“Absolutely,” Rosa agreed.
“To conclude this wondrous occasion, we have profiterolles au chocolat.”
“That sounds wonderful. What is it?”
“A cream puff filled with crème patisserie, topped with warm chocolate sauce, flavored with Grand Marnier and cognac, and garnished with fresh whipped cream and toasted almonds.”
“I can hardly wait.”
“Be seated and we can begin making love to our palates.”
He held her chair and Rosa sat down. “When did you have time to do all this?”
“Didn’t I tell you I was a magician?”
“No, I mean, I know you have a certain paranormal attraction for the opposite sex. There must be something magical about that. However, a master chef is not on the list.”
Rosa tasted her meal. “This is delicious,” she said. “We look like we’re celebrating something. Are we?”
“It’s Tuesday. We’re here. That’s enough to celebrate.” He poured wine into her glass, his eyes fixed on hers and not the wineglass. Yet not a drop was spilled.
“I’ll take that,” she said, raising her glass to her lips. She, too, didn’t take her eyes off Adam. Throughout the meal they seemed to play the sex game, both of them looking at each other as if the food on their plates wasn’t as delicious as each other would be.
“I saw you writing today. Are you filing a story on the shoot?”
“I thought I might.”
“You didn’t think it was boring?”
“Boring?”
“I mean compared to stories you’re used to covering, world events, presidential inaugurations, wars.”
“You think your work is boring?”
“No, but I don’t expect to see it on the front page, either.”
“It won’t make the front page unless someone dies. It will make the fashion pages where it will mean something.
Light dawned in Rosa’s brain. “You’re doing this for Vida? Her collection?”
He winked instead of nodding.
“That’s wonderful. I take it she doesn’t know about it?”
“I didn’t mention it, but when I saw Tommie and the clothes, I got the idea.”
“And since you always have your pen and paper at hand…” She left the sentence hanging. Adam didn’t use paper and pencil. He had a small electronic device that he typed into. “Does she know?”
He nodded. “While Tommie was modeling her creations, I interviewed her.”
“Adam, this is wonderful. It’ll help her so much.”
“So that’s what we’re celebrating…Vida’s new company.”
“Then why are we celebrating for her? Shouldn’t she be here?”
Adam cut a piece of his duck and ate it. “I believe she and Mike are having their own celebration.”
Rosa’s ears suddenly went white hot as she pictured them having their own private dinner with dessert to come. “You know Mike proposed to her?”
“She told me. All I can say is, it’s about time.”
“I suppose it is.”
“What’s the matter?” Adam asked.
“Nothing.” Rosa put her chin in her hand and stared across the short table into his eyes.
“If you keep that up, this dinner is going to be ruined.”
“I know,” she said, holding on to the last syllable.
Adam moved first. Soft music played in the background, but Rosa only just heard it when he got up. Everything seemed to move in slow motion. Him leaving his chair, the few steps it took to get to her. Adam offered his hands. Rosa put hers in them and stood up. Without thinking about it, she leaned into him, her arms following the curve of his shoulders and closing around his neck.
They began swaying to the music. Adam danced her about the room. Rosa lay her head on his shoulder and let herself be lost in the feel of him. They danced well together. She anticipated his steps, following him flawlessly, matching his movements one by one. Adam’s hands caressed her back, sliding upward to her neck and down to her waist, each time going slightly lower than the time before. Rosa’s eyes closed at the delirium of the moment. Her breath came in small, controlled puffs. Adam’s arms were strong and tender at the same time. She felt loved, her entire body sensitive to his touch.
His lips touched her temple, then her forehead. His mouth lingered over her brow. Rosa felt spirals of sensation radiating within her. Need bubbled up and gripped her. She’d anticipated this moment all evening and now that it was here, she wanted it to go on a little longer. She wanted to hold on to the memory of each touch, the feel of Adam’s fingers against her sensitive skin, the smell of his aftershave, the silkiness of the fabric of his jacket. She wanted to capture the moment as if she were snapping a photograph that she could pull out and revisit at will. Only this one would be placed in the vault of her heart.
Rosa lost count of the times they circled the room or they could have stood in one spot; she was unaware of time passing, of the music moving from one note to the next. Her total being was consumed by the man holding her in his arms. She looked up at him. His eyes were dark with need. His head descended. Rosa went up on her toes to meet his mouth. Their touch was like the spark that started the universe, exciting, bright, explosive. Adam didn’t try to deepen the kiss. He teased her lips, lifting his mouth and joining it with hers again and again. The kiss was more tender than anything Rosa had ever felt. Yet their joining was no less flammable.
She could feel the burn, the need to have him, the arousal of her body as it craved his touch, his invasion, the sweet surrender of intimacy. Her arms went higher on his shoulders, her body curved into his as if a well had been created in her exact shape. Adam crushed her to him and his mouth devoured hers. His tongue pushed past her teeth and swept inside her mouth. Rosa moaned at the whirring sound in her ears, like holding a seashell up and listening to the ocean. Only this tide was of her own creation.
Without her realizing it, her feet left the floor. Adam lifted her. Like a ballet dancer, her legs came up and he cradled her body while his mouth continued to work magic over hers. They broke the kiss and Rosa took in a huge breath. She hugged Adam as he walked to the stairs and carried her up to the loft.
She slid down him. For a moment they looked at each other. Rosa reached up and pushed his suit jacket from his shoulders. It fell to the floor. In the distance the music still played, but she could barely hear it. Her fingers opened the buttons on his shirt and her hands flattened against his moist skin. Heat generated inside him, too. Rosa rubbed her fingers across his nipples, feeling them rise into hard nubs. Adam lowered his head and kissed her naked shoulders. His mouth seemed to sizzle on her skin and it felt so good. Her knees threatened to buckle as his tongue wet her heated skin.
Then Rosa felt the zipper on her dress opening. Adam slowly pulled it down. She could hardly breathe. Her fingers fumbled with his belt. She got it open, then lowered his zipper. As each article of clothing was removed, their bodies entwined, skin touched skin, heat connected with heat, mouths burned.
By the time Adam lowered her to the bed, her body was ready for his, but he wasn’t about to satisfy her yet. He kissed her shoulders and traveled down her body. Tiny moans issued from her of their own volition, the outward expression of the pleasure that seemed to spawn in every cell of her body.
Briefly he stopped at her breasts. As he’d done with her lips, he teased her nipples. Rosa sucked in air as waves of rapture gripped her. Grabbing handfuls of bedding, she held on, letting Adam bring her live body to white-hot sensation. At her belly, his tongue dipped into her navel. Rosa never thought there was any sensation in her navel, but when his tongue circled it, she felt a pull, a huge craving, all the way through her body.
“Adam, now.” Rosa heard a strangled voice call Adam’s name. It was her voice, but she barely recognized it. She was vaguely aware of him tearing open a condom and covering himself before his warmth returned to her, covering her.
In a flash, he parted her
legs and joined with her. Rosa cried out at the waves of delirium that bargained with her senses. Together they danced the primal dance. Adam filled her completely. She matched his rhythm, joining and unjoining in a cycle so sweet, so essential to her survival that she’d wouldn’t be able to breathe without completing the circle. Adam rode her, wildly increasing the pace.
His hands stretched with hers, raising them over her head as every inch of their bodies intimately touched each other. Rosa writhed beneath him, working without thought, only intent on giving, giving back to him the immense sense of wonder that he gave to her with each filling. His body seemed to pump life into her, complete her, show her in the most personal way that this was what she was made for, that this was the meaning of life. The language was loud and clear and Rosa didn’t doubt it for a moment.
And then she felt it, felt the waves pounding inside her and their imminent need to reach satisfaction. She could feel their rawness, their hunger, their strength gathering and building, climbing higher and higher until they exploded. Rosa shattered into a million pieces—each infinitesimal segment its own erogenous zone, a hedonistic incision that writhed with pleasure.
Adam shouted and together they passed through the portal to absolute rapture. Rosa clawed at the air, grasping it and dragging it into her lungs. Her heart pounded in her ears, cutting out any other sound. No on had ever made love to her like that before. She knew the experience was unique, that no one could have replaced Adam. She loved him. She wanted to shout it, to tell him that she didn’t think she could exist without him. She never wanted him to make love with anyone else, never wanted to leave this room, this bed, this moment. She wanted him completely, his body joined to hers, for always.
Chapter 11
Rosa opened her eyes. She reached for Adam. The bed was still warm where his body had lain. Rosa stretched, lounging in the light of morning. Her body hummed with the aftermath of their lovemaking. Adam had held her, stroking her breasts as if the action somehow added to his satisfaction. She could still feel his hands. Her body was suddenly drenched in heat.
Pushing the covers back, Rosa got out of bed and headed for the shower. She’d better get moving before she was so aroused she’d have to go and find Adam. He’d left before daybreak to get home before Joel woke up.
Hot water sluiced over her, running through her hair and down her back. Quickly Rosa washed herself, deciding to go for a ride. It had been a while since she’d been out in the morning. It would be good to take her camera and go into the hills again. Each time she saw the landscape it seemed different, like some secret was being unveiled before her. In minutes she was dressed and on horseback. She hadn’t forgotten to take the rifle that Adam and Bailey insisted she carry. Since Rosa had had to use it once for real, she felt safer with it.
She hadn’t gone more than a hundred yards before she saw another rider on horseback. Instantly she knew it wasn’t Bailey. He was too small. She recognized Joel. Turning, she rode toward him.
“What are you doing here alone?” she asked.
“I’m all right. I was just practicing.”
“Let me see. Ride over there.” She pointed toward a clearing.
Joel pulled on the reins and the horse turned left. Clicking his tongue the way Rosa had heard Bailey do, Joel began to move at odds with the horse. It was a common mistake. He looked back at her after a moment. She rode next to him and stopped.
“You need to move with the horse. You’re moving against it. Watch me.” She demonstrated what she meant, then came back to him. “Each time you moved, the horse went one way and you went the other. After a short while you’d be in pain.”
He nodded, taking direction well. “Let me try it.” He rode again, this time working with the horse. Rosa smiled.
“That’s it,” she called, and caught up with him. “Keep doing it that way and soon it’ll be natural.”
“Where are you going?” he asked. “Can I come?”
“I was just going to go up in the hills and take some pictures. You can come. I won’t go that far.” She adjusted her plans for him. With only a few lessons under his wing, he needed to take short rides.
They rode for about twenty minutes and Rosa stopped to rest. She wasn’t as close to the mountains as she’d like to be, but this was a good spot to stop.
“Mind if I take some pictures?” she asked.
He shook his head. Rosa began snapping.
“Do you want me to do anything special?”
“Not yet,” she called. “Just relax and do what you want.”
She took several of him mounted on the horse. Then he slid to the ground and she snapped more.
“Are you just going to take my picture all day?” he asked as she was changing the film in the camera.
“Don’t you like having your picture taken?” She glanced up at him with a smile.
“Sometimes, but you must have used up ten rolls of film already. Only my mom used to take that many pictures.”
It hit Rosa with the suddenness of an avalanche. Maureen had been a photographer. Of course she’d take pictures of her son.
“Joel, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to bring back bad memories.”
“It’s all right. I think about her a lot. I never talk about her because Aunt Lillian wouldn’t.”
Rosa sat down on a huge rock. Joel took a seat beside her. “Do you want to tell me about her? I promise I’ll listen and if you don’t want me to say anything I won’t.”
He waited awhile. Rosa stopped pointing the camera at him, although the look on his face was so poignant she really wanted to capture it on film. But that’s when he began to talk.
“She laughed a lot. It was only the two of us…and sometimes Adam would come by. But mainly we did everything together. She liked to take pictures and she taught me how to compose them in the viewfinder and develop them in the darkroom.”
“That’s wonderful,” Rosa said. “Maybe you’ll be a photographer, too.”
He didn’t react and Rosa thought it still hurt him to think of her and her cameras. She looked down at the Leica she held. It had belonged to Maureen.
“She would tell me everything. We used to visit all the monuments in D.C. and she’d explain why all those people were important. I really liked the FBI building. They have a whole roomful of guns. You should see some of them.”
Rosa smiled at his enthusiasm. She had been to the FBI building and she knew the room he talked about. “Maybe we can both go one day, and you can explain it to me.”
She got a smile for that.
“Course there were things she made me do that I didn’t like. She said it was good for me.”
“Was that like doing homework and eating your vegetables?”
“How did you know?”
“I had the same thing when I was twelve. And you know what?”
“What?”
“She was right.”
He frowned. “I’ll do it. But I don’t like it.”
Rosa laughed. Joel did, too. She was glad the moment of sadness in his voice was gone.
Joel didn’t say anything for a while. Then he spoke. “Mom was a good cook. She loved to make desserts. And I loved to eat them. She got on this kick once of making muffins. She bought a lot of muffin pans. And something she called a muffin top pan. It would only bake the top of the muffin. Every night she’d make a different type of muffin, lemon ones, bran ones, raisin muffins, blueberry. I liked the blueberry ones best.”
“She sounds like a wonderful woman,” Rosa said. “You’re very lucky to have had a mother who loved you so much.”
“I’m lucky to have Adam, too,” he said.
A tiny trickle of jealousy snaked through Rosa. Maureen must have been very special to Adam for her to trust her son to him. And for Joel to love Adam so much. Rosa knew that kind of love didn’t come from a casual relationship, but from years of being there, from attending the high points of a child’s life, from both the giving and the receiving of love. Her own
family had that kind of love. She was the youngest of the group, and she’d never experienced the hardship that her brothers had. She was the recipient of all the love they could shower on her, but she also knew how that wasn’t true for every child. Joel was indeed lucky to have Adam.
“Adam came to tell me,” Joel began. He glanced up at Rosa and down again at the ground. “I knew right away that something had happened. I knew she was dead. The look on Adam’s face told me that before he said a word. I was at camp in Virginia, not the one Aunt Lillian sent me to. Another one. We were going to learn a new diving move that day. Then I saw Adam coming and I knew.”
Rosa felt helpless. Joel’s voice was steady, but she could feel the emotion underlying it. All she could do was sit with him. She couldn’t touch him, cradle him, or even offer him a supporting hand. He wouldn’t welcome it. He’d been surviving with his pain too long. But he needed understanding. He needed someone to listen, and for the time being, she was that person.
“I didn’t cry,” Joel said. “I didn’t feel anything, only this weird numbness like I’d suddenly been stung all over by bees.”
“Joel, have you never cried?”
He looked at her and slowly shook his head. “We left that day. I stayed with Adam. He took care of everything, I think. The station may have done something, even Aunt Lillian, no one ever told me. Then we went back to the apartment. I wanted to go there and Adam took me.”
Rosa wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not. After her mother died, they all went back to the house where she’d been such a live person. Memories lurked in every corner, behind every shadow, but they were all adults. Joel had been ten years old.
“Then the custody fight began and I had to go live with Aunt Lillian. I didn’t want to, but Adam explained the reasons.”
“You understood them?”
He nodded. Rosa wanted to make sure that if the courts forced him to return to his aunt, Joel would understand. Although at twelve, he was old enough to make the decision for himself. Yet she knew you could never be sure what a judge would do.
Last Night's Kiss Page 19
