Forever Blue

by Suzanne Brockmann

  "If only I'd known," Blue murmured, lowering himself so that the cool water went up to his chin. The cut on his arm stung for a moment, but only for a moment.

  "I invited you out here for a swim once," Lucy said, treading water as she gazed at him. "I told you all about this pond. But you never showed."

  He didn't remember.

  "It was a really hot day, and you stopped to talk to me," Lucy said. "It was the only other time we actually spoke—besides that time you came to my rescue."

  "You mean the time those damn fools broke your rib out on the baseball field."

  "It was only cracked."

  "Same difference."

  "It was almost exactly a month after that happened," she said. "And it's not the same difference. It takes less time for a cracked rib to heal."

  "I know. I've experienced both," Blue said. "Neither is any fun." He smiled at her. "Both times I thought about you, Yankee, while the doctor was taping me up."

  Lucy splashed water in his direction. "You did not."

  "God's truth," he said, dodging the water. "I honestly did. I thought what a tough kid you must've been to handle that kind of pain."

  "You're just saying that to make up for not remembering the only other time we ever talked back in high school," Lucy teased to cover up her embarrassment. "Shoot, it was one of the highlights of my freshman year, and you don't have even the vaguest recollection."

  Blue protested. "Remind me more about it," he said. "Maybe I'll remember."

  "It was about a month after that fight. You and I nearly had a head-on collision in the hall outside the locker rooms," Lucy told him. "I was coming inside after a practice."

  Blue felt his memory stirring. "And I just finished some long-distance run?"

  "And it was about a million degrees out," Lucy said. "We were having some kind of weird heat wave."

  "Yeah, that's right. It was October, right?" Blue said. He could see her, standing in the hallway of the school. She was wearing her baseball uniform, her knees all torn up from fielding ground balls, her hair falling out of a ponytail. Somehow he hadn't noticed her five-thousand-watt smile and her beautiful, sparkling eyes. He must have been blind, or a damned fool, or both. "But it was around ninety degrees, wasn't it? I do remember, Yankee. I was dying of heat."

  "You were literally dripping with sweat."

  "I was disgusting."

  "You were sexy as hell."

  She was sexy as hell right now, with the cool water barely covering the tops of her breasts. The first shock of the water had cooled Blue's overheated body down, but now he was getting used to the chilly temperature. And the thought of Lucy wrapping her long legs around his waist was creating quite a bit of new heat. Any minute now, this cold-water pond was going to start boiling.

  "You were fifteen years old," he said. "You didn't even know what that word meant."

  "Sexy?" Lucy's eyebrows went up. "Wanna make a bet, McCoy? One look at you and I was practically paralyzed."

  He laughed again. "I thought you were just shy."

  "Me? No way." She smiled at him. "No, I was just overdosing on a sudden release of hormones."

  He could relate to that phenomenon, but it didn't make him paralyzed. She was still drifting in the water, about six feet away from Blue, but he meant to change that soon.

  "I think I asked you how the baseball team was doing, right?" he inquired, moving in a big, lazy circle around her. He went briefly under the water and came back up, tossing his wet hair out of his face.

  "You did." She turned in the water to keep facing him, paddling with her hands to stay afloat. "I told you we'd won our first six games, but that the team still had some personality problems to work through. I said that just that afternoon, the catcher and the centre fielder got into a fist fight. You said that the unseasonable heat and humidity were making everyone more irritable."

  Blue stopped swimming. "You really remember all that?"

  Lucy smiled. "I wrote a word-for-word account in my journal," she confessed.

  "That's when you told me about this pond of yours," Blue said. "You invited me over for a swim. I remember. It sounded really nice, and I told you maybe I'd drop by."

  "But you didn't show. I was heartbroken."

  Her voice was light and teasing, but Blue knew there had to be at least a touch of truth to her words.

  "I was a fool, Lucy."

  "I was way out of my league."

  "You were a little young," Blue admitted. "I knew you maybe had a crush on me, but I didn't take it seriously. If I had—if I'd really looked at you..."

  "You had Jenny Lee," Lucy said. "She was perfect. I was the poster model for bad-hair days."

  "At least you weren't afraid to go swimming and get your hair wet," Blue said. "I swear, the entire time Jenny and I dated, she never went into the water."

  "That's the problem with perfection," Lucy said wistfully. "Once you've got it, I imagine you spend a great deal of time worrying about losing it."

  Blue knew that she was talking about more than just Jenny Lee Beaumont's hair. But as if she sensed him about to question her, she dove underneath the water. When she came back up, her hair was sleek against her head. She ran her hands back across it, pushing out most of the water.

  Lucy met his eyes and smiled. "I used to see you down at the beach and over at the marina," she said. "I always wondered why Jenny wasn't with you. I didn't realize it was a hair thing." She shook her head and laughed. "God, if I had been your girlfriend, I would have followed you everywhere, including into the water."

  If Lucy had been his girlfriend... Jenny Lee had given Blue an intense physical relationship, but she hadn't cared about him, not really. Lucy would have cared.

  "It was more than a hair thing with Jenny Lee," Blue said. He started to swim in circles around her again. Each circle was tighter, bringing him closer to her. "If I had been smart, I would've had a cute Yankee freshman for my girlfriend."

  "You had your chance," Lucy said. She started swimming in circles, too, at the same leisurely speed. At this pace, he'd never reach her. "I invited you out here for a swim. I had the perfect evening planned. You were the one who didn't show up."

  "You quit too soon," Blue said. "What happened to that famous Yankee tenacity I always read about? You could've done something to get me to notice you."

  Lucy snorted. "You wouldn't have noticed me even if I'd juggled chain saws. You wouldn't have been able to see me past Jenny Lee's big—"

  Blue had to laugh at that. "Give me a break," he said. "I was eighteen years old, and Jenny just sort of hand-delivered herself to me. Did you know she asked me out first?"

  Lucy silently shook her head.

  He raked his wet hair back with one hand. "The first three times we went out, Jenny called me," Blue said. "Before I knew it, we were going steady." He laughed in disbelief. "I figured she really did love me, because all she ever wanted to do was come over to my house and hang out, just the two of us. We'd watch TV and you know...get real cozy on the couch. Truth was, there were more than two of us in that TV room. There was Jenny and there was me and there was Gerry—or at least the possibility that Gerry would appear. He came home from college a lot on the weekends. See, it turned out that Jenny was using me to get close to Gerry. Even back then, he was the one she wanted."

  What was he doing, dissecting his relationship with Jenny Lee in front of Lucy? She didn't want to hear about this, so why was he telling her? He should be kissing her, not talking. All he seemed to do these days was talk.

  But it was so easy to talk to Lucy. Blue never got the sense that she was listening with only half an ear. When she listened to him talk, she really paid attention. And she wasn't afraid of silence, like most people. Most people felt a need to fill in a pause in a conversation. Lucy seemed to understand that—at least for him—the pauses and silence added to what he was saying.

  She was quiet now, just watching him. He wanted desperately to get back to where they'd been headi
ng before he'd brought up the sobering subject of Jenny Lee.

  Purposely, he made his voice light. "So tell me. This perfect evening you had planned for me that hot October night. What would've happened if I had shown?"

  "You really want to know?"

  "I certainly do," Blue said, smiling at her.

  Lucy pushed herself backward in the water, treading with her arms and letting her legs float. Her toes broke the surface and she stared at them pensively.

  "Well, you would've walked up here and found me already in the water, just like this," she said.

  "Uh-huh."

  "I would've smiled and waved and said, 'Come on in—the water is nice.'"

  "And I would have."

  "Nope." Lucy looked up at him and smiled, mischief lighting her eyes. "You would've said..." She mimicked his Southern drawl. '"Do you think your mama would mind if I went into the house and changed into my swimsuit?' And I would've said, 'You don't need a suit to swim in this pond, Blue McCoy. Don't worry—if you're shy, I'll close my eyes until you're in the water.'"

  Blue laughed. "Then I would've gone in."

  "Nope." Lucy bit her lower lip, barely able to keep from laughing. Her eyes were sparkling with amusement. "Then you would've stood there on the grass, deciding whether or not to be shy, and I would've said, 'I'm not wearing a suit, either. See?' and I would've done this."

  Lucy had reached a shallow spot in the pond, and she now stood up, like a goddess rising from the deep, the moonlight glistening on her wet breasts, her nipples tightly peaked from the cold. The water didn't quite reach her belly button and she looked indescribably sexy as she smiled at him.

  She laughed aloud at the look on his face. Her voice was musical in the night air.

  "Sure, I was a little skinnier when I was fifteen," she told him, "but I can't imagine that you would've spent more than oh, five or ten more minutes up on shore, deciding whether or not to come into the water."

  "Try five seconds," Blue said, starting toward her.

  "After successfully enticing you into the pond," Lucy said, backing away from him, her eyes dancing with laughter, "I would've suddenly disappeared beneath the water. You would have stood there, wondering where I went—until suddenly I appeared."

  Blue reached for her, but she deftly moved away, vanishing, just as she'd described, underneath the water. Only a small ripple or two marred the surface of the pond before it once again became still. He watched for any sign of bubbles, waited for any movement. But all he could see was the moon's silvery reflection. All he could hear was the sound of the crickets and his own breathing.

  And then the water swirled around him, and Lucy was there beneath the water, swimming around his legs, touching him. She erupted, up and out of the water, sliding against him as she roped her arms around his neck and kissed him.

  The sensation of her sleek, naked body suddenly pressed against his was unbearably perfect. He heard himself cry out at the pure, gut-wrenching pleasure of her kisses, and he swept his hands across her wet skin, unable to get enough of her, wanting more.

  She pulled back, catching her breath and laughing.

  "No way would you have done that back when we were in high school," he said. His voice sounded hoarse in the still night air.

  Lucy's eyes were brimming with laughter as she pushed her wet hair from her face. "Of course not," she said. "I was fifteen years old. Just because I knew what sexy meant didn't mean I had a clue what to do with you if I got you alone." She shook her head, closing her eyes in pleasure as he swept his hands again over her slick body. "No, my perfect evening with you would have been taking a swim—with bathing suits on. Then we would have headed back to the house and watched the baseball game on TV while we ate popcorn. I would have been in teenaged heaven."

  She kissed him along the side of his jaw, pressing herself closer to him. "But I'm not fifteen anymore. And my definition of heaven has changed a little bit."

  Blue's definition of heaven was right here in his arms.

  He kissed Lucy hard and deep, and she locked her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist. She was ready for him—he could feel her smooth, slick heat as their bodies strained to become one.

  But he pulled back at the same moment she did.

  "Condom," she breathed, her eyes wide as she gazed at him.

  "Yeah."

  "Will it work in the water?"

  "Oh, yeah."

  He scrambled up to the grass, to where he'd thrown his shirt. He rummaged quickly through his pocket, and was back beside her in a matter of moments. And then she was in his arms once more and he kissed her yet again. She pulled him closer to her, opening herself to him, moving her hips and sending him thrusting deeply into her hot tightness.

  The sensation was incredible. Lucy's wet body was his to touch, to mould around him. As her strong legs locked around his waist, he held her derriere, pressing her tightly against him as together they set a feverish, passionate, primitive rhythm.

  She pushed her wet hair out of her face, then swept Blue's hair back, too. She ran her fingers through the wetness and pulled his mouth up to hers for a hard, fierce kiss.

  Blue couldn't believe he'd spent all day trying to convince himself that this shouldn't happen again. He couldn't believe he'd actually thought he'd be able to turn Lucy down. He couldn't believe he'd climbed out of her bed this morning, thinking he should run or try to hide from her.

  Without a doubt, he was going to be in her bed again tonight. And this time he was going to do his damnedest to never leave.

  Never leave.

  Never.

  The words surrounded him, pressing down on his chest with more suffocating force than the water around him. Blue could barely breathe—he was drowning in emotion. Damn, but where had that crazy thought come from? And it was crazy. He was career navy. He was a SEAL. And SEALs left. That's what they did. They left. Always. There was always someplace new to go, something else to do.

  He wasn't in love with this woman. He couldn't possibly be. He'd felt no lightning bolt. He'd had no vision, seen no special sign. Fireworks hadn't exploded overhead the first time he'd gazed into her eyes. The earth hadn't moved under his feet.

  But, mercy, it sure as hell was moving now.

  His strange thought about never leaving had to be some kind of reaction to this intense physical pleasure. He had found his perfect sexual match in Lucy Tait; that was for damn sure. He'd always liked sex—hell, that was an understatement—but it had never been even remotely like this before.

  Never.

  Blue felt Lucy's lithe body tighten against his, and he knew she was close to her release. He was right there with her, and all his thoughts fled.

  "Oh, Blue."

  She pulled back to gaze into his eyes, letting him see the power he held over her. He saw something else, too. Something warm and loving. Something more than the raw physical lust that bound them together.

  He knew in that instant that he wanted to take her with him to a place she'd probably never been before. He wanted to make this single moment she was sharing with him one that she'd never forget.

  "Breathe," he told her hoarsely. "Take a deep breath."

  The faintest flash of confusion appeared in her eyes, and then she understood. She breathed, filling her lungs and holding the air in. And then Blue pulled her back with him, underneath the surface of the water.

  It was dark and so utterly silent. Blue loved it down there, in that other world beneath the water. He couldn't get enough of the strangely quiet blueness, of the sense of peace that being underwater gave him. He'd clocked a lot of hours with his scuba gear, and never passed up an opportunity to dive. Still, he knew that many people felt claustrophobic and closed in underwater. He loosened his hold on Lucy, ready to let her go if she panicked and suddenly sought the surface. She wasn't afraid, though. She kissed him with an urgency he matched, air bubbling up around their faces.

  With his hearing muffled and his vision reduced, Blue's r
emaining senses heightened. The taste of Lucy's mouth turned sweeter. And his tactile sense sharpened, the sensation of their rhythmic movement making him delirious from the sheer, pure, focused pleasure.

  Blue pulled Lucy up with him up to the surface of the water, up to the air, and together they gasped for breath as still their rhythm didn't slow, didn't stop.

  "More," she gasped.

  It was all he had to hear. He waited only for her to draw in another long, deep breath, and then he pulled her back down under the water again, and again the magical silence surrounded them.

  Lucy's hair floated around them, moving slowly, lazily, a direct counterpoint to the wild movement of their bodies. Blue found her breast with his mouth, drawing her taut nipple in, sucking, pulling. He felt her grip him even tighter, felt the turbulence as the waves of her release began. Then, there in the silence beneath the water, Blue lost control. He was totally decimated. Every cell in his body exploded in a dizzying rush of exquisite pleasure so overwhelmingly pure, so incredibly sweet.

  He drew in a breath in an attempt to steady himself—and got a cold lungful of water.

  Blue pulled Lucy up to the surface with him, sputtering and coughing. But his footing was unsure and he slipped, dunking himself again. The water closed over his head, and he felt a flash of panic as his lungs burned and his chest heaved. He was desperate to expel the water he'd inhaled, desperate for air.

  But Lucy was there, pulling him up and out. With her help, he crawled out of the water and collapsed, facedown, on the grass, coughing and retching as his body fought to clear his lungs.

  Finally, finally he could breathe, but still it took several minutes longer before he could speak. He could feel Lucy, sitting patiently beside him, soothingly stroking his hair.

  He lifted his head and glanced up at her, chagrined.

  "Are you all right?" she asked.