Some Kind of Angel (13 page)

My lower body began to sting and burn and ache for him, for his hands to be there, for his mouth to be there.  “Michael, please.”

“Please what, Leslie?”

“Please undress me.  Let me…I need you to…”

“Not just yet, love.  I need you a little more…desperate.”

I lifted my body off the bed as much as I could, trapped in my clothes as I was.  “Let me put my arms around you, please, Michael.”

He went on endlessly taking her nipple into his mouth.  He sucked and teased with his tongue and then rubbed his palm on her wet tip while he licked and teased the other.

“Michael, if you don’t let me out of my clothes, I’m going to scream blue bloody murder, and that will bring my mother and my three brawny brothers running up here.”

He let me up immediately and helped with the buttons until I was completely naked.  I went at him with a fury, ripping buttons loose and unzipping and snatching off his pants, shoes and socks.

“Now,” I said.  “No more teasing.  Now.  You on top of me, inside me. This instant.”

He did as he was told.  Sighing, I lay still for a moment, savoring the feeling of his fullness inside me.  How could this man I knew almost nothing about, who had tamed a horse in a few minutes, and my whole family almost as quickly, how could he make me feel so complete, so utterly alive?  I lifted my hand to his dark hair and said, “Who do you get your dark hair from, your mother or your father?”

“Hard to tell.  They both had dark hair.”

“Will I ever get to meet them?”

“They are both in heaven, Leslie.”  He began to move, watching her as if her every expression would tell him where to go, how deep to go, when and how high to raise her hips up to receive the full length of him.

In the throes of sexual ecstasy, I managed to say, “I’m sorry about your parents, Michael.”

“Don’t be.  It’s where they belong.”

I thought that an odd thing for him to say, but the sharp and utterly encompassing sensations his movements gave me made it hard to think of anything but my deep fall into the complete eroticism of being possessed by Michael until every cell of my being belonged to him.

In a voice so soft she couldn’t hear him, he murmured, “You
will
marry me, Leslie.

Dorian found Natalie out in the stable, slim and delicate looking in her dress, her sandals nearly buried in the straw.  He thanked heaven that straw had been cleaned just today.  She had a slender hand on Misty’s nose and Misty looked as if she were enjoying it as much as Natalie was.  “You are such a beauty.”  Natalie crooned to the palomino filly, putting her face close to Misty’s and of course, Misty, being the sweetheart she was, gave Leslie one kiss, then two, then three.  It was the first time in his life Dorian had ever been jealous of a horse.

“She likes you.”  Dorian stepped out of the darkness and into the light of the stable.  All Natalie’s senses went on immediate alert.  In deference to her, he pulled off the black hat he’d worn low over his brow and brought it down to his thigh, bringing Natalie’s attention to his long, lean legs.  He was dressed in what Natalie supposed was his finest for the Thanksgiving celebration, a paisley shirt in colors of red and gray, newly pressed jeans and highly polished black boots.  He held an apple in his hand and Natalie couldn’t help but notice how finely boned his fingers were.  His hands were more like that of a violin player’s than a cowboy’s.  Something stirred low in her abdomen and she found herself wondering what it would be like to have those hands clasp hers.  Even while she thought it, he extended his hand to offer her the apple.  “Would you like to feed it to her?”

Natalie held out her hand and Dorian placed the apple in it, his fingers touching hers for a brief second.  How warm they were in comparison to her chilly fingertips. 

“Are you cold?”  It seemed impossible that she could have such icy fingers on this warm Florida day.

“No.  It’s a…condition I have.”

“Cold hands, warm heart?”  He smiled at her.  She wished he wouldn’t do that.  Whenever he smiled at her, strange things happened in the region of her heart.   In self-defense, she turned away and gave the apple to Misty, holding it on her palm until Misty chewed enough to take the whole apple in her mouth. 

Dorian, watching her give her whole attention to the horse, her hair falling down over her cheek, felt a stir of emotion rise inside him he thought long dead.  He stepped closer, thinking he would die if he couldn’t touch her in some way. He let his fingers rest on her face for a brief second and then he brushed back a tendril of her hair, his eyes catching and holding hers.

She wanted to step forward and let those beautiful fingers touch her mouth, her nose, her ear.  But she couldn’t.  She must stop this now before it was too late.  “Cold hands, cancer remission.”

She thought she’d see what she usually saw on peoples’ faces when she told them the truth, shock, horror, distaste.  Instead she saw…compassion.  “But you are well, now.” 

“Yes.  Well, but not whole.  I can never have children.”

“I’m so sorry.”  He held out his arms and, hardly knowing why, she went into them.  “How awful that must be for you.”

From inside his arms, she turned that beautiful face up to him.  “When someone…shows an interest in me, I like to tell them right away.  That way, the man has a graceful out and it’s easy because things haven’t progressed beyond the second date.  I thought I shouldn’t wait that long with you because…I’m very attracted to you.  But don’t be afraid.  I won’t pursue you or anything.  I’m very used to liking someone and then losing them.  It’s…just the way my life is…”

He stopped her words with a kiss, a complete and full taking of her mouth, coaxing her to open to him, exploring her mouth with his tongue, even while he held her as if she were delicate porcelain.  He could feel her young body pliant against his.  Just as he was sure she was yielding to him completely, she broke off the kiss and pushed him away. 

“This can’t happen.  I’ve explained to you why I can’t…”

“What if I told you it doesn’t matter to me?”

“You’re a Rutledge.  You belong to a proud family with a proud heritage.  Your mother is already so excited about Leslie’s baby.  I couldn’t do that to you.”

“How about you let me decide what’s ‘done to me’?”

She took a step back from him.  “I was afraid of this.  I’ve thought from the first that you are the noble one in your family.”

“Not so noble after all, if I’m willing to take advantage of a woman in a stable.”

“I don’t know you, not really.  And you don’t know me.”

“I know you’re gentle and sweet and quite possibly, terribly naïve about the world.  Unlike me.  I’ve seen far too much of the cruel, the unfeeling, the inhumanity to man.  You’re like a breath of fresh air to me.”

“I spent most of my teenage years in bed, waiting for a bone marrow transplant when I should have been learning about the world.  For my sister’s sake, I put a brave face on whenever she came to see me.” Now, I’ve tried to shut bad things out of my life.  It is the only way I can survive.”

“Your sister is married and has a little boy?”

“Yes, and twin girls.  Luckily for me, I help her care for them when my day is done teaching at my preschool job.  Knowing I’m going home to them will make it easier to leave and never see you again.”

“Wait a minute.  Who said you were never seeing me again?”

“I did, Dorian.  It’s the way it has to be.  You know I’m right.”

“I know you’re wrong.  I intend to have you in my life.”

“No.”

“You can’t mean that.  I’ve never felt such a complete connection with any woman as I do with you and I’ve been the world over.”

“You have to accept the truth.  There is no future for us.  I’ll see you tomorrow and then I’m going home.  I don’t want you to call me or contact me in anyway.  It will make me too unbearably sad.”

Natalie turned and hurried out of the stable, leaving Dorian to stare after her in disbelief.  It couldn’t be ending this way.  It simply could not.

Inside her room, Natalie tried to hold back the tears.  She’d had so much practice in stifling her emotions.  This time it wasn’t working.  She lay down on the bed and stared up at the ceiling, and a single tear slipped from her eyes.  Dorian had to be the sweetest man she’d ever met.  He was perfect for her, she knew that.  She’d done the right thing.  She’d told him goodbye.  Better now than when the hurt would go even deeper.

Michael watched Dorian leave the stable.  When Dorian was safely out of view, Michael went in to Beauty’s stall. In his excitement at seeing Michael, Beauty moved restlessly. 

“Beauty, I have to convince Leslie to marry me, and I think you can help.”

“You’d like that?  Good.  Here’s what I need you to do.”

Michael opened the stall gate and using Beauty’s mane, swung up on his back.  Beauty headed out to the hummock with its stand of palm trees.

The evening dinner would be a light lunch of leftovers.  Everyone was gathered around the table and seated in their appointed place except Michael. 

I hadn’t played in the football game of course, but I had been watching, and I was pleased when Laura took Jake down in a tackle.  Now, everyone’s eyes turned to me.  “Do you know where he is?”

“No,” I said, feeling the first stirrings of alarm.  Michael was always prompt.

“When was the last time anybody saw him?”  Jake, taking charge.

“I saw him about an hour ago,” Dorian told them.  “He was going into the stables.”

Jake looked at Gabe.  “The stallion,” they said together.

“What are you talking about?”  Leslie looked sharply at Jake.

“The stallion he ‘made friends with.’  The black devil has turned on him.  He’s probably lying somewhere in the south pasture.”

Leslie pushed back her chair.  “I’m going to find him.  Which horse can I ride?”

‘None, in your condition,” Jake growled.  “Just sit down, Leslie.  Gabe and I will go look for him.”

Inside the stable, the men saddled up the pinto and the gelding and headed out to the corral where Gabe opened the gate.

“Damn fool,” Jake muttered as Gabe came back and remounted the gelding.

“I thought he had turned that stallion completely around.”

“He’s a wild horse, Gabe, and clever.”

“Clever enough to pull a Jekyll and Hyde on Michael?  I don’t think so.  Oh, oh, look out.  Her comes Leslie driving the Jeep.”

“Dammit it all.  Go get the gate for her, Gabe.”

“All that jouncing around probably isn’t good for her.”

“If you want to tell her that,” Jake said.  “Be my guest.”

In the Jeep, I covered half the distance to the hummock.  I could see the black stallion standing there.  Michael lay on the ground beside him, his eyes closed.

“Oh, you black devil,” I said to the horse as I jumped out of the Jeep.  “If you’ve hurt him, I’ll have you shot.”  I knelt down beside Michael and took his beautiful face in my hands.  “Michael.  Michael!  Please talk to me.”

“He’s out cold, Les,” Jake told her.  We’ll have to carry him to the car.  You can take him to emergency.”

“Meanwhile, can you shoot that horse?”

Jake felt there was something wrong.  If the stallion had bucked him off, he’d have run as far from Michael as he could get.  Instead, the horse stood over him, as if he were guarding him.  Something was definitely not right.

“I think we’ll wait to shoot him until we find out what really happened.”

Between them, Jake and Gabe carried Michael to the car and laid him out on the back seat.

“Are you sure you’re okay to drive him to the hospital?  Maybe one of us should go with you.”

“You were the ones who let him ride that black devil.  I don’t want to see either of your faces until I know that Michael isn’t dead.”

I slammed the back door and went around to climb in under the wheel.

“Don’t drive so fast you kill all three of you,” Jake admonished me.

“There’s only two of us…”  The baby.  I hadn’t thought about the baby.  “I’ll be careful.”

I bumped over the pasture and took the Jeep out onto the main highway.  “Oh, Michael, I’ll never forgive myself if you’re dead.  It’s all my fault.  I shouldn’t have let you go out to the stable.  I should have watched over you.  Now you’re going to die and I’ll never be able to tell you how much I love you.  I do really want to marry you.  I know you’d be a perfect husband.  If you come out of this, I will marry you, that is, if you still want me.”

“I still want you, darling Leslie,” the silky voice said in her ear.

I looked in the rear view mirror and there he was, sitting up, smiling, not a blasted thing wrong with him.

I slammed on the brakes, nearly throwing him into the front seat and pulled over to the side of road.  “You tricked me.  There’s nothing wrong with you, is there?”

“No, there’s nothing wrong with me.  You don’t have to take me to the hospital.”

I sputtered, almost at a loss for words.  Then the words came spilling out.  “Oh, you’re despicable.  I never would have believed you capable of such skullduggery.”

“I don’t know what that is, but it seems I’m capable of it.”  He climbed over the seat and sat down next to me.  “So you’re going to marry me?”

“How can I marry a man who…who plays such a trick on me?”

“I only did it because I want you to marry me.  I want to marry you very much.  Will you be my bride?”

“Yes, I’ll marry you,” I said, almost crying.  “That ought to be punishment enough to last you for the rest of your life!”

Back behind the Rutledge mansion, a double row of Royal Palm trees grew.  Elizabeth stood there looking at the lovely aisle they created, remembering when she had insisted on planting them and how vigorously Mitchell, her husband, had protested.  “They’ll be too close to the house.”

“No,” she said.  “I want them as an aisle for my children to walk down when they marry.  I want them to marry here, where their heritage is.”

“Fine, fine, fine.  But half of those trees will die.”  Her husband had given up and driven the bulldozer in to dig the holes for the fragile little trees.  As if those trees understood what Elizabeth wanted and were eager to do her will, every one of them lived and thrived.

And so, two days later, on the afternoon of my wedding day, I donned the beautiful white dress I told my mother I didn’t deserve to wear.  Mother said, “Hush.  You think you’re the first bride to carry a child under her white dress?”

Elizabeth looked at her daughter in the mirror.  The dress was perfect for this woman just grown into her full maturity.  Her beautifully shaped shoulders were bare, and the gown fit her perfectly above her breasts coming up in a sweetheart line high enough to add to the demureness of the dress.  The white Chantilly lace fit her still slender torso to perfection, and the skirt burst into layers of silk falling to the floor.  The veil framed her lovely face, showcased her dark hair and brought out the beauty of her dark eyes.  She looked like an angel come to life.

Elizabeth’s heart nearly broke, looking at her.  The first daughter to leave the nest.  She’d be living so far away.  If it were not for the fact that Elizabeth felt Michael would watch over her like a hawk, she didn’t think she’d be able to bear it.  She also knew she’d be making a trip to the city when that baby was due.  No way would she not be there when her daughter’s child was born.