One Week of Summer (14 page)

Day Three

11)

First thing in the morning turned out to be noon, when Teekay shook me awake, tossed me a t-shirt, sweatpants, and a pair of boxer shorts – which I slipped into with a blush – and then threw on his jeans. 

He fed me a piece of nearly burnt toast, then snagged a piece of paper and a pen from a drawer, then guided me toward the front door. 

“Are we leaving?” I asked.

Teekay put his finger over his lips. “Shh.”

He scrawled something onto the paper, then shoved it under a door on the side of the garage.  Then, with a grin I thought he was trying to suppress, he wedged a piece of metal into the frame. 

“C’mon,” he urged, and pulled me by the hand into the garage.

I looked from the red sports car to the blue sedan, and that’s when I figured it out.

“Was that Donnie’s front door?”

Teekay evaded my question with a quiet command. “Get in the car.”

“Teekay…”

He kissed my lips, then opened the passenger door and pushed me inside gently.

“Relax,” he said. “I left him the exact coordinates of where we’ll be.”

“Coordinates?”

In reply, he slammed my door, tapped on the automatic opener, then hopped into the vehicle himself.  Without waiting for the big door to slide all the way open, Teekay eased the car backwards.  As we pulled out of the garage, I caught sight of Donnie’s angry face in the window above.  Teekay must’ve seen it too, because he let out a loud laugh, then shot down the driveway with a burst of speed.

My apprehension at giving Donnie the slip soon took a backseat to another, far more pressing worry.

Teekay had driven us to the marina.

12)

“I can’t do this,” I said for the fourth time.

But Teekay wasn’t taking no for an answer.

“You can,” he replied. “You’re going to.”

We were standing just outside the biggest boat at the dock.  It had taken me a full two minutes to force my feet to carry me past the big, locked gate that led down to the private docks.  And now I was poised with one foot above the ladder to the cruiser yacht with Teekay’s hand in the small of my back and my heart in my throat.

“We can leave the boat in the marina,” he assured me.

I swallowed nervously. “Can I wear a life jacket?”

“That. And nothing else,” he teased.

“Not helping.”

“Hang on.”

In a swift move, he traded places with me and leaped from the dock to the boat.  His hand came out and grasped mine.  So I took a breath and then took the leap.

I expected the ground to rock underneath my feet as I landed, but it was surprisingly – reassuringly – stable.

Teekay’s arms encircled me immediately.

“Good?” he asked.

“I’m okay.”

“All right,” he replied, then took his own breath. “You think this was scary for you. But really, it’s scarier for me.”

He didn’t give me a chance to ask why.  He just led me across the wood deck, stopped in front of door, and dug in his jeans pockets for his keys.  As he unlocked it, excitement battled with nerves for supremacy in my chest.  Butterflies beat wildly against my stomach while lower down, heat reigned.

“In,” Teekay commanded.

I took a shaky step into the unlit room.  All of the blinds were drawn and it was nearly pitch black in spite of the fact that the sun was shining brilliantly outside. 

As I moved inside, my toe caught on something and I stumbled forward, hands out.  But Teekay caught me before I could hit the ground.  His warm arm closed around my waist, dragging me back.

“Careful, darlin’,” he murmured, then leaned over to flip on a switch.

There was a click and I was completely blind again, this time from an overload of light.  Then a
zap
and a
pop
sounded sharply and it was dark once more.

“Shit,” Teekay cursed.

He let me go, and after a moment, a warmer, softer light filled the room.  I could see all around me, and I knew immediately why his bedroom in the house was so bare.  Everything personal was here, in this boat instead.

On the other side of the miniature kitchen, a small wardrobe stood open, shorts and swim trunks spilling from its drawers.

One wood-panelled wall was decorated with photographs of Olympic swimmers, and when I squinted, I realized they were all signed, too.  A second wall was filled with medals hanging from pegs.  A medley of certificates of achievement had been glued to an enormous piece of poster board, framed, and hung up above the stove. 

There was a shelf above the sink, and about ten snow globes littered its surface.

And all of it – even the couch under the window – was covered in dust.

My eyes skimmed the room again, and I couldn’t help but wonder how long he’d left the boat abandoned.  And why.

“My favorite beaches,” Teekay stated as he followed my gaze to the shelf. “My mom used to buy them for me and my sister when we went on vacation.”

“Used to?”

He shrugged and grabbed one of the snow globes, tossed it from one palm to the other, then handed it to me.

Myrtle Beach,
read the little sign inside.

My heart squeezed empathetically and I opened my mouth to offer him some comforting words or ask why she stopped buying them, but Teekay didn’t give me a chance.

“I’m not showing you this so you’ll feel sorry for me, or so you’ll say something nice. I’m showing you because I want you to know you’re not the only one who can fall. It happened to me. I’m bigger than you are. I’m meaner than you are. And fuck if I didn’t land square on my ass as hard as a rock. All of us have parts of ourselves we keep hidden. This is mine. Or the beginning of it, anyway.” He paused and looked me straight in the eyes. “I want you to tell me about that scar and what it means. But I want you to do it when you’re ready, Maggie.”

He traced the mark on my face once more and I knew that  even if I wasn’t ready right that second, I would be soon.  And whatever that signified…it terrified me.

I buried myself in his chest so he wouldn’t be able to read my face.  He enfolded me in his arms and we stood like that for several long moments before I spoke. 

“Does it run?” I asked.

“The boat?”

“Yes.”

“I think so.”

“And you can drive it?”

“I can operate it. Or pilot it, or captain it. But I can’t drive it,” he corrected, and I heard the smile in his voice.

And what I said next surprised me. “Fine. Captain it then. Now.”

“What?”

“Take me out on the boat.”

Teekay drew back. “Really?”

“Yes. Please.”

“Are you
begging
me, darlin’?” he teased.

“If I am…,” I replied, “is that a yes?”

“I was just damned well hoping you’d ask. Because the coordinates I gave to Jeeves are way the hell out there and I didn’t want him to chase after nothing.”

Teekay reached over my head, opened a compartment up there, and pulled out a black water-ski jacket.  He tossed it to me, then slipped outside to make the boat ready for use, all the while muttering about his regular maintenance crew.  I sat on the edge of the dusty couch for a few moments, but the barely discernible rock of the waves beneath us made me antsy quickly.

Are you actually doing this?
I asked myself.
Willingly going over a moving body of water in a rickety vessel made of nothing but plywood and fiberglass?

To distract myself, I pulled a cloth from one of the drawers in the little kitchen and began to wipe down the room.  It felt good to be moving, to be doing something useful.  My grandmother had been a huge fan of what she called “busy work” and when she was alive, there had never been enough time in a day to get it all done.  Dusting or polishing or cleaning out cupboards.  All the things that probably desperately needed to be done inside her beach house.  I realized a little guiltily that for the past few days I’d done nothing but lie around with Teekay. 

Not
all
of it was lying down,
I corrected as I recalled the shower.

I scrubbed a little more furiously at the skin-tingling memory and amended my self-directed question.

Are you actually doing
this
? Letting yourself sail out into the open sea with a guy you barely know, who ran away from his armed guard, who can make you salivate with a look, who is looking at you…Right now?

And he was.  Teekay had stepped back into the cabin and his eyes were following me as I wiped the last of the snow globes clean and set it down.  He was sweaty and his hair was a mess.  His clothes were askew, his shirt pushed up on one side showing just how low his pants hung on his hips.  He had grease on both his brow and on his t-shirt.  He smiled at me – one of the pleased-little-boy ones – and tried to wipe his face with his t-shirt and instead succeeded only in blackening his cheeks.

And I knew the answer was a resounding yes.  I would follow him, not just into the middle of the ocean, but anywhere.

Slowly, deliberately – because I wanted to give him something in exchange for the bit of himself he’d shared with me by bringing me into his boat, and I had nothing but myself to relinquish – I eased out of the jogging pants he’d lent me and looked at him expectantly.

“Maggie…What are you doing?”

“Putting on my life jacket,” I told him.

“It still works if you’re wearing pants.”

“That’s not what you said a few minutes ago.”

I pulled off my shirt and yanked on the jacket.  It was too big and hung down over my hips.  It was also cool enough to make me shiver, so I zipped it up before I shimmied out of the boxer shorts.

Teekay was eyeing me hungrily. “Open that sliding door behind you, Maggie.”

I did as he said, revealing a small bedroom.

My pulse ricocheted around my veins in response to the sight of it.

Teekay shoved the key into ignition at the helm and turned it.  The boat sputtered once, then roared to life.  He guided it slowly out of the harbor, then flipped another switch.  Loud, furious music filled the cabin.  It was something unfamiliar and it throbbed in just the same way that Teekay made me feel.

“Cupboard beside the bed,” Teekay stated.

Without looking away from him, I reached toward it.  The lifejacket slid up, and I knew Teekay was watching as several inches of skin became exposed.  And I liked knowing it.  I liked knowing that when he spoke next, his voice was husky because of how
I
made
him
feel.

“In the plastic bag,” he said, his voice carrying above the music. “There’s a sheet and blanket. Put them on the bed.”

He made some adjustments on the controls and the boat moved, very slowly, across the water.  But Teekay’s gaze was still on me.

This time, to comply with his instructions, I had no choice but to turn away.  I grabbed the bedding in question, opened it, and smoothed it over the mattress.  With each movement, a cool breeze skipped over my thighs and my rear end.  There was break as the song ended, and in the silence, I heard Teekay inhale sharply.

I turned to face him.  His hands were tight on the wheel and he was biting down on his bottom lip so hard that I thought he might pierce the skin.  He drew in another, audible breath.

“Sit down.”

The music started up again as I perched in the edge of the bed.

“Undo the jacket.”

I did.

“Push it aside, Maggie. I want to see you.”

My hands only shook a little as I obeyed him.  And mostly the shaking had to do with the excitement sweeping through me rather than nerves.  I eased the sides of the life vest aside, my breasts rising and falling in eagerness and my lids closed with the anticipation of what he was going to do to me.

But Teekay had something else in mind.

“Spread your legs.”

I opened my knees, just a little bit.

“More.”

My thighs dropped apart.

“Now touch yourself.”

My eyes flew open. “What?”

Teekay’s mouth was parted and his tongue darted out to touch his bottom lip very briefly. “Touch yourself, darlin’.”

“I don’t…I mean, I’m not…”

“You can start slowly,” he told me in a silk-lined voice. “Hands on your knees.”

Hesitantly, I put my already damp palms where he told me to.

“Good,” he said. “Now you can move the right one up to that spot just above that pretty little beauty mark.”

I blushed, both pleased and embarrassed that he’d paid so much attention to the tiny details of my body.  I slid my fingers to the spot he’d mentioned and bit back a surprised gasp at how good it felt to have my hands on my own body.

“Up just a bit more.”

I inched my hand up.  My fingers grazed the bend between my thigh and my pelvis.

“More, Maggie.”

I looked back to Teekay.  His eyes held a wicked gleam.  I wondered vaguely how he could possibly be operating the boat while staring at me, but once again, I was powerless to do anything but obey.

My hand met the soft fold right between my legs and I moaned.

“Does it feel good?” Teekay asked.

“Yes!” I admitted in a whisper.

“Make a little circle with your hand, darlin’. Quickly. But not too quickly.”

I did it, moving in time with the beat of the driving rock music, and immediately I was on fire.  I wasn’t sure what was turning me on more – the touching itself, the soft, heated instructions coming from Teekay’s mouth, or the way he was watching me.  My fingers slid over the slickest part of my body and dipped inside.

“Fuck, yes,” Teekay growled. “Do it like that, Maggie.”

My head tilted backwards and my hand – the one I wasn’t already busy with, gripped the blankets tightly.  The bass vibrated under me as I continued to move.

“Say my name while you’re doing it,” Teekay commanded.

Which proved to be no problem at all.

“Teekay!” I cried.

“Again.”

“Teekay,” I repeated, and this time it was a whimper.

“Now ask my permission to come.”

Permission?

I hadn’t even realized how close I was to orgasm until he said it.  And now that he had…I wanted to.  Badly.  But permission?

I didn’t have time to figure out if I was indignant or not, because the words spilled out on their own.

“Please, Teekay? Please may I come?”