A Dolphin's Gift (12 page)

"About
what?"

"Draco the
Dragon." In the tenuous light, she caught Will's endearing smile and felt
flutters inside her tummy. Strange how he affected her that way. "What's
so amusing?" she asked.

"You. I
could see the little girl you used to be." Will trailed his finger along
her arm, tracing a path to her hand. "You seem contented tonight," he
said, capturing her hand in his.

Nellie felt a
tiny shutter as Will's hand curled around hers. "I am for the
moment," she replied. Although she knew it was impermanent, she couldn't
remember when she'd felt such a sense of calm. Nothing was solved. She had no
job, no money,
no
car. And Mike's life was unsettled.
Nor was there anything established between her and Will. But for now, nothing
seemed to matter but the warmth growing inside from the feel of Will's hand
holding hers, and the quiet look on his face as he smiled at her. She squeezed
his hand. "Can we talk?"

Will eyed her
intently. "I thought that's what we were doing."

"I don't
mean about stars and constellations," Nellie said. "I mean about
us."

Will pressed
his lips to her hand then looked at her. "I wasn't sure there was an
us."

"I'm not
sure either," Nellie said, "but I like what I feel when we're
together like this."

Will released
her hand and put his arm around her and pulled her to him. "So do
I
," he whispered next to her temple before touching his
tongue to the rim of her ear.

Nellie gasped
as chills rippled through her, and when Will's tongue traced the inner recesses
of her ear and darted inside, she moaned. "Maybe we shouldn't let things
happen too fast," she said. "And there's a point we mustn't go
beyond."

"Which
is?" Will continued to tease the inner recesses of her ear.

"Umm…
somewhere between here and… somewhere else… umm."

Will whispered
into her ear. "But you like what I'm doing, don't you?"

"Well...
yes," Nellie replied, shivering as he nibbled her ear lobe, "but
maybe you shouldn't be doing that since we haven't established exactly what
we—"

"Be quiet
and just enjoy what I'm doing and let me enjoy what I'm doing—" Will
traced the curve of her cheek with his finger and let it trail down her neck
"—and all those nice female curves have me slavering and drooling like a
dirty old man."

Nellie eyed him
dubiously. "I can't see how you can be attracted to a plump woman."

"Plump?"
Will laughed softly. "Nellie, my good woman, you're not plump. You're
padded in all the right places. I'm a healthy, red-blooded male who happens to
like the way you're shaped, who wants to explore further your unlimited
possibilities."

Heat rushed up
Nellie's face and she giggled, feeling like the most desirable creature on
earth. It felt good to be wanted again. Will curved a finger beneath her chin
and lifted, drawing her mouth toward his. "Your face feels hot—" he
touched his lips to each eyelid, then to the curve of her cheek, and the tip of
her nose. Bending over her, he lowered her to the sleeping bag and kissed her
long and hard, capturing her mouth with his. And she returned the kiss while
allowing his hand to roam beneath her shirt where he dragged it up so he could
cup her breast. The kiss ended when he tugged her bra down and took her nipple
between his lips, sending a rush of adrenaline through her.

But when Will
tucked his hand into the waistband of her sweatpants, Nellie pressed against
his chest, and said, in a winded voice, "I think we reached the somewhere
I was talking about, so we’d better stop here." She removed his hand and
pulled her bra up and her shirt down.

Will breathed a
long, weary sigh, and said, in a raspy voice, "Sorry, I got carried away."

"You don’t
need to apologize," Nellie replied. "I was enjoying what you were
doing. I just don't want things to go too fast. And to make sure things don't
proceed as they were, I'd better go to bed." She gave Will a quick kiss on
the lips and left the deck.

But as soon as
she saw her big empty berth, she felt a loss. Thoughts of entwining her naked
body with Will's brought fluttering low in her belly and tingles in the private
places he’d awakened, places that had, until recently, been dormant. And all
she had to keep from acting on the instincts God gave them was her own
willpower. Nothing more.

And right now
she wanted Will more than ever...

She was
distracted from her thoughts when she heard Mike moving around in the fo'c'sle.
Surprised he was still be awake, and wondering if he'd had another bad dream,
she started to go check on him, but hearing nothing, as she stood with her ear
pressed against the door to the fo'c'sle, she decided to let Mike be. In the
morning, she'd discuss with Will his options for dealing with Mike if he had
another dream...

...There's no place in my life for Mike or
any other kid... I just want to be clear on that...

Nellie was
reminded again, that while she might be faced with the challenge of raising a
son, the man to share the experience with would not be Will. But that didn't
keep her from wanting him, as long as she didn't act on it.

Standing in the
galley in her terry robe, the next morning, Nellie ducked her head under the
table, where Katy was curled up in her dog bed, and said, "Come on,
Katy." She carried Katy to the head where Will had prepared a
Katy-litter box
, as he referred to it.
When they'd first introduced Katy to it they were surprised how quickly she
learned its purpose.

After Katy was
done, she followed Nellie into the master stateroom, shaggy tail wagging, as
Nellie poured dry food into her bowl. "You stay in here so Zeke can
stretch his legs," she said, pulling the door shut. Nellie returned to the
galley and opened the cabinet known as
Zeke's
Stateroom
and the tabby raised his sleepy head, yawned, stretched first one
front leg then the other, and quietly sat. "Okay," Nellie said.
"Stay in there if you want, but you don't have to." She added cat
chow and water to his double bowl set.

A few minutes
later, Will scurried down the ladder into the galley, grabbed Nellie around the
waist from behind as she stood at the sink washing her hands before preparing
breakfast, and kissed the side of her neck. "I can think of better
sleeping arrangements than what we have," he said, nibbling her earlobe,
while his hands moved up to capture her unbound breasts.

"Will!"
Nellie yelped. She
pulled his arms from around her and gulped in a breath of air, attempting to
settle her rapid heartbeat. She had no idea what possessed him to behave the
way he was. She'd thought she'd set things straight on the deck. "You've
got to stop this."

Will smiled.
"Do you realize what cute dimples you have when you’re perturbed?"

"Please be
serious." Nellie dried her hands and reached for a mixing bowl.

"I'm
trying to be, but you keep changing the subject." Will nuzzled the top of
her head.

Nellie turned
and braced her arms against Will's chest. "
Nooo
..."
she exaggerated.
"
No more of this
.
 
N... O..." She
went to the refrigerator and took out six eggs and set them on the small
counter beside the mixing bowl.

She had just
cracked the first when Will reached around her from behind and cracked another
egg, with her in the circle of his arms, and said, "You have my hormones
raging like a pubescent teenager." He set the eggshells aside and reached
for another egg and cracked it.

When he'd
finished cracking the fourth, Nellie removed Will's arms from around her and
turned, then pinned him with sober eyes, and said, "You've got to stop
this. It's not healthy for Mike. He could walk in and find us. Besides, you
know the boundaries I set for us last night."

Will dropped
his arms to his sides and said, in a voice that had lost all its humor,
"Actually I don't. They keep changing."

Nellie knew he
was right. She’d spent the better part of the night mulling over her response
to his passionate kiss and intimate exploration of her body, and although she’d
made it clear any relationship outside of marriage was unacceptable, she'd also
given him every reason to believe they could have a relationship that would not
include consummation, but would allow a moderate level of intimacy, with
boundaries set in place, an idea she'd been contemplating.

Looking up at
him, she said, "I tell you what. If you promise to behave when Mike’s
around, I'll let you misbehave a little when he's not."

Will eyed her
guardedly. "Are we talking misbehaving above the neck, or above the
waist?"

"I suppose
a little of both," Nellie replied, "but only if we're certain Mike's
not around. But anything below the waist is off limits to both of us." She
felt her face grow hot as she visualized them sharing covert kisses and secret
hugs and his hands and lips on her breasts.

Will smiled
broadly. "You're even more beautiful when you blush," he said.
"You do realize you're blushing, don't you?" He kissed her lightly.

Flustered and
flattered, Nellie drew the robe together over her gown and tried to ignore the
lustful thoughts his playful bantering provoked. She found it strange, after so
many years of only wanting one man's hands on her, that she wanted Will's hands
in places only Richard had touched. But Richard was gone, and for the short
term, Will seemed to fill the void. But Will was also a dangerous distraction
because they were not alone on the boat, and Mike was already troubled that
Will seemed to be taking his father's place. Wondering how it went with Will
and Mike, she said, "How did things go in the fo'c'sle last night?"

Will arched a
brow, and replied, "Other than I had to sleep with bent knees and curled
toes, reasonably well. If I annoyed Mike, he didn't say anything."

"Unless he
has a bad dream, he sleeps pretty soundly," Nellie said, while beating the
eggs with a fork. "I forgot about the short berths. They seemed adequate
when I was a child." She dumped the eggs into the skillet, which was on
one of the three burners on the small galley stove.

Will rested his
hands on Nellie's hips and peered over her shoulder as she began slowly
stirring the eggs in the skillet, and said, "Speaking of inadequate
berths, can I sneak into your stateroom after Mike's asleep so I can stretch
out? You'd hardly know I was there."

Nellie caught
the change from innocent to devilish. "Yeah, right," she said,
thoughts of naked entwined bodies leaving her giddy. "Maybe I should sleep
in the fo'c'sle with Mike," she suggested, "and you could have the
big bed all to yourself." She pushed the scrambled eggs into a mound in
the skillet and turned off the burner.

"Not a
suitable alternative. Don’t forget Dr. Emery's advice," Will replied.
Still standing behind her, he moved his hands up to cup her breasts, and said
against her temple, "I like the new boundaries, and since you're not
stopping what I'm doing, you must like them too."

"I
do," Nellie replied. For a few moments she allowed Will to palm her
breasts and tease her nipples, but realizing how foolish she was being, she
pulled Will's hands from around her, and said, "We need to stop. Mike
could come in anytime. And you'd better sit at the table and put a little distance
between us." Darting around him, she put a couple of slices of bread in
the toaster, placed a mug of coffee on the table for Will, then began spooning
scrambled eggs onto a platter.

Not more than a
five of minutes later, Mike scaled the ladder and sat opposite Will.

Nellie gave
Mike a good morning kiss on the top of the head then served him some scrambled
eggs and toast. After pouring a cup of hot chocolate for him, and coffee for
herself, she sat beside Mike.

After taking a
long slow sip of coffee, she looked askance at Mike, she said, "How did
you do your first night, honey?"

Mike spooned a
dollop of jam onto his toast, glared at Will, and replied, "He
snores."

Nellie glanced
across the table at Will "He was probably just overtired," she said.

Mike eyed Will,
dubiously. "Are you gonna marry my mother?"

Nellie looked
at Mike with a start. "Why would you ask a question like that?"

Mike crunched
on his toast. "You kissed a long time last night."

Nellie's hand
jerked, splashing coffee across the table. She grabbed a handful of paper
napkins to mop up the mess. The noise in the fo'c'sle. Mike had been up. Maybe
watching from the shadows. She reflected on their intimate kiss and what
Will
did afterwards. She'd even had to pull her bra up and
Will's hand out from inside her sweats. Mortified at the thought that Mike
could have seen what Will was doing, she found herself at a loss for words.

"Well? Are
you?" Mike glared at Will, waiting for his response.

"Your mom
and I are just good friends," Will replied in a flat dry tone. "Good
friends don’t necessarily get married." He took a long slow sip of coffee.

Mike sat
silently for a few moments, brows gathered in thought then said to Will,
"Mom wants to have a baby and people have to be married to make babies, so
if you and Mom are going to make a baby, you have to get married."

Nellie looked
at Mike in alarm, wondering just how much he
had
seen. Clearly it was enough to conclude that they were in the
process of making a baby. "You know you're not supposed to be on deck at
night," she said in a wobbly voice, attempting to change the subject.

"I just
went to see what all the noise was. Geez, I knew what you were doing."

Nellie felt as
if the wind had been knocked out of her. Had Mike seen
exactly
where Will’s hands and lips had strayed, or heard her moans
of pleasure while he’d taken the liberties she’d allowed him to take? Tears of
humiliation prickled her eyes and she blinked several times to stop them from
forming. Deciding it was best to drop the subject, she drew in a long, breath
and said, "Finish your breakfast. We have a long day ahead of us."
She mopped up the last of the coffee. No more kissing. No more hugging. No
more… anything.