by Selena Kitt
“Shh.” He moved his hand away from her mouth and she shivered, looking over her shoulder at him, hearing the sound of someone walking across the tile, unzipping, urinating.
He put one finger to his mouth, slowly pulling out of her, and she bit her lip, watching the look of pleasure crossed with pain as he eased all the way out. She turned, leaning in and kissing him, trying to quiet her breathing, heart still racing, as she took his wet length in her hand.
It was her turn to put her finger to her lips as she sat on the toilet, pulling on the length of him until he was wedged between her legs. The urinal out there flushed as she took him into her mouth, tasting her juices on him while she swallowed him down, working him with her mouth and throat muscles.
Her eyes never left his and he grabbed the back of her head again, eyes closing as she sucked him deeper, feeling the swelling pillar of him in her mouth. She knew he was close and she was ready to swallow it, the ridges against her tongue swelling, expanding, the vein underneath pulsing with his imminent release.
The sink started with a rush and that’s when he came, spasming and thrusting into her mouth. She started to swallow as quietly as she could, the rush of hot fluid down her throat coming in fast, rhythmic waves. His face twisted in pleasure as she milked him with her tongue, still sucking as his climax started to ebb. She smiled up at him, hearing the sound of the door opening and closing, as she licked him clean
“How many courses do you think we missed?”
“Brat!” He pulled her to a stand and kissed her, hard. “You’re too much.”
“Never enough.” She wiggled against him as she pulled up her panties and straightened her dress.
“You go out first.” He sighed, shaking his head, but he was smiling. “I’ll come after you.”
“Isn’t that how it just happened?” she teased, kissing his cheek and moving back so he could open the door.
“Go!” He slapped her behind like a horse out of the starting gate as she slipped by him out the stall door. “Try to be a good girl.”
“I keep trying but it’s not working.” She laughed, smiling over her shoulder at him as she went through the lounge.
She checked her dress and hair in the mirror briefly before pulling the door open and heading back into the restaurant. She had lost all track or sense of time, and hoped they hadn’t been gone that long. She also fervently hoped Erica was still flirting with Charles and hadn’t really missed them.
“Leah?”
She startled, her hand going to her throat, and turned to see her mother coming out of the women’s bathroom. Her mother’s brow knitted as she stared at the men’s room door closing behind Leah. “What…?”
“Oops, wrong door,” Leah said quickly. “Too dark in here, isn’t it?”
She frowned, cocking her head. “What are you doing here?”
“Oh...” Leah swallowed, knowing Rob was going to be coming out behind her any moment. “We just came for dinner. We’re over there. Want to go say hi?” Leah moved out of the alcove and breathed a sigh of relief as her mother followed.
“Mr. Nolan brought you to The Bronze Door?” She sounded incredulous and stopped in the alcove doorway, forcing Leah to stop too.
“What are you doing here?” Leah changed the subject. “Did you make reservations?”
“My boss did,” she replied as the door behind them squeaked open and Leah felt her heart drop with a thick thud somewhere in her middle. “He invited me to a meeting here so…Rob?” Mr. Nolan stood half in and half out of the men’s room. He couldn’t go back and he didn’t want to come forward but there was nothing else to do.
He put on an immediately bright face, smiling. “Patty! What a surprise to see you here!”
Leah’s mother looked back to her, mouth thinning for a moment. “Yes, you too.”
“Well, Erica’s waiting at the table.” Leah edged sideways. “We should go.”
“Yes. My boss is waiting.” Leah’s mother’s gaze danced between her daughter and Mr. Nolan.
“Good seeing you, Patty.” Rob nodded. “I’ll bring her home safe and sound the day after tomorrow.”
“Yes,” Leah’s mother said again as he moved past, steering Leah by the elbow toward their table. Leah turned and waved briefly over her shoulder, her stomach lurching at the look on her mother’s face.
“She knows,” Leah whispered when they were far enough away. She saw the grim look on Rob’s face but he just nodded once.
“Hey, there you are!” Erica exclaimed, and Leah was relieved to see Charles still at the table, sitting in Mr. Nolan’s seat and talking to her.
“My mom’s here,” Leah said, trying to tell her friend with her eyes, but Erica was too involved with the waiter to get it.
“It’s okay,” Rob whispered as Charles moved and they sat. His hand squeezed Leah’s under the table. “It’ll be okay.”
They ate their next course, and the one after that, seven of them in all, although Leah lost count. It was just a blur of plates and strange-looking food after that, her stomach tying itself up in tighter and tighter knots.
When it was finally over, Leah heard Charles asking Erica for her phone number. She also saw her mother as they were leaving the restaurant, but she didn’t see them. Mr. Highbrow was drinking a martini and Leah’s mother had her chin in her hand and she was gazing at the floor, a distant look in her eyes.
Chapter Fourteen
Edgewater was twenty acres of thrill rides located, predictably, at the edge of the Detroit River. From the top of the hundred-and-ten-foot Ferris wheel, if you were brave enough to keep your eyes open as the car rocked alarmingly in the wind, you could see all the way to Canada. If you went up at night, the city below looked like a carpet of stars, and during the day, the people below looked like lines of ants waiting their turn.
They went to the park every year for their annual class trip, but somehow it never got old. The best part was, for one price, you received a ticket to ride everything in the park—the Ferris wheel and carousel, trips through the funhouse and the hall of mirrors, even the rickety old wooden roller coaster, aptly named the Wild Beast, were all free to ride once you were in the park. Only food and games were extra.
“What do you want to do first?” Mr. Nolan asked as they slipped through the turnstiles, and Erica and Leah grinned at each other, saying simultaneously, “Dodgem cars!”
Erica got serious about Dodgem, her eyes flashing, mouth drawn into a thin line as she steered her vehicle with a vengeance into every possible target she could find. Leah spent most of the time trying to avoid her and that teeth-rattling, bone-jarring hit. Erica even went after the littlest kids, who could barely see over the steering wheel, and who would scream in terror when she set her sights and started barreling toward them.
“No more driving for you!” Mr. Nolan laughed when they got off, heading down the boardwalk, the smell of popcorn and pronto pups making Leah’s stomach rumble, even at ten in the morning after Solie’s full breakfast of eggs, bacon and hotcakes. Solie had insisted, even though Mr. Nolan had told her, “They’re just going to throw it all up on the roller coaster!”
“Cotton candy!” Erica stopped, watching the vendor in the red and white striped suit and hat spinning pink sugar around a paper cone. “Daddy! Please!”
So of course they got cotton candy, and Leah ate two pronto pups—irresistible corn-battered hot dogs—and drank an egg crème as they wandered down the boardwalk before Erica decided she had to ride the Wild Beast. Right now.
“I’ll puke!” Leah protested, looking helplessly at Rob who just held up his hands and laughed.
Erica put an arm around her neck, dragging her toward the line. “Let’s go, Barffalo Bill!”
“Dad, will you go get me an ice cream?” Erica pointed over to the stand where they were selling little squares of Stroh’s Blue Moon ice cream in tiny cardboard containers.
Rob sighed. “More food?”
“Please?” Erica batted her eyela
shes, smiling big, and he groaned.
“I’ll be right back.”
“Are you daft?” Leah held her middle, watching him go. “I’m seriously going to throw up.”
“Look.” Erica pointed in the opposite direction, dragging Leah over to her line of sight. She looked down the boardwalk, seeing only crowds of screeching and giggling kids, running from games to rides to food, trailed by already exhausted adults under a bright blue sky that, much to many parents’ chagrin, didn’t seem to be threatening even a drop of rain.
“What?” Leah shook her head. “I don’t...”
But then she did. Bobby Harris was standing at the game where you hit the bell with the mallet for a prize. He was talking to the guy running it and didn’t seem to be with anyone, which surprised Leah. She figured he’d at least have Buddy with him.
She put a comforting arm around Erica’s shoulder. “Well you knew he’d be here.”
“I want to go home.” Erica made a face, turning away from the sight of her ex as Rob approached.
“Already?” He handed her the square of ice cream, beginning to drip in the early morning heat. It was going to be a scorcher.
“Hey!” Bobby Harris was approaching them, hand lifted in a wave.
Leah couldn’t believe his daring as he sauntered in their direction, smiling casually, the dark curl over his forehead like Elvis meant to make all the girls swoon—and it usually did. Erica didn’t turn around, her mouth drawn tight, like she’d just swallowed something sour.
“Hi Bobby.” Mr. Nolan greeted him and Leah stared at him in disbelief—the betrayal—but when they shook hands and started to talk, she understood Erica had obviously not told her father about the breakup.
“Can I talk to you?” Bobby poked Erica’s shoulder with one finger.
Leah met her friend’s eyes, frowning, giving an imperceptible shake of her head, but Erica turned slowly around to look at him.
“Can you drop dead twice?”
Bobby’s face reddened, but he persisted, taking a step toward her and lowering his mouth to her ear. “Please?”
Erica sighed and Leah saw her relenting as he pulled her away from the roller coaster line.
“Trouble in paradise?” Rob raised an eyebrow as he watched the two of them cloistered between the pitching baseball game and the trampolines.
“I think so.” Leah didn’t want to say much more than that.
They watched the drama unfold, too far away to hear them, but their mouths were moving, both of them talking at once. Leah crossed her arms over her chest, moving slowly up with the line, unable to take her eyes off Erica and Bobby. She felt Rob behind her, the press of him reminding her, and she felt her body respond instantly.
He bent to whisper, “I want to kiss you.”
They couldn’t, of course, not here. There was black and white everywhere. She saw Sister Frances shepherding several third graders over by the Dodgem cars and Sister Abigail shading her eyes as she watched a few of her charges shrieking through their go ’round in the Salt and Pepper Shakers. But just knowing he wanted to, hearing him say it surrounded by a hundred people, made her knees weak.
Leah just nodded, letting herself feel the bulk of his body as they shuffled forward again, excited kids crowding in as they grew closer to the front. But she knew they couldn’t be anywhere near as eager to ride the roller coaster as she was for the man whose front was pressed to her back. She wanted him. She always wanted him. It was a constant state of being now, like breathing. Not having him was torture, like being deprived of air and sunlight and hope.
Erica ran over in her dungarees and pink Mary Magdalene t-shirt—that was their uniform of the day—looking guilty and apologetic as she squeezed Leah’s forearm, attempting a bright smile.
“Bobby and I are going for a walk.” She glanced up at her father, trying the batting eyelashes bit again. “Can we meet you somewhere in about an hour?”
“Erica...” Mr. Nolan frowned, shaking his head, but Leah reached back, touching his hand, squeezing gently.
“By the carousel?” Leah suggested.
“Righto!” Erica handed over her ice cream to Leah, half-melted, and took off again, weeding her way through the crowd and joining up with Bobby. Leah watched them walk away, already holding hands, like nothing had ever happened. She couldn’t wait to hear the story behind this one—although she was pretty sure she already knew the tune. Besides, Erica running off with Bobby gave her the opportunity to be alone with Rob and for that, she was grateful.
“Now what?” he asked, but she already had his hand in hers, pulling him out of the line for the roller coaster and starting in the opposite direction from Erica and Bobby. He looked down at her, smiling. “Where are we going?”
Leah shrugged, smiling back. “Who cares?”
He squeezed her hand, swinging it gently as they strolled the boardwalk. The cotton candy and pronto pups she’d eaten seemed to have evaporated, rather than being digested, and she found herself hungry again. She ate the rest of Erica’s ice cream and then insisted they stop to get giant, whole dill pickles out of a vat
When Leah put her mouth around hers to take the first bite, she saw him looking at her, bemused. She couldn’t help the mischievous look in her eyes, pickle juice dribbling down her chin, as she sucked the tip of it.
“You’re a brat.” He laughed, handing her a napkin.
She wanted to kiss him. She wanted far more than that, to be honest, but they were both far too conscious of all the people around them as they walked past the vendors. The whole park was full of pink Mary Magdalene shirts, often followed by the swish of a nun in her robes and wimple bringing up the rear. So they walked together, holding hands, joking and laughing and talking, stopping occasionally to watch some sucker try to make the basket or knock over the milk bottles and win a prize.
“They’re all fixed,” Rob murmured into her ear as they watched a high school boy wearing a red t-shirt with white letters that said St. Casimir on it try to pop a balloon with a dart. “See how it bounces off?”
“Dull darts?” Leah wondered, watching it clatter to the floor and join the other two the boy had failed to hit a balloon with.
“No.” He reached into his pocket, pulling out a nickel. “Watch.”
He put the coin down on the counter, taking three darts from the barking carnie. The vendor was trying to draw more people to his booth. There were Kewpie dolls lined up all along the top, their big, flirting eyes mocking them.
“Step right up, folks! Win this sweet baby dolly for your little lady! A Kewpie for your cutie!” The carnie took a step back as Rob picked up the first dart, aiming. Leah watched as the red dart flew straight toward one of the balloons, hitting it directly—and bouncing off without popping it.
“See?” He winked down at her. “Bounces right off. You know why?”
The carnie gave him a sharp look, frowning as he took another nickel from the high school boy, giving him three more darts.
Leah shook her head. “No why?”
The high schooler was listening too, watching Rob aiming his dart.
“They don’t inflate the balloons fully.” Rob threw his second dart on an arc, upward at first, so it came down at the balloon from above. The extra momentum and weight did the trick. The balloon popped and a cheer went up from the little crowd around the booth.
Leah laughed and clapped her hands, clutching his arm. “You won! You won!”
“Basic physics.” Rob smiled down at her.
“All right, you won your prize, move along.” The carnie handed a Kewpie doll over to Leah, waving them off.
Rob handed his last dart over to the high school kid, not saying anything but mimicking his winning motion.
The kid took it, grinning. “Thanks, mister!”
Leah couldn’t stop smiling, hugging her Kewpie doll to her chest as they walked away from the booth. The carnie looked grateful to see them go, but she gave a satisfied glance over her shoulder to see the
high school boy had won a Kewpie for his girl too.
“Well, I won my girl a prize at the fair.” Rob slanted a look down at her as they walked. “Doesn’t that deserve a kiss?”
“We can’t,” she whispered, looking around the crowd, her lips burning with a longing to feel his. “Not here.”
Before she knew what was happening, he’d pulled her between two of the red and white striped game tents and then behind. They found themselves in a little, secluded alleyway between game and food tents.
“How about here?”
That was all he got out before they were in each other’s arms, mouths slanting, hands groping, Leah’s Kewpie doll dropping to the asphalt, forgotten, as they rocked together, breathing each other in, mouths and tongues attempting a poor imitation of what their bodies really wanted.