by Molly Evans
“Mark? Wake up. Mark. Wake up.”
At the sound of his name he stilled, his chest heaving. Though his eyes opened, she doubted that he was fully awake yet. “Mark, it’s Ellie. You’re having a dream.”
“Oh, my God.” He sat up on the edge of the bunk, rested his elbows on his legs and held his head in his hands. His breath wheezed in an out of his lungs as if he had just been running through the camp.
Sitting beside him, she placed a hand on his back. “Are you okay? Want a drink of water?” She handed him her glass and he drained the frigid water in seconds.
“Wow. Thanks.” He tried to peer through the darkness at her, though with only the hallway light, she couldn’t tell how much of her he saw. “What are you doing up? Did I wake you?”
“No. My own dreams woke me. I got up for water, then heard you.”
“Sorry.”
“Not your fault. The heat kept me from sleeping.” At least that was a partial truth. “Want to talk about it?”
“I’ll tell you my dream if you tell me yours.” He pressed the glass still filled with ice against his cheek, trying to cool off.
“Uh, I’m not sure that’s a wise idea.” Really unwise if she intended to keep her secrets to herself.
“Why not? Didn’t you just flay me on that point earlier tonight? It’s just us, we’re friends, it’s the middle of the night and we’re sitting here in the almost dark.” He placed the glass on the floor. “There’s no one except us, Ellie. Tell me about your dream. I want to hear about it to distract me from mine.”
Oh, she knew she was going to regret this. “Okay.” She huffed out a sigh. “I was dreaming about you. And me. About our conversation earlier tonight.” The dark lent some sort of secrecy, some anonymity, though she knew exactly where she was and to whom she was talking.
“What about it? I really didn’t mean to burden you with my problems.”
Ha. “It was no burden at all. It was quite the opposite.” She licked her lips, which had suddenly become dry. Hmm. Her throat was dry, too, though she’d just had some water. “It was exhilarating actually.”
“I don’t follow.”
The darkness seemed to expand and fill her mind as she remembered. Images from her dream flashed through her mind; electricity zinged through her as desire began to once again unfold. “We were together in my dream.”
“Together?”
She nodded, even though he couldn’t see her. “And…naked.”
“Aha. Now I see what kept you awake. You were taking me for that test-drive, weren’t you?”
There was humor in his voice, and she responded to that. Laughter bubbled in Ellie, though she tried to hold it back. “Uh, yes. I was taking you for a test-drive.”
“How was the engine performance?” he asked. Though she couldn’t see him clearly, she felt him shift position to face her, but more than that, she sensed a shift in the air between them. She wasn’t the only one who was affected by her dream. In telling Mark, he responded as she had in the dream.
“It was going well until I doused it with ice water.”
“Ouch. That brought things to a halt, didn’t it?”
She licked her lips, trying to find some of that moisture she’d recently downed. “Temporarily.” She paused. “Until I came in here.”
He huffed out a sigh and placed his hand on her arm, stroked it down to her hand. “You know I want to make love with you, Ellie. I’m not just saying that because you’re here with me now, you know that, don’t you?”
“Yes. I feel the same way. And it’s not because of the dream, but it’s because of who you are, and what you are, and everything, that I… God, this just isn’t coming out right.”
“What?”
“Will you hold me, Mark? Just for tonight, will you hold me?” Could it be as simple as that? Just two people holding each other in the dark and allowing the rest of the world to go away for a time.
“Ellie. Don’t pity me because of what I told you. I couldn’t handle that.” His grip on her hand tightened.
She snorted. “Believe me, it’s not pity that’s pounding through me, Mark. It’s pure, unadulterated lust.”
“Oh, Ellie. You make it hard for a man to say no.” His hand clenched hers and the tremors in him shot through her.
Reaching out into the dark she found his face and turned it to her. “Then don’t say it.” Moving closer, she pressed her cheek against him, rubbing, feeling the scrape of his overnight beard against her skin. “Please hold me, Mark. I need you to hold me.” The world needed to go away just for a little while.
“I don’t think holding you will be enough,” he breathed and cupped her face in his hands. “At the moment, I can’t muster the strength to resist you, resist what’s going on between us.” He turned his face toward her.
This was just where she wanted to be. “I’m not sure if I remember how to make love anymore, Mark. It’s been so long.” Desperate desire overwhelmed any self-doubt. She needed him.
“Try,” he whispered against her lips.
Already charged up by the erotic dream she’d had, Mark’s touch was magic, and ignited her in ways she’d never imagined. Each kiss, each stroke of his tongue against hers, each gentle press of his hands on her skin, stoked the fire higher. She wrapped her arms under his and cupped his back with her hands.
They lay back on the bed, and Mark shifted his position until their legs tangled together, his hips pressed against hers. Yes, his engine was definitely ready for high performance now. The heat of his arousal pressed hot and hard against her belly. With only a thin nightshirt that rode up high, she felt every inch of him through his boxers, and she suppressed the groan in her throat. Desire that had blossomed now surged in electrical pulses through her.
He kissed her cheek, her neck, and made his way down to tug at a nipple through the fabric, and she arched at the wet heat of his mouth. Reaching for the hem of the nightshirt, he tugged and pulled at it until it was up over her head, trapping her arms at her sides. “I want to touch you,” she whispered. “My arms are stuck.”
Without replying, he opened his mouth over her nipple and pulled it inside, and she forgot what it was that she was protesting. Surges of electricity shot through her, and her mind no longer functioned properly. This was definitely what they both needed.
Each stroke of his tongue on her tender flesh was an agony of the senses. Low in her belly, her flesh came alive. Surges of heat and moisture shot through her, quivers of desire made her gasp as he took her deeper than she’d ever been. The past had no place here.
Mark lifted his head and ringed his tongue around her other nipple while his hands got busy and tugged at the scrap of panty she wore and dragged it off of her.
Following his hands downward, he kissed the slight curve of her belly, the flare of her hips that his hands had itched to touch for days and days. Her skin was so soft, and she smelled of lavender and honey, and some essential feminine fragrance he knew he’d inspired in her.
“Mark, wait—” She breathed quickly, seeming to sense his destination.
“Shh. Shh. Easy, love.” Urging her knees farther apart, he kissed her thigh and rested his face against her lean leg and sighed, totally content in this position and the moment between them. “You are so beautiful, Ellie. So beautiful.”
Restless, her hips moved, and his mouth watered to taste her. Unable to deny himself any longer, he turned his face to her center and opened his mouth over her.
At the first touch of his mouth on her feminine flesh, Ellie cried out and stiffened, clutching the sheets in her fists. Then, her knees drifted slowly apart. Allowing himself to explore her soft body as he wished, he teased and tugged and stroked until her breathing hitched. Easing a finger inside of her heat, he took her over the edge. Her choked cries filled his ears; the spasms of her body let him know that he had satisfied her. Easing upward, he pressed a long hot kiss to her mouth, and she held tight to his face. Then he drew away.
Pulling himself upright, he fumbled around in his nightstand. “Where are those things?” he mumbled aloud, then he found what he was looking for.
“What?”
“I confiscated some condoms from a few of the older boys who were using them to make water balloons,” he said and tore the box open, spilling them all over the place. Grabbing one, he opened it and brushed the rest to the floor.
“This is a much better use for them.”
She reached for him and, with her hands assisting his, eased the condom over his erection. Her touch was magic, and he was rapidly losing any control he might have once claimed.
“Are you sure about this, Ellie?” he asked, hoping that he wouldn’t fail her with the rest. Stopping now might render him incapable for life.
“Come here,” she said and pulled him to her. With a groan, she found his mouth, and he lost himself to her eager touch. Kisses deep and hungry, her touch setting him on fire, he knew that this was what he wanted, what they both needed, and he raised himself above her, then paused.
The feel of her nails digging into his hips, urging him forward, gave him the last little bit of courage he needed, and he eased inside her moist sheath.
“Oh, Ellie.” She was so soft, so hot, so incredibly firm around him, that he thought he might explode right there. But as his body seemed to remember what to do, he released the control of his mind to simply feel and enjoy Ellie’s body as sensations took over. He knew that no matter what happened between them, he would never forget this night.
“Mark,” Ellie cried as she clutched him closer, her breathing faster.
She tipped her hips up, and he surged into her. Sweat broke out on his skin as he pulled back, then moved forward, easing into her again. She wanted to please him as much as he seemed to want to please her.
Sighs and moans, and the sounds of flesh against flesh, filled the air between them. Sensing that Mark was close to a release, she wrapped her legs around his hips and pulled him hard into her, her fingers digging into his hips. Tension mounted as her body surprisingly prepared again for surrender, and she pressed her face against his moist neck. Holding him tight with her legs, and squeezing him with her arms, her body took over and tremors shook her.
An instant after the orgasm took hold of her, Mark trembled in her arms, and he cried out with the ferocity of his own release. Rocking back and forth with her, he drew out the pleasure for the both of them as long as possible, then he collapsed on top of her. His breath wheezed in and out of his lungs as heavily as it had the first day she’d met him.
Then he laughed and it was pure joy that came out of him. “Ellie. I think you remembered just fine.” He pressed quick kisses all over her face that made her smile. Then he dove in for a long, hot kiss that ended with a gentle touch of his lips on hers. “You are so wonderful. Thank you, Ellie. You have no idea how much I needed this, how much I needed you.” The trembling of his body told her how much.
Without moving, she held onto him. Now that she’d reached out to him, she didn’t know if she wanted to let him go.
CHAPTER TWELVE
THE next morning there was absolutely no time to reflect on whether it was right or wrong that Ellie and Mark had made love, or if great sex was really one of life’s ultimate stress busters.
Starting at the time her alarm went off, the infirmary was in crisis. Highly contagious stomach flu had hit the camp and left no cabin unaffected. At least three campers from every cabin went down at once. When those kids recovered, three more replaced them in the infirmary. Ellie dispensed all of the stomach medication that she had available and sent Gil to town for more.
“Here it is,” he said as he charged through the door with several sacks of medication in his hands. He placed the bags filled with pink liquid medication on the worktable. “I went to the pharmacy and the store and bought every bottle they had. They’ll have more tomorrow.”
“Thanks, Gil.” Exhausted, Ellie opened the bags, took out three bottles and handed them to Gil with a bottle of hand sanitizer. “Mark’s out making rounds in the cabins, and I’ve got a ward room full, so I can’t leave. Can you find him and give these to him?”
“Sure.” He took the items from her.
“After that, wash your hands and lock yourself in your office if you can.”
“Got it.” He left and the phone rang.
“Infirmary from hell, Ellie speaking.” It was Vicki. “We’ve got a massive case of stomach flu here, so you three ought to stay away for a few days.” She sighed with regret. “That will probably be the end of your visit here, but I don’t want you to get sick, too. This is awful.” She’d lost track of how many kids came and went, how many brows she’d mopped and how many doses of medication she’d administered. Everything was beginning to take on the same pink hue.
“I’m so sorry. We wanted to spend some time with you and Mark, but we leave in two days.”
“I’m not certain we’ll be over the worst of this by then and it’s not worth the risk, especially for Myra.” From the looks of the ward room, the bug wasn’t going to be over until it had infected every person in the camp.
“Is there anything you need me to bring? I can do a shopping trip for you and drop it off at the back door of the infirmary without risking exposure.”
“Oh, Vicki. If you could get me a couple of things, I’d totally appreciate it.” She gave Vicki a short list of necessary items. “You’re such a good friend. You have no idea how much I need that right now.” Tears nearly sprang to her eyes, but she resisted them. Fatigue was what was getting her down, and her emotions were just raw right now.
“I do know. I was having trouble myself a few years ago, remember? You helped me a lot by just listening, so now it’s my turn to help you out. Just let me do this for you, will you?”
With a tired laugh, Ellie said, “Okay. I’ll let you.” She hung up and returned to the ward room to the sounds of renewed retching from one of the children.
“Oh, you poor little ones,” Ellie said and emptied yet another emesis basin, then dosed the child with the pink stuff. She sat by his bedside stroking his hair until he drifted off to sleep. Washing her hands in between each bed, she moved on and on until she could hardly stand upright. The skin on her hands was raw and cracked from so many washings and applications of hand sanitizer. She’d definitely need some heavy-duty oils after the crisis was over.
A phone call from Vicki alerted her to the delivery of her supplies. Vicki had set three bags of items at the side door without Ellie even noticing that she had come and gone. She put away the perishables, then let the rest sit on the counter until she had time to deal with them. At this rate, camp might be over by the time that happened.
During the three days of exhausting, repetitious tasks, Ellie and Mark caught naps and showers and food when they could, spelling each other at intervals. Any discussion of what had occurred between them had had to wait.
The tidal wave of campers flowing in and out of the infirmary slowed down to a trickle, and Ellie collapsed facedown on a clean bed in the ward room. She’d scrubbed with soap and water, then applied anti-infective spray for good measure to each surface of every bunk, every door handle and all possible sources of contaminant. Fomites were not going to reinfect anyone if she had anything to say about it. She’d washed all of the sheets and put them back onto the clean bunks. Exhaustion nearly claimed her. There were now four potentially undisturbed hours between now and the next clinic, and she intended to sleep through every minute of them.
Groaning, she let out a long sigh and settled down for a nap. The scent of lavender oil soothed her fraught nerves and she breathed deeply, then frowned. Lavender oil? Where had that come from? Had she left a bottle open somewhere? She opened her eyes and saw Mark standing beside the bunk, her bottle of mixed aromatherapy oil in his hand. “What are you doing?” she asked and heard the fatigue in her own voice. If she could hear it, then obviously Mark could, too. Although he didn’t look it, he couldn’t be in
much better shape than she was at the moment. She pushed her arms against the mattress and eased into a sitting position.
“You’re exhausted, so I thought I’d give you some of your own medicine.” He poured a dollop of oil into his hand. “Go back to the way you were, and I’ll give you a purple treatment.”
“Aren’t you tired, too? You’ve been at this as long as I have.” Although he looked a little rough around the edges, he didn’t look nearly as bad as she felt.
“Yeah, but I had half a pot of coffee and a shower, and I’m good for a while. Residency was good training for these past few days.” He grinned and the light in his eyes darkened. “No worries. It’s time you had a little relaxation time of your own instead of taking care of everyone else.”
“Mark, no. It’s really okay. You don’t have to spend time on me when you should be resting, too.” He wasn’t going to do this. “It’s an unnecessary use of your time when you don’t have any more than I do.”
“Ellie.”
The drop in his voice made her pause and look up at him. “What?”
“Be quiet and lie down. Doctor’s orders.”
Resistance boiled strong inside of her. “But—”
“You’re not being a very good nurse by disobeying doctor’s orders. Why are you resisting me?”
“It’s not you,” she said and dropped her gaze, wondering when the pulse of anxiety within her was going to go away. They’d made love. It wasn’t as if he hadn’t ever touched her. He knew her intimately. “It’s just not necessary. I don’t need it.”
“I most heartily disagree. You need this as much as the kids needed your touch, your calming influence that you don’t even know you have. How are you supposed to fill up your soul if you don’t stop every now and then to try? Giving of yourself so much has put you right where you are.”
“Where, Maine?” The attempt at humor fell flat.