“How did we get on this subject anyway? Neither of our love lives matter. Right now we’re just working on making a good cover story for you and giving you an alibi if you need one, right?” She wanted to know more but at the same time she didn’t. Talking about her lack of love life was depressing enough without having to hear about what she suspected his was.
Ray gave her a look that said he understood everything she wasn’t saying. It unnerved her.
“Wait before we change the subject, I have one more question.”
“Shoot.”
“If we’re supposed to be together, how far do we have to go? I mean, is it enough that the rumor mills are working overtime right now? Or do we like have to kiss in public or something?”
Ray covered the last foot and a half of space between them, convincing Sherlock his time was up. The cat jumped to the floor and sauntered off. “Do you want to kiss me in public?”
His eyes searched her face, rested on her lips, and slowly wondered down her body. A searing heat trailed the path of his eyes. Why was it so sexy the way he looked at her? She really needed to get out more. This kind of reaction to Ray was bad. It was nothing but a catastrophe in the making.
“I just want to make sure I do the job right. I’ve never had to be anyone’s cover before.” The words came out softer, more sensual than she expected.
The warmth of his body touching her was making it hard to concentrate on their conversation. She wanted to touch him again. She wanted to explore his body. She wanted to see what kind of reaction she could evoke from him. The heat of her body called out for his.
“Why don’t we just play it by ear and see how it goes.”
His lips were inches from hers. His breath a soft caress. This was bad. It was all going to be a big mistake.
“Would you like to see how I’m going to set up my garden this year and how I’m going to squeeze in more watermelons for your dad?” Becky Sue asked jumping up before she could fall for his sensual pleasures that seemed to lurk just beneath his skin.
The stunned look on his face was quickly erased.
“Sure.” It sounded more confused than interested.
They walked out the back door into the night. A full moon lit the yard like solar powered lights. A few trees kept the parts closest to the house dark, but beyond that it was mostly open. Each year Becky Sue had expanded her garden little by little.
She pointed out different areas where she would plant squash, tomatoes, peppers, corn. “And I think this area here is where I’ll have to till more to plant the extra watermelons.” After pointing, she dropped her hand to her side, accidently hitting Ray’s leg as he was standing too close.
Her feet were rooted to the spot, she was afraid to turn. She could feel his energy and heat radiating into her skin, even through her light jacket.
“Becky Sue.” The way he said her name, she knew she was in trouble.
She turned to him.
Moon beams bounced off his blue eyes. She was captivated. Without another word, he wrapped his arms around her. Their eyes locked. There was no running. No turning away. She was trapped in that fiery blue gaze. He lowered his head, his face hovered inches from her as he paused. She forgot to breathe. Then he kissed her. The familiar heat she felt with him hit instantly. Her body started to hum as she met his earnest kiss with her own. His body was reacting as violently as hers. Her skin sizzled and sparked at his every touch. She reached for him and felt the static beneath her finger tips.
A flash of light to her closed eyes pulled her back. “What was that?”
“What?”
“That flash of light?”
“Think one of your neighbors is out here with a flashlight spying on us?”
“No. It wasn’t that kind of light.”
“Meteor shower?”
Becky Sue looked up at the sky. Ray took the opportunity and kissed her exposed neck.
Sizzle, pop.
No meteors.
His kisses were calling her back. His lips gently prying her mouth open to welcome his tongue. She gasped at the heat flooding her body. If he didn’t stop now, she’d take him here in her back yard.
Sizzle, pop.
Becky Sue’s eye flew open again just as a small flicker of light faded from her peripheral vision. It was like the barn incident all over again, only this time she was reasonably sure Lucy was nowhere around.
“Did you see it?”
“See what?” Ray’s voice was husky and clearly annoyed.
“That spark?”
He looked around. “It was probably a spark from your neighbor’s chimney. Otherwise the only other thing on fire around here is you.”
Before she could open her mouth to argue he was there. Tasting her. Breathing in her scent.
He was too inviting to worry about what might be catching fire, as long as it wasn’t her house. He was hard in all the right places. As soon as she felt the hardness beneath his zipper, she knew there was no turning back tonight. She clamped her eyes shut. Maybe the sparks she saw were the stars behind her eyelids as he made her heady, dizzy. Weak and longing.
Sizzle. Sizzle. Pop.
Ray’s fingers trailed around her stomach beneath her shirt and slipped into the waistband beneath her work skirt. They slid into her wetness. She moaned, but it came out more of a purr. This was torture. She wanted him. She wanted him with every fiber of her being. She needed him inside of her and she needed it now.
Sizzle. Pop. Pop. Pop.
She slipped her hand to the waist of his jeans and opened the button. She was half afraid when she undid his zipper something might get stuck, he was so hard. He moaned. It sounded like a low growl. Her breathing was rapid, frantic with need.
Clothes were quickly pushed aside. She was on the ground, his hand cradling her head. He lay sprawled atop her. She couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t think. All she knew was need. His body was humming and sizzling, eagerly pressing between her legs.
She felt the tip of him touch her. He eased inside. She sucked in a great gasp of air as he filled her. He felt better than she could’ve possibly imagined. There was not a space left untouched. She was frozen, rigged, afraid to move. Afraid to break the spell. He began to thrust gently inside her.
Pop. Pop. Pop. Pop.
Was this what ecstasy felt like? Like birds were singing. Like a warm breeze blowing. Floating on a cloud of intense pleasure.
Pop. Pop. Pop. Pop.
She dug her fingers into his back and buttox, prodding him to dive deeper, harder. She bit her lip, afraid to cry out in pleasure, afraid it would wake the whole neighborhood.
Pleading and begging, she pushed him harder. His breathing was rapid in her ears, ragged and ruthless. She didn’t want this to end but she needed release. She was teetering on the edge of a great abyss, longing to fall head first into it.
Feeling him finally release, triggering her own response. Lazily she opened her eyes as she tried to catch her breath. A blue glow encircled them. It bobbed and danced like flames deep in a fire. It moved gently, blocking out the rest of the world.
She blinked. It was still there. She lay there staring at it, wondering if it was real. She blinked again. Nope definitely not a sex haze or mirage.
Ray sagged heavily against her. His body still crackled. A spark shot off from between them and landed in the grass. She flinched.
“What is it?” He stirred. “Holy crap!” He’d finally opened his eyes.
He scrambled off of her. As soon as they parted the fiery blue haze disappeared.
“What just happened?” He was looking around frantically, pulling his pants up and buttoning them.
Becky Sue took in the surroundings. A small circle where they’d been laying on the ground had singe marks. It was impossible wasn’t it? Surely she was seeing things. Her imagination was running wild again.
“Do you see what I see?” She asked pointing to the burnt grass in a perfect circle.
He followed her finger, his mou
th hung open. They looked at each other.
“It looks like we’re the fabled Sparkers and we just flipped the switch.”
Chapter 7
“What? How? I thought those old stories were nothing more than old timers telling a good yarn and it just grew out of proportion.” Ray hadn’t taken his eyes off the circle.
“I didn’t really believe them either, but there was one point when I was young that I almost considered the possibility. Do you remember that time when we were teenagers in your dad’s barn and the whole place burned down after we kissed?”
Ray finally tore his eyes away from the burnt grass. A light seemed to go on inside his head. “I remember. Are you saying we’re the ones who actually burned down the barn?”
Becky Sue motioned to the ground. “I’m gonna say it’s a pretty good possibility.”
“Wow,” he said as he sunk down onto the back steps. “I’m-I’m, I don’t know what to say? What do I do?” He held his hands up to examine them in the moonlight. “I’m a Sparker.”
She grinned, walked over, and sat down beside him. “It’s a lot to take in isn’t? At least I don’t feel like such a lunatic anymore.”
“Yeah. How are you not freaking out right now? I mean we have these incredible powers and you’re sitting there all calm and shit about it.”
Becky Sue shrugged. “This week I’ve picked up Uncle Melvin’s book a lot and been reading bits and pieces and thinking about it more. And…I guess I always felt like I was different. Maybe its women’s intuition that I knew something was off. It makes me feel a little bit better about the barn incident though.” Ray looked at her like she’d lost her mind. “That means Lucy didn’t burn it down, and honestly, I thought you were just making up the story about Lucy because you didn’t really like me after all.”
“I really thought it was Lucy. I never would’ve believed it had you told me it was from being a Sparker. And I did like you, but after that you just seemed different and I thought you had found somebody else.” Ray’s eyes bore into hers, pleading his misunderstanding. A weight that she’d carried around for years lifted. Everything she thought had been real and true.
The moon seemed to smile with her. The radiance was almost as bright at the sun itself. Reaching over, she pulled him to her and kissed him hard and deep.
Suddenly she jumped up.
“What? What is it?” Ray asked still sitting on the steps, still looking confused.
“We better be careful. I don’t want to burn my house down with the sparks.”
“Oh, I didn’t think of that.” He stood, deep in thought. “But what did they use to do? Surely they didn’t have sex outside all the time? I don’t remember any stories about Sparkers burning their own houses down.”
“You got a point there. We need to do some research on how this whole Spark thing works.”
He stepped to her side, wrapped an arm around her, and breathed onto her neck. “Or we could learn by trial and error.”
She felt the heat that didn’t have much to do with being a Sparker, but had everything to do with having this hot man next to her, touching her, breathing on her. “We’ll probably have to do some of that too. With the passing of generations not using their powers, ours may have weakened, mutated, or changed.”
“Uh huh.” Ray wasn’t listening. He was leaning in to her, brushing his lips against hers. It was hard to concentrate and focus on what she was trying to say. He was warm and inviting.
“I’m not seeing or feeling any sparks,” Becky Sue said.
“What?” Ray pulled up short. His eyes opened and looked at her, hurt. “You’re not liking it?”
“No, that’s not what I meant. Before, we had sparks flying while we kissed. Ours bodies hummed. Everything was… static. I’m not getting any of that this time.”
“Do you think we burned out our power before we had a chance to use it?”
“I don’t know.”
Curiosity was overcoming their need for each other.
Ray waved his hand around in a magician’s abracadabra.
“What are you doing?”
“Trying to see if I can throw fire.”
Becky Sue raised an eyebrow. “Would you mind aiming away from my house?”
He looked up. “Oh sorry.”
Ray danced around like every super hero and cartoon character they’d ever seen, throwing this hand or that, trying to find his fire within.
“Maybe there’s a trick to it,” Becky Sue suggested.
He stopped dancing about. “Maybe.”
“Why don’t you take a break before you hurt yourself and come in? I think I have some apple cider I could warm.”
Inside, Becky Sue went to her kitchen to warm the cider while Ray made himself comfortable on the couch. Through the open doorway, she could hear him talking to Sherlock. She smiled.
After warming the cider, she poured them each a cup and walked into the living room. At the doorway, she stopped dead in her tracks and blinked hard. Something was wrong with her eyes. There were two grey striped cats on the couch. One of them was looking around in fright and bewilderment, trampling a pile of fabric. Had the Spark ignition done something to her vision?
“Becky Sue! I did it!” The cat who looked lost a moment before began to talk in Ray’s voice.
She shrieked splashing apple cider all over herself and the floor.
“It’s me, Ray. I think I look like Sherlock.”
“How’d you do that?”
Ray the cat sat down and swished its tail back and forth. “I don’t know actually. I was just talking to Sherlock and poof. I’m fuzzy.” Holding out a paw, he began to groom himself.
“Umm, instead of licking yourself would you like to change back and help me clean this up?”
“Sure.” He sat and swished his tail some more. Sherlock eyed him from his perch on the back of the couch, a low growl in his throat, clearly unhappy about having a new cat in his domain.
“Any time now.”
“I think I’m stuck. I don’t know how to undo this.”
“Seriously?”
“Seriously.”
Becky Sue cursed under her breath, walked back into the kitchen, set the cups near the sink, grabbed a towel and began to mop up her mess.
Ray the cat walked over to her. “What’re we going to do?”
She sat back on her heels and looked at him. “I don’t know. How do you manage these things?”
He didn’t answer. Instead he sat and stared up at her with his big blue cat eyes.
“Oh stop it. I can barely stand it when you look at me like that when you’re human.” A cat smile made his whiskers twitch.
She shook her head. “You’re impossible.” Then she picked up the soaked towel and stood. “I’m going to change.”
“Yeah, but now I’m a cute, fuzzy kitty. You can’t resist me.”
Becky Sue walked to her room and began to strip.
“Why are you watching me?”
Ray the cat sat in the doorway. “Because I can.”
She threw her shirt at him, managing to cover his head for a second before he walked out from under it.
The next morning Becky Sue awoke to Sherlock curled up against her neck and purring. Absently she stroked him for a minute.
“Keep petting me like that and I’m going to get a kitty hard on.”
She jerked straight up in bed. “Ray! Holy crap I forgot.” The real Sherlock stirred at her feet and gave her a look through slatted eyes. “You don’t know the half of it baby,” she said to Sherlock giving him a quick scratch between his ears.
“Do you think you can behave while I check on my mom this morning?”
“Maybe, but I wish you’d hurry and help me back to my human form because I have an itch that no matter how much I lick, really needs you to fix it.”
She glared at him, “not my problem.”
Becky Sue turned into her mom’s driveway at eight sharp. The lights were on. Kate was up.
“Good morning, Mom.”
Her mom sat in her wheelchair next to the couch, arms crossed, her blue eyes flashed daggers, a look of pure dissatisfaction on her face. “Anything you need to tell me?”
“Umm, like what?” Cold dread and fear raced through her. Here came the storm.
“Like why Ray spent the night at your house? I thought I raised you better than that. At least be engaged before you start having him sleep over!”
It was obvious she’d already had at least one phone call this morning informing her Ray’s truck still sat in Becky Sue’s driveway. In broad daylight. How scandalous!
Becky Sue didn’t have the heart to tell her that she’d slept with other men that she was far from being engaged with before. “It wasn’t like that.”
“Enlighten me.”
She opened her mouth, but nothing came out. How could she tell her that she and Ray were Sparkers? That he’d turned himself into a cat and couldn’t figure out how to get back. Her mom wouldn’t believe a word of it.
Her shoulders sagged. “Maybe it was.”
Kate wheeled closer. “I know you’re full grown, but that doesn’t mean you can’t listen to your momma. I’m telling you child, you better not be letting that man sleep over again until you’re properly engaged otherwise you know what kind of reputation you’ll get don’t you? That’s right. You’ll be the town slut instead of eligible spinster then nobody will want to marry you. Why buy the chicken when the eggs are free?”
“Yes, Momma.” She felt like a scolded kid again who’d gotten in trouble for something her brother had done that she was blamed for. She couldn’t explain. Who would believe her? And did she really want the townspeople to know if she held any strange power? So she took the lecture and reminded herself of whom she was now.
Kate wheeled off to shower. Becky Sue double checked the fridge and cupboards again. A new casserole sat in the fridge. It looked like one of Cindy’s. She bet they had a time of it chit chatting when she came by to drop the food. Too bad Cindy hadn’t waited. Today would’ve been much better for gossip.
“I’m not mad at you. I remember what it was like being young.” Becky Sue looked up from the old newspaper she’d been reading. The shower had seemed to calm her mom down. “But you can’t allow passion and a few nice muscles to let down your guard.”
Legend Of The Sparks Page 6
