JT’s was pleasantly empty just after five -- one couple at a table over in the corner and one man down at the far end of the bar. For some reason he wasn’t at all surprised to see it was the brother and he walked over to take the neighboring stool. As Ryan sat, the guy looked over, away, then back again. “Oh, hey. Alice’s friend, from the ballgame, right?”
Alice. So that was it. He knew he’d heard it his first night in here, but hadn’t been able to remember. Alice. Perfect, he thought. He smiled and extended his hand. “That’s right. Ryan Spenser. Nice to meet you, …”
“David. Also Spencer, but I guess you already know that.”
Because Ryan knew the next line had to be ‘so I guess you know my sister from law school’ or something along those lines, he said hurriedly “That was some game, huh? Not quite what I was expecting.”
The distraction worked just fine; they discussed the game a while and Ryan learned he was an old friend of Harry the shortstop, a misconception he decided to ignore for the time being. The conversation moved along to the basketball finals, and then he asked David about the strange collection of team jerseys on the walls.
Turned out a lot of people who visited Hope Falls decided to settle down there, and it had become a tradition to bring in something from a favorite hometown team. Ryan found himself thinking of the Bears Super Bowl t-shirt he’d had since he was three – that was definitely worthy of display.
But of course he wasn’t moving here; there was just this one loose end to tie up, and then he’d be on his way. If the girl turned out to be interesting, they could keep in touch, see what happened, maybe start some kind of long-distance relationship.
Meeting the brother had to be a step in the right direction; now David might vouch for him, reassure Alice that Ryan wasn’t a stalker or an axe murderer. He just needed to work out the right way to casually mention that he was thinking of dropping by the house later to introduce himself because they’d never actually met.
Something, some minute alteration in the atmosphere, made him turn his head -- and it was as if after fumbling for years he’d finally found the right switch, the room was flooded with light and he could at last see clearly. He wouldn’t be going anywhere, not for a while at least.
***
Alice froze just inside the door. She hadn’t expected this, and all her carefully nurtured detachment was gone in an instant. For some reason, she’d assumed he’d be alone or sitting with his tacky girlfriend and she could take her time, look him over, make careful note of all his flaws and then happily dismiss him from her mind forever.
What a traitor David was, and why the hell was he looking so chummy with that jerk? She remained rooted to the floor, uncertain what to do now that it seemed she’d have to actually speak with him. Could she possibly slip back out the door?
And then the jerk looked over, spotted her, and his face lit up with a smile so beautiful Alice melted. In an instant, every shred of doubt evaporated; she smiled back; she had to suppress a sudden goofy urge to dance.
As she crossed the room she saw his expression change – he widened his eyes, gave his head a slow shake – and as clearly as if he’d said it aloud, asked if she knew what the hell was going on. She shrugged “beats me,” lifting her open hands.
A voice might have called out a greeting as she moved past the tables, but she didn’t pause or turn her head. Ryan stood at her approach and when she reached him, it seemed perfectly natural that he gave her a brief hug. “Here,” he said, gesturing, “do you want to sit down?”
She declined, knowing he would tower over her. He sat again and in her high heels their faces were almost at the same level -- it was easy to look straight into his eyes. She realized she hadn’t even acknowledged her brother’s presence so she turned slightly to give him a quick peck on the cheek.
“Glad you finally made it,” he said. “I was just talking to … this is the guy from the game, the one I told you about yesterday. So how do you two—”
Ryan interrupted. “Oh, we go way back, don’t we Alice?” he said and slid his hand under her jacket and along her waistline, pulling her slightly closer in a just-good-buddies way.
She saw his eyes drop away from hers to focus on her mouth as she parted her lips and audibly took a long, deep breath. When his gaze came back, there was something triumphant in his face and he smiled gently. He seemed to know precisely how much that not-quite-innocent gesture had affected her – and it amused him.
“Well, I won the case,” she said to David in a strange, chirpy tone. The bartender delivered a beer and she reached for it gratefully.
“Good to hear. I take it His Honor was slow as usual,” David said and then without waiting for her reply, began a long dull recap of his day.
Her face remained turned to her brother’s and she was pretty sure she was making appropriate noises now and then, but she didn’t hear a word. Ninety-nine percent of her attention was on the warm, humming current radiating through her body from the small of her back.
Ryan also seemed to be listening with rapt attention and Alice thought he might even be overdoing it a bit. “Really?” and “No kidding” were fine, but Alice feared that any minute he’d come out with “Do tell,” and David would finally notice something was up.
Ryan’s hand remained under her jacket and he’d begun to very slowly stroke the base of her spine with his thumb, pressing his other fingers firmly against the top of her ass. She felt claimed, owned; she simultaneously wanted to wriggle away from and push back into the hypnotic touch of his hand.
She shifted her weight a bit and felt the hand move with her. Her breathing was slowing and deepening and it was becoming difficult to keep her face from showing anything of what she felt. What she wanted to do was close her eyes, moisten her lips, surrender.
It wasn’t with any specific intention that she dropped her hand to his knee – she’d simply reached the point of needing a secure point of balance. But the instant her fingers touched the worn denim that covered his leg, she felt the muscles of his thigh jerk beneath her hand and she smiled to herself and tightened her grip. After a moment, she slid her hand an inch or so upwards and began to run her fingers back and forth just below the inseam of his jeans.
He coughed suddenly and twisted towards the bar to put down his glass, then reached down to cover her hand with his own. Gripping it, he firmly moved it back down to his knee and held it there. The hand on her back dropped slightly lower, paused, and then pinched her, hard. She jumped slightly and David paused and looked at her.
“You okay?”
“Fine, why?” she asked with what she hoped was some semblance of normality. She risked a quick glance back at Ryan, intending a stern glare, but when she saw his struggle to avoid laughing, she almost laughed, too. “Anyway, go on with what you were saying,” she said to David.
David, never one to cut a story short, began again and Alice made a vain attempt to extract her hand from under Ryan’s. His other hand now lay possessively at the top of her hip and Alice felt a tiny, stealthy tug at the fabric of her blouse, just above the waistband of her skirt.
Then another little tug, and she knew that when he had it un-tucked he would slide his fingers underneath and onto her bare skin, and she would be utterly, hopelessly lost and do something so far out of line she would have to leave town and take up life elsewhere … probably under an assumed name. She’d be a legend in Hope Falls – Alice, the nice girl who’d snapped and stripped off all her clothes in the bar. “Not even drunk,” they’d all whisper.
It took effort, but she forced herself to step away from him and announce too loudly and forcefully that she was going to the Ladies’ Room. David looked at her in amazement -- she might have interrupted him mid-sentence; she had no idea. “Oh-kaay,” he said. “Do you think we’re going to argue with you about it?”
Once the door closed behind her, Alice gripped the edges of the sink and stared into the mirror. Except for slightly flushed cheeks, she looke
d disappointingly normal. Not a hair out of place on the head that housed her over-stimulated brain. She tried to think back and remember if she’d ever felt such overwhelming desire. Let’s ignore the fact that he’s a total stranger, she told herself, have you ever wanted anyone this much?
Because there was no doubt that there was nothing he could have done that she wouldn’t allow. If he’d chosen to, say, put his hand … enough. She splashed cold water on her cheeks, began to re-tuck her blouse, then reached under her skirt and gave it a ferocious yank. She buttoned the top button and closed her jacket, too. There. All she needed was a wimple and a rosary.
When she returned, David was still talking, but it seemed he’d at last moved on to another topic. Ryan looked her over carefully and she saw him stifling another laugh. “Well, you guys want to have dinner?” she said, again too loudly. “Let’s get a table, shall we?”
Preferably the long one that ran down the center of the room, she thought. She could sit unmolested at the far end and shout to him across the expanse of red-checked tablecloth. “How’s your burger? Fries good tonight?”
“Actually,” Ryan said to David, “we were talking earlier about that software glitch you’ve got.”
“Oh, right.” David turned to her. “Turns out Ryan works with computers and I told him you were having trouble with the billing thing. He said he can probably help.”
“We could take a look at it right now, if you like,” Ryan said, holding her eyes and putting a lot of spin on the “now.”
“Well, you don’t have to do it now,” said David. “It’s not that big a deal.”
Speaking so slowly and pointedly she was reminded of a hypnotist, Ryan said, “Oh, I think we should do it now. There’s no time like the present.” He paused. “At least get some kind of start.” Another pause. “What do you think, Alice?”
Think? As if she could think. At this point Alice felt proud she was still capable of comprehending English. Her voice was lower than usual and sounded a little husky when she finally managed a reply. “I suppose now would be … fine.” She pulled herself together and added in a more normal tone, “You can go ahead and order if you want, David. We’ll be back in a little while.”
Chapter Six – Monday Evening
On the way down the street, they didn’t speak or touch or even glance at each other. Ryan wasn’t sure he trusted his voice, and even if he had, it was pretty clear they were communicating just fine without a lot of talking. Alice veered over to unlock the office door; he followed her inside and caught and held her hand as she instinctively reached for the light switch.
He kicked the door shut behind them, then spun her around and pushed her back against it, still without a word. Her chest was moving up and down with each deep breath and the eyes that looked into his were very wide.
He’d thought this would be frenzied, that he’d already have her skirt hiked up and his hand between her legs, but that sense of terrible urgency was evaporating. He unexpectedly found himself wanting to go as slowly as possible.
Watching her eyes, he reached for her top button, slowly undid it, then moved to the next, and the next. When he’d finished, he slid the blouse and jacket slightly off her shoulders, held her gently at her waist and pressed his lips against the smooth skin at the side of her neck.
As he slowly kissed his way along her shoulder, he moved his hands up to lightly cup the sides of her breasts. Her body seemed impossibly perfect to him – as though everything he’d ever desired had finally been combined in one ideal woman. “Alice,” he said, glancing up at her and then dropping his head again.
“Mmm?”
He spoke between kisses, his lips moving from her neck to her chest and the delicate roundness of the tops of her breasts. “Alice. I have a feeling we’re going to remember this for a long time.”
“Mm,” she replied.
Lifting his head, he saw her eyes were closed. “Look at me, babe.”
She did, putting her hands on his hips and trying to pull him closer. He resisted that, but began to lightly run his thumbs over the lacy fabric that covered her nipples. Her lips parted and she began to breathe through her mouth. “I only wonder if someday you’re going to look at me at the retirement home and complain that I never even took you on a date.”
Alice smiled and put her hands on his shoulders. An enormous old station clock on the wall ticked off several seconds. “Oh, I intend to use that long before then,” she said quietly. “Probably within the hour.”
“Terrific,” he said, kissing her just below the ear and moving one of his hands to the side of her face. With his fingertips he tucked a few strands of hair behind her ear, then he ran a finger along her jaw and lifted her chin. “That way I won’t have it hanging over my head,” he murmured.
Their lips met tentatively at first, and Ryan hesitated, suddenly overwhelmed by a sense of the deep commitment he was making. He knew somehow there would be no turning back after he kissed her; that he was about to hand her his heart, and for a split second he was frightened. Then he felt an infinitesimal movement of the lips beneath his, as if she might pull away, and he knew.
Flooded with certainty, he kissed her. Someday, he thought as he folded his arms around her and the kiss deepened, someday I’ll have to tell her I was thinking of Davy Crockett. Be sure you’re right, then go ahead.
***
When he paused, Alice felt she’d somehow expected this. She’d been sure, she realized, way back on Friday night, but she could feel the hand at her face trembling and knew he needed a second to catch up. That was all right; she didn’t mind at all, knowing he’d get there. It was funny how difficult it was for men to—
His deliciously strong arms finally pulled her close to him and his tongue slid into her mouth. She felt his erection pressing against her and some of the dizziness from the bar returned.
A little moan escaped her as his hands dropped to the waistband of her skirt to undo the button there. The zipper hissed down; the skirt dropped to the floor and she kicked it away. His hands slid down over her ass to the tops of her thighs and he stopped abruptly, groaning.
She felt his fingertips slide along the flesh just above the tops of her stockings and he groaned again, breaking the kiss. “Alice,” he whispered next to her ear. “I need to … I have to look at you.”
He pulled away from her to take a step back. His eyes were glittering with lust as he carefully surveyed her body and she stood a little straighter, proud of herself. She’d actually forgotten the thigh-high stockings -- she wore them automatically for court simply because she hated pantyhose. His response to them surprised and delighted her and she was suffused with a sense of her own power. That look in his eyes only heightened her own desire and she took a step towards him.
***
Awe swept through him and he was temporarily unable to grasp the idea that the woman in front of him was real. And more amazing, willing to give herself to him. A very faint light from the street created highlights on her satiny skin, her round breasts, the curve of her hip. Torn between the urge to simply stand and gape at her and the need to rip those panties away, he didn’t move.
A familiar portion of his brain clicked back on and he could think again. He had to get that jacket off her; he had to kick his shoes off, he had to—shit, shit, he didn’t have a condom. With shock, he noted he didn’t really care -- it would be perfectly fine with him if he knocked her up. No problem, a little early maybe, but what the hell. On the other hand, it was probably something she might want to weigh in on.
He saw her take a step, her arms extended to reach for his belt buckle and he caught her hands. Holding them firmly, he placed them back around his neck and kissed her again, more gently now. “Alice, we have to wait,” he said, “because I—”
She interrupted him. “No. No, honestly, I’m fine. We don’t need candlelight and rose petals, we just nee-- Oh.” She glanced away for a moment and when she looked back at him her eyes were twinkling with ple
asure. “All the more reason to let me …”
Her hands slid down his chest and he felt the pull at his belt, then her fingers on the button of his jeans. He tried to take all of her in – her beautiful face, the spectacular body -- knowing he was creating a mental image that would be sticking with him a long, long time.
The opened jacket and blouse, the lacy bra and panties, the stockings, the high heels. He wondered how long it would be before she grew tired of his requests to put on “that outfit.” (“Really, Ryan? Again?”)
Gradually he became aware of how excruciatingly slowly his zipper was moving and when he looked into her eyes, saw how carefully she was watching him. And with a mischievous smile playing around her lips, too. Well, well, well. So she liked to tease -- how very, very interesting and how little she could know about what that would earn her. He caught her hands again saying, “Oh, ladies first,” as he backed her up to the wall.
Kneeling before her, he ran his hands slowly up the inside of her legs, pausing to lightly brush his fingertips across the skin just above the stocking tops. He leant forward and touched his lips to that delightfully soft flesh, sliding his hands around to caress her just below the ass. She let out a very small moan and he felt her fingers in his hair.
With his tongue, he flicked along her inner thighs and felt her fingers tighten as she tried to pull his head closer. He slowly moved one of his hands around front, tracing the edge of her panties, then slipped a finger beneath the hem, feeling the moisture there.
A shadow moved across the wall and he flinched, realizing someone had passed by the front window. “Alice,” he said, drawing his finger up and along the cleft of her sex. “Alice, I’m going to pick you up and carry you into that back room over there, all right?”
For a moment, she didn’t respond, except to moan again and curl her fingers more tightly in his hair. Her breathing was very deep and her legs were quivering. “Oh no,” she said dreamily. “Don’t stop, we’re fine here.”
Hope Falls: Passing Through (Kindle Worlds Novella) Page 4