She cast her gaze to the floor and he waited. Finally she nodded. “Thank you. That’s a pretty cool compliment.”
“And a sincere one. Now. Here’s the rule for tonight. Fun. That’s it. Not a word about promotion. Not a question to anyone about whether they need help with something. You are on a mission to experience the Summer Festival and all its exotic wonders. Nothing more. Nothing less.”
“Yes, captain.”
“And no sarcasm.”
“Oh, sorry, that I can’t promise.”
“I suppose that is asking too much. Come on, let’s take us to town.”
Tuesday evening of the week-long festival was always a crowded, rowdy joy in town. Before the fireworks to come later that night, everyone thronged the booths filled with hearty food and sweet treats and waited for their turns on the Tilt-a-Whirl and the Ferris wheel. Harley had given Elle a brief taste of the decked-out town square the night before, but then talked her into forgoing the main festival area for watching the co-ed softball game and eating pizza and ice cream.
Tonight she voted for ribs and cole slaw with a side of greasy cheese curds. He walked beside her gnawing on a turkey leg and loving the way she contorted her body to avoid dripping barbecue sauce on her white dress. He loved, too, watching her follow his directives and leave the workaholic, people pleaser behind in order to ooh and ahh over the craft booths and stands catering to every level of decadent treat needs. “Bad for the body good for the soul food,” she called it, and didn’t apologize for chasing her cheese curds with a chocolate cream puff and then a bag of six truffles from Scott’s Sweet Shoppe booth.
“I’ll be up all night walking this night off,” she sighed when they finally stopped at the line for the Ferris wheel. “My choice and I don’t regret it, but this is the consequence. On the other hand, I might not even be done yet—I saw some chocolate mini-donuts back there.”
“There are two more nights of this, you know,” he teased, and placed his thumb against the corner of her mouth to wipe away a smidge of cream.
“I’m saving those for the fudge and the funnel cake.”
“Okay, at least you have a plan.” He’d polished off his own cream puff earlier and fudge sounded terrible. But at the moment he’d have eaten half a pound had she begged him to. “Then I suggest you find the donuts while I’m doing my shift in the booth.”
“Right. The infamous kissing booth. Do guys ever come around to kiss other guys?”
He shrugged. “Used to happen more as a joke. Now we try to be open minded. We have a small gay community and they represent on a couple of nights. Total acceptance takes time.”
“Hey good for Sapphire Falls, that’s what I say. No forward progress if you don’t at least try.”
“I have an hour before my hour shift.” He gazed up at the wheel, such a fixture now at this festival. He’d been planning this moment for days, and now that he had her standing here with him, nerves struck. Their relationship was progressing quickly, but Elle was not rushing the physical. It made him admire her, not to mention desire her, more than ever. But it also made him leery of pushing.
“You remember the myth about the top of this wheel,” he said. “Are you still willing to ride it with me?”
The smile she offered was surprisingly shy. “I thought maybe you were avoiding it on purpose. I didn’t blame you, but I was hoping I was wrong.”
“That’s a yes?”
“A big fat yes.”
His heart swelled against his ribcage and he slipped a kiss on to the lips he’d just touched. “There’s for the start. We’ll see how we feel at the top.”
“We might not land exactly at the top you know.”
“I know the guy running the ride.”
“No! It has to be organic. If you make it happen, how can you count that as magic?”
“Practical you, believing in magic?”
“When it comes to true love there has to be a little magic. You can’t explain it otherwise.”
Her eyes held his, earnest as a child’s but still filled with fun.
“True love?”
She patted his cheek. “Don’t get your hopes up—we haven’t hit the top yet.”
Unfortunately, his hopes were already higher than the top of the ride.
Sapphire Falls wasn’t New York City or even Omaha in terms of exciting views from a Ferris wheel, but it was lovely nonetheless. Coming over the top they could see the river stretching across acres of fertile land to the north. Farm country to the south spread its intricate patchwork, crop leaves glistening beneath the seven o’clock sun.
Straight below them they could almost count the spill of people through the square and off into the park, strolling along the street and even the highway bordering town.
“There can’t be anyone who stayed home,” Elle said.
“Town pride at its finest,” he agreed. “When you live pretty much in the middle of nowhere, you have to find fun close to home. Sapphire Falls doesn’t do fancy, but it does do all out.”
Five spins of the wheel constituted the ride. After the fifth, the wheel slowed to begin its unloading procedure, and Harley found himself anxious as a tenth grader hoping their car got the lucky top spot. The wheel had two loading platforms, one a step above the other. A person’s car could stop at the top or one spot below it. Both were high. Only the very top counted. Everybody knew that.
It wasn’t the marriage part of the myth that he cared about—or so he told himself. After only five weeks no couple could know if they were candidates for a lifelong partnership. But the power of suggestion had to be worth something toward the future. Already he couldn’t imagine a time not wanting Elle beside him. She made everything clearer, and the only thing he worried about was that it had happened too easily. No arguing, no misunderstandings, no coming to like each other only after dislike at first sight. Unless Elle’s first half hour of misreading his situation could count, they’d simply decided to be together without drama or hesitation. Even the guys at the shop accepted it. So what did he need the Ferris wheel for?
Maybe, if the Ferris wheel said it was ordained, he’d know they weren’t heading for the future in blinders.
They stopped directly on top.
If he hadn’t known what Elle was thinking on during the ride, he knew at the moment she turned, wide-eyed with happiness. “Look at us!” Her squeal matched his silly relief. “Have you decided yet if you want to kiss me?”
“You’re daft is what you are.”
He turned her shoulders toward him and engulfed her with eager arms. Shivers erupted down the back of his neck when her fingers dove into his hair and wriggled up to where his pony tail stopped her progress. With her palms rested against his ears she tugged his mouth to hers and gave him full access to its chocolate, minty, sweet and sexy flavors.
Murmuring her approval she danced her tongue against his and ran one hand from his hair, down the side of his neck, and over his shoulder to his pecs where, this time, she pressed a palm against his heart. His body responded with a full complement of goose flesh and pleasure waves. He slipped one of his hands beneath the hem of her dress and skimmed the inside of her thigh up and up until she gasped at his finger stroke beneath the elastic of one satiny panty leg. He smiled into the kiss. Instead of tensing up, she relaxed against him, melting like the chocolate she’d been eating. One small adjustment of his fingertip brought it to the satin covering the warm spot at the juncture of both thighs.
“Harley.” She whimpered his name. “We can’t do that here.”
“I’m doing it.” He pressed a tiny bit harder. “See?”
“It’s mean.”
“We’ve always stopped with this,” he said, pulling from their kiss but leaving his hand in place.
“Because you’re a gentleman and you’ve never rushed me.”
“I really don’t want to be a gentleman tonight, but if you need me to be, tell me now so I don’t make any plans.”
The wheel s
tuttered and swung forward. Elle squirmed against his touch, but he teased her with another soft stroke, and she responded with another frustrated squeak.
“Do we have to discuss these plans so we know whether the ones I’ve made go too far for you?”
“That would not be possible.”
“Then I think we made the same wish list for the night.”
By the time they were walking from the wheel, Harley no longer had a rational rein on his feelings. Everything Elle did, every way she moved, turned him on and there seemed to be no reason to tamp them down. She stayed close to him, wrapping her arm around his waist, holding his hand, leaning on him casually while she looked through a pile of handmade placemats. Clearly the need to touch had consumed her as well.
“Do you want to do this up the full Sapphire Falls right way?” he asked when they finally left the square to head down Main Street. “I’m down to half an hour before my booth shift. That’s enough time to take you to my favorite haunt in the haunted house.”
“I highly doubt I can trust you in that place, but sure.” She grinned. “And so you know, I’m not a screamer, so don’t think you can scare me.”
“Is that a prediction I need to be aware of for later?” He pressed his face close to leer at her and kissed her ear lobe, grabbing it in his teeth for a teasing nibble.
“Hah. A challenge.”
“Definitely accepted. Come on, let’s go see some zombies.”
Chapter Fourteen
The haunted house committee had always done a great job. As advertised, Elle didn’t scream, but she definitely jumped into his arms several times, which made Harley want to tip the creepy actors generously. They had to stick their hands in some really disgusting viscous liquid filled with fake body parts to get through one door, and when an ax-wielding headless ghost literally chased them down a long hallway, Elle left him in the dust. When he caught her, he yanked her beneath a barrier while nobody was looking, then behind a black drape and into a small, undecorated room strewn with clothing.
“Thanks for protecting me so well back there,” he said. “Rat.”
“Hey, I only had to run faster than one person and there was only one other person. Where are we?”
“I used to work this gig, remember? We’re behind the scenes. One of the rooms they use for costume changing. Believe me, I’d like to change your costume.”
“There’s a fly in that oatmeal.”
She giggled as he backed her up to a wall and lowered his head.
“Yeah, I have to go kiss a whole bunch of girls. I only have time to practice right now.”
Their heads bobbed and their tongues swirled. He reached beneath her dress again but this time he lifted the skirt past her underpants and found the swell of her breast. The hard bud of her nipple beneath the smooth bra fabric met his fingers and elicited a huge sigh from her.
“You’re pretty good at this, Holt. I can’t keep up with your surprising fingers.”
“It’s a good thing. I don’t think I could handle equal treatment at the moment. Trust me; you don’t need to touch anything.”
He deepened the kiss and suckled her bottom lip, stroking her breast until she wriggled and twisted away.
“No more. Wait or there’ll be nothing to wait for. This is where my plan is diverging from yours.”
He laughed. “As long as they come back together…”
“I have one more thing to say.” She straightened and smoothed her dress. “You’d better not kiss anyone else tonight the way we practiced just now.”
“Hmmmm.” He kissed her chin and then her nose. “Do I detect jealousy?”
“Darn right.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever had someone be actively jealous. My ego kind of likes it.”
“Yeah? Well keep your ego in check. A little jealousy goes a long way.”
The lines were always steady at the booth in the evenings, but most of the kissers were friends of the guys in the booth at that hour. Grandkids brought their grandmas for fun, and seventy percent of the people paid their dollar for a hug and were happy. But there were always a few serious customers, and Harley handled his share. In the end it was all in great good fun, and the money went to the festival committee so the cause was worthwhile.
Harley kissed his mom and Chris paid him a dollar for a high five. Edith came by for a hug, and then a string of ten high school senior girls paid their two bucks for kisses with their “favorite race car driver,” which he had to admit was sweet. But it was after several of the college-aged girls who worked at the Gas Stop, the Come Again, and the diner left with smiles that Elle showed up. When one of the young waitresses returned on a dare from her friends, Elle smiled sweetly at her.
“You might want to come back. I’m going to be here for a little while.”
At that she held up a fist full of tickets.
“What the heck?” Harley started laughing. “How many do you have?”
“Twenty-five.”
“Elle! That’s fifty bucks.”
“My boss pays me well.”
“Aw, honey,” he sputtered at the smirk on her face. “Are you seriously that envious of me doing this?”
She tilted her head and chastised him with roll of her eyes.
“For crying out loud, of course not. I love a civic minded guy. I just like kissing you.”
He happily gave her the twenty-five kisses. She let others take their turns in between, but that didn’t stop what started as silliness from escalating into tongues and murmurs when nobody else stood in line. Elle doled out her tickets through the final half hour until, by the time Stevie turned up to take his shift, Harley was ready to skip the fireworks and drag Elle into the nearest room he could find.
But when he asked if she wanted to skip the display her refusal was unequivocal.
“I want fireworks. That’s what I came for.”
“And you don’t think I can provide fireworks?”
“I have zero doubt you can. But what I can provide is anticipation.”
“That’s not a skill. That’s a torture tactic.”
She only smiled.
They spread their blanket on a side of Klein Hill that was bordered by sparse trees and glacial boulders but still afforded a clear view of the sky. Harley’s libido, if not his desire, had calmed during the walk to the spot. Elle had a peaceful influence, chattering away softly about her home and family in Minnesota, telling him about the first time she’d made an engine run after reading a book about the problem and diving in on her own. She jabbered about their local restaurant equivalent to Dottie’s and something about mascot birds who talked to the customers.
She sat on the blanket and he lay with his head in her lap, pleasure at his beck and call while her fingers kneaded gently across his scalp and traced his features as if she were committing them to memory by touch.
From her he got a sense she’d come from a loving family similar to his only bigger. Dad passed away, a super-talented sister, and four protective brothers with Dewey being the worst. They all expected a lot from each other. They all knew each other’s business. They came running when there was trouble and when there was only perceived trouble. She’d been sheltered and cosseted but also teased for being a tomboy and a gearhead —if not by her family then by her friends. He finally decided that she had been loved and nowhere near abused, but she certainly had learned to be exacting with herself.
She stopped talking when the fireworks started, but she did stretch out beside him to watch. He loved her there. He loved wanting her and, for the moment, waiting for her. In five short weeks he’d gone from a guy with a garage who had no time for anything but cars, to a man who’d give it all up if this woman asked him to.
But she wouldn’t ask him to. And that was the magic she’d talked about.
“Whoa! Look at the heart in the ring!”
Elle broke into his thoughts, and he stared at the fading firework, sharing her wonder. It had been ages since he’d thought
of this display as more than something you did because everybody else did it, too.
She turned her head and kissed him below the ear. “Thanks. This is nice.”
“I didn’t do it.”
“You brought me.”
“That is true. And, upon reflection, I think it’s good. I like seeing you relaxed.”
“People tell me all the time I move too much. I guess I do sometimes.” She nuzzled him again.
He shrugged into the kiss and added one of his own. Two more and the fireworks were all but forgotten. Harley rolled to his side and threw his leg over one of hers, nestling his upper thigh between hers. Their kiss turned hot, wet and urgent in seconds, heightened by the colorful umbrellas exploding above their heads.
Slowly he shifted their positions until he lay fully atop her, and she grasped his glutes to pull him close.
“We wouldn’t be the only ones to sneak this in during the show,” he whispered.
“I want to,” she replied, undulating her hips. “But not here, even though the legend says we have to. Not the first time.”
“Okay. I know a place we can get to quickly. The fireworks will be over in about twelve minutes.”
“How badly do you want to watch them?” she asked.
“Elle, I was willing to skip them all together, remember?”
“Then take me to this nearby place now.”
“Oh, baby, it’s a deal. And don’t worry. You’ll recognize it.”
The walk to Dylan’s garage took only a few minutes. When the echoes from the finale had faded, Harley stopped in front of the door.
“Ever necked in a parked race car?”
She stared up at him, wonder turning to obvious passion, but she said nothing. When a minute later he turned on the light in the garage and #74 glistened beneath the halo, however, she laughed joyfully and threw her arms around his neck.
“I think this was exactly my plan. You’re a genius.”
“I’ve always thought so.”
His teasing words sparked the end of Elle’s reserve. She practically pushed him through the door and accosted him before he could close it behind them. Jumping into his arms, she wrapped her legs around his hips.
Sapphire Falls: Going Zero to Sixty (Kindle Worlds Novella) Page 11
