Explosive Forces

by D. D. Ayres

  “You’re spoiling Andy,” his father said just yesterday.

  He was. And it would have to stop. But not yet. Not when just looking at his son made his heart swell with fatherly pride and the fierce need to protect and teach him how to take care of himself. For times when he wasn’t around.

  Life had always been precious to Noah, but never more than in the past two months.

  He nearly died.

  Carly nearly died.

  He wondered how she was dealing with it all.

  He hadn’t seen her since the night he’d spent with her in the hospital right after the fire. She was suffering from exposure, and cuts and bruises that, to his amazement, she’d inflicted on herself in her attempts to get away. Not once, but twice. Even bound, she’d managed to push and pull herself like a slug across the family-room floor and into the back bathroom because she remembered being told that lying down in a tub was a safe place from a fire.

  But not if he hadn’t arrived when he did.

  Listening to her ordeal made him want to get J.W. Cody alone for five minutes. Thankfully, the man was beyond his grasp.

  Cody had taken a plea bargain after his attorney saw the case the DA’s office put together against him. The multiple arsons, manslaughter, plus two attempted murder charges would have put him away for life. Instead, he’d taken fifteen years, no parole.

  Andy was beside himself with delight when the course was run. He approached his dad in a half-run, half-skip lope. “Did you see that, Dad? Harley cleared every obstacle.”

  “I saw that.” Noah bent down and scooped his son up to twirl him around, ending up holding him off the ground upside down by one ankle.

  Andy squealed with delight. It was a daily ritual between them.

  Two mothers standing nearby with their kids sent him disapproving looks but he only smiled. “He’s training to be Spiderman.”

  When he’d righted his son, he handed Andy Harley’s leash to use as they walked back toward the entrance.

  “You’re a very good teacher, Andy. Maybe we should enter you and Harley in Dog Agility in a couple of years.”

  “Uh-huh.” Andy was frowning now. Noah had learned to go with the sudden switches and unpredictable moments that made up a child’s emotional life. But he was often baffled by them.

  “What’s the matter?”

  “Tomorrow’s Mother’s Day, Dad.”

  “Yeah.” Noah tried to keep his voice neutral.

  “Kids at school say I can’t celebrate it because I don’t have a mom.”

  Noah’s heart contracted as he debated how to answer.

  Andy looked up at his dad. “Is it okay that I don’t have a mom?”

  With a heavy heart, Noah paused and squatted down before his child. “It’s okay. Absolutely.”

  The shadow in his son’s eyes, as blue as his father’s, remained. “Could I ever get one?”

  “What do you have in mind?”

  “Angela’s mom and dad divorced. But her dad got married again and now she’s got two moms. So if you got married, that means I’d get a mom, right?”

  Noah’s lips twitched. “Sounds like it.”

  Andy stared at his dad a moment longer and then turned to walk on. “Okay.”

  Noah had the unreal sensation that he’d just been told by his son that he was falling down on the get-a-wife job. Who knew?

  Noah laid a hand on his son’s head. “You know we do have someone to celebrate on Mother’s Day? GiGi. Grandmothers and even aunts are included in the day.”

  Andy nodded. “Yeah. I made her a card in art class.”

  “Whoa. Then you’re way ahead of me. I need to buy her a gift.” Thanks to Andy, he had a place in mind. “Want to help me choose one?”

  Andy looked up with a serious expression. “Nothing for the kitchen, or house, or yard. That’s what she told Grampa.”

  Noah laughed so loud he startled the birds sitting on a power line overhead. “You’re already ahead of three fourths of the men in the world when it comes to gift giving for women.”

  * * *

  The opening of Flawless was already a success. And it was only an hour old. The banners fluttering in the warm May air had attracted quite a crowd. Added to that, Carly had convinced her local vendors to set up tables both inside and out on the sidewalk, to show potential customers their work in progress. Seeing something being made increased its uniqueness.

  Carly stopped by Joi’s table. “How’s it going?”

  “So well! I’ve had a TCU sorority order ten dozen Tail Feathers to give as mementos to alumni for homecoming next fall. Means I’ll be dyeing feathers purple for days.”

  Carly grinned. Despite the initial enthusiasm for the new word buttlaces, it was determined at a later theme meeting for Flawless that the word might be a turnoff for some. They elected, unanimously, to go with Tail Feathers.

  “We’ve sold all but two of your headbands and all of the necklaces. I will take as many orders as you can fill.”

  “I’ve been working nonstop,” Indija said from a nearby table. “This guy from UT Arlington collects rocks and minerals. Says he can hook me up with some hard-to-find crystals and stuff. Look at this.” She held up an arm wound with copper wire from her middle finger up to her elbow. Cradled along her arm, three webs of twisted copper held three large soft green spheres. “He called them bubble crystals. They’re from Mali.”

  Carly admired them and moved on to her other suppliers. Every one of them was busy demonstrating. A huge amount of work had gone into the last two months, and lessons were learned. She didn’t have to go it alone. It was better to have colleagues. Her vendors were now invested in what she was doing. They felt empowered. And they were going to make a living from doing something they loved. It didn’t get better than that.

  Kuppy Cakes Bakery, located next door, had opened the weekend before. That dispelled any lasting horror of the fire. In fact, an employee dressed like a decorated cupcake was handing out samples of one of the random cakes on a platter to passersby.

  * * *

  She walked back into her store before realizing that the crowd of ladies and young girls had been joined by two males, one large and one small.

  “Noah.” Carly couldn’t find air.

  Feelings she’d been denying were suddenly vying for and clogging up her throat. But she wasn’t going to act all weepy grateful he’d shown up after two months. A woman had her pride, even if her eyes were shamelessly taking in his dimensions in lascivious detail. For instance the way his knit shirt didn’t hide at all the warm hard musculature beneath. Or those bulges of muscle beneath the short sleeves that she knew personally were strong enough to carry a woman securely out of a fire.

  Nothing below the belt buckle, Carly. Have some pride.

  She walked up to him, a bigger smile on her face than was strictly necessary. Behave like yourself, Carly.

  She reached up to place a hand on each of his shoulders and gave him a quick kiss on each cheek, continental style. Damn, he smelled the same. No. Better. “Welcome to Flawless, Investigator Glover.”

  She saw his pupils expand, eating up the blue, and remembered what that kiss had inspired the last time. Desire plunged through her, going straight to the appropriate lady parts. Ooh boy. No time to get flustered. There was a child present.

  She looked down at the boy and knew instantly he was Andy. She could have picked him out from a gaggle of kindergarteners. He was a miniature of his dad, from his curly hair, several shades lighter than his father’s, to the sky blue eyes that crinkled in the corners when he smiled. In fifteen years or so, ladies would be in serious danger of losing their hearts.

  “You must be Andy.” She offered him her hand.

  Andy took it and shook formally, but he was staring at her.

  Noah frowned. “What’s the matter, son?”

  He looked up at his dad. “How come she kissed you?”

  “Ah.” Carly squatted down, balancing easily on her heels. “What I
did is called a continental kiss. Very popular in Europe, where I once lived. Would you like one?”

  Andy shook his head, but he was watching her in a kind of curiosity.

  Carly smiled. “There are lots of ways people from other places greet one another. Americans shake hands like we did. Europeans kiss both cheeks. Do you know what the Inuit people of the Arctic do?”

  Andy shook his head, brows drawn down in concern.

  “They rub noses. Would you like to rub noses?”

  “No-oow.” The word was broken up by a giggle as Andy pressed back against his father’s long legs. He was smiling now.

  Carly nodded. “Okay. Friends?” She held out her hand again.

  Andy took it. “You’re funny.”

  “Thank you. What can I do for you gentlemen today?”

  “We need a Mother’s Day present. For my GiGi.”

  “Does she like jewelry? How about a pair of earrings?”

  Carly moved over to the table where her personal pieces were displayed. “If she has pierced ears, she might like these.” She held up a small pair of sterling silver earrings in the shape of flowers with the tips of the petals rolled back. Inside, the stamens were made of gold.

  Andy looked at his dad. “It’s not for the kitchen or the garden. Will she like them?”

  “Guaranteed.” He met Carly’s gaze. “Especially when you tell GiGi you met the lady who made them.”

  Andy looked up at Carly. “You made them?”

  “Everything in the store is made by hand. If you’re curious, you can go and see what some of the artists are making at their tables. Oh, and there are samples of cupcakes from next door, if that’s okay with your dad.”

  “Dad?”

  “Go ahead. But stay in the store. And only one—okay, two cupcakes.”

  Noah followed Carly to the cash register. It gave him time to appreciate what she was wearing. A sleeveless blouse with the ends tied loosely at her navel and a black miniskirt. Simple. But she made it look elegant. Of course, she wore braided leather sandals with laces crisscrossing back and forth up to her knees. Women’s fashion. He’d never understand it. But on her, whatever she wore was sexy as anything ever.

  Their fingers brushed as he handed her his credit card. “I’ve missed you, Carly.”

  She didn’t look up. “I’ve been around. Every day. For two months.”

  “I know. I thought maybe you needed time and space to process things.”

  She looked up. He wasn’t certain that was better. He could see the hurt peeking out behind the shade she was throwing. “Did you need it?”

  He nodded. “Cody. The hatred. What it did to my family. Getting straight again on the job. It all took time. After my part in your suffering, I wasn’t sure you’d want to see my face again.”

  “Okay.” She turned away.

  “Wait.” He touched her arm. “What does that mean?”

  “It means you went two months without getting in touch.” There it was. The mistake he’d suspected he was making. But he’d wanted her to have a chance to get over him. What they’d started was too hot not to cool down.

  But she hadn’t cooled on him, and she was doing a miserable job of hiding it. That hunger she banked back most of the time had leaped to flame in her eyes as she regarded him. And with it, the hope inside him that just maybe he hadn’t ruined it all.

  “We need to talk.”

  “Not here.” She handed him his card back and began tying a lovely pink bow around the box containing the earrings.

  “Then let me come back and take you to dinner when you close.”

  “I’ll be too tired to go out.”

  She must have seen the disappointment register in his expression. It softened hers. “You’re welcome to come over for dinner tonight. I’m making spicy sweet potato bean burritos.”

  He’d be there, even if she were serving mud with rocks.

  * * *

  “You came.” Carly leaned in and kissed Noah on both cheeks, then added a third kiss, just because, before dancing away into her apartment.

  Before she could back completely away, he snagged her at the waist with an arm. “There’s been something on my mind all day.”

  “Oh yeah?” His arm felt so good, and comforting. But she had her pride. She slipped free and moved into her living area.

  Noah followed. “You impressed the heck out of Andy. He’s asking if we can come by your shop again soon. I got to admit, it’s got me a tad worried, since you sell only girly stuff.”

  “It probably has more to do with Kuppy Cakes next door. I saw him sneak a third.” She had walked over to the sofa but didn’t move around it to sit.

  He moved right in behind her, caging her with his body against the back of the sofa. “So, here’s what’s on Andy’s dad’s mind.”

  His braced his arms on the sofa back, one on either side of her. Very close, but not touching. “I want to know about what other kind of kisses were you going to tell my son about?”

  “Oh, you mean like the Inuit kiss?” She turned within the space he allowed and pushed her face up to his and rubbed her nose back and forth along the length of his.

  “That’s pretty damn erotic,” he murmured.

  “Yes. It comingles breaths like a mouth kiss and offers the stimulation of nerves we don’t think of as sexual.”

  “Whatever. They called it an eskimo kiss when I was a kid. Of course, it wasn’t sexy as you make it.”

  “Eskimo is a term that has fallen out of favor. But the next time you want an Inuit kiss, you know where to find me.”

  “Indeed, I do. So, lay that on me again.”

  When she moved back from the kiss, he was grinning at her. “What else?”

  “Butterfly kisses.” This time she reached up to frame his face with her fingers and turned her head to the side as she moved in. When her eyelashes touched his cheek, she opened and closed her eyes rapidly. “Butterfly-wing kisses.”

  “Damn. That went directly to my nether regions.” He pulled back with a strange intensity in his face. “Want to try that all over my body?”

  She smiled but shrugged. She tapped him on the chest to be released. “If your curiosity is otherwise satisfied, I have to check the oven.”

  “Why?” He followed her. “What else do you have in your personal bag of kissing erotica?”

  She clicked on the oven light and checked her burritos before turning around. He was right there, blocking any easy way around him.

  “There is the bee kiss.” She angled her head to bring her lips against his neck just below his ear and pursed her lips, making a buzzing sound as she pushed air out between them.

  “Damn, Carly. You’re going to have me on my knees.”

  “Not the worst position for a man.” She licked then blew into his damp ear, gently grazed his earlobe with her teeth. “Ear kiss.”

  He sighed like a man under duress. “I’m hoping like hell you aren’t done yet.”

  “I’m just getting started,” she whispered, before leaving a tongue trail down his neck.

  She lowered her hands from his shoulders and reached to pull his shirt up out of his pants.

  He watched her lids at half-mast. “You undress me, and dinner is off the menu.”

  “Wasn’t all that hungry anyway.”

  She lightly raked her fingers back and forth across the skin of his belly that she’d exposed. “You know that game you play with a baby, blowing on the tummy?” She glanced up at him as she poked a thumb into his belly button. “Belly kiss coming up.”

  She lowered herself and replaced her thumb with her tongue, flicking it rapidly in and out over his navel.

  Noah flung his head back. “That kiss wasn’t the only thing that came up. I’m hard as a pipe.”

  “You’re so easy.” She snaked back up his body, grazing him everywhere with the impression of her own. “Any more requests?”

  “Let’s save something for next time.”

  She gazed him a questio
ning look. “Next time?”

  He ignored the provocation. They both knew this was only the beginning.

  This time it was his turn. He settled his hands on her waist. “French kissing has always been popular with me.”

  She smiled. “That old standby.”

  “Yeah. Boring as hell, right?” His hands slid up her torso, taking the hem of her shirt with them until his warm calloused hands were holding her naked back. “Let me see if I remember how to do that.”

  The stroke of his tongue along the seam of her lips was like an injection of lust, direct and mainlined, her body instantly ready for him. And then he proceeded to show her that he hadn’t forgotten a thing about how to French kiss, adding a few variations as he went along.

  By the time he broke the kiss, she was sagging against him and he was holding on to her for dear life. And somehow their clothes had found the floor.

  “Why don’t we take this to the bedroom? And you can show me all those kisses again. But on different parts of the body.”

  She turned off the stove, took his hand to lead him to her bed. And she did exactly what he requested.

  And then he improvised, trying out butterfly kisses on her nipples. And bee buzz in the cleft between her thighs.

  By the time he slid into her she was panting, and his groans were so loud she was glad her bedroom didn’t have a common wall.

  “You feel so damn delicious, Carly.”

  She was feeling him, too. He felt so good inside her she was weeping, and all for him. When they climaxed, her body clamped down on his so hard she could feel every pulse of his ejaculation as he emptied into her.

  Noah flung a hand over his eyes, trying to remember how to speak. “Where did you learn all that? No, don’t tell me.” Other men, sophisticated European decadent lucky ducks who knew how to dazzle women. He’d just have to accept her past.

  She crawled up over his chest, her smile the best ever. “You won’t believe me.”

  He grunted.

  “Baby-sitting training classes.”

  “Get out.”

  “Really. The Inuit kiss, the bee buzz, the butterfly wing, and the tummy blow are all pretty standard ways of making small children laugh. Gentler than tickling, which can sometimes turn into torture.”