by Dee J. Adams
“I was talking about your name. You were talking about satin sheets before that.”
He moved alongside her. “You know, if you give me ten minutes, I’ll show you again just how much I liked the last twenty minutes.”
“Spry, aren’t you?” Her eyes twinkled.
He laughed. “Spry. Horny. Call it whatever you want.”
This time she laughed, and the sound filled his lonely heart with happiness. It was as if she completed the missing piece to his life, a piece he never realized was non-existent until now.
“I might very well take you up on that offer. Ten minutes is all I need to recharge myself.” She yawned and her lids drifted closed. He’d never seen a woman look more beautiful than Elena did right at the moment. Barely there crow’s feet peeked out next to her long, dark lashes. A light sheen of perspiration made her pale skin glow in the dimness. He could watch her sleep for hours.
Turned out he got the opportunity. Her ten-minute recharge turned into a full ninety-minutes of sleep. Bill managed to grab a fifteen-minute power nap of his own. Not a single aftershock distracted them. Maybe things were looking up.
Elena rolled onto her back and stretched before opening her eyes. Leaning on his elbow watching her, Bill smiled as she met his gaze and blushed. “I slept longer than ten minutes, didn’t I?”
He nodded. “Just a little.” The urge to touch finally won out and he took her hand in his. “You needed it. I didn’t want to wake you.” His lower region had immediate plans now that she was up. “But, since you’re so well rested, I think it’s my duty to tire you out again.”
Her smile filled the empty spot in his heart. “I think maybe I’m going to tire you out this time.” She crinkled her nose. “As soon as I take care of some business. Mother Nature’s calling.”
Now that she mentioned it, he had to go to the bathroom too. “Here, I’ve got some napkins back in the cabinet.” He rooted around until he found the unopened pack he’d just restocked and handed her a few. “Just be careful and be fast. I don’t want either one of us out there long.” He gestured toward the open door. “Ladies first.”
“Always a gentleman.” She pecked him on the lips and crawled out and Bill had no trouble with the view of her rounded butt.
Elena got the distinct impression that Bill was watching her ass so she may have added a little extra swing before stepping out of the limo. She exhaled a hard breath to clear her head. Seriously, she needed to get over herself. Yes, they’d had great sex. Unbelievable sex, but that didn’t mean he’d want to continue some kind of relationship when they got out of here. Sure, they’d agreed to a date, but maybe he’d change his mind since she’d already given him everything. She just had to play it cool.
“I’ll go left,” she said once they got out of the car.
“I’ll take right.” Bill grabbed her arm and tugged her back before she took a step. Looking into her eyes, he cupped her nape, pulled her close and pressed his lips to hers in a sweet, soulful kiss before backing away. His mouth should be registered as a lethal weapon. The way his lips moved over hers and the way his tongue dipped into her mouth made her knees weak. “That is just a little something to remember me by.” His sexy whisper had a wave of goose bumps covering her arms.
“Last one back is a rotten egg,” she murmured back.
His killer grin melted her. “You’re on.”
They each scrambled in their own direction.
Despite the dark, Elena felt extremely exposed as she stood at the end of the limo. But if she made it over the debris behind the car, she could get some privacy in the tiny spot between the car and the side of the overpass. Sounded like a plan. Easing over the rubble, she managed to get to the secluded spot. Of course, now she had to actually pee in the quiet space and hope Bill didn’t hear her. She hummed her favorite Journey song, “Don’t Stop Believin’” and managed to get everything taken care of. After cleaning up with a towelette, she felt much better.
Until an aftershock jolted everything around her. It happened fast. Just one hard shake. Hard enough to make her gasp and freeze before it ended.
“Elena?” Bill called.
Something groaned and creaked, a wicked sound that reeked of trouble. Looking up, she flashed her light in time to see the growing crack in the cement above. She barely got a scream out as a huge chunk of cement crashed in front of her on the trunk of the car. She ducked and covered her head as an avalanche roared next to her. Shards of cement splintered and shaved the side of her body like sandpaper. With her pulse pounding out of control and waiting for something to crash on top of her, Elena could only scream, fighting the cave-in with a roar of her own.
Then finally, silence.
Elena coughed out the grit in her mouth and tried to suck in some oxygen. Instead, she only tasted more cement. On the bright side…she was alive. But what about Bill? Her heart stuttered at the thought.
“Elena!”
Relieved tears pricked her eyes. He sounded very alive, but miles away. “I’m okay,” she called. The absolute darkness made her a little claustrophobic. “Just a little stuck, I think.” More like a lot stuck. Gently, she reached out to see how much room she had to negotiate. Not even two feet in any direction. She felt like a mime in a box except this barrier was real. She didn’t even have room to stand. Even without her light, she knew she was buried well and good. “What about you?”
“I’m okay. Geezus. I watched that whole thing come down.” His voice hitched. “I thought…I thought…” That she’d been killed.
“I’m okay,” she repeated. “Just not sure how to get out of here.” To think they could’ve been in the limo, safe from all this. But no…she’d had to go to the bathroom. Elena clicked on her light and looked at her surroundings. Wall to wall rubble. “Well shit,” she breathed. It was a wonder she wasn’t crushed by it all. A big chunk of cement had landed over her, supported by the limo’s trunk and the Buick’s hood. It had kept the rest of the debris from crushing her.
She heard the thump of rocks as Bill tossed them out of the way. The least she could do was work her way toward him. She rolled smaller pieces beneath both cars or stacked them behind her—depending on size—and moved forward that way.
“Hey,” Bill said after a few minutes. “You still with me?” He sounded so serious. And scared.
Chances were good she had him beat in the scared department. “Yeah. I’m trying to tunnel my way your direction.”
“Be careful. I’m afraid if we shift this pile too much, it will bring the rest of the slab down on you.
That stripped the air out of her lungs and the positive out of her attitude. She studied the slab over her head. “I’ve got a few feet of protection with a big chunk over the cars. I can make my way toward you until I get past your license plate.” Tears pricked her eyes and she swiped them away. She would not fall apart now.
“Okay, just be careful. Elena…” He paused, and she blinked back stupid tears. “I swear to you…” He’d never sounded as solemn. “I promise you. We’re getting out of here alive.”
Those tears trekked down her cheeks and Elena didn’t bother wiping them away. “Okay,” she whispered in the dark. But she wasn’t sure she believed him.
“I’m not leaving, babe. I’m staying right here. Talk to me.”
No one had called her babe in years. The endearment went straight to her heart. She continued moving rocks…rolling them or tossing them behind her. More than anything, she didn’t want Bill stressing about her. They had very little control over what might happen next and she had to believe that her fate rested in someone else’s hands. Either way, she did the only thing she could think of and fell back to her standby. “You think this was God’s way of shutting down the sex?” Grab a rock, toss a rock.
“Not funny,” he rumbled.
She chuckled. “C’mon. It’s a little funny.” If he answered her, she didn’t hear it. But holy crap…what if this was God’s giant message that they shouldn’t be
together? A way to end things before they truly got started? It would sure save her heartbreak later when the age difference finally dawned on him and he decided to trade in for a younger package. She got queasy just thinking about it. She heard him clearing debris. “How’s the excavation going on your end?”
“It’s going.” His lack of elaboration told her it was slow going.
Her arm stung and she used her meager light to check out the injury. The whole thing was covered in nicks and scratches. It burned like the devil and looked very similar to the wounds she’d suffered after nearly being blown up in that car bomb a year ago. An involuntary shiver raced down her spine.
She had no idea how many hours passed. Her shredded fingertips throbbed with every rock she tossed. They talked about movies, cars and their mutual love for Italian food. Anything and everything that was superficial. Perspiration glued Elena’s dress to her skin. Her damp hair clung to her cheeks and neck. The last time she’d been this miserable she’d been flat on her back in the hospital with a splitting headache.
Elena flashed her penlight to see how much space she had to move forward safely. All of a sudden she was in a real life Jenga game. One wrong pull and the whole thing could topple down on her. End game.
“Wait!” Bill called. “Shine that over here.”
“Over where?” Elena slowly moved the light across the cement chunks just over her head.
“There! Go back.”
She aimed her penlight back a few inches.
“There! I see you. At least, I see your light.” The fresh excitement in his voice gave her something to be happy about. She only wished she could see him.
“Hi.” She couldn’t muster up the cheer she’d been aiming for. Instead, she might’ve sounded just this side of desperate. She never figured the limo floor would be like a four star hotel compared to this rock prison.
“Hey.” There was that serious voice again. He didn’t sound as far away, but that didn’t change the fact that she was still buried solid.
“You’ve been at this for too long.” If she felt this exhausted, she couldn’t imagine how tired Bill must be. Maybe it was a lack of oxygen that had her so weak. She pulled a rock in front of her and several fell in its place. Her yelp sounded flat in the tiny space.
“Elena!”
“I’m okay. I think I’ve gone as far as I can go on my end.” More pesky tears stung her eyes. “I also think I need a glass of wine. And a bath.” The list of pick-me-ups could stretch a mile long at this point.
“Hey, I think that little slide gave me a hole to work with over here. Hang on. Don’t go anywhere. I’ll be right back.”
“Oh, you’re funny,” she deadpanned.
“I’m taking notes from the master.”
She heard his grin and felt a foreign tug at her heart. What was she going to do about him? Stupid to think about it now when she really didn’t know if she’d ever see the light of day again. She’d be crazy to let him get away if he did want to pursue something with her, but how long would it last? Didn’t he want a family of his own? What if she couldn’t provide that because of her age? Did she even want another child at this point? How heartbroken would she be when he ended it? On top of that, what would people think?
That you were the luckiest woman on the planet! She could practically hear Julie’s words in her head.
Instead of getting too far ahead of herself, she needed to live in the moment. Not that she wanted to be in this particular moment right now, with sweat stinging the cuts and scrapes, and every muscle screaming in pain. Despite her yoga classes, she still felt like a human pretzel, hunched over with her legs bent.
“I’m back,” Bill said. He sounded winded. “Shine your light again and let me find that hole.” Elena shone her light across her rock wall in a horizontal grid. “There. Back it up a bit. Got it. Give me a sec. I want to have everything close by so I can get it to you.”
She heard more shuffling and the sound of more rocks being tossed. “Be careful,” she warned. A second later, she saw the white cap of bottled water making its way through a hole. Smaller rocks shifted as the plastic pushed between them. “Oh my God, you’re my hero,” she said, grabbing it from the wall.
Next came not one, but two packages of nuts. “Almonds! My favorite!” She’d never been happier in her life to see a bag of nuts. “How did you know?”
“I always have to restock them after I drive you and Julie. It wasn’t hard to figure out.”
She ripped the plastic with her teeth since her fingers hurt so bad and popped a nut into her mouth. Heaven.
“I opened the water for you just in case the cap was on too tight.”
“Thanks.” She imagined his hands looked worse than hers. She leaned back against the pile of rocks behind her, trying to ignore the oppressive heat and stale odor. She indulged in two handfuls before drinking some water. Still cold. It washed down her throat and cooled her from the inside out. It was so easy to take the little things for granted. She’d have to stop doing that.
“How ya doing, babe?” he asked.
God, she loved it when he called her that. She’d always equated that endearment with someone cherished. Someone loved. She bit her bottom lip and took a deep breath to get control. Swallowing back fresh emotion, Elena exhaled slowly. “Better after the snack.” Now that she’d taken a few minutes off, her limbs didn’t want to go back to work. Everything throbbed. She looked around her cramped quarters and shoved away sharp rocks so she could lay back. It was easier to close her heavy lids and relax.
“Talk to me. I don’t want to lose your voice.”
She heard him tossing more debris. “What do you want to talk about?”
“I don’t know. Anything. Ask me a question.”
He wouldn’t know the answer to this one, but she asked it anyway. “Do you think anyone’s looking for us?”
Bill paused before answering. “I hope so.” She prayed so. She took another sip of water and held it in her mouth before swallowing. “You’re pretty quiet in there,” Bill said. He sounded winded and she had no doubt he was working his butt off to get her free.
“Just thinking.”
“About?”
Surviving this. Surviving a car bomb a year ago. Between both things, her luck was running pretty thin…although that amazing sex with Bill hadn’t been so bad. Not bad at all. “You,” she said, answering his question. “Tell me something I don’t know about you?”
“Uh…” He sounded stumped.
“I can almost hear the gears grinding.” She imagined the expression on his face and smiled. “Obviously you know about Julie and now my ex. You know I have a sister, Vicki. I also have a big brother in Arizona. What about you? You must have family somewhere.”
“As a matter of fact, I have three sisters. All younger. All huge pains in the ass.” But his affection resonated in his voice and she could tell he loved them.
“I’m sure my big brother thinks the same thing about me. How old are your sisters?” Despite her worry about their age difference, she wanted to know everything about him. It was probably a mistake, but she’d wondered for so long that she couldn’t pass up the opportunity.
“Robin’s after me. She’s thirty-two. Kelly’s twenty-eight and Gina’s twenty-five. I know,” he said before she could figure out the numbers. “There was a little gap between the girls and me.”
She still didn’t know his age. “How much of a gap…? If you don’t mind me asking.”
“Sixteen years between Gina and me. And in case your math brain is frazzled from all the great sex, that puts me a forty-one.”
Forty-one. And a young forty-one since she knew he just celebrated a birthday. Almost seven years younger than her. Oh God.
Instead of freaking out, she kept to the current subject. “I’ll bet you got stuck babysitting all the time. I know my brother Brian did.”
“It turned into more than babysitting.” His voice turned wistful and the steady thump of rocks st
opped. “My folks died when Gina was five. I grew up real fast.”
Elena lost her smile as her heart broke for him. “Oh, Bill. I’m so sorry.” She sat up, wanting to wrap her arms around him and hold him tight. It sounded as if he’d lost both at the same time, but she didn’t want him to think her nosier than she already was. “Did you have any aunts or uncles to help you with the girls?”
“Nope. Both my parents were only children, which was one of the reasons they wanted a lot of kids. I did have some cousins and they helped out, but the bulk of it was on my shoulders.”
It totally explained why he seemed older than his years. That gray hair had probably come from real life trauma.
“Where are they now?” Elena asked.
“Robin and Kelly are lawyers. Gina’s in her residency in a Kansas hospital.”
“You put two sisters through law school and one through medical school?” She hadn’t meant that to sound so impossible. She could only imagine his nod and she shook her head. “You’re a hero.” God, that must have cost him hundreds of thousands of dollars. He’d clearly sacrificed to give his sisters everything he could.
“Not a hero,” he assured her. “Just bent on making sure they had great educations so they could work in the fields of their choosing and make decent livings.”
How did a woman not fall for a guy like this? “How is it that you’re still single?” It made no sense to her.
He snorted. “Like I said, I put in a lot of hours at work to pay for the girls’ educations. And the right time to pursue the right woman never came along.” She wanted to raise her hand and say, here I am, but he continued. “Until very recently.”
She swallowed, scared at his insinuation. How could he be talking about her? Despite the schoolgirl feelings, she was a grown woman and needed to attack this situation like a mature adult. “This whole thing is kinda crazy, don’t you think?”
