9781618850676UnchainedMelodyHunter (5 page)

“Ethan,
I hate to disturb you, but Bobby’s broke down over on the other side of San
Marcos and the toilet’s overflowing in little Miss Osborn’s room. If you’ll go
help Bobby, I’ll take care of the plumbing.” Alex looked from one to the other,
blew out a harsh breath and left.

Thoughts
of her writing flew out of both of their minds. Ethan handed her Tiny’s leash
and looked her full in the face. “We have got to talk. I will take care of
this, but later…” His eyes raked over her body as if committing her image to
memory. He walked two steps away, stopped abruptly and turned around.

“There’s
no way I’m leaving without this.” Without asking permission, he came to her,
took her in his arms and covered his mouth with hers. This was no ‘get to know
you’ kiss, no tentative ‘how have you been’ kiss. His lips were tender, warm,
hungry and demanding of an answer. Ethan nipped at her mouth, alternately soothing
with his tongue. He sucked on her lower lip then rubbed his mouth back and
forth over hers as if he were trying to absorb her into his very being.

Annalise
knew that she should resist, or at least not respond. And she refrained from
kissing him back, for about half a heartbeat. Then her soul demanded she be
true to her heart’s desire. Her hands which had been fisted at her sides,
opened and she allowed herself to touch him. Sweet Jesus! He was solid muscle;
hot, hard and felt better to her hungry palms than anything had in six years. Her
skin remembered him. Her nerve endings had perfect recall. A whimper of need
rose up from deep within her. “Oh, baby,” she whispered in spite of herself.

At
her simple words of want, he tightened his hold on her and ground his mouth
into hers. His tongue slid into her honeyed depths and began to make love to
her mouth. Annalise held him tight, amazed that he trembled beneath her touch. An
eternity passed and gradually, Ethan slowed his devouring and began planting
soft sweet kisses all over her face. “I’ll be back. Don’t you dare go anywhere.
I’m not losing you again.” And then he was gone.

 
* * * *

Ethan
drove his big Ford pick-up truck down Lonely Street and headed out to rescue
his little brother. He couldn’t believe it! Lise was here! Her arrival seemed
providential, like an answer to a prayer. When he had seen her, desire had
raged in him instantly. The sexual release he allowed himself this morning
seemed to be a sign, like he had conjured her out of thin air by the very
strength of his need and desire. Seeing this woman who had always made him more
than welcome between her thighs was almost more than he could stand. He felt
like he was going to explode!

 
She was so damn beautiful! She had been
wearing a baby pink sundress that set daringly on the swell of her breasts. He’d
been tempted to pull the top of it down to see if the scar from the fishhook
was still there—the accident that had launched their explosive interlude. His
eyes had moved down her body—from the beautiful swell of her full breasts, to
the tiny waist and then on to the flared hips declaring her femininity loud and
clear. Six years ago, she had been a fresh and eager eighteen year old, now she
looked ripe and ready to be loved. And that’s what he had wanted to do to her—love
her.

But
what if Francine had been right? Again, he remembered the passion that he and
Lise had shared—he remembered how her face would change when he entered her. He
remembered how she had never pushed him away and had always seemed to be as
eager for him as he was for her. Surely that had been real. Ethan tormented
himself with images of Francine’s ridicule and then with visions of Lise in the
throes of an orgasm that
he
had given her—her eyes closed in ecstasy,
her hips lifting in supplication. Damn! He hit the steering wheel so hard he
inadvertently blew the horn. He had to concentrate on the road, he sure didn’t
want to have an accident and delay his return to her side.

Ethan
had a mild form of color-blindness; he had trouble with blues and greens. But
the minor disorder had given him an extra gift, he could see in the dark like a
cat. When he neared the place where Bobby was supposed to be, his sharp
eyesight honed in on his brother and his troubled vehicle. He had made the trip
in record time, anxious to return home and delve into the possibilities of what
Lise’s sudden reappearance could mean to them. He found Bobby, waiting
patiently on his big brother to save the day. Ethan pulled in behind him. “Bobby,
Bobby…son, didn’t you renew your Triple A?” Ethan teased his little brother.

Bobby
appeared contrite. “I guess not. Sorry, bro.” Bobby stepped out of the truck
and stood with his brother while they looked under the hood. Both of them were
fairly decent mechanics, but Ethan could tell one of the u-joints had broken,
leaving one end of the drive shaft on the pavement, and that wasn’t something
they could fix by the side of the road. He flipped on his cell phone and called
a tow truck. In a few minutes, a friend of Ethan’s appeared and the truck was
hoisted and ready to be moved. They made arrangements to have it delivered to
an area mechanic and soon they were ready to head back to
Lost Maples
. Ethan handed his keys to
Bobby, “Here you drive; I need to think.” Bobby looked at him curiously.

“What’s
going on?”

“Lise
Evans is at the B&B.” Ethan said the words evenly; not betraying the
upheaval he was experiencing.

“Lise,
the girl that disappeared on you so long ago?”

“Yeah,
she’s back and I don’t know which end is up.”

“What
are you going to do?”

“I
know what I
want
to do.” Ethan didn’t have many secrets from his
brothers.

“What’s
stopping you?”

“Well,
I’m
here
with you…” Ethan loved to
pick at his little brother. “No. Bobby—so much has happened. There’s so much I
need to know. I don’t even know why Lise left me to start with.” Remembering
the hot kiss they had just shared and her obvious response to his passion, he had
no doubt the most basic desire they had shared remained unchanged. “It feels
like things are the same between us, but we haven’t said the words. And the
words have to be said.”

“Sounds
like you’ve got some work to do.” Bobby concentrated on the driving, giving
Ethan time to think. Closing his eyes, he remembered the first time he ever saw
Lise.

* * * *

It had been the week of the Orientation Advisers
annual
campout
.
Ethan was a senior and
this year, all of the OA’s reported to him. He had a varied group to work with.
There were the usual gung-ho crowd that loved Texas and couldn’t wait to pass
on the treasured traditions, such as
Bevo
, Big
Bertha, the Hex Rally, and so forth to the next batch of incoming freshmen.
There was also the Sorority/Fraternity group that did this type of a thing just
for community and college service credits. Francine sure fell into that
category.

She and her sorority sisters felt that since he,
Ethan, was in charge this year, all they would have to do was just show up.
They wouldn’t have to do any kind of real work. Francine Shepherd had been
after Ethan hot and heavy. Everywhere he turned, she was there. She was
attractive, but as far as Ethan was concerned there was something missing.
Francine wasn’t that hard to resist.

Lastly, there were the ones that did it because
they really needed the summer work. Ethan suspected the hot new girl fell into
that category. Her name was Lise Evans. He didn’t know much about her, except
she kept to herself and had done everything asked of her. She was very
attractive. Hot, actually! Ethan was having a hard time keeping his eyes and
hands off her.

Francine had noticed him noticing Lise and that
just served to make her try harder to turn his eye. Francine hung on him and
she practically walked around naked, but none of it was a strong enough
incentive for him to take his gaze off Lise Evans.

He had caught her watching him. Their eyes locked
and for what seemed like an eternity, they had been oblivious to anyone else in
the room. Finally, she tore her gaze away and went on about cleaning the cabin.
It was something he had asked everyone to pitch in and do, but invariably only
one or two were actually doing any work.

Ethan was doing his part. He moved the furniture so
one of the other girls could sweep. His eyes kept returning to Lise, who was
deftly changing the linens on the bunks. Hard work did not seem to be a
stranger to her. She didn’t let the Sorority girls get under her skin either.
Lise worked around them, ignoring their condescending looks and tacky comments.
Ethan couldn’t help but admire her.

Later that evening, they had all gone out to fish off
the pier. There were some big catfish in Lake Travis and he had told them if
they could catch enough, he would fry them up with some French fries and
hushpuppies. Everyone had been willing to give it a try. Lise seemed to know
her way around a rod and reel. Ethan couldn’t help but notice how lovingly the
blue bikini top she wore cupped her high, proud breasts. Francine was very
aware of Ethan’s growing attraction for Lise. Accident or not, what she did
next had far-reaching results.

In a temper, Francine whipped the rod and reel in
the air, slinging the sharp treble hook far out over the water and then with
some insidious motive in mind, whipped it right back around. It shone in the
evening sun as it plied its dangerous path that appeared to be on a collision
course with Ethan’s head or shoulders. He had been otherwise occupied, tending
his own bait. Lise, foreseeing the horrible end result, acted swiftly and
stepped up to quickly push Ethan out of the way. She was successful in
preventing the hook from hitting its chosen target, but she wasn’t quick enough
to get out of the way herself. The vicious three-pronged weapon buried itself
deep within the upper swell of her right breast.

When she gasped, Ethan turned to see what had
happened. He watched in horror as she recoiled from the pain. Amazingly, she
did not cry or make much sound at all. Jumping to her rescue, he grabbed
Francine’s line before she could jerk it the other way, doing irreparable
damage to the soft flesh of Lise’s breast. He watched her close her eyes and
attempt to stay on her feet.

Cursing himself, he realized he had sent the only
vehicle they had back to Austin for supplies. They were some thirty miles from
the nearest hospital. Thinking quickly, he took his pocketknife and cut the line,
and then he scooped Lise up and carried her back to his small private cabin. He
got rid of the curious onlookers and laid her trembling body on his bed. He
grimaced at the sight of the sharp hooks embedded in her pale, torn skin. “I am
so sorry, sweetie.” He tried to comfort her. “Why in the world did you step in
front of that hook?”

“I was afraid it would hit you in the eye.” She
said in a tight, small voice.

“That idiot Francine, she was just showing off. Now
look at you…there is no way I can get this out without hurting you. Do you
trust me?”

She looked up at him and answered without
hesitation. “Yes, Ethan, I trust you.”

Well, he didn’t know what good that would do since
he didn’t trust himself. But no one else was there to do it, so Ethan did what had
to be done. He untied her bikini top and cast it aside, giving her a towel to
hold over her nakedness if she felt exposed. She ignored the towel; he tried to
ignore her body. He gathered antiseptic and bandages and a strong pair of
pliers. “I’m going to have to push them through, honey, and then snip the ends
off of the hooks…that’s the only way I can get this thing out.”

“All right.” This was tearing Ethan apart. He knew
it could have been much worse and if this had been Francine, she would have
been screaming and fighting his every move. Lise just lay there and submitted
to his awkward attempts to help her. When he had to press on the hooks to make
them come up through her flesh, she tensed up so tight he had to caution her. “Easy,
babe, just give me another minute or two and this will be over then I promise I
will do something to take your mind off of the pain.”

Then miracle of miracles, she had looked up at him
with brave eyes and asked, “When you finish, will you kiss me?”

His heart lurched in his chest. “Done.”

He returned to the sorry task of hurting her to
remove hooks that could have easily been torturing his own flesh. He had to put
unkind pressure on her sensitive skin to push them through, but when he
finished, he snipped the ends off the hooks as quickly as he could. She gasped
with the pain, but again—she never cried out or fought back at him—she endured
the ordeal better than he would have ever thought a girl could do. Ethan gently
cleaned the area with some stinging salve and applied a small bandage to the
wound. Then he allowed himself to look at the body he had been so absorbed in
tending. It wasn’t as if she were flaunting herself, the thought hadn’t entered
her mind. For some wild reason, she was just completely comfortable with him.

Unable to resist her, he pulled the covers up over
her shivering body and lay down next to her. Pulling her toward him, he kept
his promise, touching his lips to hers. It was his intention to share the most
innocent of kisses, but he quickly realized that would be impossible. Her mouth
was so sweet. She opened it for him and her tongue was there to meet his at his
first tentative foray between her lips. For the first time she moaned, but it
wasn’t from pain—it was from pleasure. She touched his face and then tangled
her fingers in his hair, letting him know she wanted more. He kissed her until
she pulled back, gasping with excitement. Ethan thought she was pulling away,
but he was wrong.