For the Love of His Life (19 page)

“Bring that backpack over here, mister. You’ve got the blanket.”

Raul obliged and they each took two corners and shook the blanket out, so they had a fairly big area to sit and relax on.

“Not a king-sized blanket, I’m afraid. But not a twin either. I have a queen-sized bed now, but this is from when I only had a double. Now it’s for picnics and sitting out by the dock having campfires in the fall.”

As she spoke, Veronica was taking all of the food supplies out of the backpack she’d been carrying. She looked up to see Raul studying her.

“Well? Don’t just sit there posing like a movie star, Mr. Movie Star! Open that bottle.”

“Oh yeah,” he responded and picked up the bottle rolled in a flexible freezer pack. “It’s still cold too. That’s a really good idea.”

“It’s one of the packs I use when my leg muscles start cramping up and giving me trouble. I bought it from the physical therapist I went to for a while. But he never told me I could use it to keep my wine cold…that was my idea.”

Raul nodded approvingly. “And a good idea too.”

He carefully twisted the bottle until the cork shot out with a loud
pop
!

“See, I do have some talents that are useful.” He grinned as he reached for the glasses Veronica had placed on the blanket near him.

She grinned back at him. “Considering I packed everything we brought, I guess that’s something.”

He pretended to be sad, and she chuckled..”That’s okay. I’ll add it to your bill, if you like.”

He brightened and nodded, “Do that. I don’t know how to cook, but I do have enough money to pay you for your expertise.”

“Fine. Enough talking, let’s eat.”

As they ate, they chatted about the weather, the scenery.and the fishing in the nearby lakes. They toasted each other and their day of relaxation with the sparkling wine, then enjoyed every morsel of the food Veronica had packed.

When the food was gone, Raul lay on his back and patted his belly, “Ah, now that’s much better. I feel like a new man.”

“Well you’d better sit up for an instant, Mr. New Man, so you don’t choke,” Veronica said with a giggle. His eyebrows rose in curiosity, but he sat up.

“Now close your eyes and open your mouth.”

“It won’t be gross, like a worm or anything, will it?”

“No, silly. But you won’t get your treat if you don’t obey.”

He closed his eyes and opened his mouth, and felt something being placed onto his tongue.

“Now you can close your mouth and taste it for a while, then tell me what you think.”

His mouth closed and he kept his eyes closed as he savored the explosion of dark chocolatey goodness that melted onto his tongue.

“Wow, what is this? It’s the most sinfully delicious piece of chocolate I’ve ever had!”

“You know, they aren’t bad. I wasn’t sure when I found the recipe, because they were so easy to make. But they are good, aren’t they?”

Raul opened his eyes. “Are there more?”

“Yup, I brought three for each of us. They were in my freezer back home, but I knew they would thaw enough in the backpack to be ready for our dessert.”

“What are they?”

“Ganache drops, rolled in finely ground pecans then covered with dark chocolate powder. I’m glad you like them.”

Veronica started talking about her interest in making chocolates, and her thoughts of combining them with pie crusts to make tiny tarts. She fretted about the difficulty of making the crust thin enough when it was that small, and having it not melt when the chocolate was warm.

Raul tried to pay attention to her, but kept getting distracted watching the sunshine bounce off of her long curls, as he imagined being able to bury his nose in her hair and breathe in her smell. His eyes must have looked unfocused, or Veronica noticed his lack of response to her words.

“Hey! Are you bored? I get the feeling you’re not listening to me at all.”

“I’m listening. I hear words…but I’m not paying attention to what you are saying.”

“Why not?”

“Because all I can think of is you and how much I want to kiss you again. Your lips are so soft and warm. I want to taste them.”

Veronica leaned back away from him slightly. “Why?”

“Because you’re all I think about. You are the first thing I think about when I wake up, and the last thing I think about when I’m going to sleep. I dream about you every night…but in my dreams I call you
Nee-ca
.”

“Everyone else calls me Ronnie…”

“I don’t want to use a name that everyone else uses. I want to have a name for you that’s just mine. To show you how special I think you are.”

Veronica shook her head, smiling sadly. “That’s just because I’m the only woman you’ve been seeing lately. You’re going through withdrawals since you don’t have your usual legion of female groupies throwing themselves at you. You’ll get over it when the rest of the crew gets here and people start treating you like the important movie star you are.”

“I don’t want to get over it. I’ve never felt anything real for any other woman except my Mom. But what I feel for you is growing stronger every day I see you, and spent time with you, and learn from you how to be a better man. I don’t want that to stop.”

Veronica stared at him. “Really?”

Raul felt his pulse race at the thought she was sitting so still next to him. It was only a matter of leaning forward just a little bit and their lips would touch. So he did.

Veronica leaned into the kiss and closed her eyes. Raul closed his too, enjoying the soft, warm caress of her lips. He lingered over that first kiss and she opened her mouth slightly to sigh. He covered her lips with his again and boldly licked at her mouth. She opened it even more to allow him to explore her mouth, and her tongue met his and caressed him back.

Raul groaned. He balanced himself with one hand on the ground and raised the other to caress the side of Veronica’s face, his fingers moving into her hair to feel the silky strands that really were as soft as they looked. Their kiss grew in intensity, the passion of the moment possessing them both.

One kiss became many, as Raul unleashed a tiny portion of his passion for this woman, afraid to let loose lest he scare her from responding. She met him at every increase, her breathing speeding up as much as his was, her face beginning to flush. She reached up both her hands to hold his shoulders, one hand moving into the hair at the back of his neck, in a sensuous, familiar gesture, as if she knew it would ramp up his excitement…and it did.

Raul began to push gently and Veronica obliged by lowering herself onto her back. Still holding onto him, their lips crushed each others’, their tongues beginning a duel of passion. The hand that had been in her hair, now moved slowly down her neck to her shoulder, as if it had a mind of its own and knew where it wanted to be. Veronica made no move to stop him, so he began to massage her skin, heading towards the breasts that had tantalized him for so long.

“Mommy, what are those people doing?” The almost-lisping quality of the high-pitched voice let them know there was a very young child watching them.

Raul and Veronica both opened their eyes wide, to stare in alarm into each others’ faces. They swallowed and attempted to regain control over themselves, as a woman’s voice was heard saying, “Oh look, honey. Come and look at this flower I found over here! It’s that same bright red as those other ones you liked so much back there. Let’s go pick a couple for you to take home with you.”

Raul and Veronica sat up and tried not to look as if they had just been doing what they knew was obvious to other adults. They looked up into the amused eyes of a young man with a mustache.

“I’m sorry,” Raul began.

“Yes, we’re so sorry,” Veronica added.

The man grinned. “No problem. She’s probably forgotten about it already, since she loves to collect flowers. But just a word of warning. There was a van full of scouts pulling on backpacks as we were beginning on the trail. So they won’t be far behind us. You may want to find a more private place.”

Veronica had a flustered look on her face as she gathered up the plates and cups and began to put everything into her backpack. Raul helped as much as he could, and once everything was packed, they grabbed either side of the blanket and flicked it, to get any crumbs off of it.

“Should we fold it?” Raul asked.

“No, just roll it into a ball and stuff it into the backpack. I’ll worry about it later.”

They looked around to be sure they had left no trace of being there, then began to walk back along the same trail. They hadn’t gone more than a few feet before they saw the first of the boy scouts. There were two boys of about eleven or twelve, certainly not cub scouts, but not teens yet.

“Phew!” Raul said in a low voice. “Dodged that bullet. They look like middle-schoolers. They’d have been whooping and hollering.”

“Yeah,” Veronica said over her shoulder as they passed the first boys, who stared openly at her hard nipples at their eye level, as she passed them. Raul growled softly and both boys looked up, startled. Their eyes registered fear as they realized they had been staring at someone else’s woman.

“Sorry!” One squeaked in a voice that had barely begun to change.

“Excuse me,” the other said in a voice that was still the high pitch of a child.

Raul glared at them both and passed by them without a word, following the bewitching golden-haired woman. He watched as her butt moved back and forth as she walked, and his hands itched to hold those gorgeous globes as he buried himself in her.
Big Rod
was at full attention and even having been surprised hadn’t calmed him down. Raul had difficulty walking, and with so many scouts passing them, along with three adult leaders, it was impossible for him to stop to rearrange himself in his tight jeans. They walked back to the truck quickly, both of them suddenly eager to leave.

When they got back to the truck, Veronica hit the clicker before moving around to the back to toss her backpack into it. Raul followed and did the same with the one he’d been carrying. She pushed the back end of the truck up and walked around to get into the drivers’ seat. Raul got into the passenger side and they pulled their doors closed. There was silence for a long moment.

“Come back to my cabin with me,” Raul urged in what he hoped was a persuasive voice.

Veronica shook her head without looking at him. “I can’t! You know that! Gram-Marie would see us and have a shit-fit!”

Raul leaned over the console and put his hand over Veronica’s where she gripped the steering wheel so tightly her knuckles were white.

“Then take me back to your place,” he said in a low voice. Her eyes widened as she turned to look at him and he added, “Please.”

“Why?”

“Because I’m going crazy from how much I want you. I’ve never made love to a woman before. I need to know how we will feel together.”

Veronica spat out a laugh that sounded more like a sob. “If you’re gonna lie to me, you’d better get more blood back into your brain first. How can you expect me to believe you? You’ve probably had sex with half of Hollywood and fucked your way across the country by now.”

Raul’s face grew more serious. “Yes, I have. But I’ve never even bothered to learn the names of the women I’ve had. What did it matter? They were only after one thing and so was I. Once that was over, and they could brag about fucking Raul Roderick, our business was done.”

He heard her intake of breath, staggered, like she was trying not to cry. He reached his hand up and turned her face toward him.

“Look at me, Nica. Look into my eyes so you can see I’m not lying to you. I won’t ever lie to you. I’ve never had real feelings for any other woman before. I don’t even know how to seduce you. I don’t want to insult you with any of the moves I’ve used with so little thought before. I don’t want you to think this means nothing to me. It means everything.”

“Is this a new seduction strategy for you? Are you just trying it out on me, to see if it will work?” Her voice held layers of insecurity and there were tears in her eyes. That was too much for him to bear.

Raul sat back in his seat and folded his hands in his lap. “No,” he said in a flat, monotone voice. “I don’t know how to convince you I’m not feeding you a line. I’m not very good at speaking from my heart, because I don’t know how. I’ve never done it before. But please drive us away from here, so we won’t be seen by any inquiring minds who want to know what’s going on.”

Veronica sat and stared ahead of her for a minute before taking a deep breath. She turned the key, started the truck and pulled carefully out of the parking lot. She turned left and headed south on the Gunflint Trail, back towards all the places they knew.

Raul tried hard not to give in to depression, but he could feel himself beginning to wallow in it. As a child he’d hated those feelings so much he pretended they didn’t exist…as if he was someone else. That had always made his loneliness and pain easier to bear. But now?

I don’t know how to reach her. Anything I say, she’ll think is a line. I’m in love for the first time in my life and there’s nothing I can do or say to convince her of that. I’m an asshole and I don’t deserve any better.