“Good idea. The girls are in bed so I’ve got a little time free.”
After unlocking her door Cassie stepped in and threw her sandals in the corner of the foyer. “Sit down where you want,” she said over her shoulder. “I’ll pour us a glass of wine.”
Ollie meandered over to his bed in the kitchen and plopped down for a nap as Cassie poured two glasses of wine and turned to find that Jack had followed her into the kitchen.
Without a word, he took her into his arms. His mouth moved against hers hungrily, like a thirsty man finding water. His tongue pushed at her lips; she opened them to let him enter, to feel the probing and pulsing of his desires. It hadn’t been that long since they’d fed those needs, but it seemed centuries past. There was no yesterday, no tomorrow. Just this night with all the secrets of the darkness.
When they parted, she had no breath left and lay in his arms trying to breathe, trying to think. Next to her ear, his heart was pounding—the rhythm of the race she was running. He slid his hands over her back, as if afraid she might slip away and disappear. No chance of that.
“I’ve missed you,” he said into her hair.
She didn’t bother to tell him how many times they’d seen each other in the past week or so. She knew just what he meant. “Me, too.”
His hands moved up to her arms, as if they could not stop touching her. “You feel so good.” It was a sigh. A prayer. A plea.
She slipped her arms around his waist, holding him lightly to her. “You feel like you have too many clothes on.”
His eyes looked into hers, fiery coals delving into the depths of her soul, but she just looked back. His needs were alive and burning, threatening to consume them both if she let them. She let her fingers lightly run along the line of his jaw, then linger on his lips for just a moment.
Jack grabbed hold of her hand and brought it back to his lips, kissing each finger slowly. His gaze held her prisoner, not letting her eyes wander, not letting her heart escape his grasp.
“You are so beautiful,” he whispered, his voice raw and hoarse.
“You’re blind,” she said with a laugh. “But charmingly so.”
She tugged at his shirt, pulling it from his shorts so that her hands could roam over his back. His skin was covered with hair that was soft as silk, but was somehow like flint to her touch, sending sparks into the very depth of her. There was a trembling taking over, a tension that was tightening and twisting in her soul, stealing her breath, stealing her reasoning.
His lips came down on hers again, this time rougher, hotter, deeper. The fire was ready to ignite, to devour them whole. His hands were under her T-shirt, although she had no memory of it coming free. His touch was feverish—over her back, sliding down past her waist, coming up to cup her breasts. He knew just how to tease her nipples to make the fire burn stronger, to tighten that knot of pressure until it was ready to burst.
“Maybe we should go into the other room,” she whispered.
“I think we’d better,” he gasped. “Your kitchen floor looks inviting, but we don’t want to disturb Ollie.”
She just laughed and led him past her dozing dog, down the hallway to the bedroom. His arms were around her faster than she could take a breath, and together they fell onto the softness of her bed. It was like a cloud, like a little bit of heaven come down to embrace them.
She had never felt like this, with such raging hunger to lie in a man’s arms. No, it wasn’t just any man’s lovemaking that she needed, but this man’s. She needed Jack at her side, Jack inside her. Jack to make her feel completely alive.
It was a marvel that she could only wonder at, although not too long and not too hard, although thoughts were hard to find. A burning was raging in her soul, making coherency a thing of the past. She let her hands tug at his shirt, then, once that was gone, at his shorts.
But he must have felt she was getting too far ahead in the race, for he pulled at her T-shirt, then loosened her bra. For a moment, it seemed enough. His lips took each tender tip in his mouth, sucking at it until it felt as if he was drawing the very life from her. And she was only too willing to give it.
She’d never felt so beautiful, so anxious to lie naked before another. It was so right, this joining of their bodies and their souls. They were each halves of the same whole. Each part of the same heartbeat.
Jack helped push her shorts off, then her panties, so they could lie together as one. She was ready for him, needing him with an intensity that was almost pain. He took just a moment to slip on protection, then she took him in and felt her soul come alive. They danced as one. Climbing. Shouting. Soaring into the heavens to join the stars in all their splendor.
Then they clung as the world exploded—hearts joined, souls as one. That was all there was. It was more than enough. It was everything.
Ever so slowly, their hearts began to slow, slipping back to normalcy. They’d had their piece of heaven and it was time to return to earth. She just lay in Jack’s arms and wondered how she had ever been happy before. This was happiness. This was living.
And to think, in a few days they’d have their holiday. No one but the two of them for two whole days.
Chapter Eleven
Cassie looked out the window again. No Jack. She guessed she had time once more to check to make sure she had everything. Just in case she missed something on her first few rechecks.
“Food, dish, cookies and your ball.” She looked over at Ollie. “You’ve got everything for your stay with Grandpa and Samantha.”
She resisted the impulse to unpack her case and double-check her things. “What I don’t have, I won’t use,” she told Ollie and glanced out the window again. “It’s not like Jack to be late.”
Just as it wasn’t like her to be late.
Not that his being a little late would have an impact on their plans. They were just going to drive leisurely up to their bedand-breakfast in Union Pier, then have a late dinner. It wasn’t like they were on a schedule.
Her lateness was different. It was a womanly kind of lateness.
“I don’t know, Ollie.” She scratched the top of his head. “I’m probably just worrying about nothing. A woman’s got to be late once or twice in her life.”
That was what was really bugging her. She could almost count on one hand the number of times since college she’d been late with her period. Her periods had been nothing more than a regular nuisance—that is, until she got married. Then it wasn’t long before she began to dread them. Each one became another brushstroke on the sign that broadcast her failure as a woman.
“Damn it, Ollie.” Cassie glared at her watch—six-thirty. “If Jack doesn’t get here soon, then you and I are taking a little jaunt to Harbor Country. Ain’t no use losing the deposit.”
Back when she was a child, people just said that they were going to the lake. Now that the eastern shore of Lake Michigan was so popular, especially with the Chicago people, it was called Harbor Country. It hadn’t changed. The lake and the big sand bluffs were still there. It just made the restaurants and other accommodations more expensive.
“Oh, man.” Cassie wiped at her face with her hands. “I’d better get a hold of myself. Grumpy as I’m getting, Jack’s gonna wish he never bothered to get here at all.” She glared outside. “Assuming he gets here sometime before noon.”
Her period being late was no more a big deal than Jack’s being late. Yeah, there didn’t appear to be a logical reason. But so what? Life wasn’t all logic. And clocks were a human invention, not Mother Nature’s. Jack would get here soon, she’d have her period any day now, and everything would be back to normal.
Suddenly Ollie perked up and ran to the window. When Jack’s minivan pulled into the drive, Ollie’s tail started going a mile a minute.
Just like she’d said, Jack was here and everything was getting back to normal. Truth be told, the only reason she was disappointed was that she knew her period would start sometime during their outing. They’d just have to get a
quickie in and save up their passion for later. Cassie pushed herself up and strolled over to the door.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “Not only did Aunt Hattie double-check the girls but she had to triple-check them and everything they were taking.”
“They really don’t have to take all that much,” Cassie said. “Blue jeans, shorts, a lot of T-shirts and a couple pairs of shoes.”
“Aunt Hattie knows that,” Jack replied. “She just isn’t accepting it.”
Cassie let him inside while Ollie bumped him about the legs.
“Ollie,” Cassie admonished.
“That’s okay.” Jack bent down and scratched behind the dog’s ears. “Me and him are buds.”
The blur that Ollie was making with his tail fully confirmed Jack’s words. “You want to sit down and relax awhile?” she asked.
Jack’s scratching eased down to slow motion. He looked up at her, his eyes dark like the sea in a storm. Cassie felt her stomach tighten and her heart quicken.
“We should get going. Your father’s expecting us.”
“Okay.” Cassie thought of her period—the one that would come sometime this holiday. “But you may be sorry. Good opportunities don’t come by every day, you know.”
“I’ll have to take my chances.”
Jack picked up her suitcase and Ollie’s bag of dog food while she picked up the odds and ends. By the time she got to the van, Ollie and Jack were already settled, so she had to crawl over her dog to get to the passenger seat.
“You take up a lot of room, dog,” she grumbled as she hauled her feet over his back. The big mutt was looking adoringly at Jack, so, sighing, Cassie fastened her seat belt. Jack turned on the ignition and pulled away from the curb.
The traffic was light and they quickly covered the short distance to her father’s house. Turning the corner, they could see him standing in his front yard.
“Don’t worry,” Jack said. “I’ll take the blame.”
“I’m not worried,” she told him. “He’s the gentlest man I ever met.”
“How about me?”
“I don’t want you too gentle,” she replied. “You’re not my father.”
Jack smiled as they coasted to a stop. “I’m sorry,” he called out as he stepped from the car. “I was late picking up Cassie and Ollie.”
“You haven’t trained him very well, Cass,” her father said.
“Give me time.” She climbed out of the van. “It’s not even two months since I first met him.”
“Slowing down in your old age?”
Cassie restrained herself from giving her father a punch, kissing him on the cheek instead. She must be getting old. Actually, what it really was, was shock. Shock at how fast things had gone with her and Jack.
“Hi, Ollie,” her father said to the dog. “Ready for a few days of batching it?”
Ollie wagged his big tail, giving an enthusiastic yes.
“His food is in the bag,” Cassie said, indicating the dog paraphernalia Jack was pulling out of the van. “And there’s a small bag of cookies inside.”
“I’ll take that,” the older man offered, taking the items from Jack.
“I can put it in the house.”
“You guys are already late,” her father reminded. “Get going.” He turned around and walked toward his front door, Ollie walking alongside and wagging his tail.
“I guess he’s saying goodbye,” Cassie said, staring at her dog.
“He wants to get on with his vacation. And so should we.” Jack took her arm. “Let’s go. Time is running out on us.”
In some ways it was and in other ways it was dragging. It was funny how different something could look, based on the angle you were looking at it from.
The sun was setting in spectacular fashion out over the lake as they pulled into the lot of the bed-and-breakfast, a quaint old home high on a bluff overlooking Lake Michigan. The reds and yellows and golds in the sky all seemed to be shouting in celebration, and joy was finally seeping into Cassie’s heart.
“Makes you just want to stand here for the rest of your life and soak it in, doesn’t it?” Jack said softly.
“Yeah.” It would be nice if time could stand still, at least for a moment.
But standing out in the evening wasn’t exactly what she wanted to last forever, and they eventually went inside. The bed and-breakfast was an old house with large bedrooms and furnishings that made it feel like a home.
“Did I tell you Dad’s got another old house he wants me to look at?” she asked Jack as they followed the manager up to the second floor. “He’s really serious about wanting to run a bed-and-breakfast.”
“It’s a lot of work.”
“That’s what I thought, but I figured he knew what he was doing.”
“Ah, but do we?” Jack asked as they stopped in the doorway of their room. In the middle was a four-poster bed—which had to be three feet off the floor.
“Hope you’re in the mood for cuddling,” he said. “I don’t want to get too near the edge. Falling out would hurt.”
She joined his laughter, barely paying attention as the manager pointed out the bathroom and the closet. Once the man was gone, she went into Jack’s arms. “I guess you’d better be a good boy, then.”
“Didn’t we have this discussion already?” he asked, his eyes darkening to match the lake at night. “And weren’t you rather vague as to your definition of ‘good’?”
“Complaints, complaints,” she teased and moved out of his arms to look out the window. Below them the lake was turning a nighttime black. An uneasiness had come over her, a fear that some shadow was looming over them, ready to strike. It was crazy. Probably just the result of fretting about her late period and her even later dinner. She forced the gloom away.
“So, are you hungry?” she asked.
“Starving.”
His smile was so sweet, so genuine. What was there to fear?
Cassie grabbed a jacket and they walked down the street, looking for a restaurant. They passed antique stores and art galleries, ice-cream parlors and tea shops. At the end of the street, they came to a small tavern with a deck out back that looked down over the lake. It fit their mood perfectly, so they went inside, taking seats at a wrought-iron table at the edge of the deck.
The air was cool, but the metal of the chairs and table still held the warmth of the sun. Just as their friendship—all right, more than friendship—held a warmth that kept her heart cozy even when life got a little chilly.
Once they’d given their orders, Cassie gazed down at the lake, lights reflected from the town glittering like diamonds on its surface. She felt her tensions seep away and peace take their place.
“I’ve got something for you,” Jack said.
She turned toward him, ready with a joke, when she saw his face was serious. “Oh?”
He slid a piece of paper across the table toward her. “We got an answer from the posting about your father,” he replied.
“What did it say?” Sudden fears surrounded her. She took the paper but was afraid to pick it up.
He shrugged. “There’re not a lot of details, but it seems your father wasn’t trying to hide something he’d done, just who he was.”
She didn’t understand; her eyes locked on to the little piece of paper before her.
“He grew up in eastern South Dakota,” Jack went on. “Part Dakota Sioux and one-hundred-percent poor. He moved to the city, joined the navy and changed his name, leaving his old self in the past.”
Cassie felt stunned. “That’s it?” she asked and picked up the paper.
He nodded. “In essence.”
She glanced at the printed copy of an E-mail message Jack had gotten earlier that day. It said pretty much the same thing that he’d just told her. She put the paper down and sighed. “So that was it? After all this worrying and fretting and stewing, he was just a teenager who was ashamed of his parents?”
“I don’t know if that was it exactly,” Jack continue
d softly. “I think he just hated the poverty and all that came with it. When you’re young, it seems so easy to escape. Just run and don’t look back.”
She reached out for his hand, not certain what was behind his words, but knowing something was.
“It’s what I did, to some extent,” he said, and looked away for a long moment. “I tried to leave the hills behind.”
“But you didn’t change your name.”
“Kind of.” He shrugged. “It’s really Jimmy Jack Merrill.”
“My real name is Cassandra,” she said. “I never use it, but that doesn’t mean I’m hiding from anything. It means I have more sense than my parents did when it comes to names.”
He just laughed and his hold on her hand tightened. “So you aren’t upset?”
“About my father or about your real name being Jimmy Jack?” She looked into his eyes and knew that honesty would come easily with him. “I don’t know what I feel about my father. It’s not what I expected. I’m not sure what it all means to me.”
Their dinner came just then. Jack made small talk as they ate, but Cassie found her mind wandering. She wasn’t really upset, she knew that much. Mostly she was conscious of a sense of disappointment. Not because her father had kept his past a secret, but that learning all this meant nothing to her. She had been hoping that somehow she would find some message in it. Something she could hold on to. Something that would wipe away the lie she’d been living with for the past twenty years.
“Want to walk along the beach after dinner?” Jack asked.
“That would be great.”
And it would be. That was just what she needed—Jack’s gentle presence to let the past flow away from her and go back to its sleep. She would concentrate on now and tomorrow—on the special time they had together here—and not try to find answers in riddles posed by the distant past.
Maybe she was growing wise as she was growing older.
* * *
“There’s a shelter at the end of this path!” Cassie shouted. “Let’s go.”
A Father's Gift Page 19
