His eyes brightened.
“That is just why I did – because I wanted to bring you flowers. I also brought you dinner. You do, I suppose, like pizza?”
What red-blooded American girl didn’t? she thought.
“I love pizza. What kind is it?”
Darien did not reply but opened the box to reveal a large meat lovers pizza. Ham, beef, pork, sausage, and pepperoni sprinkled with cheese covered the top of the disc. The aroma that rose toward her nose was heavenly.
“I thought pizza would satisfy both your tastes and mine,”
Darien said, lifting out a slice. “I chose meat because I crave protein but with a thin crust so that you could have your grains. Do you have plates, my dear?”
“Yes, of course.” Stella rushed to the cabinet to bring out a pair of plates, plastic Melmac ones. She wondered if she had not, if he had a stash of fine china waiting in the hallway as well.
“Excellent. Shall we eat?”
“Yes, please.”
She paced herself, hungry now that he was here, so that she would not devour the delicious pizza. Darien ate with gusto and speed, tearing into piece after piece of the Italian pie. He ate neat but so fast that she could not contemplate how he could consume it so much. He ate at about a three to one – three pieces for each slice she had– ratio. Stella was full and when she picked up the box for the trash, she said,
“I don’t know where you put all that pizza. I hope you don’t get a stomachache.”
He laughed and patted his flat abdomen.
“Have no fear, Stella. I eat anything I like without repercussions, gastric or otherwise.”
If she ate as he had, she would be fat, Stella thought, with rueful amusement. Darien, however, was lean but muscular.
“You must have good metabolism,” she said, expecting him to laugh but instead, his face sobered and for a split second, he looked very sad.
‘You might call it that,” Darien said. “But, no matter. Would you like to take a stroll? There is a delightful park a few blocks away.”
Full of pizza, Stella hated to get up but she nodded. If they stayed here, they would be kissing in minutes and although she enjoyed that very much, she wanted to know more about Darien before they became lovers, which seemed imminent.
“All right, let’s go,” Stella said.
The late August evening was warm but not humid so the walk was pleasant. They strolled, hand in hand, along the Square and then down a narrow street that led to a park. Although tiny, it was very picturesque with a natural spring bubbling over some native rock, multiple flowerbeds, a permanent outdoor stage, and a striking Grecian pool complete with columns.
The spring cascaded down a bluff into a small pond.
Enchanted by the sight, Stella paused and would have traveled over the footbridge that spanned the pool but Darien halted. When she turned to question why, his eyes stared at the falling water as if it were toxic and he turned away with a slight shudder. She remembered, now, his fear of water, but seeing it made it seem more real.
She spied a path that wound up to the top of the bluff. There would be a spectacular view of the town from there so she snatched his hand,
“Come on, let’s go up to the top of the bluff so we could look out over Riverville.”
Darien inhaled a long breath and then sighed. “Dear Stella, I can’t.”
“Why can’t you? We would be high above the water and I don’t think it’s deep enough to drown anyone.”
He looked more than a little embarrassed. “I fear heights too.”
With their hands linked, Stella could feel his racing pulse.
“Then we won’t do that." She kept her voice light and began walking away from the waterfall. “Let’s just stroll through the park and enjoy it.”
He nodded with relief. “That’s a lovely suggestion.”
Children splashed in the adjacent wading pool and others swung high from the playground equipment in one corner. Other couples loitered in the twilight. In the park, tucked into a narrow valley, dark arrived with speed.
“Hey, Mr. Wolfe, what’s up?” A teen perched on a skateboard yelled as he whizzed past them on the sidewalk with speed.
Darien waved but didn’t bother to answer; if he had, the student would have been gone before he heard anything. Stella realized that it was quite likely that some of the teens, boys and girls, who walked the paths or read on benches or strolled, like them, hand in hand, were her students too.
“I guess we should avoid PDA here,” she murmured to Darien. “No public display of affection.”
He paused in mid-stride, beside a blooming bed of fragrant flowers.
“I think I should tell you, Stella, that I have a rebellious nature, and that when told not to do something, I often do it.”
Feeling like flirting, she said, “Do you?”
With a grin that could outshine the sun, Darien put his arms about her in a cocoon and proceeded to kiss her, his lips engulfing her mouth with desire as thick as honey, sweet as sugar, hot as cayenne.
He had no care for the public place or the people who saw and Stella thought that in the small park, in this little town, that they all did.
Most would know them as high school teachers; many would even know their names. They shouldn’t, she thought, but his lips were too succulent to resist and so she feasted on his kiss.. That kiss fired his passion and hers but Darien had no inhibitions. His hands caressed her, even daring to stray beneath her blouse. Although it felt wonderful, Stella stopped him, self-conscious of too many curious eyes. He, however, seemed to lack any restraint and to even enjoy more than a little exhibition. She admired that but still, this wasn’t the time or place for it. If she didn’t say no, she thought he would continue without restraint until they coupled in the park.
“Darien, we can’t here. People are watching us.’
He stopped, with an exaggerated sigh. “It’s your call, Stella. I truly don’t mind.”
For a moment, his passion almost swayed her and she might have yielded if one of her students had not passed by on skates,
“Hi, Miss Raines!”
“Hello,” she called with what she hoped was cheerful nonchalance. Then she focused on Darien. “I do mind but we can go somewhere else where I don’t.”
After that, they walked with their arms encircling the other, all the way back to her apartment. Darien’s hands strayed over her body as they walked, secretive, but sensual and by the time that they entered her building, Stella smoldered. Once they were inside, he kicked shut the door and then his mouth, denied since the park, took hers, and she gave back the same fire until they were both consumed.
He fueled his kisses with hunger and she fed him but greedy, he wanted more and set out to take it. Even as she yielded, she resisted the idea that he would be master and she fought for equality, railed against domination with every atom of her soul. She would come to him equal, giving and taking, but never surrendering both body and soul. He had to learn that to dominate, he would also have to yield so that they could reach that sweet release as one and Stella set out to teach him.
On this night, she did not want sweet lovemaking or tentative caresses – she craved battle and ached for a rousing confrontation that would yield, in the end, to greater pleasure. Release hard fought to gain would be wilder and richer, would sate them both with the deliciousness of the act. The rising physical tension between them sang with electricity and power like live high voltage wires and she knew that the climax would explode both their worlds in burst of sensation that might threaten their very sanity. Stella wanted that and so she struggled to bring it about with every weapon she could muster.
With a slow hand, she untucked his shirt from his pants and unbuttoned her own, fingers trembling with anticipation, a greedy need for more. As she made that first overture, she kicked away her shoes and faced him, eager and fierce.
Still standing, he stripped her shirt from her, loosened her trousers so that she coul
d step out of them even while her hands, talons now, tore the shirt from his body, buttons scattering across the worn carpet. Her fingers undid his trousers, pulled them from him before he knew what she did and discarded them. Naked, they came together in a blinding collision of lust and desire, passion heighted into a powerful need for release. Stella clawed at his back with her nails and he moaned with pleasure as her nails raked away skin. He bent his head and suckled the skin of her breast, leaving love marks that would linger long after this night. She bit his shoulder, claiming it with her mouth and then wrapped her legs around him, holding him in place. Darien’s hands owned her, fondled every bit of her, reaching even into her innermost folds and places. His fingers searched for her pleasure and found it, manipulating her into wordless but vocal joy as he took what he sought with abandon, without permission.
In retaliation, Stella took his nipple into her mouth, her lips hard as it grew firm. She nibbled, teeth wicked and fierce as she evoked his shudders of pleasure, something she enjoyed very much even as he used his mouth to rake her throat with such harsh kisses that she had no doubt he would leave love marks. The exquisite delight of his mouth against her skin smacked more of attack than caress but she had no complaints, delivering her own assault with mouth and nails without any restraint. Then, with increasing need, Stella reached to touch his manhood . Her hands were not gentle but sought with force to take what she wanted but his physical response indicated that he liked it quite well. His stick was hard beneath her fingers and her own sex yearned for it, wet and waiting. Darien grasped her with both hands, rough and without finesse, and lifted her, still standing, until she leaned against the door and he entered her with force, invaded her body with his manhood. He ravished her, the rhythm of their lovemaking wild and wicked. He drove into her, again and again, and she cried out, overcome with spiraling delight as her body danced with ecstasy deeper than she thought she could bear.
They climbed the pinnacle of release together and when they came, it was with a shuddering crash that rocketed through them both like an impact.
His power filled her, packed her full to overflowing and her secret spots exploded in pleasure. Stella’s vision dimmed as she rode the wave of pleasure, which she gave into without remorse or restraint. Her own cries mingled with his and at that final moment, that climax of perfection, he called her name,
“Stella! My star!”
Darien convulsed against her so hard that they almost lost their balance and fell to the floor. They clung to each other, skin feverish warm and soaked with perspiration, until they could move.
They made it to the couch before they collapsed into a heap, hands still seeking, mouths still meeting and it was a long time before either had breathe to speak.
Stella found her voice first.
“Darien, that was amazing, electric, stupendous…”
Her voice trailed off as she ran out of words to describe the firestorm that they had just kindled and survived. With very gentle fingers, Darien cupped her face between his hands and in the softest voice she had yet heard from him, he whispered,
“Darling Stella, that was magnificent. You are a woman without equal, my star.”
They cuddled in easy silence until he stirred.
“Don’t go.”
“I must, Stella-star,” Darien said, “Don’t worry. We have a connection now, one I cannot deny.”
Her few sexual experiences had been nothing compared to that feast of uninhibited passion and Stella, sated and filled with an inner joy she had never known, whispered the words that had been embroidered across her heart.
“Darien, I love you.”
Darien, in the act of pulling on his now buttonless shirt, stopped as if she had shot an arrow through his chest. He stiffened and she saw it, wishing now she could take back the sweet words, suddenly thinking that this had been nothing more than good sex to him.
“Stella,” he said her name with such sadness that she wanted to weep. She steeled herself. This would be the part where he would say that she was beautiful, wonderful, but that he could not get involved. He would say that he was not ready for a commitment and that they could still be friends. If anything kindled between them, well, they might enjoy friendly sex. Her love life during her college years lacked stability and after several abrupt break-ups, she had all but given up on romance. Until now, every time she offered a man her heart, he had stomped it into a thousand broken pieces. Stella had heard it all the exit lines before and she turned her face away from him so he would not see the tears that formed, then dropped like tiny diamonds onto her bare shoulder.
“Yes?”
“You are my lady, and I love you. Yet, Stella, there are things about me that I am afraid to tell you. Will you be patient with me, dear star of my heart?”
If he had not said he loved her, his words would have been unbearable. As miserable as she had been happy moments before, Stella nodded. Whatever his secret, she thought, it could not be insurmountable but she wished he would tell her now.
“I will, Darien, but you can tell me now.”
His topaz eyes darkened as he shook his head back and forth.
“I am a coward and I cannot. Stella, forgive me, but I must go.”
He dressed in silence as she gathered her own scattered garments and opened the door. With sudden abandon, he shut it and crossed the room, kissing her again with the same powerful fire.
“I do love you, my Stella.”
Then he did leave, closing the door behind him with a short, soft click leaving her alone with the scent of the roses he brought, tears shimmering in the dark.
Chapter Four
So, he had a secret; Stella got that and she wanted to know what it could be. Whatever it was, she felt confident that they could discuss it and then put it away. He was not married, he could not be gay, but there were other possibilities, too many. Possibilities haunted her as she moved through the remainder of that first week of school. Maybe Darien had a love child, she thought, on Wednesday between fifth and sixth class periods. Theories, some wild, some possible, floated through her brain like confetti in a ticker tape parade.
When she asked him to tell her, over their next lunch period, Darien shook his head.
“I will tell you, my Stella-star, but I don’t want to talk about it now.”
More than a little piqued, she sighed.
“So, when will you tell me?”
His topaz eyes darkened almost to onyx as he looked across the table at her, face sad.
“I will tell you next week, after the full moon.”
“Why then?” She wondered just what the full moon could have to do with his secret. Bits of folklore she learned in her studies niggled but she could not focus to think about them now.
Darien shook his head.
“It doesn’t matter now. I don’t even want to think about it.”
Stella started to protest and then didn’t. She could wait and anyway, the weekend was coming. They could spend long days together, maybe the nights as well.
Or, so she thought, right up until Friday.
****
Although they had not made specific plans, when school let out on Friday, Stella was confident that Darien had planned something romantic but when she met him in the hallway, he seemed distant and distracted. “Darien, would you like to do something tonight?” Stella asked, confident that he would. After all, they loved each other and no matter what his secret might be, she knew it would be nothing she could not handle. She had visions of a romantic dinner at an old inn she had heard about but he shook his head before she could tell him about it.
“Stella, my star, tonight is impossible. I can’t see you at all this weekend, not until Monday.”
His tone was mild, even contrite, but the words stung like gravel tossed against a window with force. Her hurt feelings gave her courage to fight back.
“Why? Why do I have to wait until Monday?”
Darien’s sad eyes pierced her heart.
&
nbsp; “Star-of-my-heart, you must. I will tell you then, if I can.”
“Have I offended you?”
He looked shocked. “Of course you have not, Stella.”
“Did I do something gross or gauche?”
“You did nothing of the kind.”
“I don’t understand.” She did not. To her, his behavior was incomprehensible. “Are you ill?”
Darien looked as if he could be, his eyes were dull and his face paler than normal. He acted restless and strange. Her question hit him like a shot and he rubbed a hand over his face.
“I don’t feel well, that is true. I never do, really, when the moon is full. Stella, please. I promise that I will see you Monday, maybe even Sunday evening after the full moon wanes. Right now, though, I must go, my dear.”
He would have gone then but she could not let him go without saying something more.
“Wait, Darien.”
He had turned as if to go but now hesitated, face turned toward her with his eyes veiled and haunted.
“What is it?” he sighed, his impatience to be gone evident in his hurry and in his constant nervous movements, the twitch of his feet and the twisting of his fingers.
“I don’t like secrets.” There, she thought, she said it and it was out. She loathed secrets because holding back important information derailed her last relationship and had damaged others in the past. Alex, her ex-boyfriend, who kept both an addiction to alcohol and his second lover from her eroded any desire to keep secrets, large or small. Secrets, she thought, had an eerie way of growing until they became too massive to hide any longer and then exploded, shattering worlds and hearts.
“Dearest Stella, neither do I but for now, this one must remain.” He sounded weary but she pressed him anyway.
“Why?”
He exhaled with force, enough that she thought she might have succeeded in making him angry too.
“If I could say, it would not need to be a secret and I shall tell you, all of it, very soon but I can’t now. Please try to understand”
Simple for him to say but not easy to do, Stella thought.
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