Sanctuary Cove

by Rochelle Alers

  Asa gave her breasts his undivided attention, suckling one breast, then the other. Waves of pleasure raced through her body, and her hips bucked upward to meet him. Deborah’s fingers dug into his biceps, trembling uncontrollably as a rush of moisture flowed down her inner thighs onto the sheets. He reached down, stroking her clitoris as he continued feasting on her nipples.

  Deborah was losing control and didn’t want to come without him inside her.

  “Please,” she pleaded shamelessly, her body on fire.

  Heat, followed by chills, then more heat singed her sensitive flesh. Asa kissed her mouth, the hollow in her throat, his lips charting a course down her body. He kissed her breasts, her belly, the inside of her thighs, retracing his path as he explored every inch of her. She didn’t want him to stop. He’d discovered erogenous zones on her body she hadn’t known existed. Her heart pumped so hard she was certain it could be seen through her chest.

  Holding his hard length in one hand, Asa parted her legs with his knees and positioned his erection at the entrance to her sex. He pressed into her body, watching as his hardened flesh finally slipped inside her. She was so tight but managed to take all of him. They’d become a perfect fit.

  Deborah gloried in the hard body atop hers, his swollen member sliding in and out of her wetness. A shiver of delight washed over her, a moan slipping past her lips as she felt ready to climax. Finally letting go, her first orgasm took over, holding Deborah captive for mere seconds before another earth-shattering release rocked through her core, taking her straight to heaven.

  “You are incredibly beautiful,” Asa whispered in Deborah’s ear as her body calmed from release. What he wanted to tell her was that he loved her passion, her strength and loyalty to those she loved. Actually, he was beginning to love everything about her and had come to depend on her emotionally. He went to bed thinking of her. Woke looking for her. The moment she walked into the bookstore his day brightened, and when she left he found himself waiting for her to return. He felt like a mouse on a tread wheel, going around and around and not being able to stop.

  Again, he grew hard for her, the blood rushing so quickly to his penis that for a moment he felt lightheaded. Asa took a deep breath, held it, and then let it out slowly. He wanted to savor this moment before taking her again. All of his senses were heightened: the soft sounds of Deborah’s moans, his own groans, the silken feel of her body against his, and the smell of her perfume mingling with the tantalizing aroma from their lovemaking. It had become an aphrodisiac.

  Reaching for Deborah’s hand, he cradled it gently, his thumb making tiny circles on her inner wrist. Making love with Deborah was more than he’d hoped for, and he did what he hadn’t done in some time. He prayed. He prayed he would be able to leave when the time came for him to join Doctors Without Borders.

  “Are you all right, darling?”

  Deborah sighed softly, then suddenly tensed beside him. “Yes.”

  “I didn’t hurt you, did I?” he asked, now concerned by the change in her mood.

  “No,” she said after a long silence.

  Asa knew something was bothering Deborah. He wondered if she was conflicted because they’d slept together. Had she felt as if she’d dishonored her husband’s memory?

  “I want you to tell me about him, Deborah.”

  She glanced up at him, tears in her eyes.

  “How did he die?”

  Deborah knew eventually she would have to tell Asa about Louis. Taking a deep breath, she willed herself to begin. “Louis taught high school math,” she said in a soft voice. “He’d go in early to work with students that needed extra help. Louis was aware of the school policy that required the door to remain open whenever he had a student in his office, so I don’t know why he’d chosen to ignore the rule when a female student came to his office early one morning. I suppose it was because she was crying and told him she didn’t want anyone to overhear what she wanted to tell him.

  “She was a sixteen-year-old junior who’d found herself pregnant after she got involved with a much older man she’d met on the Internet. Louis asked if she’d told her parents and she claimed she couldn’t because they were ultra-religious. When she told her boyfriend about her dilemma he’d suggested she have the baby and sell it to a childless couple willing to pay thousands of dollars for a newborn. The poor girl didn’t know what to do, because to her abortion was not an option.

  “Louis told me she started to cry. He put his arms around her in an attempt to comfort her, and that was when the principal walked in on them. Louis was suspended without pay pending a school board hearing, and the news spread that Louis Robinson had been caught in a compromising position with a female student.”

  “Didn’t the girl set the record straight?”

  “No. If she’d told why she was in her math teacher’s office, then she would have had to recount their conversation. It was the first time in eighteen years that I saw my husband depressed. He stopped eating and would sit in the dark regardless of the time of day. I kept begging him to tell the principal why Melissa was in his office, but he refused. Meanwhile, my own kids were catching hell from other students who were as cruel as their parents, who were divided into pro-and anti–Louis Robinson factions. People whom I’d believed were my friends turned on me. Even the woman who worked for me in the bookstore quit. Then one day he told me he was tired of hiding and left the house.”

  “Did you know where he was going?”

  She nodded, then said, “Yes. Louis loved the beach. He would spend hours sitting on the sand staring at the water.

  “The weather was cool that day, the water choppy, and there were marine warnings about riptides and dangerous undertows. A group of high school students who’d cut classes were fooling around in the water. Several of them swam out too far and were caught in an undertow. Witnesses said Louis didn’t hesitate when he jumped in in an attempt to save the drowning boys. He pulled two back to the beach and went back into the water for the third one. But he was larger and much stronger than Louis. He panicked, pulling them both under. By the time the police got to the scene Louis and the kid had disappeared. Divers managed to recover the boy’s body but Louis was listed as missing and presumed dead.”

  Asa buried his face in Deborah’s moist curls that smelled like fresh coconut. “Did they ever find his body?”

  “Yes. Days later his body washed up on the beach a mile from the accident. Once the news got out that Louis had sacrificed his life in order to save three boys everything changed. The ones who were ready to lynch him became remorseful. And those who’d believed Louis would never harm a child pointed fingers at the hypocrites. I had a private ceremony with my family and closest friends, followed by a cremation. I sprinkled his ashes in the very waters that had taken his life.

  “Overwhelmed with grief, Melissa told her parents about her pregnancy. They pressured her to tell the principal why she’d come to Mr. Robinson’s office that morning. Eventually the board voted unanimously to reinstate Louis’s salary and that made me eligible for his pension and life insurance. The people who were quick to condemn Louis made a complete one-eighty and they sent flowers and condolence cards, and my neighbor became a buffer, answering my phone and the door. But once my parents returned to Florida I realized I could no longer live in Charleston. I sat down with Crystal and Whitney, asking whether they would be opposed to living here. They were ecstatic. Though living here put distance between them and the kids who had been their friends, they were okay with it because they would continue to attend the same school.”

  “What happened to Melissa?”

  “Her parents sent her to California to live with an older married sister. Before she left she called to tell me she’d planned to have the baby, and then give it up for adoption. I don’t blame Melissa as much as I do the principal. She was a frightened girl, but Francis is a mean-spirited SOB who was jealous of Louis’s relationship with the students. He didn’t have to suspend Louis. He could’ve pull
ed him out of the classroom and put him on administrative desk duty, but he just had to get him out of his school.”

  “I can understand your animosity, Deborah, but you can’t blame anyone for your husband’s death. It was an accident. A very tragic accident where he’d made the ultimate sacrifice to give up his life to save someone else’s. I know it hurts, and the pain is like a deep hole you believe will never be filled, but you will heal.”

  “Have you healed, Asa?”

  “Not completely.”

  “I suppose it’s going to take time—for both of us. However, living here has changed me,” Deborah admitted, “and I don’t think that would’ve happened if I’d stayed in Charleston. I’ve let go of the anger and resentment that gnawed at me like a malignancy, because if I hadn’t I’m certain it would have eventually destroyed me. I don’t live for myself. I live for my children. I’m all they have, and the way Louis gave up his life to save that boy I would do the same for Crystal and Whitney.”

  Deborah sat in her car in the visitor’s parking waiting for Crystal to come out of school. Each time she moved she was reminded of what she had shared with Asa earlier that morning. They’d made love twice. Once in bed and again when they’d shared a shower. This second coupling had been more uninhibited, when she went to her knees and took him in her mouth and suckled him until he bellowed for her to stop. Then it was his turn, when he carried her out of the bathroom and to the bed, and his teeth and tongue worked their magic as they climaxed simultaneously. It wasn’t until she was slipping on her panties that she felt the slight ache from muscles she hadn’t used in a while.

  During the ferry ride she’d stood at the railing thinking about what had happened between her and Asa, realizing she was confused. Asa made her feel very feminine and desirable, but sleeping with him reminded her of what she’d shared with Louis.

  A tapping on the window caught her attention and she smiled at Crystal. Pushing a button, she unlocked the car. Leaning over, Deborah offered her cheek for a kiss and was happy when Crystal kissed her.

  “How was your day?”

  Crystal tossed her tote onto the rear seat. “Good. How was your day?”

  Deborah smiled. “It was very good.” She started up the car and drove slowly out of the parking lot. Students were pouring out of the building and strolling across the street to student parking. “Did you tell Whitney that you were going with me?”

  “He knows. He’s staying late to work on the paper.”

  “What do you do when he stays late?”

  “I either hang out in the library and do my homework, or I go to the newspaper office and take a nap on one of the sofas.”

  “What color is the dress you want?”

  “Red.”

  Deborah gave Crystal a quick glance before returning her attention to the traffic in front of her. “Do you also want red shoes?”

  “Nope. I want them in black; that way I can wear them with other outfits,” she said decisively. “Whitney told me Nate gave him two invitations for Janelle’s party.”

  “You’re going to be doing a lot of partying that night. First the dance and then the sleepover.”

  Crystal snapped her fingers. “That’s how we Robbies roll.”

  “Robbies?”

  “That’s what the girls call Whitney. ‘Robbie’ is short for Robinson.”

  “Interesting,” Deborah drawled. She tapped her horn to get the attention of a driver drifting into her lane. “I really don’t miss this.”

  “When are you going to let me drive?”

  “When you get your license.”

  “I plan to take the road test this summer.”

  “As soon as you take the test and get your license, then you can drive me around.”

  Crystal gave her mother a puzzled look. “You don’t like driving?”

  “Not really. I drive because I have to, not because I want to.”

  “If that’s the case, then I’ll be your driver.”

  Deborah wanted to tell Crystal that when she did get her license the last thing she’d want to do was chauffeur her mother around, but decided not to. She turned and drove down King Street. “Where do you want to go first?”

  “Finicky Filly.”

  Within minutes of entering the elegant boutique Crystal found the dress she wanted. It was red with spaghetti straps, a fitted bodice, and a skirt with four tiers of ruffles that ended at the knee. It was a perfect fit. Finding shoes proved a bit more challenging. The pair that Crystal wanted was in stock but they didn’t have her size. After trying on half a dozen pairs, she finally selected a black silk pump with a three-inch heel that flattered her long, slender legs.

  When Deborah suggested they eat out, Crystal said she wanted to go home because she had a history test the next day. During the return trip to the island Deborah did something she’d never done before: she took the causeway. She thought she’d imagined it, but the hair stood up on the back of her neck when she passed the marker for Angels Landing. People had talked about the town being haunted and now she believed it. She wasn’t able to relax until they were back in the Cove.

  Once there, Deborah prepared a quick dinner for herself and Crystal, using leftovers from Sunday’s dinner. After cleaning up the kitchen, she retreated to her bedroom and closed the door. Walking into the bathroom Deborah stripped off her clothes and stared at her naked body in the full-length mirror on the back of the door. Evidence of the time she’d spent with Asa showed on her breasts and thighs. There was no way she would have been able to explain to her children how she’d gotten the red splotches if he’d bitten her neck.

  She smiled at her reflection. It had been years since she’d gotten a hickey. “Shame on you, Dr. Monroe.” Her smiled faded when she said his title aloud. She couldn’t believe he’d spent so many years studying to become a doctor, only to give it up when his wife and son died. At forty-six he was too young to retire, and she wondered what he intended to do once he left the Cove.

  Deborah washed her face and brushed her teeth before pulling a nightgown over her head. She got into bed and reached for her journal. What she was feeling, what she had done earlier was still so intense that she had to write it down on paper.

  February 12th—Asa and I made love for the first, second, and third time. It was as if I’d been dying of thirst and he was an oasis. I just couldn’t get enough of him.

  Making love with him was very different from what I had ever experienced, because Asa is totally uninhibited. I love it and I’m in love with him.

  It was Thursday, The Parlor’s late night, and as announced, the night of the raffle drawing. This was the first Thursday Deborah had worked since the bookstore opened. Usually on Thursdays Asa worked until eight, assuming responsibility for closing up. The bookstore was crowded and the excitement palpable; three gaily wrapped sweet-grass baskets were on display for those who’d dropped their tickets into the fishbowl.

  Deborah signaled for silence. “I’d like to thank everyone who came out tonight for our first Valentine’s Day raffle drawing. There will be other drawings for Easter, Mother’s, and Father’s Days.”

  “How about Grandparents’ Day?” someone called out.

  “That, too,” she said, smiling. “How could I forget that day?” She picked up the fishbowl and stirred up the red tickets. “The first drawing will be for the basket with fruit, cheese, and sparkling cider. All of the baskets were made by our own Rachel Dukes-Walker.” A smattering of applause followed this announcement. “Asa, will you please pick the first ticket?”

  A murmur of approval rippled through the assembly when he came over and put his hand into the bowl and took out a ticket. He read the name and a scream went up as a young woman ran over to retrieve her basket. At the last possible moment, she put her arms around Asa’s neck and kissed his cheek.

  “Why she got to be so shameless?” whispered an elderly woman standing next to Deborah, who wanted to agree with her.

  “The next basket is also
a sweet-grass basket from A Tisket A Basket. This one contains bottles of red and white wine, cheese, crackers, Baci, and nuts.” Asa pulled a ticket, but the person wasn’t present. He pulled two more before they finally got a winner.

  “The third and certainly not the least basket contains a bottle of Möet champagne, Godiva chocolate, and an assortment of gourmet cookies. And before we pull a ticket for this basket I’d like to tell the winners there is a bookstore gift certificate in each of the baskets.” She nodded to Asa. He pulled the last ticket.

  “The grand prize winner is Mabel Kelly.”

  Mabel ran over to claim her prize. “That’s what I’m talking about!” she shouted. “Oh, damn! It’s heavy.” Everyone laughed.

  “I’ll carry it for you,” Asa volunteered.

  Mabel fluttered her lashes at him. “Thank you so much.”

  Deborah placed the bowl on the table. “I’d like to thank everyone for participating and for coming out tonight. And don’t forget to be nice to your valentine.”

  She waited until the store had emptied, then lowered and closed the blinds, locked the front door, and went through the ritual of turning off lights and lamps, leaving one on at the back of the store. Punching in the PIN for the cash register, she counted the cash, leaving enough in the drawer to make change for the early morning customers.

  The Parlor was thriving. The response to the book club discussions had generated a waiting list to join, and the same women attended afternoon teas. Asa alternated playing the piano with pre-recorded music, and customers seemed to sense whenever he was in the store because they came in droves.

  She and Asa spent siestas upstairs in his apartment where they shared lunch and the bed, and when Deborah reopened at two she couldn’t stop blushing or smiling. Making love in the afternoon had become a thrilling experience.