The Summer Place

CHAPTER FOURTEEN



OH, GOD! HE’D KNOW THAT VOICE anywhere. That’s Summer!

The scream propelled Rick out of bed and onto the path with no thought of shirt or shoes. His only thought: Get to Summer.

He and Kenny reached her porch at the same time.

“What do you think’s going on?”

“I don’t know, but I’m going to find out.” Rick used his size to jockey through the screen door first, noticing it was slightly ajar. Kenny followed close at his heels.

The door to Summer’s bedroom was closed. “Summer?” Rick called as he crossed to it.

“Snake.” Her voice sounded far away and an octave higher than usual. “In the front room. Big snake.”

A faint scent of ammonia that hadn’t been there a half hour before made the hairs on Rick’s neck rise. His hand was on the doorknob when he caught sight of the movement in his peripheral vision.

A long, dark line undulated from beneath the couch.

He leaped and turned on the light in time to see the black snake making for refuge under the refrigerator.

He pointed toward it. “Snake.”

“Shitfire!” Kenny pulled his gun.

“Damn it.” Rick pushed the young man’s outstretched hand toward the floor. “For God’s sake, put that thing away. You can’t shoot it in here. You’ll put a hole in the floor...or in me.”

Kenny made no movement to holster the pistol, but he kept it aimed at the floor and used his other shaking hand to wave toward the creature. “We’ve g-got to...to...g-get that thing...outta here.”

“Agreed. But it’s a black snake, Kenny. Not a cobra.”

Kenny retreated a few steps toward the door. “Th-they’re all co-cobras to m-me.”

“Well, trust me, this one’s on our side, and from the size of him, he’s a good mouser, so we want to keep him around.” Rick put his hands on his hips and deliberated. It wasn’t an idea he relished, but there was only one way to get the snake out of the cabin unharmed.

He turned to the security guard. “Put the gun away.” Kenny hesitated, but then did as he was told. “And stay out of my way.”

Kenny’s eyes went wider than Rick thought possible. “Wh-what are y-you gonna do with it?” The guard’s backside was already pushing the door open.

“Just stay out of my way,” Rick ordered.

The snake stopped with several inches of its body sticking out from under the refrigerator. Rick flexed his hands open and closed a few times, taking deep breaths, reminding himself that black snakes could be quick to bite, but weren’t poisonous. “Grab, tug, run, toss. Grab, tug, run, toss.” And try your damnedest not to piss your pants.

One last breath, and it was time. The snake started to move again and would soon be settled under the fridge...and a mad son of a bitch to deal with.

Rick grabbed the tail, tugged and ran as fast as his legs would take him, keeping the writhing creature at arm’s length and thanking the Lord the whole time for long arms.

A leap off the porch and a few long strides gave momentum to his slinging movement. The black snake sailed through the air, landing with a thump near the path into the woods.

Rick leaned forward, bracing his hands on his knees, taking deep gulps of air as he watched the shadowy mass slither into the shadows.

“If he comes crawlin’ outta there during my watch, he’s a dead son of a bitch, good guy or not,” Kenny called from a safe distance away.

“You don’t have a tranquilizer dart, do you?” Rick walked back toward Summer’s cabin.

“No, why? You want to put him to sleep if he comes back?”

“I was thinking I may need it for Summer.”

He heard the night watchman’s nervous laugh...headed away from the direction of the woods.

“Summer, it’s okay,” Rick called. He crossed the small living room and opened her bedroom door. The room was empty, but light shone from under the bathroom door.

He went over to it and rapped lightly. “Summer?” Listening for an answer, he caught the sound of her soft cry. Slowly, he opened the door and peeked in.

She was huddled in the bathtub, eyes wide and wild. “It was a big sn-sn-snake. I nearly stepped on it.”

Rick pushed the door wide-open. “It’s okay. It’s gone now.”

“Oh, Rick!” She launched herself at him, and he caught her. Her arms clutched his neck, and her legs wrapped around his waist. “I was so scared.”

He held Summer close as he walked to her bed and sat down with her, too keenly aware of her breasts pushed taut against him with only the thin material of her top separating them from his bare chest. “It’s okay.” He stroked her back and used what he hoped was a soothing voice. “I’m here. You don’t have anything to be afraid of.”

“Did I wake the kids?”

He snorted. “Those old A/C window units in the dorms are so loud, a helicopter could land and it wouldn’t wake the kids.”

“I shouldn’t have screamed like that, though. It caught me totally off guard. How do you think it got in?” Her cheek rested on his shoulder while her warm breath came in jerks, bathing the side of his neck.

“The screen door doesn’t shut well.” He leaned back to look at her, brushing away the wet hair clinging to her face. “We’ll get Charlie to fix it tomorrow. I should’ve already taken care of it.”

“Tomorrow?” Terror returned to her eyes and she shuddered. “I can’t stay here tonight. Can I stay with you? Please? I can sleep on your couch, and I’ll be really quiet.”

He pulled her to him, trying to ignore the erect nipples and remain logical as he thought it over. The logical answer would be to share his bed and make love all night, but that would go against the agreement they had. He was positive he couldn’t share a bed with her and not make love to her, but he didn’t want her sleeping on the couch, and the couch wouldn’t be nearly big enough to accommodate him comfortably.

“Do you want to go home for the night? I could take you if you’re too shaky to drive.” He hoped she didn’t jump on that option. She shook her head against him. “By the time we got there, it wouldn’t be three hours until we’d have to get up and come back.”

They could switch cabins for the night. Other than knowing he was sleeping in her bed and her scent filling his head all night and keeping him so hard he probably wouldn’t be able to sleep, he couldn’t think of a reason that wouldn’t work. “You can sleep in my cabin. I’ll come back here.”

“No.” She shook her head in protest. “I won’t let you sleep in this snake-infested place.”

Her drama made him laugh. “One snake, which probably came in through the open door, does not qualify a place as infested. And sleeping with a snake around doesn’t scare me nearly as much as the thought of sleeping under the same roof as you.”

She huffed and grabbed a tissue from the box on her nightstand to wipe her nose and eyes. “I promise I’ll be good.”

He hugged her. “That’s what scares me.”

* * *

SUMMER’S STOMACH DREW INTO a lead weight as they walked out onto her porch. Rick’s strong hand clutching hers helped, but the snake was out there somewhere in the darkness, so when Rick stepped off the porch, her feet wouldn’t follow. She froze in terror, jerking his arm back. “I can’t do this.”

“No problem.” In one smooth move, he scooped her up. She clutched his neck, feeling the security of his steel body as he strode toward his cabin, loving the feel of his bare skin pressed to her side, against her arms, under her hands.

An unexpected flashlight beam illuminated Rick’s face, causing her to gasp. Kenny.

“Summer’s going to spend the night in my cabin,” Rick explained.

“’Bout time.” Kenny continued on his rounds.

With Summer’s help, Rick maneuvered the door to his cabin open and kept going toward his bedroom without breaking stride.

“Just put me on the couch, Rick.”

He ignored her and passed it by. When he laid her on his bed, she opened her mouth again, but his lips closed down on hers, smothering her protest, causing her breath to sputter in her chest.

Fear of the snake ebbed away into the recesses of her body while another emotion coiled and struck with a vengeance.

Rick brushed his knuckles down her face as he straightened. “Good night,” he whispered.

She flung her arms around his neck. “Don’t leave.”

“You’re safe here.” With an arm to each side of her, he leaned down to touch her lips again with his. “You don’t need to be afraid.”

She moved her hands to his face. Their gazes tangled. “I’m not afraid. I want to be with you, make love to you. I don’t want to wait any longer.” She watched him swallow, and he straightened again. Her hands slid to his chest and on down to the chiseled planes of his abs. His breath caught beneath her touch.

“But we agreed that making love would only be a distraction.”

She sat up, too, bringing her face within inches of his, brushing the backs of her fingers against his temple and into his hair. “You’re the distraction. Not sex. I can’t keep my mind off you whether we make love or not.” She inched closer, speaking against his mouth. “I think not doing it is making it worse.”

His relieved rush of air warmed her lips. “I thought it was just me.”

Their lips came together in a kiss that burned with urgency. Their tongues collided, and she moaned into his mouth as the heat swept through her heart and outward to every part of her, burning away any doubt that this was the right thing to do. She wanted this...wanted him.

She raised her arms, and his hands slid under her tank top to sweep it up and off in a motion that interrupted the kiss for only a second, but when his fiery mouth reconnected, it wasn’t to her mouth. He nibbled along her jaw to her earlobe and behind her ear. She gasped and sighed until her breathing became so erratic she grew dizzy.

Throwing her head back, Summer sucked in a quick breath at the sensation he created as he lowered her back into the pillow, his mouth caressing each inch along the path from her neck to the peak of her breast.

He sucked a nipple into his mouth, the tantalizing pull making her arch up against him. He took advantage of her raised hips by gliding his hand into her pajamas and caressing her bottom. “Take them off.” She encouraged him and wriggled her hips until she felt the material around her knees. A few good kicks sent the last of her cover sailing. Being naked had never felt this fabulous.

Rick was everywhere around her. He’d become all hands and mouth and the weight of his hard body pressed the bed down next to her and she rolled to her side against him. She couldn’t anticipate where his touch would land next. He had her gasping for air and she wanted to reciprocate, wanted to feel him and taste him, but he had her so wild with need, she could do little more than claw and pant. Thinking was out of the question.

* * *

IT’S LIKE MAKING LOVE TO A little wild cat, Rick thought as Summer’s hands moved through his hair and then scratched along his sides and back while she made little mewling sounds of pleasure. He’d never been with a woman this uninhibited and this passionate...nor one this small. Summer’s diminutive size worried him. Her amazing body was perfectly proportioned, and he had to assume that meant every part of her was tiny. He’d heard a woman could accommodate any size—and he was hardly porn star status—but the tiny body writhing so feisty under the ministrations of his hands and mouth didn’t seem big enough to hold even a man of average size.

As he hesitated, Summer’s thumbs caught the waistband of his athletic shorts, pushing them down until his erection sprang free, and she stroked her hand tightly along the length of him.

Her movements felt so good he shuddered and drew back a little, trying to give her the space she needed to evaluate his size. The nymph made quick use of the distance to let go of him long enough with one hand to rid him of the shorts. Then her mouth was on him, sucking in a way that was going to make him lose his rational abilities quickly. He had to act fast.

* * *

RICK PRESSED HER INTO THE pillow with a kiss that stopped her breath, but not her determination. She let her hands replicate the action her mouth had been pulled away from and was rewarded when Rick’s hand finally glided past her stomach to stroke between her legs. She opened easily for him, greedy to receive the finger he offered, but knowing it wasn’t enough to extinguish the need for him burning at her core.

“Rick.” She panted. “I want you in me.”

She felt his hesitation. “Summer, you’re so small. ...”

You gotta be kidding me! He was afraid to follow through. She fought to keep her voice calm and lucid. It wouldn’t do to let him believe her words were fueled by frustration. “I’m woman enough. I promise.”

She nibbled on the shoulder that loomed in front of her mouth as his weight shifted, and she continued to knead whatever part of his body her hands fell on as she recognized the sound of the bedside table drawer sliding open, followed by the sound of ripping cellophane. It ran through her mind to question why he’d brought condoms to the camp, but whatever the reason it didn’t matter much right then.

After some of the most agonizing seconds she’d ever experienced, Rick settled between her legs, his weight on his elbows, his gaze capturing hers with its heated intensity. “Are you sure about this, Summer?”

She nodded. “Uh-huh.”

“I mean, really sure?”

She ground her lower body against him, punctuating each word as she spoke. “I’m. Absolutely. Certain.”

He released his breath and reached between them to guide himself, sliding into her with agonizing slowness, as if she were a piece of fragile porcelain he was afraid of breaking. Inch by inch, he filled her until she couldn’t stand the delay any longer.

“Oh, for heaven’s sake, Rick, do me before I combust.” She ground the words out as she thrust against him hard enough to bury his full length deep inside her.

He let out a groan of pleasure. “You’re so tight.”

“Cut the praise.” She wrapped her legs around his waist. “Just pump.”

Summer felt his muscles relax as he fell into a rhythm, but they tightened again just as quickly as the thrusting started to heighten the effect for both of them.

The buildup intensified, and he followed her lead. She raised her hands above her head and pushed against the headboard, wanting...needing to meet and give back his pounding rhythm as he drove into her. She arched her back higher and higher, pressing against him harder, faster and faster until her body and her mind reached their peaks simultaneously and she cried out as relief from the delicious agony swept through her.

Had Rick been holding back? His movements intensified at her cry. A violent shudder shook his body as the breath-stealing spasms continued to course through her. He kissed her hard and rolled to the side, holding under her knee to slide her thigh atop his. This position kept him firmly planted deep within her. He held her tight against him until her quaking stopped.

“Did I hurt you?” The arm beneath her loosened its hold slightly, but still kept her close.

She snuggled her face to his chest. “Of course not. Was I too tight?”

“No such thing.” His leg still lay between her thighs and he shifted closer, his palm making lazy circles around her rear. “You’re perfect...in every way.”

He kissed the top of her head, and she tickled his chest with her tongue, and they lay together quietly, words seeming unimportant and useless to describe the delicious bliss she was drenched in.

Her sensitive breasts picked up the rumble of laughter as it started in his stomach, felt it pull him free from her at last. She poked him playfully. “What’s so funny?”

“‘Do me before I combust’? Is that fairy princess talk?”

She laughed, leaning her head back to look into his eyes, which were smiling and sweet, and it ran through her mind that she could look at him looking at her this way for the rest of her life. First-time glow, she told herself, though her heart was sending a different message to her brain. “Hey, even fairy princesses have needs. And if I’d known what kind of magic your wand was packing—” she brushed her fingers along the side of his penis and felt it jerk to life “—I’d have told the girls not to waste the other one.” She tapped the granite star wedged between them.

He grinned and tucked his hand behind the back of her neck to guide her mouth up to his again. “Has anyone ever told you how amazing you are?”

“It took a real fairy prince to ascertain that, I think.” His thumb caressed her cheek, and she turned her face to press a kiss into his palm. “But it wasn’t just me.” She breathed deeply, a relaxed breath that filled her lungs like she hadn’t felt in months. “We’re amazing,” she answered.

The question that had risen vaguely in her mind earlier resurfaced, disturbing her tranquility. She sat up to point at the open drawer beside them. “Seriously, condoms? Were you that confident, or did you just come to camp prepared for anything?”

Rick took her hands, threading his fingers between hers. “Trust me when I say I was never prepared for anything like you.” He kissed her fingers and her relaxation evaporated into a bubbly sensation like she’d taken a huge gulp of champagne. “Kenny left them. They were his thank-you for the use of the cabin.”

Rick must have felt the bubbling, too, as she saw the stirring of another erection. She gave him a mischievous grin and crawled on top to straddle him. “Did he leave plenty?”

Rick shrugged. “That depends, I guess. At the rate of one a day, we could stretch them to last a month.”

Summer gyrated her bottom against him unabashedly. “But this session only lasts for two more weeks.”

“Was one of the degrees you pursued in math?” He gave a playful groan as her figure-eight movements had the desired effect.

“Economics.” She pulled her hands loose and brushed his nipples with the backs of her fingers, causing him to suck in a quick breath.

“I guess if we run out, we’ve got other means we can make use of.”

Summer reached back with one hand to feel his erection spring to its full length. She feigned surprise. “Uh-oh. I think we might have another snake in the house.”

Rolling to one side, he flung her to the bed and pinned her with his leg. “Well, this time—” he grabbed her wrists and pulled them over her head, holding them easily with one hand “—we’re going to torture the snake slowly.” He used his free hand to make long, bold, leisurely strokes down her body. “None of that fast catch-and-release stuff like before.”

Summer closed her eyes and smiled at the delectable vibrations already thrumming through her. “Be sure to thank Kenny for me,” she purred.

* * *

“RICK!”

They were thirteen and flying down the hill on their bikes. Dunk stood on his bicycle pedals, one arm holding a basketball stretched over his head. “Hell-pee-roo!” he yelled.

Rick scrunched his nose. “What?”

“Hell-pee-roo! Hell-pee-roo!” Dunk chanted at the top of his lungs.

“What’s that mean?”

“Don’t mean nothing. Just made it up. Sounds cool, huh?” He sat down and extended his legs out straight. “Hell-pee-roo! Say it, Rick.”

“Hell-pee-roo!” Rick yelled. It was fun. He repeated it a couple more times, then they screamed it together.

Dunk held the basketball up again. “Catch!” He bounced the ball on the middle line of the street, timing it to make its ascent as Rick passed. “Hell-pee-roo!” he shouted.

Rick scooped it up as it rose from the ground, amazed to find it in his clutch. “Hell-pee-roo!” he answered.

They laughed.

“Lemme try!” Dunk held his arm out in anticipation.

“Hell-pee-roo!” Rick dribbled the ball, not hard...just enough to get it across the line and back up.

It hit the asphalt and exploded upward, shrinking in size, becoming a bullet, heading straight for Dunk!

Rick tried to shout a warning, but his voice froze in his throat. He watched in horror as the bullet buried into Dunk’s neck, the force of it pitching his friend from his bike.

Rick was rushing toward him, picking him up, running with him, aware all the while of bullets zinging around him. Sweat poured from his forehead into his eyes...his ears. He glanced down. Dunk’s eyes were closed. He couldn’t sleep now...had to stay awake. “Dunk!” he screamed.

“Rick!”

A voice broke into his consciousness. A light flashed on, blinding him momentarily. He shaded his eyes with his hand, feeling the sweat from his face against his palm. He took deep breaths to slow his heart rate to something resembling normal.

“You were having a nightmare.”

“Sorry.”

“You don’t have to apologize.” Summer leaned over and he was treated to the view of her perfectly sculpted back just before she switched the lamp off. “Are you okay now?”

“Yeah.” Embarrassed as hell, but okay. Gotta get these damn things under control.

Her yawn drifted through the darkness. “You sleep at attention. How come?”

“We were trained to sleep that way.” He scratched his head. “I didn’t realize I still did it.”

She took advantage of his raised arm to snuggle her naked body against his side. She felt warm and delicious, and he rolled over on his side to wrap his other arm across her.

His mind drifted back to their lovemaking and, surprisingly, his body relaxed. After one of his nightmares, it usually took a while...if he could get back to sleep at all.

She kissed his neck. “We’re gonna retrain the tight-ass right out of you, Mr. Warren.”

“That’s gonna take some strong magic, princess.” He buried his nose in her hair. It smelled nice...like the tea his mom used to make in the afternoon...she’d serve it with honey cakes. He hadn’t thought of honey cakes in a long time. “You’re good for me, Summer.”

Her breathing deepened, and she didn’t answer.

He took several long breaths, matching them to hers. If he dreamed again tonight, the woman in his arms would take the starring role at center stage.