Leoti (11 page)

Before him, against a dark blue, star filled sky was the largest full moon he’d ever seen.
It was beautiful
. The wind was stronger than he imagined it to be but the chill didn’t bother him. He remained transfixed under that moon. He’d love to play his guitar and serenade her. He went to his car and got it. Then returned to the steps and sat. Carlton thrummed a tune then thought of a song for her. One he could use in his proposal. He smiled and began to hum the chorus.

He was going to ask her to marry him. Fuck it. Why not?

Chapter Six

Earlier he’d been gentle, careful of her. He wanted to make love to her and she was just as insistent, but he knew her body wasn’t healed. So he’d provided the setting and hoped for the invitation. Sharing the spa tub with her had been heavenly. He’d built it for Ella, to help with her healing. Leoti took to it just as she did.

Elu gazed down at her. She slept. He studied her beauty. In particular he focused on the scar to the side of her face. He’d put some more dandy root on it. She’d have a scar but it would never detract from her beauty. Elu continued to study her face. She had a small nose with nostrils that flared slightly with each measured breath she took. Her dark locks, now frizzy and coarse from the steam and water, had drawn her hair up shorter. Still the natural curl and her wavy roots made him want to sink his fingers into her hair.

Elu eased the sheet down.

There was a tiny mole above her left breast. And her breasts were the second loveliest feature on her body, her smile being the first. He brushed his lips across the mole very gently to not disturb her. She stirred but didn’t wake.

His wife was more like family to him. She had been his best friend’s sister; he’d known her since they were kids. She had a special part of him that he’d never deny. But Leoti was different. She blew into his world and within a matter of two short weeks he’s felt more than he had in four years. It was true. He loved her. And that saddened him. Every person he’s loved has left him except for Po. And if he loved deeply they left sooner.

She was his goddess and she didn’t know it. Her memory loss gave her such a sweet unwavering innocence he’d do anything to preserve it. And that was a selfish thought. She was entitled to her past as they all were. And he needed to help her recover it.

Elu pressed a kiss between her brows and she smiled in her sleep. She
belonged
to him. He pulled the sheet further down. The triangular thatch of hair over her pussy was exposed. He could bear it no more. Elu glanced up the line of her fine body and confirmed she was indeed sleep. He should let her lay, be patient with his desires. But she awakened the bear inside of him.

Parting her thighs he moved to gain access between. He heard her sigh as his actions forced her out of her restful sleep. “Elu?” she questioned him softly. Her hand reached between her parted knees and stroked the back of his head. He palmed her pussy and stretched out across the bed with his legs hanging off the edge. He lifted hers and put them both over his shoulders. He didn’t have to guide her in position. She scooted down the mattress giving him full access to his heart’s desire. The first swipe of his tongue left her gasping and squeezing his head between her thighs. Elu was not deterred. He sucked and licked the tender jewel between the folds of her sex. Using his lips and tongue he controlled her passion and like a good girl she loosened the tightness of her thighs and parted her knees.

He drank her essence, with his tongue exploring, running over the inner pink lips of her sex. And she released the sexiest cry of pleasure to ever escape a woman in his possession. Elu sucked at her clitoris and her ass bucked up off the sheets. Gently he pushed her down by the abdomen. He loved her with his mouth. And when it got even better for him he parted the lips of her pussy and lapped at her core with the full width and length of his tongue. Elu thrust one finger inside her, then two. She was delicious, he thought, and ever-so ready. He groaned aloud, not sure how much longer he could withstand the torture of only tasting her passion and not unleashing his own. It took some doing but he forced himself to withdraw and look upon her, writhing, her legs and feet dropping off his shoulders, spread wide. Elu pressed his palm to her exposed pussy and smiled. “Go with it, Leoti,” he whispered, stroking her through the last of her orgasmic quakes.

She was ready.

Elu moved to a kneeling position and guided her legs around his waist as he entered her. Leoti gazed up at him with half-opened eyes, wild hair, and beautifully parted swollen lips. This time he was possessive and strong. He delivered massive thrusts while holding to her hips to make sure she could withstand the force. And it felt so glorious his control slipped. He fell upon her, careful of his weight. He gently kissed her neck. He could feel the hot wetness coming from between her legs, the sticky sweetness of her climax beneath him as he rocked his cock in and out of her sweltering hot channel. His head lifted and her hand went to his lips. He drew one of her fingers inside his mouth, sucking it. He wished to keep his cock in her, buried longer. Releasing her finger he looked down at her. He kissed her shoulder then up to her neck, lowering his body down to hers and trailing his kisses to her mouth. She returned his passion, no longer struggling to fight, and he entwined her tongue with his own. With another powerful thrust forward he forced air from her lungs. His sweet, sweet Leoti moaned, turning from his kiss and writhing in pleasure beneath him as he gripped her hips pumping inch after inch into her. He sucked in a deep breath after the force of his pleasure shot through his cock and paralyzed his lungs. Temporarily dazed from the rush he drew back, and then thrust into her again, and again, and again.

Grunting he held on to one of her hips, riding her hard until their bodies were hot with fever and covered with sweat. Her pussy began to coil with tension around his cock and release. Every time he thrust into her, her breasts bounced softly. And she finally screamed out in pleasure when the pounding became too much, throwing her hips up at him. Elu gave her a powerful thrust and released. He nearly blacked out from the pleasure as he poured his seed into her. Wanting to fill her up, and coat her womb. Secretly wishing that the magic of Leoti came with this union and made her his always.

“Elu, you’re hurting me,” she said softly beneath him.

In his exhaustion he had collapsed his weight on her. Immediately he rose. “I’m sorry,” he kissed her face, “I’m sorry.”

He pulled out of her but she came into his arms, snuggling his chest like lovers do. She yawned, her breath warm and sweet against his chest as she settled back down into sleep.

“Let me clean you.” He tried to rise.

“No, I want you in me,” she said softly drifting, “I like it.”

He smiled and hugged her. Hugged her tight and allowed himself to slip, to sleep with her.

****

Elu woke. He climbed out of bed. She moaned and rolled over. Grabbing his robe he covered his nakedness and crept from the room. The place was still but he couldn’t sleep. The journal haunted him. He wished he’d never picked it up. That he never kept it from her.

“I’ve wronged her,” he confessed.

Po dropped his head on his paws and stared. Elu could do nothing but sigh. He went in the kitchen and reached above the cabinets. Drawing down the dreaded journal that threatened everything, he considered dropping it in the trash. Po rose from his corner and walked over. The dog sniffed the journal. He knew the animal detected her scent.

“Yes, it’s hers.”

Po stared at him with those ghostly blue eyes.

“I know friend, but I love her. I couldn’t bring myself to let her go so I kept it,” he said holding the journal to his chest. Elu ventured out onto the cool front porch of the cabin and sat on the porch swing. What was he to do? Should he wake her and hand it over. Should he toss it and let her memory come back after they’ve spent enough time to solidify their love. Was he insane for trying to control their fate? Yes he was. Still he hated the truth and how it threatened them both. He untied the ribbon and started to open pages when Po barked.

He frowned to see his dog barking at him. “I just want to know who she is.”

Po lurched forward and snatched the journal from his hands before he committed the grave sin of reading it. “Po stop!” The dog raced off the porch across the front lawn. Elu rose in shock. Po stopped and looked back at him with the journal in his mouth.

“Po! Damn it, bring it back!” he cried out in a loud whisper.

“Elu?”

He whirled. She stood behind the screen door in another of his robes that swallowed her. She stared at him curiously.

“Leoti?”

“What’s going on? Why are you out here?” she pushed open the screen door and walked out. Po stood there in the night watching them in the distance, her journal in his mouth. “What is that? What does Po have in his mouth?”

Elu looked at what was supposed to be man’s best friend. He sighed, caught. No escaping the truth. Leoti walked out.

“Po! Come here baby.”

Po hesitated then started walking toward them.

“It’s something I found that belongs to you,” Elu confessed.

Josie looked down. A pink leather journal was in the dog’s mouth. She stooped and he turned it over. “This belongs to me?”

“I’m sorry, I should have given it to you when I found it.”

Josie rose. She studied the journal then opened it. “You kept this from me?”

“I can explain.”

“How long have you had this?” The hurt in her voice cut through him. The shame in his heart made it hard to look into those eyes he loved so much.

“How long, Elu?”

“Just today, when we were at the cabin, I picked it up.”

“What was Po doing with it?” her eyes stretched in horror. “Did you read it?”

“No! I didn’t.”

“Then why did you keep it from me?”

“Fear, I guess.”

“Fear?”

“Fear of losing you, to those memories,” he said looking down at it.

Josie blinked away her tears of hurt and stepped over to the porch swing taking a seat. “How could you betray me like that? I trusted you,” she said. “What was all that talk about accepting my memory back. That we could get through it. Just talk? And you had this when we... when we—.”

“I love you, Leoti. Look at me. I’m human. I want you to be mine and I got scared at the thought of losing you. I’m human.”

She sat back in the swing. Her hand went over the journal several times. She looked up at him with glistening pupils. “I’m scared too,” she held it out to him. “Get rid of it!”

“What?”

“Put it someplace safe. I can’t look at it now. I can’t look at you now.” She rose from the swing, forced the journal on him, and went back inside. Elu winced when the porch door smacked shut. He looked down at the journal then Po. “You were trying to keep me from making a bigger mistake, weren’t you friend?”

Po just stared. She didn’t want to read the journal. What did that mean? It was a start, a very good one. Maybe she wanted a life with him after all.

Josie climbed into bed, her chest tight with worry, fear, and anger over what he’d done. But even more so dread, of what that journal would say. She heard Elu come in the house and move around the living room. Soon he was standing over the bed. She had her back to him and was crying.

“I don’t want to lose your trust. Forgive me.”

Removing his robe he climbed in bed, nude. She couldn’t deny the warmth and comfort his body would bring. Unable to face him she scooted back instead and allowed him to spoon her. She shared his fear. The journal scared her. What if she learned she was a terrible person or had done terrible things? What if she was married after all and had betrayed her husband with this man she felt such passion for? What if her memory returned and she didn’t want Elu and Po as much she desperately wanted them now? She was angry at Elu for hiding the journal but grateful for the protection. Feeling him kiss her tear stained cheek she closed her eyes as his arm came around her and held her tight. They’d face it all in the morning.

Morning

Josie rolled in the sheets and reached for him. He was gone. Her eyes slowly opened. She took a deep sigh as she swung her feet over the side of the bed and slowly stood up. Wrapping the sheet around her body she headed in search of Elu. He wasn’t in the kitchen and he wasn’t on the back deck. She walked out to the front porch and found Po.

“Hey boy, where’s Elu?” she asked. Po turned almost like he understood what she was asking and raced away. Josie stepped out into the moist earth barefoot and followed. The sheet was the only thing shielding her from the brisk morning, and she wore nothing underneath. It made no difference. There were no cabins or people near his land. Their isolation was complete. She walked around the cabin and froze. There was Elu. He lifted the handle to the axe and brought it down on the wood splintering it in half. Dressed in a plaid shirt and faded blue jeans he tossed the wood pieces and put another on the stump to break apart.

“Hi,” she said.

He looked up. A smile formed immediately. “What are you doing out here…like that?”