Rose of Betrayal (71 page)

Brad was first, his voice jagged with
emotion. “I guess it’s true, no one can remain lost forever.”
 

Scrubbing her eyes
with the back of her hand, her voice shaky, “Someone will eventually come to
their rescue?”

With a sweep of his
long curly lashes, Brad's gaze fell to her boots. “You shouldn't wade in deep
water if you don't know how to swim.”"

           
Caressing him with her eyes, “I have
nothing to fear.
 
I know you will save
me.”
 
Reaching into her pockets, she
turned them inside out.
 
“This time will
be easier I've gotten rid of all the stones.”

           
Flipping his head back, Brad blinked
rapidly and after releasing a cleansing sigh his gaze returned to hers.
 
His cheeks wrinkled with an infectious grin
revealing pearl white teeth. “Well, I don't know, the first time I crashed and
burned.”
  

A gleam of amusement
raced across Sam's face.
 
A smile
matching his twitched her lips, “Oh, but, it sure is looking good so far.”

           
With her heart swelling beyond its
boundaries, Sam watched tears drip onto Brads' quivering lips and when she
thought love could not expand her heart anymore its capacity surprised her when
he spoke. “Just when I thought our days had past, you've gone and saved the
best
til
last.”
 
With only a foot separating them, he reached out with one finger to
smooth a stray strand of black silk from her love struck face to tuck it gently
behind her ear.
 
The fingertips of her
right hand stroking his forearm deciphered mingling sensations of warmth,
coarse hair, the latent strength of bunched muscles that were trembling.

           
Moving the same hand to the other
side of her face, Brad toyed with another black thread.
 
In response while one hand remained on his
arm, her left palm reached up to press the back of his hand to her sun warmed
lips.
 
When he shuddered then closed his
lids over the sheen in his eyes, she realized it was the first time she had
been aggressively intimate with him.
 

Drawing in a breath,
as she rubbed her cheek against his skin, he whispered, “Welcome home,
Princess.”

           
Home, Sam thought, yes, she was
finally home and though the walls were trees, the ceiling heaven and the floor
earth, it did not matter Brad's arms were all the shelter she'd ever need.
 
Instantaneously yesterdays slipped under her
like the pebbles washed by the rolling waters beneath her feet.
   

           
Sam’s restless fingers finding and
tugging Brad's tee shirt from his pants, raised it to reveal an impressive
chest.
 
Securing the shirt with one hand
the other splayed just under his breast found a heart that was jump
roping.
 
A feather like voice, murmured, “When
I injured my finger, I never dreamed the touch of your lips could make me
forget how much it ached.
 
I know you
have been hurting and that I'm to blame.
 
I just pray there is forgiveness left in the broken pieces of your
heart.”

           
Leaning forward, her lips seared his
skin as she gently trailed kisses across the taut tissue and muscle covering
his heart.
 
Breathing deeply, she drew
into her lungs the fresh outdoors smell of him, with a tang of pine, and willed
it to enter every part of her body.

           
Brad knew his heart had stopped from
the pain jousting north and south unbearably.
 
In one swift movement, his hands slipping beneath her armpits propelled
her slight form from the water into the air the length of his arms, then ever
so slowly lowered her until his face was even with her breasts.
 
With both arms claiming her tiny waist, he
crushed her to him burying his face between the soft mounds.
 
As a fountain of tears flowed, Sam’s fingers,
like roots seeking water threaded through tangled locks the tips reaching his
toes as she massaged and cradled his head.

           
Shaking with emotion, Brad mumbled,
“I've spent a life time making my way to you.
 
You're all I want.
 
All I've ever
wanted.
 
It seems I fell in love with you
decades ago, now it's your turn.
 
I
suggest you hurry.
 
You took me to the
sun, and I can't find my way home.
 
Tell
me this is real, that I'm not just dreaming, that this time it’s forever.
 
Tell me . . . “

           
“Forever, Brad Johnson, I love you,
I do.
 
I do.
 
I do.
 
I've loved you since I was a child.
 
I should have known all along it was you.”
 
        
Brad’s
arms loosening their hold slightly permitted her to gradually slide down his
rock hard body.
 
Her hands cupped his
face.
 
With quick happy kisses, as if to
chase away the past, she kissed his hair, forehead, eyebrows, eyes, nose, and
when she went to kiss his cheek, his head turned and their lips met.
 

           
His kiss was like the longest day of
sunshine, warm and lingering, as if he was in no hurry.
 
For the first time they were receiving the
response he always sought and the world was standing still.
 
This time they had forever to learn all the
things about each other they had yet to learn, time to give and take, to
forgive and forget.
 
Oh, how wrong he had
been, Sam reflected, Brad was the one who saved the best for last.
   

...........................................................................………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

           
On a towering knoll, a figure
slipped a well-worn hiking pack onto his back.
 
Pulling the brim of his favored hat lower on his forehead, a smile
creased a weather worn face spackled with white whiskers.
 
A crooked, roughened finger slipped beneath
sunglasses as if to adjust them only to withdraw coated with glistening
moisture.
 

           
The magnificent beauty surrounding him
was nothing, he reflected, equated to the silhouettes below wrapped in the
throng of love.
 
He was not saddened by
the knowledge would never return to his beloved spot.
 
Instead, puckering lined lip’s he whistled a
merry tune, mounted his horse, and began his decent.
 
At last, his heart felt lighter than a
balloon filled with air.
 
An angel had
come to save his son.
           

……...................................................................…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

           
The welcome of Brad's kiss burned
into Sam's like a transfusion draining the bad and replacing it with promises
of the wonders yet to come.
 
As if by
touch alone slaking his fear that she was not real, his hands roamed her
slender curves and full breasts.
 
Then,
surprising even himself, his kiss made demands she seemed more than willing to
meet.
  
Moving against each other, the
rhythm of sinuosity sang seduction to every part of their bodies.
 

           
Scooping arms beneath her knees, he
carried her from the water to station her on top of a rock.
 
As she steadied herself with a hand on his
shoulder, like a knight attending a queen, he removed her boots and sodden
socks.
 

           
Eyes, dark as chocolate, watched
sunlit blue circles alter colors as his fingers found the snap and zipper to
her jeans.
 
What the poets write is true,
he reflected while he slowly lowered the zipper; eyes are truly the doors to
ones’ soul.
 
Hands, like a branding iron,
penetrating the interior of denim, grazed hips on their journey to firm, rounded
buttocks where they lingered and caressed before inching the denim lower
leaving behind only a thin barrier of silk.
 

           
Sam, did not move, could not move
did not want to as large hands spanned her waist, index fingers and thumbs
almost touching.
 
Like a spider, those
same fingers crawled under the elastic on each side of her panties wandering
over her hips, her thighs, her calves, until the silk relinquished its
hold.
 
The sensation of his slippery
tongue circling her navel, and the lips following with tender kisses, caused a
low scalding groan to escape.
  
The
ultimate transgression, he whispered, “There are so many ways to make love, so
many ways.
 
Let me show you, Dear God,
let me show you.”

           
This time Sam did not pull
away.
  
In answer, she leaned into him
threading her fingers into his mane to hang on for dear life as his head
lowered and brought to surface her ecstasy. His adept fingers continued to
explore beneath her sweater upward along her ribs covering fragile flesh as if
providing protection.
 
Anxious to feed
her hunger, she raised her arms so he could liberate the blue fluff.
 

           
Slowly he finished undressing her
watching the sweet feminine nudity appear bit by bit, and she undressed him,
the pads of her fingers, her palms, smoothing across the bulging muscles of his
shoulders, back, chest, buttocks, stomach.
 
Slipping his jockey shorts from him, her hand found his penis. They were
one with nature now, as nature intended, freed from the eyes of the world.
 

           
As if the most fragile sculpture,
Brad carried Sam and laid her upon the green carpet beneath a tree.
 
Covering her with his body, his throbbing
muscle surging against her inner thigh grazed the soft portal of her core.
Responding, her hand running along his thigh found what she sought to guide it
toward her need.
 
He felt more dangerous
than before, larger as he cautiously slipped inside and his body pushed her
back against the pillows of the earth.
 
With the days of innocence fleeting memories, right here, right now, she
wanted and craved what he offered, desperately.

           
As she thrust her hips molding
herself to his masculine curves, he felt like he had never known a woman
before, as if he was the virgin.
 
He was,
for Brad was drinking liquid passion, a mixture of equal parts of a man and a
woman, equal desire, equal love.
 
Kissing
her, savoring all she gave he whispered tenderly, “See how we fit, my darling,
I was made for loving you.”

           
Nestled into natures’ aquarium, the
sounds of their moans mingling with the champagne air, and the trilling sounds
of its inhabitants, they gave into pleasure so long bottled up, both driven by
a mutual, powerful need, as though they had never had a broken heart.
 
This time, no longer blinded by what the
other was feeling, transported into another sphere they were where tomorrows
stretched forever and a lifetime of love dwelled.

           
 
With a frantic push of his body, Sam felt a
sweet hot fluid flood her, the contractions of her most intimate sinews
strained to receive it while she willingly sang the melody and danced in rhythm
as though she had always known the song written by the master of seduction.
          
 
Now they knew together they could have it all, the only ingredient that
had been missing to make life complete was mutual love, the main ingredient
making all things possible, giving life a purpose, and making it worth living.

           
For a long time, they laid together
kissing, hugging, breathing in each other's scents each trying to garner the
strength to fulfill Ted's request.
  
When
the time was right, together they spilled his ashes into the river to make
their journey to the ocean where the waves roll wild and free, their foam
hissing and seething guiding him on to explorations anew.