Chapter 18 #2
She bit his left pectoral. It was like violence was her love language as well as her first line of defense.
“Can I tell you something else important?” She nodded against his chest. “When you’re in bed beside me...I sleep.”
“Umm…I can’t pretend to know how you were raised, Santi, but that’s generally the purpose of beds, to sleep.” He popped her on the ass, and she yelped before settling again.
“I sleep too,” she admitted softly.
He held her tighter, bracing.
“He called you. Derrick. The man who has been disturbing your peace.”
She tried to pull away but he wouldn’t let her, and eventually she stopped cursing, stopped resisting, and looked up at him.
“He didn’t say much, just that you needed to answer your phone, that he had to tell you something important.”
“That he’d discovered my location and ratted me out to my mother under duress of threat.”
“I would’ve told you sooner, but I discovered the body in the lake during my late morning swim.”
She jerked back, alarmed. “What body?”
“A man who has been missing for nearly two months.”
“The spirits of the lake kill him?”
“Purely human.”
She returned to silence.
“I’m going to say something important now, and you may not like it.”
“That hasn’t stopped you before.”
“Oh, it won’t stop me now, I’m just prepping you.”
“Let me have it.”
“That fiancé you had—and I’m just saying this from the perspective of a man interacting with another man—he was never meant to be more than a few dates for you. If you had been honest with yourself, you would’ve accepted that a long time ago.”
She tried to pull out of his arms again, but he held onto her until she understood this was exactly how this conversation was gonna go.
No pulling away, no hiding from the hurt, just them locked in until the hard part was over.
And if she couldn’t tolerate that, he would know if this could move beyond something sexual.
She sighed explosively. “Exactly how long were you two talking?”
He spread his legs wider and pressed her hips deeper into the junction of his spread thighs.
“We didn’t talk long at all. Didn’t have to for me to know that you and Derrick
were destined to meet the kind of end you did.”
“And how, oh sage one, did you come by this wisdom?”
“Let me ask you something, then I’ll answer you.”
She nodded.
“How often did you fight with Derrick?”
“We never—”
“I don’t mean physically. In a few days we’ve had a goodly number of disagreements. I don’t expect you’ve held your punches one time. So, with him, how often did you blast him with that furnace of a mouth.”
“I didn’t hear you disliking my mouth—”
“Stop avoiding the question.”
She shrugged. “We always got along; we were just good that way. He—”
“Bullshit,” he said, and laughed humorlessly. “Bull. Shit. I don’t think there’s one person on this mountain you’ve talked to for more than ten minutes you haven’t argued with. Even my fragile elderly great-aunt who’s only concerned with doing good deeds before she passes beyond this mortal coil.”
She laughed, hitting her forehead against his chest.
“That woman is diabolical. A witch. But because she’s beautiful and graceful and has style and is charismatic, people don’t see it. I have seen beyond her magical glamour. She deserves the heat.”
“And Derrick, did he ever deserve that heat?”
She stopped smiling and looked away, toward her house, but she didn’t try to escape.
“We had a fight once. In the beginning. I felt like shit after. It was like kicking a puppy, and I swear I wasn’t even being mean.”
Santiago frowned. “Only one fight. What about when you found out about him and your sister?”
“I got my shit and got on the road, and I was still numb when I got here.”
“That must have been exhausting banking down all that fire for fear of him getting burned. And still he betrayed you. With your sister...hell, even with your mother. Because what kind of man rats you out instead of facing the consequences of his actions?”
“You make him sound weak? And he wasn’t, really.”
“I’m not making him sound any kind of way, all I’m doing is telling you what I know. Listen, he may be a good man to a less strong-willed woman. That woman could never be you. You have a knack for trying to protect the weak. I’m not saying Derrick is weak…I’m just saying he sounds like he is.”
They stood silently now, listening the thunder break in the distance. The wind picked up, blowing around them.
“You have a long line of witches in your family huh? You, Lina...”
She nodded knowingly as if she’d unearthed a family secret.
“Witchcraft? No, but degrees in philosophy and humanities go a long way. Add a lifetime of being sensitive to what exists on either side of the shroud, then being paid to put people over there…”
He reversed their positions, and turned her to face the lake, pressing his groin against her ass. He didn’t know why, but he wanted this woman addicted to him, he wanted her coming back for her fix again and again.
Her moan of pleasure was a soul song that seemed to make the surface of the lake vibrate with a new resonance, rolling higher upon the shore to reach them.
He wanted to bring her to the water soon.
Pressing deep into her heat, he’d continued to move inside her until they both broke within the gathering storm.
“You’re an insane idiot,” she yelled, running down the hall in her bra and panties. He, in his boxers, chased her out the back door into a not quite full-fledged hurricane.
The only reason they were wearing underwear was to protect their private parts as they cooked panfried garlic salmon—him; and dirty rice—her; which is where the problems arose.
A cultural difference really, because no matter what he said, polenta was grits.
They weren’t even making grits, so why did he care if she said she preferred sugar and butter vs salt and butter.
She didn’t actually believe it, but she liked being accused of “irritating my spirit.” Then she’d accidently flicked a spoon full of dirty rice, and it just happened to hit him in the throat and tumble down his chest.
She howled as he grabbed her around the waist and swung her in a circle; both slick from the rain.
“It was an accident!” she shouted as he carried her toward the lake’s edge.
“So, if you accidently fall into the lake, it wouldn’t be my fault?”
“You’re literally carrying me to the water!” she said, wiping rain from her face.
He stopped and seemed to consider her words. She turned in his arms until they were chest to chest and wiped the black strands of hair off his face.
“No more accidents, I promise.”
His multi-hued eyes held hers and she nodded hopefully.
He growled and began to move forward again. She screamed and wrapped her legs around his thighs when she felt the cold water bite at her ankles.
“I’ll bake you another cake! Any kind you want. Just for you.”
He backed out of the water and silently carried her to the house.
“You’re fast as hell, you know that?” she said as he placed her on her feet and opened the screen. Although he was four years older than her, he moved like he was ten years younger. She should’ve factored his current and prior employment into her equation before accidently tossing food at him.
“Go get dried off.”
“Yes, lover.” She smiled seductively, posing against the banister before bursting into a fit of laughter and walking up the stairs.
“And just a word of warning,” he called up to her. “If anything tastes off about my next cake, you’re going into the lake.”
They should’ve made more food, she thought, finishing her second plate.
“And I’m not embarrassed about my appetite,” she defended, tightening her robe as she stood.
“You shouldn’t be, we like well-fed women on the mountain.”
“That’s what you’ll be saying after I put this poppy-pussy on you and send you off to sleep.”
“You talk big shit Lauren Green,” he said, lifting her onto the island.
“But it’s time you learn that when you invite a man into your little opium den, it becomes his opium den.
He owns the lock, the key, and the walls he’ll be bouncing off of.
I warned you to get out of my town when you could.
Now, I dare you to try. You’re tethered here now, and wherever you go, you’ll always find yourself right back here, fiending after me, lusting after me. ”
She would have to return home, eventually, she thought, but she patted his ass like he was a wayward pup. Let Santi have his delusions, because she would have her memories long after she was gone.