by Vivien Sparx
He was lying in Lilley’s bed. She was curled up under the sheets beside him. He was lying on his back, naked apart from the neat white bandage wrapped tight around his thigh. There was a bright rectangle of sunlight on the far wall and Stone stared at it while his thoughts played back over the details of the night before.
He felt satisfied – but not the deep satisfaction that comes with the attainment of success. Rather, it was a temporary sensation. He knew he would never feel truly satisfied until the day he found Susan.
He rolled over onto his side so he was pressed against Lilley, their two bodies fitted together. His chest was against her back, his lower body hard against the firm roundness of her butt. He inhaled the scent of her; the smell of her hair and the fresh musky perfume of her body.
His hand slid over her shoulder and cupped the shape of a breast. He felt the nipple stiffen reactively and Lilley moaned.
He realized then that she wasn’t asleep.
“I’m leaving,” Stone said softly.
Lilley was silent for a long time. “I know,” she said at last. “When?”
Stone sighed. “Today.”
“What about your leg?” Lilley said suddenly. “The knife wound? The doctor said you should rest.”
Stone shrugged. “I’ve had worse.”
Another long silence, like Lilley was deciding how she could convince him to stay. She sighed. Spoke softly.
“I’ll drive you,” she said. “Tell me where you want to go.”
Stone shook his head. “No. I’d rather hitchhike,” he said. “And I don’t know where I want to go. All I have is a cell phone number. It’s my next clue to finding the man who took my sister.”
Lilley rolled over onto her back, her face an inch from Stone’s. He propped himself up on one elbow and marveled at the luster and smoothness of her skin, at the subtlety of coloring where the sun had darkened it to the shade of burned honey, and at the contrast to the soft creamy skin of her breasts. He looked into her eyes. He touched her cheek with one finger, tracing a line down to her throat.
“You are so beautiful,” he whispered, and he saw the flicker of a response that was something deep and passionate, pass like a shadow behind her eyes.
“Then stay, Jack. Stay with me.”
He shook his head. “I can’t Lilley. I can’t stop looking for my sister, no matter where the trail leads me, no matter how long it takes.”
Lilley nodded like she knew.
“Then give me something to remember you by,” she said, and her gaze was suddenly brazen and direct. “Give me one more reason to think about you every day and dream about you every night.”
Her face clouded with sudden emotion. Like she might cry. Stone lowered his mouth to her and kissed her with a fierce intense passion that lasted for a long time and took her breath away. When she opened her eyes again, there was something altogether different in her expression.
“You’re the perfect man,” she said huskily, “and that’s how I’m going to remember you,” Lilley decided. She wrapped her arms around his neck and licked her lips. “You take a stand against injustice. Not many men do that, you know. Most men see the greys in life, and leave it up to us women to be outraged about all the things wrong in the world around us. But you don’t, Jack Stone. Your sense of honor makes you just as outraged, and your attitude makes you do something about it.”
Lilley lifted her head and kissed him again, then fell back against the pillow, her long dark hair fanning about her face in delicate tendrils. “And I’ll never forget the way you have treated me. You made me feel like a woman. You’re the perfect love affair; a man who has come into my life, left me sweating and panting and completely exhausted. And now you’re going, and I know I’ll never see you, and never hear from you again. You’re the ultimate fantasy, Jack Stone, because there isn’t the chance of any mess or any complications.”
Stone smiled. “Woman, you talk too much,” he said and then covered her mouth with his own, gagging her feeble struggles to protest with his lips so her sounds were muffled. Then, when she protested no more, he kissed her again, this time longer, and more deeply. His tongue slid between her wet open lips and welcomed him. His hand cupped her breast, then slid urgently down over the soft smooth skin of her body exploring every contour, every fold. Her legs fell wide open for him and his hand reached all the way down until his fingers were teasing the aching nub of sensitive flesh at the center of her passion.
Lilley groaned. She broke the kiss and buried her face in his shoulder, kissing and biting him there with growing frantic need while his fingers teased and aroused her so that she became quickly wet and willing for more.
Stone covered her body with his, and she felt small and delicate beneath the size of him. She clawed her hands down the broad muscled expanse of his back and raked her nails into his skin. She had never felt so overpowered and helpless. He slid deep within her and the hardness of him was like a thrilling shock that she was unprepared for.
“Oh, God!” she groaned.
Stone paused for a heartbeat and then thrust again, using his hips to drive himself all the way inside to make her completely his. Lilley whimpered; a good sound. A sound of deep satisfaction. And then she was moving with him. Grinding her body and undulating her hips to intensify the sensations of every plunge.
They rocked together, writhing on the bed, and Stone’s mouth was on her throat and breasts and lips, devouring every inch of her perfect smooth skin. She clung to him, desperate to make every sensation last, until finally she surrendered all sense of control and began to cry out as her orgasm engulfed her.
Stone tensed. His back arched. He felt himself tipping over the edge, and it was like falling from a cliff into boiling surf. He groaned. Thrust one last time.
And then they were lost to the blinding moments of release and joy that swept over them.
Thirty-Three.
Lilley pulled over to the side of the road in a soft cloud of dirt and dust. Stone picked up his knapsack. Opened the passenger-side door.
“Goodbye,” Stone said.
Lilley smiled. “Goodbye, Jack Stone. Thanks for everything.” She winked at him and blew him a kiss. Stone leaned across the seat and kissed her properly.
When he got out of the car, he didn’t look back.
Stone reached the highway and turned west, walking slower than normal and favoring his injured leg. He was following the two-lane ribbon of black road towards Phoenix. It was just past mid-day. It was hot. The sky was clear blue, the ground already baked dry after the downpour of the night before.
He walked with his back straight. Walked for a couple of miles with his thumb out as the traffic streamed by him; cars and trucks with their windows wound up and their air conditioning cranked all the way.
Walked another mile before he heard the sound of a car slowing down.
Stone turned and glanced over his shoulder. A white Chevrolet Cruze was edging off the blacktop, its indicator flashing. The car looked brand new. It was immaculate.
Stone stood still. Waited. The car crept up alongside him and the passenger-side window slid down. Stone looked inside. He saw plush two-tone grey upholstery and inhaled the unmistakable new-car smell that carried to him on a chill little breeze of air-conditioned air.
Lifted his eyes and looked at the driver.
A curvy blonde woman in a short white skirt with long brown legs was staring back at him from behind reflector sunglasses. She gave off the sleek glossy, unmistakable aura of wealth and privilege.
“How far are you going?” the woman asked. Her voice had an openly flirtatious edge to it, or maybe it was a challenge.
“How far are you willing to take me?” Stone asked.
The woman lowered her sunglasses with the tip of one delicate, manicured finger and her eyes were sparkling blue and slanted with a sly sexuality. Her gaze was bold and appraising, and her tone suddenly husky.
“Get in,” she said smiling. “You look like the kind o
f guy I’d go all the way with.”
*
Read more about Jack Stone’s search to find his sister in:
‘JACK STONE – DEADLY REVENGE’
