Still Waters...

by Crysal V. Rhodes

  Bev watched his baffled expression as he held it to the light, and then rubbed it gently between his fingers. While her son-in-law and other men that she knew had pierced ears and wore at least one earring, Ray didn’t. She waited patiently for an explanation as they stepped into the elevator. It was as they ascended to the second floor that Ray remembered the earring’s source.

  “This is Dana’s. I found it on the floor in the living room of her condo that day that we went over there to get her night clothes. Remember? It was the day that you hurt your foot.”

  “Oh, yeah.” She recalled that day, and all that had happened, vividly. That was when Ray had first kissed her. How could she forget?

  “I must have been wearing that jacket and slipped this into the pocket.” He looked down at the diamond lying in his open palm. “I forgot all about it, but I do remember something else that happened that day.” He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively. Indeed, he did remember the kiss that they had shared. He handed her the earring. “Why don’t you put this in your purse and return it to her jewelry box.” The elevator doors opened. “Meanwhile—” Picking Bev up, he stepped into the hallway with her in his arms. “We’ve got business to take care of.”

  She smothered her laughter in the crook of his neck as he waltzed in circles down the hallway to their room. Once the door closed behind them they wasted no time stripping down to their pajamas. They showered together, not knowing whether it was the water or their steamy lovemaking that fogged the etched glass of the shower stall. They mapped each other’s body with searing kisses and touches that brought both to shattered completions.

  Bev’s body throbbed with pleasure as Ray enfolded them both inside of one of the fluffy robes that the hotel provided and then he walked them into the bedroom. She smothered his face with kisses, enjoying everything about this man.

  He led Bev to the king-sized bed, where they lay draped in each other’s arms. Anticipation between them was running rampant as they snuggled together in perfect contentment and promptly fell asleep.

  They awakened in the same position when the sun tried to sneak past the closed blinds later that morning. When they realized what had happened, all they could do was laugh.

  “I guess we’re officially a middle-aged couple.” Ray wiped at the tears of mirth in his eyes.

  “No doubt.” Bev rolled out of his arms onto the floor and crossed the room, headed for the bathroom of their opulent suite. She couldn’t remember the last time that she had felt so good. Oh, yes, she could! It was the first time that she and Ray made love, or maybe it was when she saw him in the Plaza, or maybe it was when they were strolling through the streets of Sausalito. She felt good whenever she was with Ray. He had brought so much into her life.

  Ray lay in bed thinking exactly the same thing about her. Bev was a dazzling ray of sunshine. The presence of a woman’s earring in his jacket pocket could have meant loads of trouble from any other woman, but it hadn’t appeared to faze her. She had listened to his explanation and moved on. No sweat, no drama. She had trusted him, and he hoped never to betray that confidence.

  Refreshed, Bev re-entered the room and crawled back into bed beside Ray. He drew her to him. “I just want to thank you for trusting me. You never questioned what I told you about that earring. Your faith in me means a lot.”

  Bev was surprised by his words. “Why wouldn’t I trust you? You’re the man who took my mother and me into his home and treated us with kindness, even when I wasn’t sure that I liked you. When my family was preoccupied with worry about Dana, it was you who saw to our every need. Shoot, you even served as my Sir Galahad when I hurt my foot, and I don’t know many men who would have dropped everything that they were doing to fly out of town for a friend to see about his busted toilet.” She waited until he stopped laughing at that one. “You’re a good man, Ray. You really are, and you deserve my trust.”

  Her words brought a lump to his throat. He didn’t try to speak. Instead, he kissed her thoroughly, putting into action what he couldn’t express in words.

  Bev lay back on the bed, ready to make love to Ray. Running her hands down his muscled torso she opened her arms to him and he entered them.

  “You know that what’s between us isn’t merely sexual, don’t you?” Ray flicked the tip of his tongue over her moist triangle.

  “I know.” She was barely able to respond as his lips roamed. She had never allowed a man to do to her what he was doing. Of course she had never been with a man quite like Ray. The pleasure he was giving her was indescribable. Every nerve in her body was screaming for release, and Ray’s expertise provided it. Bev saw stars.

  “You’re much too good at this,” she rasped as she tried to recover.

  “And I can get better.” Covering his shaft, he proceeded to show her.

  When he entered her Bev had no doubt that he would live up to his word. Wrapping her legs firmly around him, she allowed him to delve deep.

  “You don’t know the power you have over me,” Ray gasped as he set a slow, unhurried pace. As he did so he looked into Bev’s eyes. He wanted her to know what she meant to him. He wanted to alleviate any doubt about his love.

  Conversation disappeared as the blistering heat building up inside of her threatened to scorch her very soul. Their synchronized movements intensified. Ray pumped like a man obsessed and Bev responded eagerly. The need for each other was uncontrollable. The rest of the morning they indulged in sensuous acts of pleasing one another in every way that they could think of.

  It was an hour before check out time and, amid a tangle of damp, wrinkled bedding, Bev and Ray still lay in the hotel room wrapped in each other’s arms.

  “I’m as tired as hell.” Ray caressed Bev’s derrière as she lay sprawled across his torso.

  “Ditto,” was all Bev could manage to say. She was too exhausted to move and wasn’t sure if she ever wanted to do so again. She had never been so satisfied in her life. A steady dose of this man could kill a woman, but it was guaranteed that she would die happy.

  “Then I vote that we stay here until we gather the strength to move,” Ray suggested. He could barely keep his eyes open.

  Another “ditto” was Bev’s reply as her heavy eyelids slowly closed and she succumbed to sleep. A few seconds later Ray joined her. A sliver of Sausalito sunshine managed to steal its way past the closed window blinds and shine on the naked lovers asleep on this bright Sunday afternoon. There was nothing unusual about the two of them and the scenario, except that they both slept with smiles on their faces.

  CHAPTER 21

  “I bet that you were spoiled rotten,” Ray teased Bev as they sat across the table from one another before the open French doors that led to the balcony beyond. They were still in the suite that they had rented in Sausalito. It faced the Bay, and they were enjoying the incredible scenery beyond. The setting was very romantic, and they had been reluctant to give it up. Their erotic romp had left them so exhausted that they had made a decision to stay put. It was now late evening and they had yet to leave the hotel. They’d ordered room service, slipped into their fluffy robes, and were now enjoying a delicious meal, as well as each other.

  “I won’t lie to you,” Bev confessed. “When I was growing up, what I wanted, I got. I was one of the few Stillwaters children who didn’t have any brothers and sisters. That is, before Dana came along, and I lived up to the stereotype of being an only child. It got so bad that my cousin Gerry threatened to stop playing with me.”

  “You must have been a holy terror.” Ray could imagine it. Bev had a stubborn streak a mile long.

  “I prefer thinking of myself as having been behaviorally challenged.” Bev grinned, spearing a piece of quiche and sticking it into her mouth.

  Ray chuckled. “Or maybe you were just special.”

  “I like to think so.” Bev chewed and swallowed, then sat back and watched Ray fondly. “Did you know that I think that you’re special, too? I’m crazy about you.”

  Ray almost ch
oked on his food. He coughed and sputtered until Bev was ready to come out of her chair to his rescue.

  “Are you all right?” Her eyes were wide with alarm.

  Ray nodded his head in the affirmative, waving away her concern. He gave a final cough and took a deep breath.

  “You caught me off guard. You should give a guy a warning before saying things like that, although I do like hearing it.” He sat back and observed her closely. “Now you can tell me exactly what ‘I’m crazy about you’ means.” Crossing his arms across his chest, he waited for her reply.

  Bev knew by his stance that he expected her to dodge his question. He was wrong.

  “It means that I like your intelligence and kindness, your consideration and loyalty. I like your gentleness, and—” She hesitated. Leaning toward him, she rested her chin in both hands.

  Ray was about to burst with anticipation. “Okay, and what?”

  Bev made him sweat. From the grin on his face she could see that he was pleased by what she had already said. If that was true, then her next words should make him ecstatic.

  “And you can get down in the bedroom.”

  Ray laughed out loud. “I’ll never get tired of hearing that one.” Leaning across the table he gave her a peck on her lips. “Thank you.”

  “I thought that would stroke your ego.” She resumed eating.

  Ray studied Bev as she finished her meal. Her words had touched him in ways that she would never know.

  “Now I’m going to tell you something to stroke yours.” He gave her the same dramatic pause that she had given him before continuing. “These last few weeks with you have been the best of my life, and I think that you’re wonderful.”

  Bev gave him a pleased nod. “Thank you very much.”

  “I want you to know that everything I’ve thought about you all of these years, all of the daydreams I’ve had about you, have been fulfilled.”

  Bev licked her lips nervously. She was beginning to feel uncomfortable as Ray’s mood became more serious.

  “And having said that, I want to ask you something.”

  Bev swallowed. She wasn’t sure that she wanted to know what that something was.

  “I want to know if you coming here to be with me means that you’re committed to us being together? I don’t plan on dating anybody else. I don’t want to see anyone else. I’m yours exclusively.”

  Bev didn’t shrink away from what he was saying. He was being honest, and she owed him the same. She knew that what he was asking was different from the conversation that they’d had before. He wanted something deeper from her, something that she hadn’t been sure that she could give him the last time that they’d had this conversation. Truthfully, she had hoped to have more time together before they progressed to this stage, but things happened when they were supposed to happen, and she had increased the stakes when she had shown up unannounced.

  “It seems that every time we make love we have this conversation.” Bev tried levity, but Ray didn’t laugh at her attempt. She reached across the table and took his hand. “I haven’t been good at commitment for a long time, Ray, but on my way here all I could think about was you. Having any man on my mind like that hasn’t happened to me in a long time, and I’m glad that man is you.”

  Ray liked her reply. He kissed the palm of her hand, and then, reaching across the table, he brought her face to his and devoured her mouth. The heat between them spiraled. It didn’t take long for the robes to be discarded, the dishes tossed aside, and the table to became the setting for a different kind of feast.

  * * *

  It was nightfall and Bev stood on the balcony of the hotel suite looking across the inky waters of the Bay at the twinkling lights outlining the San Francisco skyline. She would have appreciated the beauty of the scene if she had been aware of it, but the postcard moment faded into oblivion as she wondered if she was in love or in lust? Never in her life had she experienced anything like the erotic romps that she’d had been having with Ray. She couldn’t recall having had such sexual fulfillment with a man before, not even with Colton, and she felt like a traitor even forming that thought.

  She had been a sexually inexperienced girl when she was with her husband. He’d had to teach her everything. He was a conservative man, a traditional man in every way. Ray wasn’t, and her satiated body was grateful for the difference. Yet, lust wasn’t love. She knew what love was, and what she had described to Ray about her feelings for him, that was—what?

  As was her habit, Bev’s hand went to her throat to finger Colton’s wedding ring. She stilled. It wasn’t there.

  Surprised, she stepped from the patio into the bedroom and inspected the room. After their table-top loving, Ray and she had hiked to their respective cars to retrieve their overnight bags so that they could change clothes. Had she been wearing the chain then? She couldn’t remember. Maybe she took it off before going into the bathroom for a shower. Her eyes fell on the nightstand. She normally placed it there. It was empty. She snatched up the shoulder bag that she had been carrying and dug through it frantically. Ray entered the bedroom from the sitting room and noticed what she was doing.

  “What’s going on?”

  “I’m looking for Colton’s ring.”

  Bev didn’t seem to notice that Ray had stiffened, but he did notice the fear in her voice and the anxiety on her face. Both bothered him.

  A moment later she relaxed as she found the chain and ring in a zipper compartment. She placed it around her neck. Reaching back into the purse she withdrew the diamond earring that she had retrieved earlier. Turning to address Ray, she found him standing at the open French doors. His back was turned to her.

  Bev went to him, studying the earring as she did so. “You know, there’s something about this that looks familiar.”

  “What did you say?” Ray asked absently. He turned to her with a sad smile, but again she didn’t seem to notice.

  “This earring, there’s something about it that looks familiar.” She held it up for his inspection.

  Ray took it from her fingers. “Maybe you saw Dana wearing it.”

  “Hmmm.” Bev peered closely at the diamond that Ray was holding. “That just doesn’t look like her. It’s kind of gaudy.”

  He held it up to reflect the light inside the room. “It has to be a couple of carats. Your uncle and cousin are staying at her place, maybe it belongs to one of them.”

  Bev looked at Ray. “My uncle is in his seventies and does not have a pierced ear. As for Gerry, he’s my age. I don’t know what he’d be doing with one, but I can assure you he’d never wear a heart-shaped diamond. This is a woman’s earring.”

  Ray handed it back to her. “Well, I don’t think it belongs to the cleaning people.” He moved past Bev back into the room. She followed him, still trying to solve the mystery.

  Ray picked their overnight bags up off the floor. They had decided to spend the night at his house in Tiburon—finally. He headed toward the door with Bev trailing him as she continued to stare at the object.

  “Hmmm, heart-shaped,” she muttered to herself. The memory eluded her. As they walked down the hallway headed for the elevator, she slipped the diamond back into the zippered compartment of her purse.

  * * *

  It was Monday morning and the day was a glorious one as Bev and Ray sped along Highway 1. She had suggested that they cancel the plane reservations that each had made to fly down to L.A. and drive down instead. Ray had agreed. He sensed that there was something more to her wanting to drive south than their spending more time together, although that was an added bonus.

  They enjoyed being together even more than either of them had anticipated. After dining in Sausalito, they had arrived at his home in Tiburon and had spent another sensuous night of lovemaking. Bev was in awe of her heightened sexuality. From everything she had read, her appetite for sex should have waned around her age. It hadn’t. Ray had fed it in his bathtub, on the balcony outside of his bedroom, and, this morning, in
his bed. If anybody ever asked her, she would highly recommend that every woman over fifty take a dose of lovemaking with a younger man as a cure for many of their ills.

  In her case she was lucky to have found a man with whom she was compatible in more areas than just the bedroom. He had already displayed his interest in music, art, and politics. During this time together, she discovered that Ray held extensive real estate interests, just as she did, and they spent a lot of time discussing the various aspects of that business. They didn’t agree on everything in their menagerie of mutual interest, but she was never bored with their conversations. Ray Wilson was quite a man, and this additional time spent with him was helping to alleviate any doubts in her mind about that.

  They had stopped at Half Moon Bay, eaten lunch, and were back on the road when Bev made an observation.

  “I saw your reaction back in Sausalito when I brought up Colton’s ring,” she told him quietly.

  Ray didn’t mask his surprise. “I didn’t think that you’d noticed.”

  “I notice everything about you, even when you aren’t aware of it.” She caressed his cheek. “You’ve become that important to me.”

  Ray could feel his body react to the touch of her hand. If this wasn’t love, then it must be insanity. “You’re driving me crazy, do you know that?”

  “But am I driving you to a feeling of insecurity?”

  Ray chose not to answer, but his silence said volumes. Bev knew that this was about her late husband, and she wondered how she could fix this. Could she verbalize how she had felt about Colton? Would he, could he, understand?

  “I need to apologize about making you feel that way. It has never been intentional.” She laid her head back against the headrest and remembered the past. “I never got a chance to say a real goodbye to Colton. One day he was there and the next he was gone, and all I had left of him was his wedding band.”