Familiar Stranger

by Sharon Sala

  “So, you did save me some cake after all,” David said.

  “Here! Sit here!” one of them said, and jumped up from her chair and gave him her seat.

  “Oh, no, but thank you,” he said. “A gentleman never sits in a room full of ladies. You sit yourself right back down. I’ll eat my cake standing up. That way I can eat more.”

  Just the knowledge that the cake they’d been eating was now going into his stomach was all it took for twelve pairs of eyes to stare at his shirt, remembering the hard, washboard surface of his belly underneath.

  “Have you finished?” David asked.

  Twelve startled women looked at his face and then at their plates.

  “With your meeting, I mean,” David said.

  Cara laughed. He was playing them like a fiddle.

  “David Wilson, you are awful,” she said. “Stop teasing them this minute, do you hear?”

  He grinned and then leaned over and kissed her square on the mouth before taking another bite of the cake.

  Twelve sighs of appreciation rose in accompaniment.

  Cara smiled to herself.

  Her luncheon had been a success.

  Chapter 8

  David woke up before sunrise, savoring the quiet of the room and the warmth of the woman snuggled against him. It was Friday and his time with Cara was already almost gone. Bethany and her family would be home the day after tomorrow and he would be in D.C., and he still hadn’t told Cara he was leaving. Truth was, he was scared to tell her. They’d fought horribly the last time he’d announced his exit from her life. He didn’t want it to happen again.

  His thoughts scattered as Cara sighed and rolled onto her back. He watched her eyelids fluttering slightly and knew she was waking. Unable to wait, he leaned over and kissed her the rest of the way awake.

  Cara stretched, then wrapped her arms around his neck.

  “What a wonderful way to wake up,” she said.

  “Are you good and awake?”

  She smiled. “I think so, why?”

  “I don’t want it to be said that I took advantage of an unconscious woman.”

  She laughed as he pulled her nightgown over her head and tossed it aside, then rolled over on top of her, pinning her to the mattress with the weight of his body.

  “Are you paying attention?” he growled.

  Another laugh bubbled up her throat.

  “Woman…I’m trying to be serious here.”

  Suddenly, the laughter was over. Cara had her legs locked around his waist and her arms around his neck.

  “How serious?” she whispered.

  “Oh, baby, let me show you the ways.”

  Without foreplay.

  Without sweet-nothing whispers.

  Without warning.

  Between one breath and the next, he was inside her.

  Cara would look back on it later and realize that there was as much desperation in the act as there was love. But for now, she had no focus save the man above her and the hard, rhythmic pounding of his flesh against hers.

  One minute spilled into the next and then the next and just when Cara thought she would die from the intensity, it shattered within her, splintering the power and flooding her body with a bone-melting ecstasy. She lay within his arms, her eyes closed, her heartbeat little more than a ricochet of its normal rhythm, while savoring the sensations from the act of perfect love.

  She didn’t know it wasn’t over.

  David paused, raising himself above her on tightly tensed arms, as if judging her expression. She groaned then sighed.

  At that point, he seemed to shift gears.

  She opened her eyes and looked up.

  One slow, sensuous stroke after another, David started again, and all the while, he was watching her face. In her entire life, Cara had never felt so vulnerable or so loved.

  A long minute passed, and then another, and time seemed to stop. There was nothing in their world but the sensual body-to-body hammer, seeking that fleeting and volatile burst of sweet pleasure. Sweat beaded across David’s forehead and dropped into the valley between her breasts as, again, they danced the dance of love.

  One moment Cara was aware of David above her, and then her mind suddenly blanked. Clutching his forearms, she arched beneath him, her eyes wide, unseeing. Shattered by the force of her climax, her moan became a scream.

  It was the sound as much as the spasms of her body that sent David over the edge, spilling forty years of loneliness and denial into the woman beneath him.

  Moments later, he collapsed with a gut-wrenching groan and then rolled, taking her with him so that she would not be burdened any longer with his weight. What had just happened was so perfect, he didn’t even feel twinges from the stitches on his shoulder. So they lay locked within each other’s arms, awaiting the end of the world or a steadying heartbeat, whichever came first.

  Sometime later, she groaned and raised her head.

  “David…I…”

  He arched an eyebrow. “You’re welcome.”

  She snorted lightly beneath her breath and teasingly pulled at his hair.

  “Are you going to brag?”

  He grinned. “Honey, after that, if I could walk, I’d be strutting.”

  She laughed. It was the most perfect sunrise of her life.

  “Authorities are still searching for the perpetrators of the ongoing tri-county crime spree. The trio struck again around midnight last night, robbing the clerk at an all-night quick stop and beating him unconscious. The clerk, a thirty-two-year-old father of two, is in the intensive care unit of Burney Hospital. He is in critical condition.”

  Cara paused in the act of putting on her makeup and stepped out of the bathroom into the bedroom where David was watching the news on the wall-mounted television opposite her bed.

  “That poor man…and his family,” she added. “I can’t believe they haven’t caught those awful people yet.”

  David nodded without answering, his thoughts in a whirl. This wasn’t something that SPEAR got mixed up in, yet his sense of justice was being sorely tried. Unless he’d missed a report, this was the third incident in the area since he’d arrived at Cara’s house and the sixth in less than two weeks. That was close to one robbery a day. He knew how criminals like that thought. They were cocky now, confident of their ability to get away with anything, even murder. Besides the countless assaults, there were two deaths attributed to the criminals. If this young man died, it would make three. Unconsciously, his fingers curled into fists and his expression darkened.

  Cara leaned over his shoulder and pressed a kiss on his cheek.

  “You can’t fix everything, darling,” she said softly.

  The gentleness in her voice touched him. He turned, pulling her into his lap and nuzzling the side of her neck before giving her a long, silent hug.

  Cara sensed something was bothering him and suspected it wasn’t all connected to the broadcast they’d just heard.

  “Is there anything you want to talk about?” she asked.

  He froze. Damn, she was good. There was plenty he needed to say, but now was not the time.

  “No, honey…at least not now.” He lifted his head and made himself smile. “You look good enough to eat, but I’d settle for a hamburger instead.”

  “Okay, David, I’ll play your game. I’ll be the silly, airheaded blonde who’s blindly unaware of underlying currents, and you be the big, strong hero who needs to protect the little woman from herself.”

  A startled look crossed his face before he could hide it. She’d read him right down to the bone, and it shamed him that he couldn’t deny it.

  In a moment of blinding pain, understanding came to Cara.

  Ah, God, he’s going to leave me. But instead of crying, she slid off his lap and straightened her slacks and shirt. “Just remember that games eventually come to an end. At that time, I expect the truth. Deal?”

  She fixed him with a steely gaze and held out her hand.

  He sighed a
nd then stood.

  “Deal,” he said, enclosing her fingers in his grasp.

  Fear shifted within her, but she wouldn’t give in. Not now. Not when they had precious little time left.

  “Are you ready to go into Chiltingham?” David asked.

  She nodded. “I just need to get my grocery list from the kitchen.”

  “I’ll meet you out front,” he said.

  “Want to take my car?” she asked.

  He hesitated, then shook his head. “No, let’s take mine. I need to get gas, anyway.”

  Cara couldn’t look at him yet. More proof he was getting ready to leave. Again, her heart twisted, but she refused to comment.

  “Be right there,” she said, and walked out of the bedroom before she made a fool of herself.

  All the way to the kitchen she was blinking back tears, but by the time she walked out of the house, her emotions were under control. David was standing at the passenger side of his car, the door ajar, waiting for her to enter.

  “Why, thank you, sir,” she said, as she slid into the seat.

  “My pleasure,” he countered, as he closed the door and then circled the car to get in. He started the engine and then drove out of her drive onto the blacktop road. “Where to first, ma’am?”

  “I’d say Hawaii, but I don’t think you have enough gas.”

  He heard the desolation in her voice and reached over and squeezed her hand.

  “Not this time around, I don’t, baby. But maybe soon. Have you ever been to Hawaii?”

  She sighed. “No, but I’ve always wanted to see if the water is as blue as they say.”

  “It is.”

  She smiled sadly. “I should have known you’d already been there.”

  He thought of the drug runner he’d chased for six weeks before cornering him in an inlet off the eastern coast of Oahu.

  “It wasn’t a vacation,” he said softly.

  “Oh.”

  “When do you want to go?” he asked. “This fall? Next spring? You name the time and we’re there.”

  Her eyes widened. “Are you serious?”

  He pulled over to the side of the road and put the car in park, then took her in his arms.

  “Yes, I’m serious. I’m committed. I’m in love. And I was going to wait until tonight to ask, but something tells me the time is now.”

  “Ask what?” she said.

  “If I’m able to come back…and I will do everything in my power to come back…will you marry me?”

  It was the last but best thing she would have expected him to say. Good sense demanded more time with the man before committing the rest of her life to him, but the good sense she’d used before had cost her forty years without him. She wasn’t going to do it again.

  “Yes.”

  David was all ready to plead his case. Her positive, one-word answer took him aback.

  “You will?”

  She nodded.

  “Just like that? Without knowing if—”

  She put her hand over his mouth, silencing the rest of what he’d started to say.

  “Don’t say it aloud. Don’t give the words power, David. Just do what you have to do and come back to me when it’s over.”

  “Ah, God,” he groaned, and took her in his arms. “You won’t be sorry, I swear.”

  “I told you no the first time and have regretted it for forty years. I’m not about to make the same mistake twice.”

  “Hallelujah,” he muttered, and kissed her hard on the mouth.

  A speeding car passed them by as they embraced, the driver blaring his horn as a taunt to the lovers.

  Cara jumped at the sound, and David groaned and pulled back.

  “Who was that?” David asked, as he stared at the disappearing taillights of the car.

  Cara sighed. “Um, I’m not sure, but it looked a bit like Harold Belton’s car.”

  David grinned. “Hasty Harold?”

  “The same. And wipe that satisfied smirk off your face.”

  David put the car into gear and then pulled onto the highway.

  “I wasn’t smirking.”

  “You were smirking.”

  “It was more of a—”

  “You were smirking, David. Have the grace to admit it.”

  He glanced at her, his eyes glittering darkly, a wide grin on his face. At that moment, Cara saw the young boy that he’d been. She couldn’t help but smile back.

  “Okay, I was smirking,” David said.

  “I know. Thank you for being honest.”

  “I was smirking because I got the girl and he didn’t.”

  “True,” Cara said. “But you had an unfair advantage coming in.”

  “What? You mean Bethany?”

  “No. A flat belly and a dynamite kiss.”

  His smile widened.

  “You’re smirking again,” Cara warned.

  “You just keep on talking like that and by the time we get to town, I’ll be ready to do that strut I promised you earlier.”

  She threw back her head and laughed. God, but she loved this man.

  A short while later, he pulled up in front of the supermarket, but he didn’t kill the engine.

  “Aren’t you coming in?” Cara asked.

  “Not right away. I need to run a quick errand. It won’t take me long. I’ll be back before you finish, okay?”

  “Sure. Just look for me in the aisles. I’ll probably still be shopping. I want to get some food to make a special meal for Bethany and her family on Sunday.” Her face lit up. “Oh, David, she’s going to be ecstatic about you…and about us.”

  Sunday. He wasn’t going to be here on Sunday. Damn. He had to tell her, but not now.

  “I’ll find you,” David said. “Count on it.”

  She flashed him a smile. “I love you very much, you know.”

  “I love you, too, now scoot or I’ll be tempted to dash your reputation even more by kissing you again.” He pointed to the people going in and out of the store. “And we’re not exactly alone this time.”

  “So what,” she said, and gave him a quick kiss before getting out of the car. “If I finish before you get back, I’ll wait for you inside where it’s cooler, okay?”

  “I’ll be here before you’re through, I promise.”

  She nodded and then shut the door behind her.

  David watched her until she was inside the store, then he backed up and drove to the main street. If memory served, he distinctly remembered a jewelry store a couple of blocks down on the corner. He wasn’t leaving Cara again without his ring on her finger.

  Ten minutes later, Cara had yet to get down the first aisle. Two women from her church had stopped to ask her if it was true that Ray wasn’t Bethany’s father. Before she could answer, they’d followed that question with another. Was it also true that the real father was staying at Cara’s house?

  Cara had answered truthfully without elaborating and told them goodbye, knowing the moment she turned the corner they were going to rake her reputation over the coals. Instead of being bothered about it, she just smiled. She wouldn’t trade David’s presence in her life for anything, not even a perfect reputation. Besides that, she was more than slightly amused at being thought of as a loose woman. It certainly beat the loneliness and tedium of the last three years of her life.

  Glancing over her shoulder, she saw the two women huddled together at the end of the aisle and looking her way. Impishly, she waved. They scurried away like flushed quail.

  Still chuckling to herself, she continued with her shopping and was halfway up the next aisle when she heard a commotion at the front of the store. Remembering the large display of canned goods near the door, she assumed someone must have knocked it over and gave it no more thought.

  Then she heard a woman scream and another start to cry. Those sounds changed everything. Afraid that someone had surely been hurt, she hurried toward the front of the store, but it wasn’t an accident, as she feared. As she rounded the corner, she found he
rself face to face with an armed trio of men. The store was being robbed!

  Instinctively, she pivoted and started to run when someone grabbed her by the arm and dragged her toward the group of shoppers they’d already corralled.

  “Get over there and shut up,” the man said.

  “Ow,” Cara cried, as he twisted the flesh on her arm.

  “Shut up, woman, or I’ll give you something to cry about.”

  Cara flinched as he shoved her toward the others. She did as she was told. And even though she was standing here, watching three armed men tear through the cash registers for the money, the reality of the situation had yet to sink in. It wasn’t until one of the armed men shoved his gun in the manager’s face and demanded he open the safe that it hit her who they must be.

  Less than an hour earlier, she’d been horrified by the television broadcast of the poor clerk who had been robbed and was in critical condition, and now she had become one of their latest victims.

  Anxiously, she glanced out the window, praying for David’s return. She knew he would come, and she also suspected that he was, quite possibly, their only hope.

  “Move!” one of the robbers suddenly shouted, and as he did, the other two armed men herded the hostages toward the back of the store.

  Cara’s panic renewed. Dear God, don’t let this be the day I die.

  David slapped a credit card down on the counter, smiling to himself as the jeweler slipped a small velvet box into a sack. It was, without doubt, the most important purchase he’d ever made, and it had taken him less than ten minutes to make up his mind.

  “I think your lady is going to be quite pleased with your selection,” the jeweler said, as he handed David his credit card.

  “So do I,” David said, and hurried out of the store.

  He got into the car, the smile still on his face. But by the time he was pulling into the supermarket parking lot, a sense of urgency had replaced his glee. It was that same hair-raising, flesh-crawling feeling that he’d had so many times before, and it didn’t make sense until he tried to get into the store.

  When he realized the front doors were locked, he began to frown. As he cupped his hands against the window and peered inside, he saw the drawers of the cash registers were all ajar. Added to that was the fact that not a shopper or clerk was in sight. It was gut instinct that made him go back to the car for a lock pick and his gun.