Forever's Embrace (Forever In Luck Series Book 2) (15 page)

Positioning
her within the circle of his arms, he held the fish out in front of her, then
said in her ear, “I do like you. I really, really, really like you. In fact, it
would be more accurate to say it goes much deeper than that.”

She
froze. What was he saying? Was he saying… She turned and looked at him, as she
grasped and grappled with the words he’d said. He placed a gentle kiss on her
lips, and she felt her knees go weak as her insides went taut. She gently fell
back against him, sliding down a bit in the process.

He
grunted. “Ah, Jules,” he said, his voice strangled. “You’re right where I want
you, so let’s focus on this fish, and get it off the hook fast. Cup your hand
around it like this.”

Turning
her head, she looked at the slithery blob. Grabbing one of her hands, he put
the line holding the fish in it and closed her fist around it, then taking her
other hand, he used his hands to place hers where it needed to be on the fish.
She let out a stifled scream on contact with the cold, wet, wiggling fish. When
it twitched and flapped its tail, she screamed outright.

“Hurry
up, hurry up, hurry up!” she yelled.

Holding
the fish with her, he helped her quickly remove the hook. Hurdling her way over
the lines and holes to the cooler, she threw the fish in and slammed the lid
shut. “Ick! Bleck! Yuck!” Dashing over to a chair, she grabbed a towel and
began wiping her hands with vigor. “I am
not
doing that again. No way! And you can’t make me. I will cut the lines and let
them go if I have to. I need hand sanitizer. Where’s my purse?”

He
burst out laughing, a full bellied roar, as he watched her frantic attempts to
get rid of the memory, and its corresponding germs. Hopping over to the box
he’d carried in, she pulled out a bottle of water and hightailed it over to a
hole. Pouring water all over one hand, she switched and did the other. Tossing
the empty bottle aside, she shook her hands off and dashed over to her purse,
dumping its contents on the table and snatching up the little bottle of
sanitizer. Squeezing a generous dollop on her palm, she decided it wasn’t
enough and added more, then let loose the bottle, and started rubbing the gel
all around with voracity. When she was completely satisfied with the results,
she looked his way and calmly said, “I refuse to do that again.”

Unable
to catch his breath because he was laughing so hard, it took a minute or two
for him to respond. “Ah, yeah, I think we established that. I’m sure
arrangements can be made to help you out.”

“What
do you mean arrangements?” she asked, her voice clipped and her eyes narrowing.

He
gave her a sly grin. “Wouldn’t you like to know?” Then he wiggled his eyebrows
at her.

“Fooooorget
it, I’m done,” she said, in a sing song voice. Throwing her stuff back in her
purse, she kept out the Suduko book and pencil she carried to occupy her time
during long train rides around the city. Picking them up, she went and sat in a
chair, ignoring him.

With
amusement in his voice, he said, “I thought you wanted to catch enough for
supper?”

“I
did. My dinner’s in the cooler,” she answered, focusing on her book.

Chuckling,
he asked, “You going to gut it and clean it?”

Thumbing
through the book, she answered, “Nope.”

“You
going to share with me?”

Looking
up at his smiling face, she crowed, “Ohhh, I’m sure arrangements can be made to
help you out.”

He
laughed. “You don’t even know what the arrangement was going to be. Aren’t you
curious, bebis?”

Finding
an answer for one of the book’s puzzles, she wrote it in as she responded to
his inquiry. “No, it’s irrelevant, as it’s based on the hypothetical of my
potential to catch another fish. However, my assertion is based on the fact
that I have one large fish, and you will, no doubt, be hungry. Therefore it
garners merit.” She wrote another answer in the book.

Walking
over, he stood behind her, then bent and hovered over her shoulder. His breath
hot on her neck, causing a shiver to roll through her.

She
stopped. “What are you doing?”

“Deciding
which side of your neck I want to kiss first. Are we having another tiff?

Just
then, one of the lines rattled. They both looked to the hole, then he turned to
her and placed a kiss on her cheek. “Guess it ain’t so hypothetical now, is
it?” Speaking softly in her ear, he said, “It’s simple. I take the fish off the
hook, and you take off your sweatshirt.” Standing up, he walked to the wheel
and stopped it from turning, then looked over at her, making a point of
waiting.

Intrigued
by this little bit of propaganda, she conferred, “You mean your arrangements
are akin to strip poker? Every time, you take a fish off the hook for me, I
lose an article of clothing for you, is that right?”

He
gave her a magnanimous smile, chewed on the answer a bit, then said smugly,
“Yep, pretty much.”

Tapping
her pencil on her book, she thought about it. “Do I get to pick the clothing
item?”

“Top
half first, then bottom after.”

“When
does this ‘arrangement’ as you call it, end?” she asked.

“Any
time you decide it stops, you call the shots.”

Leaning
over, she put her stuff back in her purse. Getting up, she walked over to the
tugging line. Grabbing it, she started pulling it in, and struggled. “Jake this
is harder than last time.” She bent over, trying to see down the hole. Nothing.
Gently tugging and pulling, she worked on getting it in. Finally, she could see
a shadow going back and forth. It started tugging harder and faster. “Jake,
help.”

He
knelt down, peered in the hole and plunged his hand down into the icy, cold
water, then quickly brought it back up with the fish. “Oh, baby, it’s a nice
one,” he said, as the fish fought on. “Another walleye, and it’s better than
the one before. It must be twenty-four inches. We’re going to be eating good
tonight.”

Taking
the fish off the line, he stood and put a kiss on her cheek, before stepping to
the cooler. Setting up her line again, she turned to find him watching her.
Looking down at her sweatshirt, then back up, he stood there waiting with that
smirk of his on his face.

He
doesn’t think I’ll do it, and he’s challenging me, she thought. Being certain
she remained covered, she slid one arm out of a sleeve and brought it inside
her shirt, then did the other. Slowly, she lifted the sweatshirt over her head
as he stood there looking upon her in astonishment. Folding her sweatshirt, she
dropped it by her purse, then grabbed her puzzle book, and went to sit in the
chair closest to the heater.

“How
many layers do you have on?” he asked, irritated at having been beat.

“Many.
We’ll meet our fish quota without much of a problem.”

“How
can we effectively canoodle, when you’re dressed like an Eskimo?” he asked,
exasperated.

“Eskimos
don’t seem to have any trouble, their population rate continues to climb.
You’ll have to think on it.”

“I
don’t want to think about it, I’m tired of thinking about it, I want to
do
something about it.” He came over and
knelt in front of her, positioning himself between her knees, his forearms
resting on the armrests of the chair. Looking at her, he said “I’m dying to
hold you, touch you, to…to…feel you.”

She
chewed on the inside of her cheek. “Why haven’t you said anything before now?”

“Because
we really haven’t known each other all that long, because I don’t want to scare
you or push you into something you’re not ready for, because I respect you and
want to treat you right, because…”

Rattle,
rattle, rattle.

“Damn
it anyways!” he spat, as he dropped his face to his bicep.

Looking
over, she saw it was his line. Going back to him, she lifted his head with her
hands. “Go take care of your line, we’ll continue this when you’re done.”

He
leapt up and started reeling in his fish, just as he got the gillie up through
the hole, his other line began to rattle. She tried not to laugh as he looked
at it and started cussing under his breath. Going to the other line, he did the
same, and smiled when a fish like hers came up, a walleye. In the cooler they
went, and he set the lines again. Looking at her, he headed her direction.

“Wash
your hands, please,” she said in alarm.

He
smiled, turned, and did as she asked. When he turned back to her, he stopped
dead in his tracks. She’d taken off all her tops with the exception of her bra
and one thin strapped, lacy camisole tee over it. “This is as far as I’m
willing to go as of right now.”

Then
she reached up and began taking the pins out of her hair, the locks falling in
waves around her shoulders, down her front and along her back. He moaned as she
ran her fingers through it searching for missed pins, making her stop and look poignantly
at him as he did. He swallowed hard, and she heard it. When she finished, she
bent and placed the pins on a little table, no doubt giving him a tantalizing
view of some cleavage.

Standing,
she crooked her finger to him and wiggled it. He was there in a flash, his
hands trembling as they came up. Reaching for her, his fingers threaded through
her hair, tangling in the mass. Using it as incentive, he brought them closer
when he tugged on the long mane, causing her head to fall back and her spine to
bow, throwing off her center of gravity. Surprised, she reached for him, as her
mouth fell open in anticipation. Seizing the opportunity, he kissed her
passionately, demanding her attention, as he stole her breath and pushed her
into a hazy oblivion.

They’d
kissed before, and it had been nothing short of sensational, but this, this was
different. It was deeply passionate, overwhelmingly strong, and yet, achingly
tender. It was like he was a dying man in a desert, and she was the first drop
of water he’d seen in a week. Struggling to slide her hands up his muscular
chest, she wrapped her arms around his neck, and went up on tiptoe in a bid to
be closer, as she returned his kiss with fervor. Threading fingers through his
hair, she gently teased and pulled. He broke the kiss, and moaned in her ear,
then started kissing her neck with voracity.

Tipping
her head to one side, she made more room for him, as he kissed and sucked on
her neck with varying degrees of intensity. Gasping, he pushed her to the edge
of the unknown, and she leaned into him, one of her knees bending as she slid
her leg up his. He moaned louder, grabbed her knee and reached for the other,
bringing her up and about his waist. Shoving one of the chairs over, he reached
and grabbed a metal ring on the wall and pulled, bringing down a bed. Kneeling
on it, he stopped, his chest heaving.

“What’s
wrong?” she whispered, as she looked at him, then kissed him.

“The
beds cold,” he answered hoarsely. “I can’t stand the thought of you on it when
it’s like a brick of ice.”

Taking
his face in her hands, she kissed him passionately, then said, “We were making
good use of the bench earlier. You know, just until this warms up.”

He
was up and over there within a few steps. Getting them settled, he started
kissing her shoulder when one of the lines rattled. His forehead fell to her
shoulder as he labored to breathe.

“Go
fix the line, I’ll check this bed thing over, pull back the covers and try to
get it to warm up faster.” His head snapped up, and he kissed her before
standing and setting her on her feet.

Pulling
back the covers, she shook them out, then grabbed a sleeping bag they’d
brought, laying it over the cold mattress. Looking around, she pondered her
dilemma. “Ah, Jake, where does one go to the bathroom?”

He
smiled and pointed to a bucket.

“You’ve
got to be kidding, right?”

He
didn’t answer, just kept on smiling.

“Seriously?
Honest to Pete, the things I’ve endured just so I can say I caught a fish.”

Finishing
up, he stood and looked at her.

“If
you think I’m going to the bathroom in front of you, you’re crazy. Out. I’ll
call you when I’m done.”

“Shy,
bebis?” he said, more than he asked, as he grabbed his jacket and put it on.

“Yep,”
she snapped.

Stepping
over, he gave her a quick peck. “I need to cool off anyways. You’re kisses burn
they’re so hot.”

She
blushed. “Out.”

Needing
to take down several layers, and caught in the bundle, she teetered and
tottered over the bucket trying hard not to make a mess. Definitely a design
choice for men’s use, or viewing pleasure, she thought perturbed. There was a
tremendous rattle from a line as she was finishing taking care of business. One
of her lines was running away, yanking and rattling like crazy. Finishing up
fast, she pulled up her long underwear, then kicked off her two pairs of jeans
and sweatpants, shoving them to the side. She yelled for Jake, as she leapt for
the wheel, stopping the line. It pulled and bent, vibrating the reel as it
fought. The door opened, and she heard Jake come in.