Rescued (Flowers of the Bayou)

by Arlene Lam

  “I was going to say self-serving.” Amelia muttered. She refused to give him a show strolling behind Colossus Amelia went to the task of peeling away the cold and damp blouse she wore, and struggled to pull the offensive clingy piece from her arms to the floor. Her skirt however was an item that was speedily removed the heavy material seemingly freeing itself as it fell in a heap to the ground.

  Jordan waited just then, when he could see the skirt join its mate on the floor to call out to Colossus and with a click of his teeth the large beast strode forward.

  She was clad, much to his chagrin, in some type chemise firmly fitted to her breasts and plastered to her abdomen, coming to her thighs. At close glance however he couldn’t say he was not too disappointed. The flimsy material dampened from rain revealed all, from firm breast down to her strong shapely legs.

  Her hair, which hung to her back now as it had done at the river turned to tight ringlets and curls shooting past her shoulders in a glossy mass. Her skin glistened with moisture and couldn’t wait to touch it. What struck him most were her eyes, but they always did take his breath away. They seemed to glow in the sparsely lit barn. Catching what there was of light and making it their own, taking on the appearance of the lightest and brightest gold. Lashes long as God would allow held captive raindrops that every so often managed to escape and slide down her cheeks as if tears bypassing her lips, lips that were so full and inviting he found it hard to believe he was not at her side kissing them now. He was now convinced that the woman standing just feet away had been made for him. She was his perfection, the one thing that could quench his desire.

  Amelia for her part held her head high for all his gawking and with quick strides walked over to him to retrieve her cover.

  Jordan produced the article, holding it up to her with an outstretched arm. He waited for her hand to connect with his as she tried to pluck the piece from him, to grab hold of her wrist and haul her down to him. “I could no longer stand it.” he confessed and with firm hands placed on either side of her head kissed her with all the pent up hunger and fervor he had, the touch of her driving him to madness.

  He could feel her resistance and slowed his assault slightly, but it took all his power to do so. With one more loud smack on her lips Jordan pried his mouth from her sweet one to look into angry, albeit lust-filled eyes. “Temptation kept calling.” Was all he could muster, out of breath and still in need of her.

  “Don’t answer next time.”

  “Easier said than done.”

  “Let me up.” Amelia demanded trying to wiggle free.

  “I couldn’t even if I wanted to.” Nuzzling her temple Jordan pulled her on top of him and with some effort for all of her struggling managed to pull the second blanket over them.

  “I hope I crush you.” Seething Amelia let all her weight fall onto him in an instant.

  “Not possible.” Jordan assured with a grin. “Light as a feather you are.”

  “Stop lying.” Amelia spat irritated beyond belief.

  “I’m offended Princess besides haven’t we gone over this before?”

  Groaning loudly Amelia placed an elbow unceremoniously onto his chest getting a nice grimace from him. “I want to be comfortable.”

  “By all means.” Taking her arm into his hand Jordan forced it to lie at his side, an action that brought the remainder of her weight against his frame pressing her breast to his chest and taking him to a place of ecstasy.

  “Much better.” Amelia said with false sugar coated words. Every time she tried to move, he held her fast making it impossible. “You’re so childish.”

  “I could say the same of you. Why are you so angry? It’s not like you.”

  “It’s not like me. How would you know?” She mocked taking on his nonchalant persona.

  “Fine.” Jordan jolted upward uprooting her, and making her tumble none too nicely to the side of him. “Happy now dear?”

  Amelia was stunned at the sudden movement and at the dry hay that now surrounded her face. Taking up a handful of the straw Amelia turned on him in lightning speed and shoved it all into his unsuspecting mug. “How do you like it?” Amelia laughed, the sight of him brushing and picking away grass from his mouth and hair more than she could handle. “Now you’ve got some of your own back.”

  Jordan only chuckled at her small assault, the whole time planning his retaliation. With one move he was on her pinning her beneath him and grinning down into those eyes nearly losing himself. “It seems the tide has turned minx.” With a devilish smile Jordan began the worst torture he could think of.

  Amelia’s eyes widened and she couldn’t help the outburst of laughter as he tickled her relentlessly. Her only defense was to twist and turn helplessly as he attacked her. In between gasps of air and calling out his name in a fit of giggles she tried in vain to get him to stop.

  Jordan for his part couldn’t stop his own laughter at seeing her as she was. Hair splayed out behind her in careless array, skin flushed. “Surrender.” He asked playfully.

  “Never.” Amelia’s lighthearted response poured from her mouth between deep belly laughs.

  “I’ve got you beat.” Reminded Jordan stopping to sweep away a stray tendril that fell across her face sweetly.

  With a smile a mile wide Amelia shook her head. “Never.”

  Jordan grinned down at her all the more. Taking note of the way her chest rose and fell brushing ever so slightly against his own. “I swear, you are something.” With that, he bent down to capture succulent lips in a kiss that seared his soul and could have started fires.

  Amelia no longer cared that she was furious with him. In fact she couldn’t recall why she’d been so upset to begin with now. She didn’t even care about what her absence at Cora Jackson’s house might mean if folks got wind that she was with Mr. Bradford.

  No at this moment she only cared that he made her feel as if nothing else mattered but him and her. She only cared that when he held her the world stood still just for them. She only cared that when she was with him he made her feel as if she was the most beautiful, smart and wanted woman in the world, and how could she go against that?

  The answer was she couldn’t. Amelia couldn’t resist and let herself get lost in the sweetness of his mouth, the feel of his tongue tracing the contours of her lips. Without any hesitation Amelia took his bottom lip into her mouth tasting him, letting herself explore what he had to offer, with her free hand trailing a heated path up the sinewy muscles of his back.

  Jordan gave out a muffled groan as her hands blazed a trail on his torso, relaxing and easing his weight onto her slowly. Placing his mouth to the back of her ear. “You are so beautiful.” He whispered,

  He hadn’t the faintest idea of what he did to her. The feel of his breath on her earlobe, and the nearness of his mouth now at her neck sent chills up her spine. She could be livid with him one moment and in a frenzy of need for him the next. “Jordan.” She managed through breaths.

  “Yes sweet?” Jordan asked while inching up the material of her chemise nearly ripping it away once he had it at her rib cage. The stubborn cloth refused to budge much after that and he had to place his hands behind her back to lift her and pull it over her head freeing her for him to see.

  The cool air hitting her skin jolted Amelia halfway out of her haze, but not enough for she wanted him all the more, to feel the completeness of being with him.

  “Princess?” Jordan questioned still waiting for her to answer.

  “I…” She what? Amelia couldn’t remember what she had wanted. It was insane the way he could make her feel. The things he could make her forget. “Nothing.”

  Grinning down at her Jordan read her mind. “Now you can be glad you listened to me, got soaked to the bone and can now enjoy the pleasure of my company.”

  That’s what it took, “the pleasure of his company.” In an instant she was snapped out of her stupor. “Get off me!” With a powerful shove she almost heaved him to the far left side of her all
on her own.

  “What?” Jordan blurted stunned.

  “The pleasure of your company that’s what!”

  “Amelia.”

  “No.” She cut him off. “You’re so full of yourself it’s shameful and I’m not even going to let you open your big mouth to try and say otherwise. You’re selfish and rude. You’re nothing more than a jackass.”

  “Excuse me?” Jordan balked at her last statement. “Jackass j-a-c-k-a-s-s.” Amelia first pronounced as clear as day and slowly proceeded to then spell out for him. “Do you understand now?”

  “Your insane Amelia.” Jordan spat.

  “Just be quiet! You’re too cocky for your own good.” Taking a moment to breathe deeply and adjust her coverings Amelia sighed and turned to stare him in the face. “You are the biggest brat I have ever encountered on the face of the earth any child would have to work a lot to amount up to you.”

  Blinking back his astonishment and almost at a loss for words Jordan ran large hands through rumpled hair, trying to massage away his new headache.

  Amelia almost felt her mouth drop at the stupid look on his face. “How can you not understand? It’s so simple. You are not a king; you’re not doing me or anyone else this a grand courtesy by looking our way or speaking. You Jordan Bradford are not God’s gift to the world.”

  With a profound glower maiming his handsome features Jordan gave her a disgruntled glare. “Point taken, Do you want an apology?”

  “Not if you don’t mean it.” Amelia said her own voice matching the anger she had heard in his.

  “If I do mean it?” He wanted to know.

  “You won’t.”

  It was strange; she swore she knew him and his mind. He would have apologized, because he didn’t mean to offend her. Still he wouldn’t now, she wouldn’t believe it, and why waste the words. “Princess please, I don’t want to fight.”

  “Don’t call me Princess.” Spent, Amelia took a calming breath. “I don’t want to fight with you either.”

  “From your performance moments ago I couldn’t tell.” Jordan said.

  “And from your reply I can’t tell.”

  “Then let’s agree that we are both wrong, so you can come back and I can love you.”

  “Love me?’

  “Yes.” Jordan said ready to start up again what he hadn’t had a chance to finish.

  “Don’t use the word love. You don’t love me.”

  “God woman you know what I mean! Besides I didn’t mean it as if I was in love.” Jordan cut himself off. Any more elaborations in what his intent had been would only dig him in a hole.

  “I’m not stupid I know what you meant, which is why you shouldn’t have said it all.” She was getting all worked up again. The one thing she remembered most about her mama was her view on love. Love was not to be taken lightly. She hated when such a powerful word as love was thrown around to get something a person wanted.

  Love was something sacred. Not a means for getting a girl in your bed and far too often that’s exactly why it was used, for tactless men to persuade women under the false confession of love.

  Even though she knew that had not been his intention, that he hadn’t even used it in a way that should lead her to think he meant it as a confession of his feelings. It irked her nerves.

  It irritated her now, not only because he didn’t mean it but also because she didn’t want him to lie because he wanted to get his way. Wasn’t that what they had just been arguing about? “Don’t throw that word around to get what you want from me. Love is the meeting of souls and unless you feel that connection with me it’s not love.”

  “Amelia, it’s just an expression.” Jordan scarcely tried to continue, becoming irate.

  “Well I don’t like your expression.”

  “And I don’t like your reaction to something as simple and harmless as my expression.” Jordan immaturely threw back at her unable to come up with something that would really sting.

  “Why can’t you just admit when you’re wrong?”

  “I’d have to believe I was wrong Princess, that’s why.”

  “Forget it.” Amelia refused to argue any further.

  “Why are you taking this so far? Letting it upset you to the point that you’re pale, and trembling.” Jordan couldn’t understand. Sometimes he believed no one understood the minds of women but God himself.

  There she was before him so distressed it looked as if she might fall away in a faint. “I swear Princess, if you won’t keel over I’ll say I’m sorry a thousand times over.”

  And he would. He wouldn’t like it, in fact he’d hate it, but he would do it for her. He’d be sorry for things he hadn’t even done if it would put the color back in her face and bring that brilliant smile up to surface.

  Amelia looked into his eyes then, and it was as if she had never been all that angry, though she still was a bit perturbed. Her emotions had been running rampant these days. Maybe she had over reacted just a little. But only a little—he deserved more than half of what he got.

  “Jordan, it’s just that when you said what you did. You made me feel as if I was nothing. Lower than you and I don’t want to feel that with you, I can’t feel that way with you.”

  “Princess, you have to know that had not been my intent.” Jordan whispered sweeping away with his hand the curly locks that had fallen across her face.

  “I do.” Taking his hand away and holding it within her own, Amelia chose not to continue just then. Instead she listened to the silence in the air, the telling pitter-pattering of rain now long gone. “I wonder what they are eating at the party.” And she was, her stomach growled relentlessly and she winced at a sudden hunger pain.

  “You’re still hungry?”

  “Apparently so.” Amelia snapped surprising herself.

  “You do become most unruly on an empty belly. I must get you food at once.” Jordan good-naturedly joked.

  “This should be good, walking in to a house of my friends drenched and raggedy from head to toe.”

  “You’d paint a most charming picture, however we are not going to the Jackson’s we are going home.”

  “Home, you act as though we share one, yours or mine?”

  “Home.” He said once more divulging nothing. Pushing himself up, Jordan extended his hand down to her, and when she took it pulled her up alongside him.

  “I hate to have to put that freezing thing back on.” Amelia mumbled, the thought of the drenched material of her clothing dampening her finally warmed flesh most unwelcome.

  “You won’t have to.” Turning her about Jordan raised Amelia’s arms above her head, swooped up the blanket from the ground and began to wrap it around her tightly. “Now there is no need.”

  “And you?” She wanted to know.

  “What about me?” He asked devilment lacing his voice as he tugged on wet boots and began to force on a sodden shirt, before abruptly stripping it away to let it lay on the floor. “Are you ready?”

  “You’ll freeze.” Amelia waved her hand in the air as if testing the weather. It was just too cold, at least to her.

  “Better me than you Amelia. I’ll be fine. Come now” Taking her up into his arms, Jordan placed her atop the stallion with ease. Following suit seconds after.

  It was a ride was set at a determined pace. The wet clothing they wore making the cool air biting and bitter. Every so often Jordan could feel her stiffen and become ridged and he would slow Colossus.

  Halfway home the trail became less muddy and the sun began to again peek through the clouds. It must have brightened her disposition because she seemed cheerful again.

  Jordan listened as she began to chatter almost incessantly from behind. He did not mind, he enjoyed hearing her voice, soft and sweet. He also reveled in the way her arms wrapped themselves about his abdomen and would creep up and down his chest in an innocent caress.

  She did not seem to mind his silence and he was grateful. At the time he just did not know what to say. He felt confu
sed, he was sopping and tired but still he was satisfied because he was with her. Jordan slowed his horse trying to make the moment last as long as God would allow. If he had any sense he’d have hightailed it to the house despite anyone’s discomfort.

  Still, feeling her chin rest upon his shoulder blade and the warmth of her breath as she heaved a sigh, he knew there was nothing in the world that could tear him away from her at that time. The moment was scary, it was also heaven.

  For that reason alone the formidable structure of the white fortress that was his had come all too soon. She had released him and ended her comforting banter as soon as they made it to the stable.

  By the time he had hopped down however and turned to retrieve her from Colossus she had her arms out and a pleasant smile on her lips as he lifted her down. Mindful of her flimsy coverings all the while she let him fully take her into his arms, making it possible to clutch the front of the sheet.

  “Modest to the end aren’t you Princess?”

  “I don’t think I’ve ever been sleepier in my life and don’t call me Princess.” Amelia said through a yawn. It was true her whole body felt dead dog tired. She’d lay down right on the ground if only it were dry.

  Taking in her appearance for the thousandth time that day Jordan gave her a queer look. “Are you sure you’re alright.”

  “Yes.” Amelia tried to assure him with a faint smile. However that soon lifted from her face as she stared at his, slightly blue from the chill in the air. “I knew you would freeze.” Taking his hands within hers, Amelia quickly began rubbing her palms over his blowing warm air on them every other interval. “Come, let’s get inside.”

  “What about Colossus?” Quirking an eye at her, he awaited her response as if she was responsible for the grand stallion.

  “Send someone out for him.” She answered without pause then began to briskly walk toward back of the house towing Jordan behind.

  Jordan gave his horse one more glance, he would be all right. Feeling the icy drops of rain fall from his hair to his shoulder he had to hasten his steps, in seconds walking side by side with her as they entered through the back of the kitchen. “You’ve got me sneaking into my own home. I live here the house is mine we could have entered through the front.”