“Mmm, you taste so good. I want to taste more of you.” His hands began taking over as he lowered himself, trailing kisses down my body. I stretched my arms above my head and let myself feel the exquisite ache.
His hands slid between my thighs and I opened wide for him. He kissed his way up my leg farther and farther until his mouth was on me. I jerked my hips toward him, trying to feel more as my hands got lost in his hair. His tongue was on me and then he plunged two fingers in and I was lost, pulsing against his mouth.
Then, like a movie reel locking and sputtering, everything stopped and I heard a faint knocking sound.
I opened my eyes. It was daylight and I was in my room alone, feeling the last echoes of the orgasm Nate had given me in a dream.
“Oh,” I whimpered, trying to get a grip.
“Ava, are you okay?” I heard Caleb’s call from my living room. I quickly jumped out of bed, threw on a robe, and met him as he walked into my kitchen.
“I’m fine.”
He walked toward me. “You’re flushed. Are you sick?”
“No.” The word came out as a rushed breath.
“Okay. Well, I came over because I hadn’t seen you at breakfast.” He looked away shyly like his concern embarrassed him.
“Thanks for checkin’ on me but I’m fine.”
“Okay.” He shrugged, turned around, and walked out.
When he left, I plopped down on the couch. I stared out the front window and then down to the beige carpet that Redman installed after Jake was gone. The carpet that covered the bloodstained wood floor. Sadly, those images never faded, just like the stains. My phone rang, jolting me out of my trance.
“Hi, beautiful.” Nate’s voice was as deep and as smooth as it was in my dream. I felt an aftershock between my legs.
“Hi.” My own voice sounded strange.
“Is something wrong?”
“No. I was thinking about you.”
“That makes me very happy. I want to take you out to dinner Friday. Can I pick you up at six?”
“Yes, I would like that. Are you taking me somewhere fancy? I don’t have fancy clothes.”
“I don’t have fancy clothes either,” he said, laughing. “I like the dress you wore when we went to the hot spring.”
“Oh, that old thing?”
“You took my breath away.”
My own breath was elusive at that moment. I swallowed and waited.
“Would you like it if I took you shopping?”
“Oh, I couldn’t.”
“Sure you could. Anyway, I would love to spoil you.”
I didn’t answer.
“Okay then, I’ll take that as a yes. We’ll go shopping first then dinner?”
“Okay.”
“Ava, can I ask you something?” His voice got low.
“Sure.”
“When you said you were thinking about me . . . what exactly were you thinking?”
My heart was beating in my stomach. “I was thinking about a dream I had.”
“Tell me about the dream.”
I heard something over the speaker in the background; his name was being called. “Don’t you have to go?”
“Was I touching you . . . in the dream?”
I was breathing hard. “Yes,” I whispered.
I heard him being paged again over the loudspeaker. “Baby, I have to go.” I heard a smile in his voice. “I’ll see you in a few days.”
“Okay.” I pressed end on my phone and laid my head back on the couch with the biggest smile on my face.
The week sidled on and the days seemed long. I looked forward to my evening call from Nate every day. I noticed after the one heady phone call that he tried to keep our conversations light. I told him I wanted to take things slow, that I hadn’t done that with Jake. Part of me felt like I needed space to grow. I’d been at an emotional standstill for five years without so much as an introspective thought. I tarried along for so many years inside of my numbed mind. It made falling for Nate feel like an exposed nerve hitting the air. I wanted to remember who I was and who I wanted to be when I thought I had a future.
On Friday, Trish came to my cabin with a basket of goodies. When I opened the door, she held them out with a smile. I took the basket from her hand as she walked past me into the living room. “My sister and I used to help each other get ready before our dates.” She looked back over her shoulder and smiled. “Well, are you gonna show me what you’re wearing tonight?”
“Nate said he wants to take me shopping.”
“Well, isn’t that sweet? But you don’t want to be lookin’ like that when he shows up, even if he plans to buy you the world.”
I looked down at my T-shirt and jeans. “No, I’m just gonna throw on that dress with the red flowers.” I looked in the basket. It was full of lotions, perfumes, hair ties, and some flowers she must have picked on the way over.
“Okay. Why don’t you go get cleaned up and I’ll do your hair for you when you’re done.” She winked.
“Thanks, Trish.”
“My pleasure, darlin’.”