My Heart Can't Tell You No (32 page)

“Joe! What are you doing?!”

He stopped his downward movement, hesitating a moment as if indecisive, then changed his position until he was lying next to her. His hand stayed where he was, making her stomach knot again, making her feel more alive with each bursting sensation than she had ever been before. His fingers played her like his well-tuned instrument, but her ability to respond as freely as usual was restrained because of her position on her stomach. She wanted to move against him more, for him to be able to feel more of her, but if she turned she couldn’t feel the pleasure of his mouth on her shoulders and back.

“I hope this means your ready, because I am,” he whispered against her neck.

There was a low fierceness in his voice as he pulled off her panties, but when he moved to lie above her and spread her legs, she stiffened again under his touch and tried to get up.

“
Joe
! No! Don’t!”

“
Shhh
.” His hand stroked her hair as he kissed the side of her mouth.

“No—please, Joe, don’t!”

“Maddie.” He moved slightly so he could look at her more closely. “Baby, I wouldn’t hurt you.” His voice tried to soothe her, but she didn’t want any part of what she thought he was about to do. She had heard stories in school, and the thought filled her with fright. “Maddie, you’ve been married for four years now—how can you remain so naive? You’re twenty-one years old. You’ve got to know more than you let on.”

The mention of her marriage brought her guilt and anger that he could be so cruel and insensitive.

“Goddamn you, Joe! You keep your mouth off my marriage! And about my age! If you remember—you didn’t have me in the back seat of your dad’s car at fifteen like you did Lena! So forgive me for not being as accomplished as she was. But I have no desire to try out the whole football team before settling for just one player!”

“No, I had you in the
front
seat
of
my
car at
sixteen
. And who in the hell told you I had her in the back seat of my Dad’s car at fifteen?”

“Little pitchers have big ears! My brothers and their best friend didn’t always keep their voices down when they bragged about their conquests and what a fool John was for still being a virgin at sixteen.”

“We thought he
was
a fool. He had plenty of opportunity with Jackie’s old girlfriend.”

“Maybe he had a little more conscience than you and Jackie. I have little doubt that he did. Look at you—right now! You’re not hesitating to take one of your best friend’s wives! Maybe when I get out of here I better go warn Beth!”

She shouldn’t have brought it up. She wouldn’t have if he hadn’t been so quick to defend his beloved blonde-haired beauty, Lena. Divorced for over three years? He was still as much in love with Lena as the day he had taken her four years ago. The anger in his face sent a chill through Maddie as he quickly moved over top of her again. She felt his hand move under her waist, jerking her up until she was dangling from his hand like a rag doll. He took a cushion and shoved it beneath her stomach then he pulled her up on her knees.

“Don’t bother. You’re enough to satisfy me for a while. When I get the urge again I’ll be long gone, and you won’t have to worry about your brother’s wife.”

She felt him throbbing behind her as she tried to dive away, but he was quick to lean over her and wrap his arm around her waist. His other arm also came around her, but his hands moved in different directions; one cupping her breast under her T-shirt as the other moved down to the soft patch of hair below her stomach.

“Joe!
Don’t
!” she growled through clenched teeth.

“Don’t fight me, Maddie. Jesus Christ, did I ever hurt you before?!”

He held her against him, front to back as they both were on their knees—her breathing ragged from trying to escape; his deep and irregular from the need to touch her. His mouth came down on her neck, gently kissing the sensitive area of her shoulder as his left hand caressed her breast, making her relax slightly. His fingers slowly felt the softness below, moving lower to make her need him again as much as he needed her, continuing until she pressed back against his chest and moved her hand over her shoulder to feel the face behind her. He knew how to play her; he always did; so well that she was beginning not to care how he took her as long as it would be complete. The intensity of his member riding up between her thighs, sliding between them, was driving her nearly mad. Her hips were moving under the guidance of his hand, making her own hands move to his hips and thighs, the only parts available to her touch, as he continued to send her to a point near fainting.

“Do something!!” What she tried to say in an irritated command, came out in a velvety moan.

“Is that an order?” His voice was very husky as he breathed into her ear.

“
Please
.”

He didn’t hesitate. She was mildly aware of his hands on her calves as he spread her open before moving up behind her again, but what she suspected to be a painful and shameful experience, surprised her as he filled her in a very familiar area in an unfamiliar way, sending a deep moan from her that she tried to press into the cushion. It wasn’t what she had expected at all, and the relief that he wasn’t seeking something she wasn’t willing to give relaxed her as he moved against her. His hand moved up her sides as he leaned over her again, his muscled chest against the tender flesh of her back as his mouth moved to her ear. His tongue darted over it and traced the delicate shell.

“Do you want me to stop? Am I hurting you?” His question brought only another deep moan from her.

His hand cupped her chin and turned her face toward him, kissing her with combined tenderness and passion as his body moved slowly against hers. She was experiencing sensations she hadn’t known before, pressures in her body from an entirely different direction, absorbing them completely until there was no room left for any more and they overflowed. Her squirming twists beneath Joe brought him against her with erratic strokes, forceful strokes that released them both. He stayed completely still on top of her, then slowly moved to lie next to her. Maddie opened her eyes and looked at him. How could she have doubted him? She should have known she was safe with him, that he wouldn’t hurt her. His eyes were closed and his breathing still irregular, but his hand moved until it found hers, gently grasping it. As she waited for her heart to slow, still feeling small aftershocks roll through her, she watched him; a slow labored movement pushed her until she lay with her head on his shoulder and her leg draped between his. She reached up to take his hand in hers after he pulled the blanket over them again. His breathing was turning to a heavy steadiness, making her think he had fallen asleep, but his fingers curled around hers.

“I told you I wouldn’t hurt you.”

“Yes. You did.”

“And you didn’t believe me.”

“I didn’t . . . .”

“No. Let me finish for you. I think I’ve heard this line from you before. You didn’t know.” His chuckle warmed her. “Are you still cold?”

“You tell me.” She smiled against his shoulder as she ran her foot up his leg.

“Your feet are blocks of ice.” He caught her foot between his calves in a gesture to warm her foot.

“They almost always are.” She was surprised by his action. Bob usually jerked away quite rapidly when coming in contact with her cold feet. She looked up at him, watching him silently for a moment before the silence finally hit her. The sound that had been pounding in her ears for days was finally missing. She sat up slowly, looking around suspiciously, not willing to trust her own ears yet. Remembering the window, she reached for her underwear and replaced them quickly before running to look outside. “It’s stopped raining!”

Oh, the joy that surged through her! It had stopped raining! Now it wouldn’t be very long before she could return to her son!
God
, how she missed him! But when she turned back to look at Joe, his apathy dimmed her brightness.

“Hand me my cigarettes,” he told her, by now sitting up again and leaning back against the couch with the blanket over his waist and legs.

“Didn’t you hear me?!” She quickly picked up his cigarettes and dropped them on his lap then went to the kitchen and pulled on her jeans. “I said it’s stopped raining.”

“I heard ya.” He lit his cigarette while he remained sitting. “It’s been stopping all morning. But it doesn’t last longer than half an hour.”

“Well that’s got to mean something! Doesn’t it?!” She was pulling on her socks.

“It means it’ll be a few days of raining yet, then a few more days before the river crests, like I told you before.”

“Well I don’t care! I can finally get out of here!!” She pulled on her shoes and ran for the door and fled across the lawn to the road.

God
! It felt glorious to be outside in the fresh air without that damn rain pounding down against her. She ran down the road, then to the field beyond, stopping to look over at the house across the roaring creek. The small bridge she had crossed three days earlier was nowhere in sight.

“Hello!” came a voice from across the creek.

Maddie looked over to the house, seeing a woman of about sixty standing on the porch. She remembered her, they had been neighbors.

“Hello, Mrs. Snyder! It’s me—Maddie Baker!”

“Little Maddie?!”

“Yes! Mrs. Snyder! Does your phone work?!”

“No! It’s been out for days! Is there something wrong?”

“My son! He’s at Mom’s house! I’m worried!” She glanced back toward the house she was staying in. “I sort of got stranded up here and separated from him!”

““I’m sorry, Maddie! I wish I could help. But he should be all right, Honey. Your mom’s house is so high from the water you’d need an ark if it ever got that high.”

“I know.” Maddie shrugged her shoulders at the woman, knowing it was useless to try to get into a conversation while the creek roared so loudly.

“Is everything all right up there?!” Mrs. Snyder nodded toward Maddie’s cousin’s house.

“Wet! But all right!” Maddie smiled at her, receiving a return smile and wave of the hand before the woman turned and went back inside.

Maddie climbed the hill of damaged wheat. A small hill, only about thirty feet high, but at its crest she could finally see her parents’ house on the other side of the valley. It was a dim vista, the fog was still hanging heavily, but it had thinned out sufficiently to provide the view that helped her immensely.
God
, it was so close and yet so very, very far away. Only about a mile and a half or two miles away—but the brown, muddy Shamokin Creek that separated them looked far worse today than it had three days ago. She felt her hopes dashing to the ground as she looked at that creek. She didn’t think it was possible for the creek to get any worse, but, by the look of it, what usually was a creek no more than fifty yards wide now resembled a small lake between a quarter and a half a mile wide. The speed and force at which it flowed was tearing trees from the ground, and as she watched, she saw a roof floating downstream.

“Just where in the hell did you think you were going to go?!” Joe stood next to her.

“
What
?” She turned to look at him in confusion. He seemed angry again.

“What did ya plan to do? Wade across it? Didn’t you believe me when I told you it would be another few days before it would start to go down?!”

“I didn’t really know
what
to expect. But I certainly didn’t expect
this.
I just saw some kind of a roof go by.”

“Yeah.” His temper seemed to ease some. “Well, here comes the rest of the house now.”

Maddie glanced upstream where he nodded at what had been a house, or at least part of one, rushing down with the current. Her hand reached out and clutched onto his arm.

“Oh, my God! Do you think they made it out all right?”

“I don’t know for sure. Some people can be awful stubborn and stupid at a time like this. But if they had any sense at all, they would have been out long before now.”

“I hope so. I only came up to see if I could see Mom’s over there. I never thought the creek would be this high.”

“It’ll get higher before it gets any lower. We’re in for more rain. It has a lot of little creeks like this one emptying into it. Did you get a good look at Mom’s?” he asked, then after receiving an affirmative nod, he nudged her back down the hill toward the house they had just come from. “Then let’s get back before it starts raining again. You won’t even be able to see up to your cousin’s, let alone clear across the valley, once it starts again.”

She sighed heavily as she started back down the hill. Somehow just being able to
see
her parents’ house had made her feel better. As they neared the highway, she saw Mrs. Snyder on the porch again, waving for her to stop.

“Maddie! My son got through on his radio!” Mrs. Snyder called to her.