He’d dragged his still-aroused body to the kitchen dressed only in a pair of grey sweatpants that had seen better days. Hanging low on his hips, the loose pants showed a lot of abdomen, and he’d shaken his head in bemusement when he’d pulled them on over his nakedness because apparently the only thing holding them up today was the jutting erection that the soft sweats did little to hide.
When Shannon began cautiously limbering up, Nick’s already precarious state was further strained by the sight of her bending and flexing that incredibly voluptuous body of hers in ways that caused his brain to vapor lock.
Reaching arms high overhead and then gently arching her back, Shannon’s seductively beautiful breasts were brought into sharp relief against her flimsy T-shirt. Nick’s lips tingled with the desire to wrap them around the plump globes and suck her sensitive pink-tinged nipples into his ravenous mouth.
The coffeemaker finished brewing his coffee, but Nick wasn’t aware of anything except the enticing visual he was devouring with a dangerously heated gaze while his breathing deepened and his heart began thumping in his chest.
As if it couldn’t get any worse, when she bent over and flexed her back up and down like a cat, he started counting backwards from one hundred to distract from the intensifying desire to have her under him arching and writhing just like that as he surged inside her and pumped them both to a thunderous orgasm.
He wasn’t kidding last night when he told her she’d be the death of him. He was only a man, after all, and in the face of such provocative beauty, how could he hope to survive and retain his sanity?
Impulses, raw and greedy, invaded his conscious mind. He wanted to drown in her scent made sweeter and more alluring with arousal. The primitive man he was losing the battle to control, needed to claim this woman as his own.
With his turgid manhood leading the way, as if being drawn to the lure of her heated femininity, Nick abandoned the coffee machine and prowled his way onto the terrace like a beast circling and stalking its prey. He stood in rapt fascination as she continued her graceful, feminine movements, allowing his senses to take in the full effect of her presence.
Shannon was deep in concentration, naturally flowing from one pose to the next, letting her mind empty of all thoughts. It felt good to use her body after a period of enforced inactivity. She could feel energy invading her senses, washing over her frazzled nerves until that energy morphed into something seductive and primitive. She didn’t need to open her eyes to know he was watching her; the shift she was experiencing in awareness was due to his being there.
Instead of stopping, Shannon continued on, although the poses she initiated were suddenly pulsating with an edge of enticement that her female self half-hoped would invade his senses and steal his breath. She wanted him to want her; she needed him to understand what he’d turned his back on. Not out of a sense of revenge or for payback purposes, but because she needed him to see her as a fully formed woman and not some teenage version from yesterday who let him sweep her away in a torrent of young love.
When she bent forward to stretch her back, placing her palms carefully on the towel-covered bench, Shannon let her backside writhe to and fro as she settled into a comfortable posture. Unless she missed her call, no red-blooded male in his right mind could ignore the blatant carnality of such an impudent wiggle. Her intuition proved correct when he swiftly appeared at her side from the morning shadows and appreciatively stroked her bobbing backside in the skintight stretch pants.
Instead of being shocked or jerking upright in alarm, Shannon enjoyed the feeling of his big hands touching and caressing her bottom and found that she was involuntarily thrusting back towards his heat.
“Now that’s what I call an early-morning wake-up call.” Nick groaned into the morning silence, causing Shannon’s senses to go into instant overdrive. God dammit! He sounded so sexy and turned on that Shannon had to struggle to stay on her feet.
No need for pretense since he knew exactly what she’d been saying to him with her body, Shannon came upright and, in a hoarse and sexy rumble turned toward him saying simply, “I’m glad you heard me.”
When she leaned into him, he grabbed her derrière in his strong hands and hauled her forcefully against his half-naked form so she could feel his arousal and judge for herself how well he’d heard her. With an erection of impressive size and hardness pressed against her quivering belly, he had no doubt his little one was getting exactly the message he wanted to send.
Always the gentleman, he grunted out a hasty, “Good morning,” before plunging them both into the kind of open-mouthed kiss that left them struggling for air and shaking in the other’s embrace.
Shannon had wrapped her arms around his neck, holding on for dear life as he probed deep with his voracious tongue, only stopping the oral plundering to kiss and lick her lips, neck, and ears.
When they backed off to suck in some much-needed oxygen, she whispered back through kiss-swollen lips a decidedly breathy, “Good morning to you, too,” making Nick’s heart soar. This was going to be a very good day.
Releasing her bottom with one final, reluctant-to-let-go squeeze, Nick stayed pressed up against Shannon as he fought to dampen the carnal after-effects of their intimate good-morning salutation.
Even though she knew she should unwind her arms from around his neck and take a step back, she stayed plastered against him, enjoying the feel of his rock-hard body and the way his impressively jutting staff nestled against her lower belly causing a flood of hot, wet arousal to pool in her pulsing core.
“Do I smell coffee?” she eventually questioned as she let her kiss-ravaged lips sweep along his jawline with her tongue leaving a trail of wet, suckling kisses in its wake.
“Mmmmm,” was all he replied as he angled his head to give her total access to his neck, reveling in the touch of her tongue and lips.
Just then, a small bird appeared and perched weightlessly in a cluster of deep red blooms, twittering at them as though bestowing a message of great importance.
They both paused at the exact same moment and watched, sheltered in each other’s tight embrace, as the little bird sang a sweet, melodic song. When at last she finished, the tiny bird cocked her head first one way and then the next, as if considering the image the two of them made locked together in perfect harmony.
When the bird lifted and fluttered in space for a long moment, still watching them, and then took off toward the brightening sky, neither of them missed the symbolism of the moment. Nick slid his hand down to the rounded cheek on her bottom where the tiny tattoo that had fueled their reunion was placed, while Shannon did the same in return, letting her small hand sweep across his butt where his own bird tattoo was.
The passions that had exploded seconds earlier calmed instantly at the sight of that perfectly timed reminder of what had started all of this. Reaching down to grab her hand, Nick entwined his fingers with hers and then raised their joined hands to his lips for a gentle kiss.
“C’mon, you, that’s enough of the standing,” he muttered, and with that the crutches that lay right next to where they stood were completely forgotten as Nick hoisted her into his arms and made for the patio table and chairs nearby.
After settling her comfortably, Nick hurried inside to make the coffee he had forgotten and to brew his lady love’s favorite pot of tea. The day, as far as he was concerned, had started off most auspiciously, and he all but whistled a happy tune as he set about the kitchen tasks at hand.
* * *
Their morning had unfolded slowly and casually. Coffee, tea, and cranberry scones from her favorite market, after which they’d moved to the living room and sat side-by-side watching a morning program, debating the news, laughing at the latest in absurd celebrity gossip, and genuinely enjoying each other’s company.
When Shannon added tidbits of first-hand information to some of the celebrity gossip, Nick laughed along with her at the antics she’d dealt with in her Hollywood-based business. The way she look
ed at life was refreshingly open. Nick found her unique ability to sense things others couldn’t to be completely enchanting.
He asked about her work. She seemed eager to tell him all about Belle Events and how doing something that she thought would make others happy had brought her so much joy and fulfillment. Tagging herself as a hopeless romantic, Shannon let her emotions fly, explaining along the way that being able to put all of her senses to work in such a creative environment gave her tremendous satisfaction.
Shannon opened up to him without hesitation, sharing mishaps and dramas from various events that made them both laugh. She also told him about her special enjoyment of the many charity events she’d helped create and how deeply meaningful that area of her work was. Nick was moved by Shannon’s compassion and sense of moral duty as she told him about the work she and his sister, Jules, had done for an inner-city organization that helped abused and neglected children. Her heart was enormous, and Nick felt a sense of pride and admiration for the woman she had become.
“How did the hopelessly romantic daughter of university academicians end up on the left coast running a business selling fantasy and make-believe?” The delivery was casual, but the inquiry was not. Eight years ago, Shannon was a Bostonian, a brilliant college student with a promising future in economics or political science. Nick was curious to learn what path in her previous journey had taken her so far from home and in such a completely opposite direction.
Settling back into the sumptuous cushions, Shannon pulled a small sofa pillow across her middle and clutched it tightly. A protective movement? Nick considered her body language as he waited for her reply.
Shannon smiled almost wistfully, answering after a brief hesitation, “Ahh…the ’rents! Yes, well, they certainly expected a buttoned-down, briefcase-toting career for their only daughter, but alas, such was not the way I was made.” She chuckled.
“My folks are awesome.” She shrugged. “I had an unusual upbringing, but hey, who doesn’t? By the time I came along, my brother was already heading off to college, making for an odd household to be sure. My mom would never, ever be considered a homemaker! My earliest memories of her are in a white lab coat, glasses perched on the edge of her nose, asking questions. That’s what Mom does, she asks questions. It’s the research scientist in her. Now Dad, he’s another story altogether! Picture the quintessential absentminded professor and you have the perfect representation”
Warm childhood memories lit up Shannon’s face, and Nick could see the love she had for her parents clearly shining in her eyes.
“My brother, Ted, has always been something of an enigma to me. We’re strangers who quite frankly don’t like each other very much. He was setting off on his academic journey just months after I was born. It must have been kinda’ weird for him to grow up an only child only to have his laid-back and settled parents turn up pregnant with a late-in-life kid on the way! He’s the really serious type, with a face that would freakin’ crack if an actual smile found daylight. His wife, Jane, is a piece of work, too. She’s a lawyer from a family of lawyers and judges. Those two certainly fell in line when it came to living the life their parents envisioned for them.”
“And you didn’t?” Nick queried. “Somehow, Shannon, that doesn’t surprise me in the least. You see the world around us in a totally unique way. The girl I knew and the woman you’ve become have always been marching to a different drummer. You should be proud of that and I hope your parents are, too.”
“Oh, they are, Nick! They are. Don’t get me wrong. My parents are great. They just didn’t know what to make of a little girl with an imagination overflowing with fairy tales and princesses. Ted was always so sensible and pragmatic about everything while I was emotional and intuitive in a way that wasn’t a good fit with my fact-based upbringing. Even so, they always supported whatever I did. Dad came to every dance recital and even remembered to bring me a corsage! We would go to Lenny’s Soda Shop after and eat coconut custard pie and drink root beer floats!” Shannon’s wistful smile punctuated her words.
“Mom was a different matter altogether. She was a scheduler and meticulously kept track of even the smallest details. I was always prepared and never had to be asked twice for a permission slip or parent signature! The woman may seem as dry as toast, but when you get her going she’s a hoot and a half, and I know she loves me to the moon and back.”
Tossing the pillow aside, Shannon turned earnest eyes to his. “Studying was way easy for me. Maybe too easy. By the time I graduated from high school, I’d been on an accelerated academic track for years and had already earned enough college credits to enter University as a sophomore. Ending up in Saharan Africa was a bit of a wild card, to be sure, but at the time my language qualification alone made all sorts of opportunities open up for me. I didn’t want to end up in some dry and dusty civil service job with the state department after college, so I made sure to always keep my options open.”
Something subtle shifted in the air around them. Nick could feel it. His awareness moved up a notch as he sensed the change. The observant negotiator in him sprang to life and he considered every word, each inflection, and noted how her eyes drifted slowly away from his as she spoke. It certainly didn’t take a rocket scientist to see that something significant was happening. She was being too cautious, as if there was something big being left unsaid.
“There wasn’t a lot for me to do, school wise, after Africa,” Shannon said quietly. “The internship finished my degree, but…” Sighing now, she stared off into space. “Things change, and, well...y’know. My parents were surprised, I suppose, when graduation came along and I was awarded a simple arts degree.”
Well, that was certainly a piece of information Nick was going to tuck away for later. What had brought about her change of heart? He wasn’t an idiot and knew what was going unsaid in her narrative was how they had finally parted once they were both back in the states. Guilt washed over him in waves because he knew there was more she was holding back. He was sure it involved the dreadful way he had acted toward their relationship. Silence hovered as memories of a time that had obviously changed both their lives danced unseen in the air around them.
“I went off to California on a whim, really. One of Mom’s science buddies needed a short-term research assistant in the archive at Cal Tech. I'd always heard that California is the home of fruits and nuts, and I certainly found that to be true! I met this eccentric old biddy who managed a storytelling program at the County Library, and from there, as they say, the rest is history!
Laughing, Shannon nodded her head with each memory. “I loved volunteering for the readings and watching enthusiasm for books come to life in the children who came. Before too long, the story days were full-on tour-de-force events with costumes and props, which eventually started bringing the parents into the fun. When the research gig ended, I took a leap of faith and started doing children’s parties. From there, everything just exploded!”
She giggled slightly and mugged for him with a self-deprecating smile. “It never ceases to amaze me that in Tinseltown, where storytelling and fantasy is de rigueur, that one small business among many others, doing basically the same thing, would take off so quickly and be as successful as it has! We are forever being approached by Hollywood production houses and studios to work in the movie-making business, but I like what we do now. It’s still personal and I have the last word in control.”
Nick understood what she meant and nodded in agreement, pleased that she hadn’t sold out for money or fame. What he had seen of her efforts at his nephew’s party had been more than impressive. She was obviously really good at what she did, and it didn’t come as any sort of a surprise to learn that Hollywood had noticed her unique talents and come knocking at her door.
“Your parents, their anniversary celebration. With your expertise at running events, I’m curious why you aren’t more involved with that?”
Shannon stretched a bit and paused ever-so-slightly before answering.
“I offered, but Dad and Mom put a foot down. Said I was a guest and not an event planner and that I was to come and enjoy myself, period…end of story. Was kind of cute, actually. I didn’t realize till they called the other day how excited they were that I was going to travel east. It’s been a long time…” Her voice quieted to a whisper.
Shannon was restless and needed to get up and move after their long stretch on the sofa. She was surprised at how easy and carefree their conversation had been. They’d always been great at communicating and had a natural ease and comfort with one another, which was certainly helping them move forward from the past.
There was a niggling unease stirring in her mind that she was deliberately ignoring. Recalling for Nick how she had surprised her family with a change in direction after her time abroad had been difficult. Sidestepping any mention of their time together or how the events at the end had come together in a perfect storm of heartache, loss, and despair had made Shannon uncomfortable. She didn’t want to think about what was hidden in those memories. Not yet.
“Nick, I am going crazy being cooped up and stuck in one position like this. Could we maybe go for a drive? Hey, wanna’ go get an ice cream cone?” she asked with singsong enthusiasm as she wagged her eyebrows at him for effect.
Aware that she had neatly segued away from further reverie, Nick mock agreed with her that being stuck in one position wasn’t very exciting. The obvious double entendre of his comment was followed by a whoop of delighted laughter from the object of his desire, warming him when she teased him right back saying, “Just like a man! Always with the one-track mind!”
Getting a laugh from her and some back-and-forth teasing was proving to be their reset position, something Nick decided he’d gladly accept. They were making progress, although at times the past hovering nearby threatened to throw a damper on everything. He had a plan forming in his busy mind that he was sure would help bring closure to whatever pain and confusion still lingered from their disastrous past. Stick to the plan, Nick, he muttered in his mind, and all will be well.
Love Redone Page 18
