Breeze of Life (9 page)

“Don’t wound my pride, Breeze, I already tuned it at home, come on I’ll even sing a couple with you.” My eyes opened at Harper’s words. I knew how much he hated singing in public, so to offer was a big deal. After strumming a few chords, I fell into an easy tune I thought most people would recognize, Green Day’s
Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)
. Heads started to bob and smiles consumed the faces of the strangers sitting around me. The music quickly lifted me above the clouds of sorrow and fear. The joy in the faces and eyes of the strangers around me made me fly. As promised, Harper joined in, quickly followed by Lacey’s husband who had an incredible voice.

By the time I had finished, everyone looked at me with genuine pride, my music and words moving them all. Well, maybe not so much Chantelle. She looked like she had eaten a lemon for lunch and, strangely enough, that made me smile with immature delight. Someone from another camp site brought out their harmonica and we played a few songs together. Cat Stevens
Wild World
and after that Neil Young’s
Heart of Gold
and then Steppenwolf’s
Magic Carpet Ride
. My heart was floating on a euphoric cloud of music. This was the place my guitar and songs had always lifted me. With my fingers now feeling a pinch of pain, exhaustion climbing to my shoulders, I was all too soon pressed back to earth. Harper of course noticed immediately and rubbed the back of my neck. He took the guitar gently from my hands.

“Come on, baby girl, bed for you.” He dragged me from the ground and I found myself passing around hugs to Lacey, Eric, Marz, Yoshi and Riah like they were long lost family. With his hand in mine, Harper walked me to the tent and held the flap open as I flicked my flip flops off and crawled in.

“I haven’t had a shower or brushed my teeth,” I realized.

“That’s the beauty of road trips and camping, Breeze, you do what you want when you want. Change into your PJs and get in that sleeping-bag. I’ll come back and check in you in a bit.” Harper gave me a chaste kiss on the forehead, holding me close for an all too brief moment. His breath was warm on my cheek, laced with the subtle scent of beer. “You truly are a treasure,” he whispered as he drew away. “I’ll be back soon.” With that he zipped the tent back up and disappeared. My mind spun with yet another of Harper’s declaration. His affection for me was unashamed and open. It would be too easy to lose myself in his tender care. I found my familiar leather encased notebook in the bottom of my backpack. Flipping through the pages, the dark and morbid words that had crowded them made me feel sick. My words, all ugly and hollow. I hated those words, I hated the girl who had succumb to those feelings. I began to rip the pages out one by one until all that were left were blank empty pages. With a new beginning, a fresh start, I began to write.

Chapter 8

Flat & Glassy Perfection

Flat clean ocean, not even a ripple; not good for surfing, but beautiful nonetheless

Once the sun was up, the tent became a steaming sauna. I kicked the stifling sleeping bag off in an attempt to find some reprieve from the heat. It didn’t help and I groaned loudly with irritation. Turning my head to the side, I found Harper sprawled out on his stomach, shirtless with his boardies riding low on his hips—what a damn fine sight to wake up to. I had no idea when he came to bed, once I had put away my notebook and laid my head on my pillow, I slept like the dead. My hand itched to touch Harper and my inner woman stomped her feet with infantile demand, insisting she be placated. I couldn’t deny her as I reached out and ran the tip of my finger around the shell of Harper’s ear. After a moment he swatted me away. Once he settled again I resumed the tickle. Another swat followed by a groan. I went in again but this time instead of swatting me away he grabbed my wrist.

“Fuck off, Breeze,” he grumbled.

“I’m hungry,” I whispered. Harper rolled over to look at me and my eyes were immediately drawn to his new tattoo which was now uncovered. I gasped, my eyes widened in shock. Harper glanced down at the tattoo and grinned. The tree of life was beautiful, strong and manly, but still beautiful. What caught my attention was the elegant scrolling word beneath it, “Breeze”.

“You swore, you owe me half an hour of slavery,” I murmured. You would think I could find something more appropriate to say, but no, my mind registered the F-bomb.

“That’s all you’ve got to say right now?” Harper scoffed.

“Actually there are a lot of things running through my head right now.” And there were. My name marked on his body, permanently.  I wanted to run my finger over it with a satisfying sense of ownership. I wanted to run my lips and tongue over it and scream to the heavens that this masterpiece of male before me was mine! “I’m not sure if I should hit you or kiss you.” I finally grinned.

“I’m all for the latter,” Harper said all too smugly. I smacked him hard on the stomach which didn’t give an inch. Damn he was solid.

“I’m starving and this camping adventure lacks food,” I grumbled, choosing to ignore the tattoo and what it represented. Harper pulled his pillow over his head.

“Go get something to eat then,” he suggested. I couldn’t help myself, I had to touch him again. With whisper soft fingers, I traced the taut lines of his stomach. Harper was ticklish and I knew if anything was going to get him moving this morning it was that. He quickly grabbed my wrists to stop me.

“Breeze, if you keep touching me like that I will pin you down and kiss you senseless.” What the hell? I had no response, I was speechless. “I’ll make you a deal,” he said letting go of my wrists.

“Your deals are dangerous,” I murmured.

“Come for a swim with me then I’ll go get you food.” Not a chance in hell, I thought. Harper laughed at the obviously horrified look on my face.

“Come on, Breeze, I know you can swim and I know you’ve got more than one bikini in your backpack. I’ll even close my eyes while you put it on.” He squeezed his eyes shut for extra effect. The heat was stifling and the thought of a quick dip was appealing, however, the thought of strutting around in a bikini made me feel sick to my stomach.

“Harper, I’m not really comfortable in a swimsuit right now,” I confessed. His eyes snapped open.

“Why not?” he demanded. My eyes dropped to my spindly body. Was he even looking at me? I was skinny, pale, and my breasts had shrunk to pathetic and ridiculous looking beestings. When my eyes returned to Harper’s, I didn’t miss the heated gaze as he looked me over. The hunger there was undeniable. Perhaps Harper had eyesight problems? I shook my head in frustration.

“I’ve lost a lot of weight, my skin resembles Casper the Ghost, and I’m bald.” Harper sat up to face me front on.

“Your body is beautiful, your pale skin is gorgeous and you can wear your head wrap if it bothers you that much. You don’t need to put your head under the water, it’s meant to be almost flat out there today.” My body would still be visible to the scrutiny of others. “Remember our rule about being negative?” I rolled my eyes. “Come on, Breeze, say what needs to be said,” Harper encouraged.

Wrapping my arms around myself as if they might protect me from the embarrassment, I obeyed. “I’m beautiful, not too thin, my skin is okay, I guess. And my breasts are definitely not too small.” I shrugged and Harper nodded.

“Your breasts are smokin’, baby girl. I have a hard time keeping my hands off them.” I gasped at his brazen words, my cheeks filled quickly with color. Sure, I knew Harper was a breast man but these breasts were definitely nothing to gawk at. Maybe once they had been okay, but now, now they were deflated balloons. “Now, get changed or I will throw you over my shoulder and carry you down that damn beach.” Harper ignored my reaction. I hit him again, partly because he exasperated me, but also because I just had to touch him again.

“Get out so I can get changed then,” I sighed. Harper slowly lay back down and squeezed his eyes shut.

“No can do, I need a moment to get control of my morning wood.” My eyes instinctively fell to his groin and his ever so obvious hard-on.

“Harper,” I groaned, completely mortified by his body’s reaction to it being morning. Why on earth did they do that? Did every penis really need to greet the day tall and erect?

“What do you expect? We were talking about your breasts. Now hurry up, you’ve got three minutes then I’m opening my eyes.” That got me moving. I grabbed for the first bikini my hand landed on and thankfully it wasn’t the itty bitty crocheted one that was far too daring. I whipped off my shorts and knickers and pulled on the bottoms. They tied on the sides which helped create a more snug fit. The top, however, was a lost cause. It was way too big and I forced away the tears which threatened to fall over something so ridiculous. Plenty of girls had small breasts, I was now one of them, I could deal. However, I really didn’t feel comfortable wearing this top. I ripped it off and threw it across the tent, sighing loudly.

“Now what?” Harper growled.

“Do you have a rash vest I could borrow?” I wondered out loud.

“Why?” he asked.

“Can’t you just answer my question without another question, yes or no, Harper? Do you have a rash vest I can borrow?”

“I might, but if you don’t answer my question I might not be able to find one.” Blackmailing bastard!

“Because my breasts no longer exist, they’re ugly and look like deflated balloons and I don’t fit this stupid top anymore!” I snapped. Harper was quiet for a moment.

“I’m opening my eyes now.” I quickly wrapped my arms around my chest protecting my modesty as best I could. His eyes snapped opened and pinned me frozen in place.

“Fuck Harper!” I screamed and he smiled.

“Nice use of the F-bomb, baby girl.” I glared at him, hoping he could feel the daggers I would stab him with right now if I could. “Firstly, you have broken the negativity rule…again. Secondly, I think your breasts are beautiful. The official rule is more than a handful is a waste. And thirdly, I do have a rash vest you can borrow if that would make you feel better. Put the bikini top on and you can wear the rash vest over it.” He crawled past me and climbed from the tent, leaving me sitting there with my arms wrapped around my tiny breasts. He thought they were beautiful? This was definitely confirmation that Harper was a breast man, if these little mounds got him going, a larger set would surely blow his mind. I retied the bikini top and wrapped a towel around my small frame and followed Harper to the back of the Jeep. He threw me a rash vest and I pulled it over my head. As a rule the rash vest was supposed to be tight, on me though it looked like a lycra nighty. Harper laughed.

“How you manage to make that look sexy, I will never know.” He ran a hand over his face. “Come on.” Taking my hand he dragged me down the beach, not giving me a chance to escape. The waves were nothing more than gentle bumps on the ocean today, perfect for swimming. The open water still freaked me out a little though. I tried hard not to imagine all the bities that dwelled beneath the water’s surface. I was a terrible swimmer so once the water reached my waist I dug my feet in and stopped. Harper dropped my hand and dived under a small rolling wave, swimming like a pro out into the deeper water.  

“Stop fiddling with that thing,” Harper grumbled as he swam towards me. I hadn’t even realized I was adjusting the wrap on my head. I let my hand fall to my side. Since when did I become an obedient Somerville pet? “Relax, Breeze. You fought cancer, no little shark has a chance at getting ahold of you.” I gave Harper my best “I hate you” look, which was ridiculous, because I didn’t, I loved him. I stood awkwardly with my hands wrapped around my waist.

“Come on.” He reached for my hand and began pulling me to the deeper water.

“Harper, no more, please, I can’t swim well enough.” I felt as rigid as a damn surf board. With his arms holding me tightly, he continued to lull me into the deeper waters. Once the water reached my armpits, I began to panic.

“Harper, this is far enough I don’t want to go any deeper!”

“Just wrap your arms around me. I was a dolphin in a previous life remember?” My arms and legs automatically wrapped Harper, pressing my body firmly against his. Well, if he had intended on distracting me from my irrational fears of the ocean—mission accomplished.

“You’re not a dolphin in this life, Mr. Arrogance!” I breathed, trying to ignore his delicious rigid body against mine. His skin was warm and smooth and I couldn’t help but run my hands across the solid muscle of his shoulders and back. I’m sure he shivered under my touch as we drifted with me firmly attached to him. The silence out here was beautiful, broken only by the melodic lapping of water on our bodies. Perhaps it was my imagination, but Harper’s breathing seemed a little faster, his heart pounding a little harder right through the wall of his chest and into mine. This was an intimate position our bodies had never encountered before. My lips were so close to the warm skin of Harper’s neck; I could easily kiss the gentle, strong arch. I closed my eyes and expelled a long breath trying to keep my breaking control in check.