The Heart's Dangerous Trek

by Maya McMillan

  “You’re a smart girl; Nick wouldn’t tolerate anything less. But, I guess in some ways you are stupid.”

  Even before Tara could smart from the blatant statement bordering on hurtful, Madeline amended it.

  “Or maybe not. You never knew him before. He was loving, and loyal, but always a bit…detached. It was like after the fever he was just waiting for life to happen and his fascination with….everything, was just a diversion for him until whatever was suppose to happen did. When his dad died, it hit him hard, but, if anything it just made him go inside himself more. I haven’t seen him so, so here, so engaged in the world, in years.”

  “His dad, Mr. Kendrick, how did he die?”

  Madeline shook her head.

  “He has a lot of his father in him. His dad had been a pilot in the Air Force, but he had issues with his vision that kept him from getting a job as a commercial pilot after he got out of the service. Once we…once we were doing okay, he said it was important that we give back. He began flying emergency cargo flights to South America when there were storms or other natural disasters. He was coming back from a mission when his plane was struck by lightening. It went down in the mountains in Northern California. It took them days to locate it, months to get the bodies out. Five months after that Nick enlisted.”

  Tara felt herself grow a little cold. She wasn’t sure she wanted to ask the next question, but she knew she didn’t have a choice.

  “Mrs. Kendrick, what...what was the name of the cargo plane Nick’s dad went down in?”

  Madeline studied her eyes again. This time Tara didn’t mind.

  “Candlelight 101.”

  CHAPTER 40

  He’d known, somehow, to give her her space on the drive back to the brownstone--not in a tricked out car, not in a cab or an Uber. The ride from the New York financial district to the brownstone where Nick sequestered the two fugitives was done in a limousine. It was Tara’s first time in one. She wanted to be impressed. She wasn’t.

  He didn’t sit next to her in the spacious well-appointed passenger compartment, didn’t touch her knee or hold her hand. Tara found herself both grateful and resentful.

  When the limo dropped them off he hung back, calling out the numbers to the keypad so the girls could let themselves in. With a final survey of the quiet street Nick followed them in and, after another long moment in the vestibule, gave a curt nod to Greta and Tara, then went up the spiral staircase to the third floor.

  As soon as he was out of sight Greta turned to Tara and grabbed her hands.

  “What the hell happened? The vibe between you two is like….too weird to name.”

  Tara didn’t know where to begin.

  “I…we travel in different worlds. When I thought he was some kind of recluse it was one thing, even when I found out he was ex-military and then a mercenary…”

  “And a war hero,” Greta interjected. “That’s what he was most famous for a few years ago. He turned down, like, three medals. It was almost a scandal.”

  Tara shook her head.

  “Anyway…it doesn't matter. He’s from this world...” She swept her arm around, encompassing the rich surroundings. “…and he’s earned it. I shouldn't take his help but I have to…we have to. But as soon as things are done, we’re going back to Ohio and getting on with our lives.”

  “But, Tara…”

  “He’s broken!” Tara nearly screamed, unable to believe the vehemence in her voice when she spoke. It set Greta back a half-step.

  “He was camping out at the spot where his father died, Greta. How creepy is that?”

  Her friend simply looked at her, uncharacteristically silent.

  Tara seethed. The two women faced each other for long moments, Tara aching for the blond to say something else for her to pounce on.

  “He bought the hotel,” she finally said, her voice hissing with rage.

  “What?”

  “When we got down off the mountain in Warrenton…the hotel we stayed at. He bought it so he could have full access to security and the staff and…everything. He bought it with a phone call, Greta, while we were eating breakfast at a diner. A breakfast that was free.”

  Once the words were in the air Tara was gratified that someone else was as shocked as she was.

  But what came next from her friend’s mouth was the last thing she expected.

  “You’re afraid.”

  Tara shook her head, thinking perhaps she had not heard right.

  “No, listen to me, Tare.” Greta, holding her at the elbows gave her a little shake to get her full attention.

  “You’re right, he moves in circles that are totally alien to us. We worry about gas in the tank; he worries about petrol in the jet. I get that.”

  “Good, then…” Tara began.

  “It doesn’t matter. There’s something between you two.” Greta gently shook Tara again to induce her to meet her eyes. “There’s something between you two, isn’t there? Just say it. Just admit it.”

  Tara clenched her jaw and pressed her lips together.

  “Okay, how about this. Awesome sex, right?”

  Tara felt her face redden, then nodded.

  “That’s not nothing, girl. The good stuff, the very best stuff, comes when there’s some kind of connection. I know because I’m an expert at the other kind.”

  “Slut,” Tara said, shocked that she found any kind of humor, mired down in pain as she was.

  Greta let her go.

  “And proud of it, but you know what I’m saying, don’t you?”

  Tara, reluctantly, nodded. Then her eyes began to tear up.

  “Gret, his mom, she told me about his life, how he was….damaged when he got back from duty, how he disappeared without saying goodbye. She didn’t think she would ever see him again. She thought someday she would get some letter telling her he died in some war somewhere. She didn’t even know he was back in the States.”

  Greta, once again, held her tongue.

  “She said when he came home yesterday he was like a new man. He didn’t look haunted, he actually smiled. She said when he came back before it was like he was a ghost going through the motions of being a man. Now...” Tara paused, the words almost too much to bear, “she says now he is more…human than he’s been since before his dad died. She says it’s me.”

  The bosomy blond pulled Tara in for a tight hug just as she began crying.

  “I can’t do it, Gret. I can’t handle being the big thing that brings a man like that back. I can’t do that. I can’t live this life. I can’t! I can’t!”

  Tears finally outweighed the ability to think or speak and Tara lost herself in her friend's comforting embrace.

  “Shush, shush. You don’t have to do anything, sweetie, you don’t. It’ll all take care of itself if you just admit how you feel. You’re as strong as they come, Tare, strong enough to be honest with yourself.”

  The words made Tara cry even harder.

  But eventually, through them Tara nodded her head.

  “I love him, Greta. I love him”

  CHAPTER 41

  Nick was sprawled out on the bed reading, of all things, a book on the history of chemistry, when Tara knocked on the slightly ajar door.

  “Got a minute?”

  His eyes fixed on her as if she were the only celestial body in infinite dark space. He put the book aside, but did not speak. His face, so devastatingly, magnetically handsome, was shrouded in quiet rage and pain.

  “I…I know I handled things badly,” Tara said, stepping into the opulent room and, she felt, back 150 years in time. The ornate woodwork, with everything brass and oak, was something out of a Sherlock Holmes mystery. Everything was heavy and old. “I was confused. I didn’t know what to do with…with any of it.”

  He studied her for a long time. Tara had slipped into a set of light blue silk pajamas, the most normal thing she could find in the whole house. She thirsted for a just a pair of lounge pants and a sweatshirt, but apparently such things we
re unknown in the world Nick lived in.

  “Did my mother…was she…? Nick’s face grew darker still as he tried to find words.

  “No! No! No,” she jumped in. “She was great. After how she handled those guys from the Mayor’s office and the newspapers, I was terrified of her; but no, she was very nice to me. She just told me a little about you. It was…” Tara looked down, ashamed of what she now saw as her own cowardice, “a bit much.”

  Nick swung his feet to the floor. Wearing charcoal gray silk pajama bottoms, no top, and a white silk robe he reminded Tara of some kind of ancient Caesar being called upon by his people to rule them. She was relieved to see that his face had relaxed.

  “You’re not upset that she talked to me about you, are you?”

  He sat on the edge of the bed for a long moment, silent.

  “No, she was probably doing me a favor, whether she meant to or not,” he finally said. “I’m…I haven’t been so good about talking, about sharing so much these last few years, and you deserve to know about me.” The silence stretched out and when Nick spoke again his voice was thick with emotion. “I want you to know about me, Tara. I just can’t figure out how to get there.”

  Tara’s mouth began to drop open as she blushed. From where she stood she had a good view of Nick’s physique and as he spoke the heartfelt words, the thin fabric of his pajamas did nothing to hide his body’s reactions.

  Seeing his need for her Tara realized, with a storm of varied emotions, that she knew one thing for certain. She was hungry for him.

  “We need to think about the next few days,” Nick said, standing and turning towards one of the master bedroom's huge windows,oblivious of what she had seen.

  She was on him in a single bound.

  Coming up behind him, Tara caught Nick in a powerful embrace that might have alarmed another man with its passion. Nick only stopped, and breathed, absorbing the moment as if it was something he’d been craving since the first moment they’d met.

  He wrapped his arms over hers and Tara was grateful for the sheerness of the fabric they wore. She could feel the contours of his hard muscles, the sweep of his broad back, the vital strength of his abs, and, as she pressed in tighter, the wonderful sexy strength of those buns of his as they pressed into her stomach.

  Then she needed more.

  In a swift easy movement, Tara released the tie that held Nick’s pajamas up against his flat abs and pulled his robe aside, and as she knelt down, took his covering with her.

  She’d never seen such perfectly shaped male glutes, the lack of tan lines adding both naughty and wholesome qualities. She let her hands drop lower, smiling at the gasp elicited from Nick when she reached between his legs to touch his painfully rigid cock as she pressed her face against his wonderfully hard, round posterior.

  The heat building in her loins almost suffocated her as Tara rubbed herself against the man’s sex parts. She thought touching him like that might be the most erotic thing she had ever done. She wanted to stay there and bask in the sexual heat coursing through her body forever.

  But she was hungry for more. Her mouth watered and she felt a delicious swelling between her legs.

  “Nick,” she said, aware of the almost begging tone of her voice as she rubbed her soft cheek against the hard one in front of her.

  The man whipped around, shrugged off his robe and stepped out of his bottoms in a movement so swift and sure it seemed like he was suddenly, magically nude in front of her.

  She gasped. It was like she’d never seen him naked before, never seen any man naked before, never seen a man’s erection. She was struck in awe at his physical beauty, but found, to her chagrin, she could not get her eyes off his cock.

  His eyes on hers, playfully malicious, Nick stepped back until he was able to rest his prefect ass on the deep window sill behind him.

  “Your turn…and take your time,” he said, his voice so low and resonant it made the air between them vibrate.

  Tara froze. He wanted a strip tease again. It was impossible. It had been different when, a lifetime ago it seemed, they were out in the wild, alone in their own little world, and she thought it was just a game, that there would be no sex.

  But then she remembered this was the man who had, just a few days earlier, encouraged and helped her with with her masturbation orgasm. The same man who had been accepting that he would be left unsatisfied.

  If Madeline credited her with bringing Nick back, then she had to credit Nick with delivering her into a world of intimacy and sharing she could not have imagined.

  She rose slowly, eyes on him, and walked towards him, rolling her shoulders back to push her breasts forward.

  Just a few feet away she stopped and unbuttoned the top button of her pajamas.

  Nick’s wolfish smile egged her on.

  After the second button was undone, the top was loose enough that with a roll of her shoulders Tara was able to reveal most of one of her creamy white breasts, and so close Nick could reach out and caress it if he wanted to.

  She really wanted him.

  But before she let the thought settle in her mind she pivoted away and, wiggling her hips like Betty Boop, shrugged out her pajama bottoms. She looked back and had to fight down a laugh at the look on his face. Awe and lust had transformed his expression to one of pure, unadulterated sexual need.

  Tara felt a little sorry for him because she wasn’t quite done.

  Spinning around again she covered the spot between her legs, one he knew well enough, with her hand. She let a finger dip inside herself and brought it back out, ignoring the shudder the small action incited in her hyper-sexually aroused body.

  She licked the finger, looking at him.

  “You did soo good by me before, Nicky. Are you gonna do it again?”

  The growl in his voice made Tara shiver.

  “Not with my fingers.”

  Not able to contain herself any longer, Tara shrugged out of her top and stood, blushing, nipples erect as Nick ate her up with his eyes.

  Then she knew it was time.

  She stepped over to where he was perched on the window sill, put an arm over his shoulder for balance and lifted her leg over his thigh. Getting the message, Nick wrapped one arm around her back and with the other reached under and grabbed her buttock with his powerful rough hand. He easily lifter her off her feet. He held her over him for just a moment. They locked eyes. Something unnameable passed between them and Tara knew she would cum the instant he was inside her.

  She reached down to guide him in. The pair sighed as she touched his hot organ and she positioned the hard beast of a cock. She broke eye contact with a slight nod, to embarrassed by her own wantonness to look her lover in the eyes.

  He lowered her down.

  His hardness glided wonderfully into her and a Mona Lisa smile quirked Tara’s lips when her prediction about the needs of her own body were proven correct. She orgasmed, a short jolt that shook her body and sent her into little jerks that, had it not been for Nick’s exceptional strength and control, would have tumbled them both to the floor.

  Then he was embedded inside her.