“Nicole, wait, I’m—”
“So help me, if you say you’re sorry I’m going to punch you in the nose.”
“Hardly!” He leaned down and kissed her neck all the way down to the spot that was his favorite on a woman.
Just as she reached again for his shirt, he stepped back, his breathing ragged, his voice low and raspy, filled with desire. “It’s just that I’m going to be late if I don’t leave now.”
“The sooner you go, the sooner you’ll be back.”
Garrett turned on the light.
“I don’t want to go,” he admitted, daring to look her in the eye. “Promise you won’t move while I’m gone? I want to pick this up right here.”
Nicole caressed the side of his face. “I’ll be waiting.”
“I—”
She waited for him to continue, but he didn’t. “I’m not her, Garrett,” she whispered.
“I know.” He leaned his forehead against hers. “And, amazingly enough, I don’t want you to be.”
Chapter Five
Garrett sat in the driveway, nervously wiping his sweaty palms on the tops of his thighs. He shook his head, his shoulders slumped in defeat, remembering how on the way to the hospital he had pulled into a 7-Eleven, spent five minutes staring at the various condom packages, then left with only a bottle of red wine. He felt horrible about the ride back. As Mrs. Thompson filled him in on the details of her husband’s medical condition, images of Nicole kept invading his thoughts. It had been a full ten minutes since he had seen Mrs. Thompson to her door with a promise to drive her to the hospital on Sunday morning. He pulled out his cell phone and dialed the house. If he listened carefully, he could hear the phone ringing inside.
“Flint residence, Garrett’s hostage speaking,” Nicole answered saucily.
Garrett almost dropped the phone as his mind’s eye was filled with the erotic image of her tied to his bed.
“You aren’t my hostage. And what if this had been my mother calling?”
“Then you’d have some explaining to do. Fortunately for you, you happen to have caller ID and the display said ‘Garrett’s Cell’.”
“You aren’t my hostage.”
“No? Let’s see, you essentially kidnapped me from my bed and drove me to a strange town. I have no money. I have no way of escaping. Screams hostage to me.”
“I rescued you from a burning building. That was clearly not a kidnapping.”
He could see the silhouette of her body through the window as she walked into the bedroom, her hand searching for the light switch. “Don’t turn the light on,” he said, his voice low.
Nicole froze. “Where are you?”
Garrett pushed his seat back and stretched his legs out in front of him. “I’m in the driveway, in my car.”
“Why?” She had moved away from the doorway into the darkened room. He could no longer see her.
“I was wondering if maybe we should slow this down a bit.”
“You want to slow this down?”
“No.” He let his head fall against the window. “I don’t want to slow this down. I think maybe we should.”
“Do you want me to leave?”
His head snapped up. “What? No!”
“What do you want?”
“Ask me that again, only make your voice a bit more breathy.”
“Are we having phone sex now? What happened to Dr. Flint and the Naughty Nurse?”
Garrett shrugged. “Old hat. I like to keep things fresh. So, how long have you been working at 1-900-IMABabe? Do they offer a decent benefit package? Pension plan? 401(k)?”
“The benefits suck,” she said. “Come inside, Garrett.”
“I stopped on the way to the hospital to buy condoms. That’s what people do, right? Everyone’s supposed to use condoms. Only I didn’t buy them. I left with a bottle of red wine instead.”
“Although useful if you want to break down inhibitions, not an effective barrier against STDs.”
“I know. I’m a complete idiot. I wasn’t even thinking about that. I was thinking about birth control. And I can’t even believe that we are having this conversation!”
“So, start a new conversation.”
“Should I have gotten the condoms?”
“Hmm. I don’t know about you, but to me this is already sounding suspiciously like the old conversation. Are you always this obsessive?”
“Only about sex. And only when I’ve been without for a really long time.” Then after a long pause he admitted, “Well, that’s not exactly true. Even when I was getting it regularly, I thought about it a lot. Truth be told, the Playboy is mine, not Sam’s. And I tend to skip over the articles. Did I mention how much I wish I was holding you right now?”
“Which brings up a good point. Why aren’t you?”
“I’ve never been good with casual sex. I’m thirty years old. It’s been twelve years since I’ve been with anyone other than my wife.”
“You’re still very much in love with her.”
“I’ll always be in love with her,” he whispered.
“I see.”
“Do you?”
Nicole sighed. “No, not really. That’s one of those phrases we therapists use. It demonstrates that we’re listening and gives us time to think. I’m still trying to figure out why you didn’t buy the condoms.”
“I was standing there in the aisle, looking at the boxes, wondering if you’d prefer the ridges and trying to decide on what size box to buy. And it hit me. You might not even be here tomorrow.”
“But I’m here now.”
He lowered his voice a notch. “Where are you, exactly?”
“In your bedroom.”
“Are you still dressed?”
“For now.”
“I can still feel your kiss.”
“Where do you feel it?”
“I can still feel your lips on mine, your tongue in my mouth, hot and moist. You have a beautiful mouth.”
“Oh!” she moaned.
“What?”
“You’re kissing my neck. I can feel the warmth of your breath as your lips glide across my throat. You’re tugging at the hem of my shirt, pulling it up.”
“Help me, Nicole. I can’t get it off fast enough. I want to see you, taste you,” he confessed, the pace of his breathing increasing with his arousal.
“Wait! Oh, yes! Just like that. Your hands on my breasts, they feel so good.”
“Christ! You’ve got me so fucking hard. Tell me what you want, baby.” He felt her hesitation and smirked. “Getting shy, princess? Maybe I should have asked for one of the other girls tonight.”
Another moment went by and still there was no response. “Are you still there, Nicole? Is this freaking you out?”
“No!” she protested, a little too loudly. Then her voice softened. “Maybe, it’s freaking me out a little.”
“Why?”
“I barely know you. Your four-year-old daughter is asleep across the hall. I’m standing stark naked in your bedroom and you’re asking me to talk all dirty to you while you sit out there in your car. Don’t you see anything wrong with this picture? Aren’t you the least bit uncomfortable?”
“Yes, now that you mention it. I think you should ask me to unbutton my pants.”
“Unbutton your pants?” she repeated.
“Oh, thank God!” Garrett unbuckled his belt opened his jeans, and freed his erection. Then he saw the closet light turn on—his closet. He could see her, nude, standing in the doorway, her back to him, still holding the phone to her ear.
“What are you doing?” he asked as he stroked his fully engorged cock, pausing for a moment to lick the palm of his hand before rubbing it across the head.
“Looking for the shirt I was wearing earlier. What are you doing?”
“It’s on the floor.” He watched expectantly as she bent over to retrieve it. “Christ, you have a luscious ass.”
Nicole gasped as she grabbed the shirt and spun around holding
the shirt up protectively to shield her body. “You can see me.”
“Well, not now. You’ve got the damn shirt in the way. Please, darlin’. I’m so close. Help me out here. I need…I need…” The light went out in the bedroom. Dropping his head back onto the top of his car seat Garrett murmured to himself, “You’ve gone and done it now.”
Next the porch light went out, shrouding him in complete darkness. He lifted his head, just in time to see her run out the front door toward the car, wearing nothing but his shirt.
“Foot’s better, I see,” he said when she opened the passenger door and slid inside.
“Enough talk.” She tossed the cordless phone into the back seat and covered his mouth in a passionate kiss.
When she pulled back, she was breathless and so was he. Nicole reached down, wrapped her slender hand around his shaft and, in a hushed voice, asked him, “What do you want?”
Garrett hissed and looked away, placing his hand over hers, intending to remove it. “You should go back inside. This…isn’t good.”
She gave his cock a little squeeze. “Show me how you like to be touched.”
He removed her hand, tears welling up in his eyes. “I can’t do this!” He turned away. “I don’t know what I was thinking,” he groaned miserably as he tucked himself back into his jeans and buttoned them. “I can’t afford to hope. I promised myself. I’ve cried too many tears, a lifetime’s worth. I’ve been to the circus, darlin’. I had it all. And I watched it wither and die, slip through my fingers. I can’t let that happen, not ever again.”
*****
Suddenly she saw him in perfect clarity. Hero, all cock and swagger. Father, nurturing and tender. Man, isolated and grieving. All of them struggling, desperately fighting against the demons within. Fighting to hold on. He was so brave yet so afraid. He was afraid to risk, afraid to lose, afraid to live, but most of all afraid to love.
When she had reminded him that Sam was alone inside the house, he quickly wiped the tears from his face, pulled the key from the ignition and stepped out of the car. If it hadn’t been for the fact that he paused to hold the door open for her, she would have thought he’d forgotten about her altogether.
Once inside he headed straight for a set of built-in shelves and cabinets that housed an entertainment center and begin to look for something. “Ah ha!” He pulled out a bottle of scotch.
“What are you doing?”
“Gonna get drunk and have myself a nice long soak in the hot tub. If I’m lucky, I’ll have a stroke.” He took the bottle into the kitchen. “Now, which plastic cup to choose? Powerpuff Girls or Barbie? Decisions, decisions!”
“Okay, why are you doing this?”
He turned to look at her, the expression on his face one of total incredulity. “Are you kidding? You were right there.” He waved the bottle in the general direction of the driveway, then poured himself a healthy drink. “Do you know CPR?”
“No.” She pulled out one of the kitchen chairs and sat down. Her foot was hurting again.
“Good!” Garrett unlocked the door and walked out onto the back deck.
Despite the pain she was now feeling, she followed. “You’re really going to sit out here?”
“Yup.”
He removed the lid to the hot tub, knocked back the remainder of his drink, then shamelessly stripped off all of his clothes. God, he looked glorious.
Nicole stood there, transfixed, as he poured himself a refill of the scotch before climbing into the water. Steam rose, evaporating into the cool night air and she shivered. “It’s cold out here. And the air is really smoky. I don’t think you should be breathing this.”
She heard him inhale deeply. “Maybe I’ll asphyxiate. Nod off and drown. That’d be a good way to go.”
“That’s it!” She grabbed the drink from his hand and took a swallow herself. “Look at what you’ve done! You’ve driven me to drink!”
He couldn’t help but smile. “God, you’re adorable.”
“Oh no, stay on topic! No more sweet talk.” She took another swallow. “And no sexy talk either. I’m too tired to take another ride on Garrett-the-emotional-roller-coaster tonight. Damn, you’re a lot of work.”
He turned away from her slightly.
“And—and no pouting!” She finished his drink, then sat down on the edge of the tub and sighed. “Talk to me.” She dangled her legs in the water next to him.
Garrett’s head dropped back. She followed his gaze.
“The stars are beautiful. But there are so few,” Nicole said.
“It’s the smoke. You can’t see them, but they’re still there.”
“I used to love to wish upon the stars when I was a little girl. Do you ever wish upon the stars?” Nicole tilted her head back and searched the heavens.
“Not for a long time.” Garrett wrapped an arm around her waist, pulling her into the spa and onto his lap. The bottom of the white dress shirt she was wearing floated up and around her waist. The top half soaked through, clinging to her breasts. “I turned down a hand job. There’s got to be something seriously wrong with me.”
She wrapped her arms around Garrett’s neck. “Is that what all the drama is about? Tell me, what do you think is wrong with you?”
“Obviously, I’m either turning into a woman or I’m stuck in some hell dimension where I’ll never experience happiness ever again.”
Nicole caressed his cheek tenderly. “Or it could be something else.”
“Something else?”
“Maybe you’re in the midst of a deep existential conflict. You’ve experienced what it was like to have a great love, an all-consuming, toe-tingling, I-want-to-be-with-you-forever kind of love.”
“And?”
“And it sustained you. It was part of your reason for being. Without it you feel empty. Settling for something less would be a constant reminder of what you lost. But the possibility that you might find that kind of love again, that’s almost more frightening.”
“How so?”
“You’ve boxed yourself in with your whole ‘Amanda was the great love of my life’ thing. Who can compete with that? If you let someone, does that mean you were wrong about Amanda? Can someone be so lucky they fall in love not once, but twice like that in a lifetime?”
Flint sat there in silence as Nicole rolled on. “Anyone? Anyone?”
“Maybe,” he said quietly.
“But?”
“I could lose it all again?”
“Bingo!”
“You’re really smart. You know that?”
Nicole shrugged. “Or it could be the hell dimension thing. That was a good theory too. I want to dunk my hair, hold me?”
*****
Nicole straddled his lap, leaned backwards, and dipped her head into the water so that her hair floated around her.
She was exquisite, his white shirt clinging to her, now transparent. Her breasts jutting out as she arched her back. He knew with certainty that she had to be able to feel the length of his erection resting against the cleft of her ass.
“You look like a modern day Ophelia, floating in the water under the moonlit sky.”
Almost without thought he reached up with one hand and slowly unbuttoned the shirt, opening it up so that her breasts were bare before him. He ran his hand reverently down her body, resting it on her firmly toned stomach. Then he watched in rapt attention as she lowered her arms into the tub, submerging them. The weight of the fabric pulled the shirt from her body leaving her naked.
Garrett lifted her back up. Rivulets of water coursed down her body, over her lush breasts. “‘I hold it true what'er befall; I feel it, when I sorrow most; 'Tis better to have loved and lost, Than never to have loved at all.’”
“Shakespeare?”
“Tennyson, he’s one of my favorites.”
“You’ve studied literature?”
Garrett smiled. “Back in college. Used to write a bit too. Seems like a long time ago.”
“You’re a poet.”
He was about to protest when he felt her rise up onto her knees. His erection sprang up and without moving he found himself poised at her entrance.
“Nicole,” he said hesitantly.
“Shh.” She lowered her lips to his and kissed him.
“I’m not a poet. I’m not a hero. I’m just a guy.” Her hand was wrapped around his shaft, his were at her waist, holding her in place. “I’ve got a daughter, and issues—”
Nicole pulled back and looked him steadily in the eye. “We’ve all got issues. I get birth control injections. I’ve never had unprotected sex. You had the same partner for over a decade. I don’t know how you found me, what brought us together, but here we are. I want this. I want you.”
Garrett released his hold on her and watched her face in awe as it registered the pleasure of being filled by him. He closed his eyes for the briefest of moments, battling between the desire to regain some modicum of control and the consequence of missing the mere sight of her face.
“Don’t move,” he gasped, trying to stave off his orgasm. “Oh, Nicole… I’m so sorry… I can’t hold…”
Nicole tilted her pelvis up ever so slightly before lowering herself again, within seconds building a nice, steady pace. “Come for me, Garrett,” she whispered into his ear, her voice raw with emotion.
“This isn’t going to last.” Beads of sweat rolled down his forehead. He was holding on by a thread.
“Yes, it will.” Nicole promised.
Garrett flew over the edge, reaching forgotten heights, and losing his heart.
Epilogue
Seventeen months later.
“What are you doing here? You aren’t supposed to be here until tomorrow!” Nicole said, surprised to find Garrett sitting outside her office.
He waited until the shy-looking girl that Nicole was escorting out left the waiting area. “The principal sent me.” He held up a slip of paper. “I’ve been a bad boy and you’re supposed to spank me. I’ve got a note and everything.”
“Let me see that.” She grabbed the piece of paper. “Forging the principal’s signature could get you…” She looked up at Garrett, then across the hall to find her boss leaning in the doorway, a huge smile plastered on his face. “I should never have introduced the two of you. I can’t believe you wrote him a note.”
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