by Misty Simon
Now that was the Arrol I knew. “Isn’t it nightdreaming, since the day is done?”
“Do not be sassy with me.”
“Sassy” sounded so funny coming out of his little cupid mouth. I started laughing out the tension of the last few days.
“Oh, please.” He rolled his eyes. “You are not going to start with the cackling again, are you? There is only so much I can take in a day.”
I muffled my laughs. “Sorry,” I said when I could breathe again. This laughing all the time was getting out of hand and was completely inappropriate. “You’re right. I think I’m trying to avoid the ball because I’m afraid it’s not going to respond to me now that I’m here again.”
He dropped his hands from his hips and seemed to actually loosen up all around. “That’s understandable, but you won’t know until you try. And you have to try. The ball has things it needs from you or it wouldn’t have said your name.”
I pushed back deeper into the cushions of the couch and propped my feet up on my coffee table. The sooner I got this over with the sooner I could start the little celebration I had planned to celebrate the year anniversary of my infatuation. I know it was bizarre, but it was my life.
Sitting up straight, I lit the fat red candle on the coffee table and inhaled the cinnamon scent it gave off. I found my happy place filled with sheep and clouds. “Hand it over. Let’s get this going.”
“That’s my girl.”
A little happy glow of pride lit off in my chest. Once Arrol put the ball in my hands, it warmed. I knew this was going to work and made myself believe it would talk to me as it needed to. “All right, bally ball, let’s talk.”
“Actually, her name is Laramie.”
I put the ball into my lap, pretended to spit into my hands, slapped them together and tried again. “All right, Larry girl. Let’s get this place rocking.” I put my hands on the ball, turned it over to clear it, and turned it back over to let the window rest in my palm. I cleared my throat and said, “What is the meaning of everyone using the word Mort?”
One word popped up. MORTAL.
“Mortal? Mortal? What the hell does that mean?” I looked at Arrol, and he looked back at me.
He shrugged and looked down at the ball. “Ask her to clarify, and maybe you want to lay off calling her Larry. That seems a bit disrespectful to me.” He worried his hands together.
“Oh, Larry and I are friends. I’m sure she’s fine. Come on, Larry.” I turned the ball over. “What is the meaning of mortal?”
MUST I ACTUALLY TELL YOU WHAT A MORTAL IS?
Ohhh, cheeky ball, that Larry. “Let me rephrase. Why are people in town calling others mortal?”
NOT PEOPLE. THING.
That couldn’t be good.
I took the phone off the hook, closed all the curtains, and lit a few more candles. Now we were getting somewhere, and I wanted to go further.
I looked at Arrol to see if he was with me. He looked intently at the ball and wiped his chin with one sleeve. I snapped my fingers in front of his face, and he flinched.
“Sorry, you just looked like you were going into a trance.”
“Not necessary, woman. Let’s move forward. Ask the next question.”
Which reminded me. “Is there a limit to the amount of questions I can ask the ball, excuse me, Larry? Like a magic lamp and the three wishes thing?”
Arrol’s eyes took on a strange cast. He snapped back a second later. “No, there is no limit to how many questions you may ask.”
“Where did you go?” He seemed to have left me for a minute there, even though he still sat right next to me. Weird. But then this whole thing was weird, if I gave myself a second to think about it.
“I’m still sitting right here. I went nowhere.”
“That’s not what I meant, and you know it.” The look on his face spoke volumes even if it did contradict that smile. “You’re not going to discuss it, are you?”
“Very bright. Why did I ever consider you one of the dumb humans?” The ever-present smile turned smug and little bit fiercer.
I couldn’t stop a little smile of my own. Well, it wasn’t every day I was accused of being smart. But on to what we were doing. I needed to get my phrasing right so I wouldn’t get the wrong answer by accident. This much I knew. “What thing is calling people Mort?” I did the rolling the ball thing, as I’m sure you’re aware. I’ll stop boring you with pointing it out.
HIDEOUS.
“Okay, but that doesn’t tell me what.”
“It may not be able to tell you what it is, specifically,” Arrol said from his perch on my lap. I don’t know when he had moved, but there he was.
“Why not?”
“There are rules for this kind of thing, and sometimes an adversary cannot be named.”
“Adversary?” I had an adversary? Um, this is not what my life was supposed to be like. All I’d gone looking for was some small fraction of my youth, which to be honest I really hadn’t found, ball or not, and now I had an adversary? Eek.
“Yes, adversary.” Arrol put his hand on his chin and began tapping a stubby finger there. “That would explain quite a bit, actually. I thought I had felt something in the air around here. A being, or thing, as Laramie so eloquently put it, would almost be expected.”
“Well, I wasn’t expecting anything of the sort. I don’t want an adversary.” Petulant, but I couldn’t help it. This was my life. Boring and staid was looking better and better.
“Well, this is what you get, woman, when you open the door to things you don’t understand.”
“So I’ll close the door.” My heart fluttered in my throat where it was lodged like a Godiva chocolate swallowed whole.
“That’s no longer an option.”
I gulped, but my heart wouldn’t budge.
“We must see this through.”
“We?” I took comfort in that, even if the word came out as a squeak.
“Yes, we, woman. I’m not going anywhere now. This is the most fun I’ve had in a century. Plus, if the thing demolishes you, who will feed me pizza and keep me in beer, to which I have grown accustomed?”
Was that really the most pressing question?
“And I will remind you now that if I must interact with another, I will require more of those clothes you promised me. Where is this Ken you spoke of before? Perhaps he can direct me to a place of additional shopping.”
He wanted my Ken doll to take him shopping? Yeah, let me go whip out Barbie’s plastic credit card. Instead, I said, “I’ll work on the clothes thing tomorrow. For now, let’s get some more info if we can, and then I’m going to call it a night. You can finish up whatever you’ve DVR’d, and I can get some much needed sleep.” An adversary? How was I going to survive this with a ball named Larry and a gnome with attitude?
My question was going to have to wait to be answered because someone chose that moment to knock on my door. In the stillness and quiet of the apartment, the sound reverberated around the room.
Was it my sparring partner already? Oh, God. I wasn’t ready. I didn’t even have a decent pair of underwear on to die in.
“At least go see who is at the door,” Arrol whispered as he slunk off the couch and headed for the kitchen. “Get rid of them as soon as possible. I have much TV to catch up on this evening.”
“Hey, be thankful you’re inside this time.”
He scowled at me as best he could, and I heard the pantry door shut a moment later. I rushed to put the ball under the couch cushion and straighten my hair. I know, vainglorious, but there you had it.
I peeked out the security hole Toby had installed two months ago and couldn’t believe my eyes. I looked for a green tinge. I stared hard out into the night at the man on my doorstep and prayed there wouldn’t be one. I’d become convinced that was the one sign I was going to get from now on when I was coming up against something I didn’t want to be in the same room with.
But I saw no green tinge, and nothing seemed out of place, except that Toby st
ood on my landing at eleven-thirty at night after playing at the bar. He never came over after he played. Never.
I leaned my forehead against the door and swore I could feel his warmth through the wood.
“Danner!” He knocked again, more insistent this time. “Danner, open up. I need to talk to you.”
Now that was almost intriguing enough to actually open the door. But I was in a state right now of trying to let go of unrequited love and moving on. Having him in the house so close after his performance on the piano would not be a good idea anyway. God forbid, I might actually jump on the real live him and try to convince myself that our first kiss hadn’t made me think of Great Danes licking themselves.
I backed away from the door. No, I wasn’t going to open it. He might think I wasn’t here and leave if I didn’t make a sound. Which of course meant I went and tripped over my coat rack as I quietly backed away. I landed on my butt with a loud plop, and Toby banged harder on the door. Crapola.
“I know you’re in there,” he yelled as the knocking ceased.
What to do? What to do?
The decision was taken out of my hands. The previously locked door swung open. Toby stood framed in my porch light, with the candlelight from inside flickering over his face, lovingly tracing the planes and angles of cheeks and mouth while shadowing his eyes.
Sigh.
And here I was, cowering in the dark. I tried to remember if I’d put out anything that would indicate what exactly I was doing. Wouldn’t it be totally pathetic if he knew I was celebrating my year of fantasy lust? Absolutely pathetic.
I still hadn’t spoken. And with his eyes shadowed and his chest rising and falling rapidly in the glow, I didn’t know what I’d say. My mouth was full of dust and the ashes of a dead dream. One he’d killed with that awful kiss a few days ago.
Before I could blink, Toby strode across the room, all masculine grace and hard-bodied yumminess. My heart sped up with his movements.
“Danner.” It was the only thing he said as he made his purposeful way toward me.
I crab-walked back a step, not sure what he was going to do when he got to me. I couldn’t tell his intent from the way he came after me. Maybe I was late on my rent and hadn’t realized it. I tried to go over my bills in my mind and not concentrate on the picture he made.
His arms swung forward, his legs making his stride seductive and almost predatory.
Desire shot straight up and down my spine as I sat absolutely motionless. I don’t know if I could have moved even if I wanted to.
He was mesmerizing.
He grabbed me up from the floor by my biceps and stopped with his face mere inches from mine. The hairs on my arms stood up to reach out for him.
He bent his head and kissed me.
Chapter Nineteen
Now, if you’ve been paying attention you know that the last kiss was throw-up-inducing (Great Dane licking itself. Ick). And it had ruined my fantasy life forever.
But this one…this one was fan-freaking-tastic, nearly mind-numbing, so delicious.
He put his hands on either side of my head, angled my chin up, and claimed my lips. There just wasn’t any other word for it. He staked his claim on me and took me into his possession. His warm, firm lips slanted over mine, taking control of this wild roller-coaster ride.
My heart went back into my chest and sped up to about 500 bpm. I could have had a hard-driving bit of thrash metal flowing through my body. Bring on the rock anthem love ballads.
His long fingers curled over my ears, and he pulled me more fully against him. I could feel the whole length of his body doing its damnedest to imprint itself on me. I was like fresh copy paper just about panting for the mark. Woo-hoo!
When he opened his mouth, I did the same, hoping against past experience that this would not be sloppy. And thank God. It wasn’t. I nearly pulled away in astonished surprise. But he had that firm hold on my ears, and I wasn’t going anywhere.
He bumped his nice hard pelvis against me over and over again as he backed me up against the couch. We were about to go down into the cushions, and I’d never felt so thrilled in my life. His tongue played across my lips, and my tongue joined in the fray. I kissed him, I licked him, I wanted to eat him like he was one big bowl of chocolate ice cream.
The couch softened my fall, and his weight on top of me felt absolutely delicious. I did, however, have to let up for a little air real quick.
“Wow!” I tried to breathe in and out in the normal human fashion, but my breath kept getting clogged in the back of my throat.
“Seriously,” Toby said from his position between my legs and lying on top of me on my couch. He glided his hands through my new shorter hair and looked into my eyes. “I never thought I’d be able to do that.”
Never thought… “What?” I tried to squiggle out from under him, but he pressed me farther down with his body. I wasn’t complaining, mind you.
“Never thought you’d let me near you like this.” He kissed my temple and the tip of my nose. Then he placed small kisses on my top lip and licked the corners of my mouth.
My God! I tried to get my fried brain back to some semblance of normal thought, but he nipped my chin and rationality swiftly left. “Unh.”
“That’s how I want you—incoherent. I’ve thought about you for a year, but I never thought you’d be interested, so I kept my distance and tried to view you as a friend.” Another mouth lick. “But after seeing you tonight at the bar, I can’t hold back.”
“Please don’t, not on my account.” I got my first words out, and they weren’t half bad. Yay, me!
“I won’t.” And then he completely devastated my every thought by taking control and making my head spin.
Air was needed again, and apparently my shirt was getting in the way of his hands’ explorations. So I took great gasping breaths while he whipped the shirt over my head. Thank God I at least had a pretty bra on.
I had this insane need to talk while he perused my breasts. “You’re going to think I’m weird, but I want to get this all out on the table before we go any farther so you can back away if you need to.” My breath hitched in my chest when he used one long finger to lightly trace a path along the top of my lacy bra.
His eyes never left my flesh. “Okay.”
I sighed even as my breasts pushed out toward him. “There has been some very weird stuff going on around here lately, and I’ve been involved in it.”
“Okay.” His hands dropped to the sides of my chest and traced lazy patterns while he kissed my collarbones.
My breath all but backed up in my lungs. Why was I trying to talk when he was so focused on me? And yeah, I’d answered my own question from earlier when he’d played the piano with such intensity. Those fingers played me like a virtuoso.
“I, um, I thought I saw you the other day and you kissed me, but it was absolutely horrible, and then I thought I may have to let you go as the frontrunner in all my daydreams because it was so disgusting.”
His head lifted from my chest; his wonderful fingers stopped their exquisite movements. I cursed myself for a fool.
He rearranged himself and stood up. He paced around the coffee table like a caged tiger.
I was suddenly very cold where before I’d been burning hot. “What?”
He forked his fingers through the hair I hadn’t had a chance to touch yet, and my heart clenched. Would he leave now?
But after picking up my legs, he sat down next to my butt and arranged me over his lap. “Tell me what’s going on. I’ve noticed some strange activity around town since I came back from the wedding early, but I didn’t know what was going on.”
I sat up, too, and pulled my shirt from where it had landed on the floor.
He protested, but if he thought I was really going to talk without a shirt on, he had a lot to learn.
“I can’t think when you’re staring at my boobs.”
“That’s the way it’s supposed to be.”
I ran my hand
over my hair to make sure it wasn’t sticking straight up from my head. “I know that, and thank you for pointing it out, but if you want to talk…” I couldn’t believe I had just said that when I had the chance to make my fantasy a reality. But there were things he might need to know in order to protect himself. And it sounded like he might have some information for me that would help with my adversary.
And there was that awful word again.
“Well, it appears there might be someone, or something, going around and impersonating people in the town. Every time I’ve seen it something weird has been going on and the person was not acting like him- or herself.” I expected him to laugh, even though I knew it was true.
“Are they green-tinged?”
And that’s why I’ve liked him all along.
****
I woke up to sun shining on my face and three hands. I couldn’t come up with any explanation for the extra hand until I looked down my body and saw a long, strong set of fingers hooked around one completely covered breast.
The night before came roaring back through my brain: Talking and laughing with Toby, and some more kissing that didn’t get to go much further than that because Phoebe came strolling in and went to her room. The mood was already ruined, though. And then I must have fallen asleep. Damn, I was still fully dressed.
Why, oh, why, hadn’t he woken up in the middle of the night to ravage me? I would have been up for that. Then again, I had been tired, and I hadn’t slept this well in days, if ever.
I turned to look at his face right in front of mine and watched his lashes where they lay fanned on his cheeks. He looked as yummy in sleep as he did awake. My little brain started clicking over with all the ideas I could try out on him. All the ways I could wake him up experiencing the bliss of his life. My fingers started inching down his torso without express permission.
“Shut your big, busy brain off. I’m already awake. I don’t know if I’d be able to contain myself if you start taking advantage of me.”
My kind of man. I kept inching, avoiding his hand as it tried to stop me. But then my stomach growled. Can we say embarrassed?
“I’d better feed you before we do anything else.” His eyes popped open and speared me where I lay in the crook of his arm.