Pier Lights (20 page)

Like a child. But she was... She had no idea
how to deal with children. She’d never had to. For Dio, she would
figure it out.

She smiled when his car came in sight and
pulled herself up on her crutches as he pulled in. If her hands
felt better, she’d make her way down the stairs and get to him
faster. But all she needed was to fall onto the cracked cement
sidewalk.

Harry was out of the car first, but Dio made
his way up the stairs first. “What are you doing on those?” He took
them away and picked her up in his arms.

“Well what do you expect me to do?”

“I expect you to sit still until I can take
you where you need to go.”

“Do you? So I wasn’t supposed to pee till
you got back?”

“You had to do that on the front porch?” He
looked around at the floor.

“I was up anyway.” She wrapped her arms
tightly around his neck. “And be careful. I’m getting kind of used
to this. I might never want to get anywhere any other way if you
keep it up.”

“Somehow I doubt that.” He gave her a light
kiss. “Harry and Nelda are coming to settle you in tonight and to
play interference if mother gets out of hand. And so Harry can give
her a hand if she needs it so I can keep you off your hands.”

“Diomedes, you are not carrying me through
that hospital. I’ll wait in the car first.”

“So much for wanting to go everywhere this
way?” His eyes sparkled. “I figured we’d get you a wheelchair. I
can push one and Harry can take the other.”

“Nonsense. I’ll get around as I always
do.”

He set her on his lap on the porch swing and
moved the bandages enough to check her blisters. “Can’t let you do
it, Lina. You have to heal. I have work for you. I can’t leave her
alone in the house anymore and I can’t work if I can’t get outside.
This isn’t easy street, baby. I expect you to pull your
weight.”

Nelda complained. Harry chuckled.

“Diomedes Troy, I have never in my life had
or expected easy street. I’ll do it. But she’s going to listen to
me and you can’t interfere with that.”

He looked over at Nelda, who told him she
explained the situation and the girl was prepared as she could be.
“And you still want this?”

Caroline ran fingers over his face. “I’m
keeping you. And sunset at the pier sounds perfect to me. Of course
it’s far too late to make me an honest woman, you know, but I doubt
you’d be too interested in that, anyway.”

He pressed his mouth up close to her ear.
“Looks like I’m getting the best of both worlds. I’ll get to fuck a
stripper and a wife.”

“Yeah? And I’ll have the boss, the farm boy,
and a husband, not to mention my personal hard body chauffeur. Puts
me on top, the way I see it.” Even as she joked about it, Lina
realized what she’d said. She was on top. The mistress of the
house, the boss’s wife, and the one pulling the boss’s strings. Of
course she wasn’t his wife yet.

Dio adjusted her so her legs were outside
his, her body facing him, his hand around her ass to keep her from
falling off the swing. Their hosts had gone on inside, Lina was
glad to notice. She rested her arms over his shoulders. “Dio.”

“Hm?” His eyes dropped down to her breasts
as he pinched her from behind.

“I want you.”

“I would hope so.”

“I mean now.”

“Here on the front porch?”

She pushed her tongue into his mouth,
squeezed her legs in tight against his. He moved a hand around to
her stomach, slipped it under her shirt, pulled her bra away from
one side, then the other side. Lina released his mouth and arched
her back as he teased her by almost touching her nipples, his
fingers circling, torturing, seducing...

“Where can we go?”

“Shh.”

“Dio...”

“Lina, kiss me.” His voice was a
whisper.

As she reclaimed his mouth, his fingertips
found her nipple, her right nipple, and pinched until she wanted to
cry out but he held her mouth. And he moved to the left, teased
softly. Circled. Teased again. She pressed up against his bulge
just as close as she could get and rotated in and out against him.
She couldn’t feel him well enough. She ached to feel him, all of
him.

“Hang on to me tight.” Dio moved his hand
from behind. Lina felt him reach over beside her. The blanket.
Nelda had brought it out to her. He draped it over her, over them
both.

“Oh. But Harry...”

“They won’t come out.”

“The neighbors.”

“All too far away to realize you’re doing
more than sitting with me. Just don’t be loud.”

“Mm, Dio.”

“Hang on to me.” He slid down farther, out
toward the edge. As he kissed her neck, he unzipped her jeans. And
his own. Lina kept one arm around his neck and reached down to
touch him with the other hand. Her fingers only. Her palms were
still bandaged.

“Another reason to get those hands healed.”
He found her mouth again. “Let me do it.”

“But it was my turn.”

“You can catch up later.”

She returned her arm around his neck and
nuzzled her face into his shoulder, obeying when he motioned for
her to raise enough to let him pull her jeans down her hips, off
her thighs. They pulled at her so she raised her left leg enough to
let him pull them half way off. And she moved down on him, gyrated
her thighs enough to tease him, to tease herself, with nothing but
her thin panties between.

Dio pulled them aside and entered her quick
and hard. She had to grit her teeth to stay quiet. They were on the
front porch in daylight. And she couldn’t care. She wouldn’t even
care if they didn’t have the blanket. She took charge and moved him
in and out of her, almost out, never all the way. She loved the way
his chest rose and fell fast and hard, the way his eyes clenched,
the way his hands went back to her now bare ass and pulled her
in.

She felt him climax, his body stiffen, and
still, and Lina followed suit, fell against him, her body
trembling. She stayed still, hanging on tight, kissing any part of
his skin she could find until her body calmed, until his did.

“Marry me, Caroline.”

“Mm, I don’t know, Dio.”

He pulled back, caught her eyes. “You don’t
know?”

“Hm, depends. You won’t stop treating me
like your captive if I do, will you? I don’t want you to get all
stuffy on me.”

He grinned. “Not a chance. Marry me.”

“You don’t know yet what happened to my
foot.”

“You were a bad girl and someone got even.
Marry me, Caroline.”

“I was really bad. Not the first time.”

“Okay. Marry me.”

“Dio, I...”

He pressed his mouth up against hers. Pushed
his tongue inside. Pulled her closer. His breath was fast and hot
when he released her. “Marry me. I won’t let you pull out until you
say yes. And as a warning, I’m getting ready to take you
again.”

“Here on the porch?”

He grinned and thrust his hips forward.

She groaned.

“Shh. Say yes.”

“I ... I seduced the ballet master. He ... I
thought he was about to give the prima ballerina part to the girl
he was doing because he was doing her. I figured I could do it
better. Both. The part and the seducing. So I did. To keep my
chance at being at the top. So the little sleaze wouldn’t steal it
from underneath me when she wasn’t as good.”

“Prima ballerina?” Dio stopped the light
thrust and met her eyes. “Caroline. Prima ballerina?”

“Almost. I was that close, Dio. I’d worked
so hard. I didn’t date. I didn’t even date, I wanted it so much. I
saved all of my energy for that spot that should have been mine.
And she... I didn’t care anything for him. I didn’t even like him.
But I wouldn’t let her jump in on me like that, with sex. So I
seduced him. When I knew she would find us.”

“And she had the nerve to take it out on you
for doing what she was trying to do?”

“No. Turns out she... I didn’t know. She was
in love with him. He’d talked of marrying her. I didn’t know. They
had to keep it a secret. Screwing a dancer is no big deal. It
happens all the time. But ... I didn’t understand why it was so
hard to get to him. Until she went off. She had a meltdown. He was
her first. I didn’t know. I never would have...”

“Lina, he gave in to you. It was his fault
as much as yours.”

“Maybe. But she didn’t see it that way.”

“What did she do?”

“At rehearsal the next morning, she came in
wild-eyed and wouldn’t talk to anyone. I tried to stay out of her
way, and I didn’t see her in time. She ... grabbed the chair next
to me, a wooden chair with sharp square legs, and pounded it down
on top of my foot. I heard the crack. I knew I was done as a
dancer. Her second blow was just below that one and...” Caroline
dropped her head on his shoulder. “She crushed so many bones in my
foot they said I’d never walk right, and never unassisted. I could
have killed her. Literally, Dio. I lay in that bed and figured ways
I could do it. Some nights I still do, when the pain gets
unbearable.”

He wrapped her in close and kissed her head.
“Oh Caroline. I am so sorry, baby. So, so sorry.”

“I deserved it. Part of it.”

“No.” He raised her face to his. “No. You
didn’t deserve that. You didn’t.” He shook his head. “A prima
ballerina.”

“Almost. I never made it. I’ll never be in
toe shoes again. Now, I may never be able to dance in any way
again, ever. I was ... I was almost at the top in the club, too. I
nearly had that closer position. But this foot...”

“Shh. Come here.” He helped her pull back
into her jeans and straighten her bra and shirt, then he cuddled
her onto his lap. “You will, baby. We’ll see what we need to do to
help it along and we’ll do that. We may not ever get you in toe
shoes, you’re right, but you will dance with me at our
wedding.”

“I haven’t agreed to marry you.”

“Then agree. Marry me.”

“Dio...”

“Caroline, say yes.”

“I love you, Dio.”

“I know. Marry me.”

“And if I can’t dance at the wedding?”

“Then I’ll pick you up and rock you in my
arms to the beat of the music. Marry me.”

“You’ll get tired of carrying me
around.”

“No I won’t. Say yes.”

She traced the lines along his face, ran her
fingers across his lips. “Will you walk through town with me?
Without your mask? Just ... us, as we are? Me hobbled and you
scarred, with all the stares, with all the gossip. Will you?”

“If you want.”

“I do. I want you. All of you. All of it.
Unhidden.”

“Then marry me.”

“Yes, Dio. Yes.”

He claimed her mouth, held her close for
several minutes, until they heard a knock on the door and the
squeak that said it was opening, slowly. Dio told them to come
out.

Harry peeked around the door. “About time to
pick up Cleo and get her on home, ain’t it? What are you two doing
out here on my porch?”

Dio glanced at Caroline and grinned.
“Getting engaged.”

“Ha, that’s what they’re calling it these
days? Thought that was already settled. About ready to go?”

“We’re ready to go.” Caroline wrapped her
arms around his neck.

Dio threw Harry a look when he suggested it
was a perfect night for a campfire.

“Oh, I haven’t been to one since I was kid.
Can we do that out here?” Caroline had bypassed the lawn chair Dio
set around the front of the house and stretched out on the grass,
legs straight out and propped on her fingers this time instead of
her palms, as she had just the day before, before he took her to
the hospital to meet his mother. Except she’d been naked then. He
wanted her that way again. But Harry and Nelda had no intention of
leaving soon. And his mom was pleasant so far. She talked with
Caroline as though she’d never insulted her.

“What do you say, Dio? The girl looks
excited as a kid at Christmas by the thought. You’ll do it for her,
right?”

A campfire? His stomach hurt at the
thought.

“We don’t have to.” Caroline tilted her head
at him.

“Now don’t coddle the boy.” Nelda frowned at
Dio as she spoke to Caroline. “He’s been coddled enough, despite
our advice. Time to live in the real world, Dio. Make the girl a
campfire and I’ll go grab the hot dogs and sausages from the car.
We brought ’em for this purpose.” She got up and came over to him,
crouching at his side. “It’s time, Dio. You got strength at your
side now. You do this and move along. It’s time.” Nelda rubbed his
head and got up to go to the car.

“You haven’t been down there since, have
you?” Harry stood and smoothed his pants. “Come then. We’ll go get
it ready and come back for the womenfolk.” He looked at Caroline.
“You’ll watch over Cleo?”

“I don’t need watching over, old man. Go
on.”

Dio gave her a warning to be nice and told
Caroline to call for Nelda if she needed, and not to get up until
he came back. He followed Harry around the side of the house and
down the path that led to the bottom of the hill and a small
clearing beside the water. It had the effect of an amphitheatre the
way it sloped up in a part circle. His dad had carved out seats
from fallen timber around the property, smoothed them out and
sealed them well enough they still looked usable, although Dio
hadn’t been down there since he was eight and they tried to do a
campfire. He’d screamed at the sight of it and his mom took him up
and away, leaving his dad to entertain their guests alone.

He stood and stared at the stone circle and
dug out pit that was now full of old leaves and small sticks. It
looked harmless enough as it was.

Harry set a hand on his shoulder. “Caroline
won’t drop you. It’s all okay now, Diomedes. Come on. Help me clear
this place out.”

Dio did the heavy work of lifting rocks to
clean around as Harry raked away the leaves and sticks. Once
straightened, they set into the trees to find good fallen wood.
Harry gathered kindling. Dio sawed an old rotted trunk into pieces
he could carry back. He’d built up a good sweat by the time the
place looked usable.