by Gina Watson
“I’m good for it.”
“Great, eat up.” He nodded toward the waitress as she laid down plates laden with way too much food for her to eat.
She tried to release his hand because she needed her right hand to lift her fork, but he wouldn’t let go. She twisted around to look at him.
“Use your other hand.” Then he smirked. Smirked. Playful Augie was in the house.
After about ten minutes, the edge of the booth had her leg throbbing right on the spot where she’d been bitten. She reached down to rub it and winced.
He looked under the table. “What’s wrong?”
“Leg fell asleep.” She didn’t want to fuss about the bite—they’d both already made a bigger deal of it than a simple bite warranted. But she wasn’t a good liar and for a moment she thought she would be exposed. Then his focus moved to their plates, his empty, hers nearly full.
Corrine came to take their plates, but he held his hand over Mia’s. “Is that all you’re going to eat?”
“That’s a lot for me.”
“You didn’t eat any fries.”
“I got full.”
“But we’ll be walking for a while.”
“I’ll be fine.”
He exhaled through clenched teeth and waved the plates away. Corrine complied as she grinned at Mia. In return, Mia rolled her eyes.
She pulled out her wallet and gathered some bills together and placed them on the table. Augie stuffed them back in her hand.
“I don’t think so.”
“You’ve been paying for everything. I’ve got this.”
“No, you don’t.” He threw money down and pushed her out of the booth. “I’ve got to use a pay phone or a landline.”
“I’m sure Corrine wouldn’t mind you using the diner phone.”
“Hey, that’s actually not a bad idea.”
“You might have to sweet-talk her.”
“I got it covered.” He pulled her behind him to the counter.
Corrine immediately sidled up to him. To be fair, he looked every inch the rough and tumble cowboy as he rested his elbows on the countertop, his long legs culminating in dusty boots. That ass in those faded and tight jeans made Mia’s upper lip sweat.
“Howdy. I was hopin’ you could give me a hand.”
“Be happy to.”
His cheeky grin could make panties combust, and Mia wished he would stop using it.
“Well, all right.”
Her mouth fell open when Augie spoke in a silvery slow tongue that dripped with sex and a deep Southern lilt. He chuckled deep in his throat and said, “I need to use a land-line phone.”
Corrine bit her lip and crinkled her brow, looking worried. “Well, my boss will be here in fifteen. Can you make it snappy?”
“Don’t you worry, sugar, I’ll take only two minutes.”
“Come on back.”
They followed her around a few dark corners, and then through an open door that revealed an office. On the desk sat an ugly black phone. Augie lifted the receiver and held up two fingers.
“Two minutes.”
Corrine nodded and left.
He dialed a long series of numbers, and Mia wondered how he kept them all straight.
“Gloria, change of plans. I’ll be at Silverlake Estates in East Bay… . Yes… . No, we’re on foot… . Eight miles out. I won’t know until we get there… . I’ll leave some sort of sign.”
He placed the receiver back in the cradle. That was it?
“We’re all set.”
As they began their walk, he pointed toward a store. “Hey, you need a jacket.”
“No, I don’t.”
“Don’t argue with me.”
His eyes narrowed. This was a demanding Augie. He wasn’t as easygoing as he had been before, minus the times they’d argued.
He held the door open for her, and she stepped inside. It was a boutique, where the cheapest jacket she could find cost two hundred and fifty-nine dollars.
“Augie, I really don’t need it. I’m fine.”
He grabbed sunglasses too. Altogether the items totaled over three hundred dollars. He pulled his wallet out and laid the money down. She wasn’t used to going through so much money, and his doing it for her made her uncomfortable.
“Ready?” His eyebrows rose as he awaited her answer. She nodded, and he frowned. “I prefer an audible answer, Mia.”
“I’m ready.”
Outside he pulled the jacket from the fancy gift bag and took it out of the tissue. He used his teeth to remove the tags and then he held it open for her. She slid into it, the silky sleeves luxurious against her skin. It was a cream color, and she hoped she could keep it from getting dirty. Augie placed the glasses over her eyes and said, “Now you’re all set.” He kissed her forehead.
*
They’d been walking for what seemed like an eternity on government-granted parkland. The paths had started out clear, but now were thick with underbrush. The leg that bothered Mia at the diner was starting to throb, but she didn’t want to slow them and so pressed on. To get her mind off of the ache, she started singing the song her mother had sung when they were kids. The one Augie had memorized. She smiled when she got to hippity dippity hoppity doppity.
Ahead of her Augie stopped and waited, then he wrapped his arm around her shoulders. They resumed walking as he chuckled.
He was laughing at her. She wanted to laugh with him, but couldn’t. Maybe she could have if things had been different, but singing that song marked the happiest she’d been in her twenty-five years, when she’d actually had a mother in the truest sense of the word.
She searched his face, but sunglasses blocked his eyes. Without her asking, he removed them, revealing eyes honest and clear. In her gut she knew he was trustworthy and she would be able to tell him anything. She wanted to tell him about her past.
“Things weren’t always good, you know.” Oh God, she didn’t want to come off as pathetic; after what he’d been through, her stuff seemed petty. She looked down quickly, and he rubbed reassuring circles on her back.
She couldn’t remember the events that led to her mother’s addictions, but she did remember how she’d been before she’d succumbed. They’d been a real family that took vacations and looked forward to picking out the yearly Christmas tree. Mom played with her, read to her. Let her help out in the kitchen, especially when she was baking. Then it all changed. Mom had become angry and belligerent toward all of them, and Mia had wondered what she’d done.
They walked across a meadow. Hardy wildflowers grew in shades of orange, yellow, and blue.
Augie turned to her. “For the record, I’ve been told I’m a good listener.” He put his glasses back on and ambled ahead.
They walked in slow steady silence for five hundred seventy-three paces.
Mia had never shared about her family with anyone.
Five hundred eighty.
“Before my mother was diagnosed, before she got the medication she needed, we all had to live with her highs and lows. She was diabolical. The things she said to me, I’ll never forget—like she should have aborted me. I know she was ill, but I didn’t understand then. And it still hurts today. Eventually Dad left and took Evie. That caused my mom to spiral out of control. Even more pills were prescribed, medications that lead to addictions. To make matters worse, she nursed an old injury with Darvocet.” When she started drinking, things got worse than they had ever been. Mia rubbed her jaw where it had been shattered by a vodka bottle. Just a shadow of a scar ran from her ear down the jaw line.
Augie’s hand cupped the area that had been hurt so long ago, his thumb caressing the exact spot. “She hurt you.” His eyes radiated compassion and something else. Irritation? “Yet you still concern yourself with her.”
“I need to go to her. She’d been clean, had been keeping up with her little job as a receptionist, but then Dad died and she had a setback. I usually visit her every day. I’m worried she’ll check herself out.”
“Element of surprise is the only way we’d go undetected. No phones, no notice, but I promise, as soon as we take care of the Nicolas situation, I’ll personally escort you to visit your mother.”
She squinted up into his brown eyes. She could live in those eyes. “You will?”
“Absolutely.”
She hugged him, feeling once again the power of his body. “Thank you.”
“Let’s take a break.”
It was slightly chilly, and they walked out to the center of the meadow, out from the canopy of trees. With the sun on her face, Mia pulled wildflowers one by one until she had a handful.
When she’d made her bouquet, she looked around for Augie. He sat in the center of the meadow, lounging with his arms stretched behind him, watching her and smiling. She joined him in the grass.
She tied the stems of the flowers together with a long piece of field grass. She held the bouquet out to him and he took it to his nose and grimaced. She giggled.
“They stink.”
“They’re wild.”
He dropped the bouquet, and immediately his lips were at her palm, then her wrist, her elbow, her collarbone. Soft, warm nibbles landed on her jaw. Moist, hot breath rolled over her lips, and her heart beat accelerated. A hand went into her hair, tilting her head as his lips molded to hers. He smelled like citrus and tasted like rain. She was finding it difficult to breathe, and her lips parted on a sigh. Their tongues met and she drank from him, exploring his taste and texture. His essence. Her hands cupped his face and her fingers traced the sharp, edible line of his jaw.
With his hands guiding her, she moved until she was on top of him. She felt his hardness immediately as she pushed against it.
Suddenly her butt met the hard ground, and he was on his feet. It happened so fast, Mia was disoriented. She shook her head to regain her equilibrium. And her composure.
“Come. We better keep moving.”
“No!”
He took one large step toward her, his body so close and imposing that he blocked out the sun. “No?”
She shook her head. “No. I won’t move from this spot until you tell me why you won’t have sex with me when your body clearly wants to.” She meant to point her index finger at his erection, but she overshot and her knuckles ran smack dab into it.
With no warning, her world tumbled sideways, and she plummeted toward the earth. But she never hit; her hips and waist rested against something hard, stopping her descent. Once she got her bearings, she realized Augie had thrown her over his shoulder caveman style and had resumed walking.
“Hey, you overgrown ape, put me down right now.”
No reaction from him, so she began to beat on his back with her fists. Still nothing. Frustrated, she couldn’t budge herself forward or backward. Not only had he hurt her feelings by dismissing her advances yet again, but now she was utterly humiliated. To top it off, her shin was starting to throb.
She couldn’t believe how easily he carried her up the hill. Finally she pleaded, “Augie, please put me down. I get it. I promise I won’t subject you to my attempted sexual promiscuity anymore.”
Her voice was so low she wasn’t sure he would even be able to hear her. Then she got an idea.
“After all, I’m just assuming you’re into women. But men may be your thing. You were in the military, after all.”
Once again her world swirled on its axis. She wished he would stop doing that. He tracked back to the meadow, walking angrily fast. The kind of pace her father used to take when he was mad at something one of them had done—like writing on the wall with crayons.
Well … good. Now they could both be frustrated.
He plopped her down on a tree stump and placed his hands on either side of her so she was enclosed in a blanket of Augie. His nose came just short of hers and stopped. He tilted his head and inhaled so close to her neck his breath heated her skin. She’d always thought herself giraffe-like and was self-conscious about her neck. She heard him inhale as he made his way from her collarbone to her jaw, not touching, just incredibly close. She felt his warm breath, the rhythm of his life, as he breathed in and out. Her eyelids slowly lowered.
His low growl in her ear made her giddy.
“You think I’m gay because I denied you?” His voice was raw, masculine, and deep.
She’d forgotten the circumstances that had gotten her here. That she’d teased him. Note to self—don’t mock Augie. She was breathless and wasn’t sure she could speak. She cleared her throat, but still couldn’t find her voice. She pushed against him, one hand on each shoulder, but he didn’t move a centimeter. He might as well have been a mountain for all her success at moving him.
His intense eyes froze her in place. He wasn’t just looking at her, he was peering into her. His intensity exposed her every layer; there wasn’t anything she could hide.
“You’re not going anywhere.”
He was going to strip her down, she could feel it. “I’m uncomfortable. Let me go.”
“No.”
“Why not? You’re hurting me.”
He smiled. But it wasn’t a smile to comfort. It was the kind of smile she imagined stalkers gave when they happened on their prey. “I’m not even touching you.”
“I didn’t mean that kind of hurt.”
“Mia, you shouldn’t tease a master manipulator. I want to fuck you. I’m going to be clear here because we’ve been over this before and yet you’re still at it. You were right about what you said back at the motel.”
He stood and that meant she could finally breathe.
“I’m not a very nice guy. I don’t do well with women, so I don’t intend to ever pretend I’m a monogamous kind of guy.” He removed his sunglasses and laid them on the stump next to her hip. “It may not matter to you, but taking your virginity isn’t a small matter.” He unhooked his large belt buckle, the eagle with spread wings. “You’re innocent and fresh and God, you’re young—too young for me.” He started unbuttoning his jeans.
It was her turn to stand. “Um, what are you doing?”
“I thought I’d let you get a look at the goods. You have seen a man before, haven’t you? I’ve only ever been with experienced women. I assume you’ve done your research.”
“I saw the goods at the hotel.”
“Not in the daylight and in all of their glory.”
His fly was open, and he was pushing the waist of his pants down.
She saw his flesh, and immediately her eyes flashed up to meet his. Yet his penis was that quickly imprinted in her memory. It rose from his crotch, long and veined, smooth and thick; the base cushioned by his sack. Her mouth went dry, as if she’d been eating cotton. Her eyes throbbed from being stretched so wide.
She swallowed. “There’s no hair.”
His head shot back, making his erection stand even taller. He laughed so hard his entire body shook. “It’s referred to as manscaping.”
She didn’t like it when he laughed at her, which he did a lot. She’d just have to see if she could get his attention another way.
She stood, reached out, and took his warmth in her hand and squeezed. His head shot back to its normal position, his demeanor anything but a joke.
“Are you done laughing at me?” she asked. She started the motion she’d seen in those movies her father watched. Augie’s moans seemed to express appreciation for her actions. His eyes were hooded as he looked down at her hands. He slid down against the tree stump and she followed, kneeling and pumping him.
“Where’d you learn how to do that?”
“Movies.”
“What the hell? What movies?”
“My dad watched porn.”
His hand went into her hair and fisted there.
Her fingers squeezed over his tip.
“Ahh … ” His eyes widened. “Did you … did you ever practice these moves on guys?”
She shook her head and grinned. Moisture coated her hand.
He leaned in and seized her lips
, tugging, sucking, licking, and massaging. He felt moist and warm against her. They separated, and he pulled her down to the soft grass of the meadow. With her jacket, he created a pad, and then he rolled her to her back and he lay on his side next to her. His hands roamed her torso lightly as she watched. He was a man, not as young as she was. He knew what a woman had under her clothes, and he knew how to use that knowledge to bring them both pleasure. Mia wondered what it would be like to experience his masterful seduction in all of its glory, but she could tell he was holding back.
“God, Michaela.”
“No one calls me that.”
“Why not, it’s a beautiful name. It’s sophisticated. Like you.”
His hand at her stomach burned through her shirt.
“Besides, Evie told me it’s your full name.”
“Yeah, well, I don’t like it. It gives me bad memories. And she’s wrong.”
“What? Why?.” He reared up and kissed her jaw as his hands held her immobile.
She felt vulnerable—she’d already shared so much. Truth told, she wanted to tell him. It would ease the burden, a release she needed, but would he think her a total disaster?
“I’m named for the boy the doctor told my parents they were having.” She shrugged. “Dad was so upset when they presented me to him as a beautiful baby girl that he didn’t even bother to have my name changed. Or my room at home. It was hockey themed until I was ten. On my birth certificate my name is Michael, but my mom told everyone it was Michaela.”
He traced from her shoulders to her waist. “I was thinking we would conduct a little experiment.” His brow arched at her.
“I’m going to use Michaela because I like it. But I’ll only use it at certain times, because it’s the kind of name you cry out when you’re about to come.”
Chapter 7
Her mouth opened on a gasp as his hands moved under her shirt and cupped her just under her breasts.
He willed himself to go slow, but her soft skin and the way she molded under his hands, like fine clay, left him desperate to taste that flesh. He dipped his head as he pulled up her shirt, and his hot mouth landed on the dip of her stomach. He tongued her belly button, and then his lips traced across the area slicked by his saliva. She tasted salty and smooth. And he needed to taste more of her.
