by Lass Small
“If you try to put my right arm up, you might break my arm.”
He scoffed, “Ah, ye of little faith.”
“If you don’t want me to sink my teeth into your throat, be careful.”
He was somewhat surprised. “You’ve joined some bat group?”
“No. It’s self-protection.”
So he eased his arms under her unresisting body and picked her up. As he stood, it was with some effort. She flopped her head with the movement and peeked beyond the window. She muttered, “She’s there, all right, and watching. How nosy of her.”
“Hush.”
He moved, her head slid sideways and her body appeared to adjust itself as a limp burden.
He commented, “You’ve gained some weight.”
As he walked around the end of the sofa, her indignant, hidden mouth said, “I have not! It’s because I’m not helping! That’s all! Shall I put my arms up on your shoulders and help? How dare you say I’m heavy!”
He began to smother his laugh. He stopped at the light switch and turned off the living-room lights. He was in the lighted hallway. He stood quietly, his head tilted down as if he was cherishing the sight of her.
She said, “Let’s get this over with. Quit stalling.”
He leaned his head down and kissed her mouth.
She almost burst from him. He felt that first rejection, but she stayed limp!
Her lips softened.
When he lifted his mouth from hers, she was still limp. She said, “You dirty rat.”
And he replied, “I know.”
“How mature of you to realize that you’re wicked and nasty.”
Again, he said, “I know.” He walked on into the bedroom and asked, “Is it any different?”
“I don’t suppose you’ve washed the sheets since I left.”
“Try them.” He lay her on the bed with great care. “Familiar?”
She moved, wiggling away from his grasp. “You can let up, she can’t see us here.”
“Well, she’s still there. I haven’t heard her start the car. You’ve got to stay here until she leaves. Remember what all I did to discourage Miles?”
“That was a long time ago...before we were married.”
“But you were glad I stayed around, and he finally left.”
“Yes.”
“Stay with me, now.”
“I am!” she said with impatience. “I’ve been here this whole evening! It wasn’t necessary!”
“You have to’ve heard what she said when she left.”
“Yes. I did. She was after you. Things at the office must be pretty dull if that old bag is after somebody as young as you.”
He was calm and logical. “I’m a mature male.” How strange to feel adult with her and not as much so with Miss Nelson. He mused on the difference.
But Kayla was replying to his comment of being mature. She finished his sentence with, “—for someone younger than she.”
“Would you mind if I looked for another woman?”
“Who?” How betraying! Why had her tongue said that? Kayla then asked, “Who did you have in mind? Not that old biddy?” Why couldn’t she resist calling attention to Barbara being older? It was probably because there was such a gap in their ages.
But then Kayla wondered if she could use age as a block for Tyler if he was interested in a woman younger than he? Or...younger...than she? Why should she care? She did not. It was only that she had once been committed to him, and she had not yet entirely resolved that commitment.
Tyler slowly paced the room while Kayla stacked the pillows behind her on the bed. She watched him. He was beautifully made. He moved like a panther. His eyes were the calm threat of such a beast.
He said, “It’s time, now, to turn off these lights.”
“No.”
“You have the bed. I’ll not get into it with you. I’ll sit over here. But we should turn off the lights.”
Considering their observer, it would be correct to turn off the lights. She suggested, “We’re separated, divorced.” She’d added that word with some acknowledgment. “Leave the lights on. To her, we could be curious about each other and—doing it—in the light.”
His voice was kind and logical. “We’ve had enough time to do it leisurely. Any other couple would have been at it right away and hungry. We’ve had the time to be slow and easy.” And he added soberly, “It’s time to turn out the lights.”
“We could be talking?”
“We’d be exhausted.”
She couldn’t hush up. She said, “I remember—” And she stopped abruptly.
He waited. “What is it you remember?” And his voice was soft and kind.
She looked up at him and told him, “I’ve forgotten what I was going to say. I suppose we ought to turn out the lights.”
“I’ll do that. That way I can check the living-room window and see if Miss Nelson is still watching.”
“Good idea.” Then she mentioned, “You call her—Miss Nelson.”
“I try to distance us in age.”
“Distance. You—or—her?”
“I try to call the age difference to her mind.”
Of course, that set Kayla off in laughter.
He turned off the lights, and she still laughed. Then he moved like a shadow and went into the living room. That silenced Kayla. Tyler was still a while, then he came back into the bedroom. “She’s still there.”
He lied.
With the lights off, Kayla didn’t even consider that he could be clever and lie. That was odd for her, but she was so honest that it didn’t occur to her that Tyler might be underhanded.
He said, “Settle down and rest. I’ll stay over here on the chair.”
“Uh—”
She’d been ready to suggest that she sneak out the back door to the utility room and hail a cab or catch the bus.
He said, “I’ll take good care of you.”
Kayla thought it was just a good thing she’d told Henrietta, her apartment mate who had cats, that she might be late getting home. Then she’d told Hennie why she was going out. The excuse covered her for the entire night.
The entire night?
That was...an alluring idea.
She moved on the bed’s rustling sheets. With subtle sounds, she yawned and then she sighed, very softly. Sadly.
Tyler hesitated. She moved like a snake, slowly, and her sighs were quietly deep. It didn’t sound restless. None of it. She sounded as if she wanted him over on the bed with her, on her, in her.
His own breathing picked up.
She could hear that. He was breathing high in his chest. He was triggered. He’d always been easy.
She took her time turning over and moving subtly. He thought her movements were as if she was silently restless. Wanting. Wanting him.
He was willing. Man, was he willing! He moved to the bed. His shirt became unbuttoned. But the zipper on his trousers did make an ear-catching sound. And he shed them with whispers of cloth being moved.
He could have been pulling up a light blanket, but it was his trousers that were discarded. He eased down on the side of the bed like a dog that isn’t sure he’s allowed inside the house. His breathing was a little harsh.
He’d be easy. She smiled in the night.
But the scarce light caught the fact that her eyes glinted, and she was betrayed to him as willing.
With her willing and calling attention to herself, he left the room and checked out the absent woman who had left some time before.
He returned to the bedroom, and she asked, “Still there?”
And he replied, “I wonder if she ever sleeps.” A nothing reply.
Kayla sighed with great endurance. “Know any good jokes? Any gossip? With the light out, you need to entertain me. Of course, I could leave—soon—and walk along carefully until I got a cab and could sit with gentleness.”
“I’d rather you stay. She might take even your careful leaving as a sign I was again alone...and vulnerable.”
“This is a drag.”
“I’ll distract you.”
“How?”
Ah. So he had some time and teasing and tasting to do first...if he could discipline himself enough. He’d endured a long dry spell. He asked her, “All the lechers been buzzing around you?”
She replied, “You’re the only lecher I know.”
“How about Jack?”
“Not Jack.”
“What about Ray?”
“No.”
“Who?”
“Nobody.”
“You looking around, trying for guys?”
“No.”
Carefully, he said the words softly, “You want—me.” She moved on the bed. The darkness of the room shadowed her. But his adjusted vision saw that she had discarded her skirt and blouse. Again, he said, “You want me.”
“No.”
“Yes. You want me. You’re teasing me with taking off your clothes.”
She gasped quite well and protested, “I’d forgotten your cat eyes! How could I have forgotten you can see in the dark! You lecher! A woman isn’t ever safe with you!”
“Do you...want to be safe?”
She tilted her chin. “Of course.”
“How safe?”
She put the tip of her finger on her lower lip and considered. “Why are you on the bed?”
“I’ve had a long day. Protecting you from that harpy has exhausted me. I need to lie down for a while. Talk to me so I can forget the harassment of the day.”
“Who all harassed you?”
“You saw the primary one. She terrifies me.”
“A man like you, with your sexual talents, can cope with a needy woman.”
“No.”
“It’s easy.”
“I’m a one-woman man. You’re the woman.”
She laughed. Genuinely amused and pleased for his words. She believed him.
In a soft, rather roughened, low voice, he then told her, “It’s been so long, I’ve forgotten how.”
That made her really laugh. She put her hand to her face and pretended to hide the laughter. She was not successful. Just her sounds stirred him further.
He shifted closer, but she moved to the side of the bed. She said, “I need to see if the vampire is still there.”
Tyler gasped almost silently and he did reach for her, but she slithered out of the bed and was gone.
He lay back, defeated. Of course, he could be surprised that Miss Nelson had finally left.
Kayla came back to the bed and told him, “She’s still there! Can I leave by the back door?”
He was riveted! Kayla had lied. Or had the harpy come back? Why would Miss Nelson leave for all that time and then return? She was not there! Kayla wanted to taunt him. She wanted to test him!
He patted the bed beside him and said, “It’s too late for a cab. I’ll take you home later. You might as well lie down and be comfortable.”
His arm slid under her shoulders and he pulled her closer to him. He said, “It’s been so long—”
He kissed her.
While her body was flacid, her soft mouth was hungry.
That shot the trigger and his breathing accelerated considerably. Her body was malleable. Her body was hungry for him!
His laugh was low in his throat and curled her toes. His kiss then was wicked and his hand moved... wonderfully.
She muttered and breathed and squirmed for him to get closer. Her breaths almost matched his. She moaned and moved and pulled at him.
He loved it. He loved her.
She said, “I’m in a free time, you don’t need the condom.”
“You’re sure?”
“I never take a risk.”
But he stopped, breathed, and got the sheath.
That was probably a good thing, because, then, they could take a little more time and pleasure.
A woman was a woman. How strange that he could not even consider one and was impotent to her charms, but Kayla set him off like a shooting star.
And she did just exactly that.
She gasped and her hands held him closer. She made relishing sounds and she was like a wild woman. She rushed him along the fast winds to the zenith, and they made it together. They held for the rapture and slowly collapsed.
He lay replete with his forearms holding most of his weight as he recovered enough to move his weight somewhat from her perfect, fragile, inert body.
He asked, “Are you all right?”
She rubbed her hands on his back and said, “Ummmmmmmmm.”
He laughed softly in his throat.
Eventually, he managed to lift his body to one side and lie on his back, sundered, his hand holding hers, his other arm over his face like a done man.
The silence was healing. Tyler knew they’d finally crossed back to being a couple. They’d—
And Kayla said, “If we walked out now, she’d probably follow.”
He asked slowly, rejecting moving anywhere at all, “What would Hennie say if you took me to bed at your place? No, no. I could not dare to leave your place alone. That woman would track me down.”
Thoughtfully, Kayla was silent. Then she said with decision, “We have to find Barbara a man of her own.”
“Jamie loves her.”
“Jamie! I’d always thought Jamie was an intelligent man!”
“He is, but he has this one flaw. He thinks that woman is perfect.”
“How could he possibly be so hoodwinked? You need to talk to him.”
“He won’t allow it. I’ve tried. But Jamie is staunch and faithful and zonked.” He was silent. Then he added, “She calls him ‘Johnny.”’
“The woman’s blind and stupid.”
“She’s a brilliant lawyer,” Tyler admitted. But then he added, “But she has serious flaws.”
In the dark, Kayla questioned, “Flaws?” She considered the word. Then she told him softly, “You have a few.”
And he replied earnestly, “I’m young enough to be retrained...by a caring woman.”
And just like that, Kayla said quickly, “I agree, but I really think you ought to keep away from Barbara.”
Tyler drew a slow, patient breath and told her, “I was referring to you.” He grinned, his eyes sleepy.
She shocked him wide-awake. “There are just things one person cannot do for another. In the time we were married, I didn’t even dent you. I—”
“I dented you.”
“Don’t be vulgar. You know full well what I mean. I’ve never in my life known such an underlife as you dragged me to see.”
He gestured earnestly and his reply was serious, “But look at what you learned! Why else would you have gotten on the Animal Protection League? You’ve been a godsend for them. You’re relentless with it. Look at the laws you’ve managed to get noticed. Would you have done all that if you hadn’t been to the places I showed you?”
“When we discovered the pit fights, you weren’t looking for animal rights.”
She was partially right. He had taken her to odd places to expand her. He retorted, “I’ve never seen any woman who was as cosseted as you’ve been. Your daddy carried his daughters on silk cushions.”
“With the weird places you took me, if the effort had been to jolt me, you were successful. I was jolted.”
They lay silent and brooding. How could he get back her love when she thought he was a tacky man? He needed a break. He said, “I’ll check and see if she’s left.”
“Uhhh—”
He hesitated and turned to look at her. She was very serious and her eyes on him were big and somehow sad or disappointed.
She said, “Okay.” Her voice was soft.
He went to the living room door and looked across the room and out that window. As he’d known, Barbara’s car was long gone.
He scrunched his mouth in defeat. Kayla could leave. He turned back to his room, and she was right in front of him.
She peeked around the doorjamb. “Is she—? She’s gone.”
He looked down at his ex-wife standing there naked. All her clothes were gone.
Actually, so was she. She was there, but she wasn’t his wife anymore. She no longer loved him. She had allowed him the surcease of her body, but it was diminishing for him to be such a supplicant.
Instead of groveling, he should refrain. It was a matter of his feeling of self-worth.
He said kindly, “I’ll take you home.”
In the same room, in the dark, silently, the two found their discarded clothing and dressed. Each was unhappy.
Tyler said, “I’ll go start the car. Just pull the door to. I have the keys.” And he left the apartment.
Kayla stood still for a minute and frowned. She slowly finished her dressing.
So when she got into Tyler’s car, Kayla said, “I’ve spoken with Hennie, I’m going home tonight.”
He only nodded. The Davie conduct was never predictable.
Tyler drove with skill. The two no-longer-marrieds were silent. They had nothing to communicate.
The traffic wasn’t heavy at that time of night. San Antonio was like any other city. There was a nightlife, but it wasn’t as traffic heavy as the busy day lives.
They went out Broadway to Alamo Heights to one of the big old houses there. It was the Davie house and had been in the family for over a hundred years. The yard was well done, the house was pristine, the oaks were trimmed of the nasty, sap sucking moss balls which look like baby porcupines.
Kayla said, “You’ll have to come in. It would be rude of you not to say hello.”
So Tyler got out of the car and took a deep breath. The Davie bunch was a little off kilter.
The legally divorced, emotionally separated couple went into the big house. And in the television room sat Goldilocks, the Davie Cook.
Cook was her title. She ran the whole shebang and all the people even remotely attached to the place. She knew everything.
Goldilocks eyed Tyler and groused, “’bout time you came along.”
“Hello, yourself.”
“How come you brought her here?”
Kayla said, “Now, Goldi—”
“I ain’t talkin’ to you, chile. Hush.”
Kayla turned to Tyler and commented, “If you will recall, she takes this attitude whenever she’s nosy. She speaks perfectly well on other occasions.”