the buttons of her shirt. “I was sitting at that gate at the airport, and I couldn’t get you out of my mind. I had to have you one more time.” He was tearing off her bra, his lips on her breast. “Don’t say no, Eve.”

  No? She was as wild as he was. The shock of his appearance had sent her hurtling back into the sensual storm she always experienced when she was with him. She could scarcely breathe. Her hands were running up and down his back, bringing him closer as his tongue sent sensation after sensation through her. “The plane…”

  “I can catch one at three. I’ll still be there on time.” He’d backed her against the kitchen table and was pulling down her jeans. “I don’t give a damn…”

  And she didn’t either. “The couch…”

  He wasn’t paying any attention to her. She didn’t know if he even heard her. He’d lifted her onto the kitchen table, and he was suddenly over her, in her, with one movement. She inhaled sharply. Fullness.

  Hardness all around her. The table against her buttocks, his belly pressing down on hers, the stroking …

  The stroking!

  His breath was harsh, his chest rising and falling against her with every thrust. “I knew you … wouldn’t want it here. This is your space, and you don’t want me in it.” Another deep thrust. “You don’t want to … remember me here. You don’t want to remember me at all, do you?” He sank deep and rotated. “Do you?”

  She gasped as her hands clutched wildly at his shoulders. “It’s not—” She shuddered as the pace quickened. “You told me—”

  “I said a lot of things, didn’t I?” His face above her was flushed, fierce, completely sensual. “But all I can think about right now is that you have—to—remember me. I won’t let you forget me. Every time you look around you, you’re going to remember me here, doing this to you.” He suddenly slid back off the table, taking her with him.

  Her legs instinctively curled around his hips.

  He was walking, pausing to stroke, then walking again.

  Then they were on the couch. “Do you know how many times I thought about doing it with you here?” he whispered. “You liked the reservoir because it was neutral territory, and I’d give you anything you wanted. But toward the end I didn’t want neutral.” He was moving fast, hard. “I wanted this. Because I won’t—be—forgotten, Eve.”

  Wildness. Hunger. Heat.

  Madness.

  She had to have more.

  Arching, clasping, taking …

  And then there was no more to take.

  It was beyond …

  She screamed.

  He was still moving. “That’s right.” He was gasping, “Again, Eve. You can do it. I’ll just do this…” His eyes were glittering, wild. “More…”

  Again.

  “I want to make you—but I can’t—wait.” The tempo grew harder, more intense. “Can’t—” He groaned, his spine arched, his head thrown back, his face a mask of pleasure so intense it looked like pain. “Eve!”

  He collapsed on top of her.

  She didn’t want it to stop. On and on and on … She clasped him to her with all her strength, as she tried to get her breath.

  He lifted his head and kissed her lingeringly. “Beautiful…”

  “You always say that. I’m not…”

  “You are. Like a flame…” He kissed her breast. “And you feel like a flame curling around me. When I was at that gate, I kept thinking of the way you felt. I thought I’d go crazy if I didn’t have you one more time.”

  “You did go crazy.” And so had she. All he’d had to do was explode through that door, and she had been ready for him. Ready? She’d been wild for him. Everything she’d been telling herself about how good a thing it was that they were separating had vanished the minute he’d touched her. Which meant that everything she had told herself was true. “And you’re going to miss that second flight if you don’t leave soon. It’s after midnight.”

  “I won’t miss it.” His tongue traced her lower lip. “I want to stay, but I’ve done what I had to do.” He got to his feet. “I have to go shower. Stay here. I want to see you like this when I come back.” He vanished into the bathroom.

  She didn’t know if she could have moved if she’d wanted to. Every muscle felt limp, and she was lying there in a warm haze. He’d said he was going. There was no reason to stir right now. She didn’t have to think or worry. Everything was the same as it had been that afternoon. This had just been a wild, unexpected epilogue.

  She heard the shower. He would be gone soon. The wrenching pain she was feeling was all part of the confusion their togetherness had begun to foster lately. She would be fine. It would go away when he went away.

  He came out of the shower ten minutes later. “Good.” He smiled. “You stayed there. I wasn’t sure if you’d do anything I told you to do. Resistance should be kicking in about now.”

  “I didn’t want to move.” She met his gaze. “And you’re leaving. Maybe I wanted to please you.”

  “You did.” He dropped to his knees in front of the couch. “And I pleased you, didn’t I?” He put his palm on her belly. “It’s a wonder. I was so hot I could only think about myself and how fast I could have you.” He traced the outline of her navel. “I’m lucky you didn’t kick me out.”

  “You knew that wouldn’t happen. And you said you’d been wanting it to be here. So I don’t think it was as mindless as you say.”

  He was silent. “Oh, I was mindless. The other was just instinct.” He bent and kissed her nipple. “I’ve got to get out of here, or I’ll have to have you again. I can’t miss another plane.” His teeth tugged gently at her earlobe. “I’ve got to do what I promised my uncle I’d do. I won’t mess up my chance.”

  “No, that would be a mistake.”

  “So that may mean I won’t be able to get back here for a while. And you won’t come to me.”

  “No.”

  “But I will come back, Eve.” He lifted her up and put his cheek against her belly. It felt rough and hard against her bare flesh. “And you will remember me. Say it.”

  “You’d be hard to forget.”

  “That’s not good enough.” He lifted his head, and his eyes were glittering, burning, as they hel
d her own. “Tell me. You’ll remember everything we did, everything we are together. No matter how long. You won’t forget me.”

  She couldn’t pull her gaze away. His intensity was overpowering and hypnotic, enveloping her, binding her.

  “Tell me,” he said softly. “You know it’s the truth. You’re part of me. You’ll always be with me. You’ll remember.”

  How could she help it? No matter how their paths parted or intertwined, he’d been the first in so many ways, and the power of his personality had stunned and beguiled her. Even at that moment, she couldn’t imagine the days or years to come without him.

  “I’ll remember you,” she whispered.

  “That didn’t hurt, did it?” He smiled brilliantly. His arms closed tighter, and he kissed her. “The only thing that will hurt will be the waiting.” Then he put her back on the couch and got to his feet. “And I’ll cut that down to as little as possible.”

  “I’m not going to wait for you. That’s a trap, too. And you won’t want to wait for me after you’ve been gone for a while.”

  “I didn’t think I would, either. But things are changing. I’ll have to see.” He moved toward the door. “But one thing I do know. I’ve never felt like this about anyone before you. I’m not sure that I’ll ever feel like this again. I want to reach out and grab and hold on.” He opened the door. “But that’s my nature. Good-bye, Eve.”

  “Good-bye, John.”

  He was standing framed in the doorway as he had been framed by the elevator doors that first night. He was the same, yet not the same. Muscular thighs outlined in denim jeans, same face that was hard yet beautiful in its sensuality. But now she knew that body, that face, in a thousand different positions and expressions. She knew his toughness, his bluntness, his seductiveness, the bitterness that he seldom spoke about, the driving passion that could be as explosive as a lightning flash.

  He wanted her to remember him?

  This was how she’d remember John Gallo.

  CHAPTER

  6

  The water. Stay out of the water. The current was so strong it would carry her away and over the falls.

  Eve’s breath was coming in harsh pants that hurt her chest as she scrambled up the bank and into the brush.