Sidewalk Flower (55 page)

“You just want me?”

“Yes, yes I just want you.
 
I’ve made you wait long enough.”

He picked her up in his arms and started
to carry her to her bedroom, but she stopped him.

“No, not in there.”

“Okay…where?”

She pointed to the record room.
 
“Over there.” Lucky obeyed and headed in the
direction of her guest room decked out in old vinyl.
 
But when he got to the doorway, she stopped
him again.
 

“Trista?
What’s
wrong?
 
You’re not ready, are you?
 
It’s okay.”
 
But he didn’t move to set her down yet which told her this was something
he really wanted, in spite of his concern.

“I am.
 
It’s just…none of this feels right.
 
I don’t know what it is.
 
I want
it to be so special and I don’t feel any connection like that in here.”

They stood looking like a groom holding
his bride over the threshold.
 
Lucky’s
arms still hadn’t wavered beneath her.
 

* * * *

“Please, set me down, Lucky.”

He’d envisioned this moment countless
times and it had never gone quite like this.
 
He didn’t know what to expect from his lady and she confused him more by
the minute.
 
She left then reappeared
with two arms full of blankets and a pillow balanced on top.

“What’s that for?” he asked.

“I’m scaring you, aren’t I?”

“Uh…no.
 
Not scaring, but definitely making me wonder
what’s going through your head right now.”

“Just come with me.”

Okay, he was biting.
 
He took the pillow and one of the blankets
from her and then to his surprise, followed as she opened the front door that
led to her porch.
 
They didn’t stop at
the porch however, they continued down the steps and over to the area that
joined her property with Gramma’s.
 

It was dark out and late.
 
The summer time sky would have still been
light had it been any earlier.
 
He
wondered if they were going to sneak into Gramma’s house, to Trista’s old
room.
 
The thought made him mildly
nervous.
 
Trista probably would have felt
more at home in the familiar surroundings of her gramma’s place.
 
But it was risky as he was sure Grace hadn’t
changed her rules over the past few months concerning sleepovers with
boys.
 
They stopped near where the Jeep
was parked.
 

“Trista, darlin’?”

“Shh, just come here.”

Trista opened the back of her Jeep and
laid the blankets out over the folded down seats of the cargo area.
 
As he helped smooth things out, he wondered
if he’d fit inside,
laying
down.
 
It would be a tight squeeze but if she liked
the thought of being confined out here with him, he’d find a way to make it
work.
 
She was now on her hands and
knees, crawling over the makeshift bed.
 
His body tightened in response, his thoughts raced.
 
Remember
who you are with.
 
This is Trista.
 
You can’t let her down.
 
She deserves to be treated like a lady.
 
Your lady.

“Are you sure you’re comfortable out
here?” he asked her.

“Yes?”
 

Hmm, he took the chirping rise of her
voice as a sign that she really wasn’t.

But he wanted to be anywhere she
was.
 
To make love to her with patience
and care and tenderness, now seemed to be something that would have to
wait.
 
He would enjoy their night together,
and if all she wanted to do was lie down in the back of her Jeep and look up at
the stars, that was fine, too.

She sat down and waited for him to crawl
in and sit next to her.
 
When he did, she
took the pillow from his hands and laid it down in the space reserved for his
head.

They were both quiet for a moment.
 
He pulled the blankets up over both of their
laps.
 
He wished he’d had something to
wrap around her back.
 
This dress was the
shortest on material he’d seen her wear to date.
 
It wasn’t cold, but they were near the small
creek and he worried it would only cool more as the night wore on.
 
He did what any southern gentleman would do
for the woman he loved who had dragged him outside to sleep in the back of her
Jeep.
 
He unbuttoned his shirt and then
draped it around her back.
 

“There you go.”
 
They both smiled at the action that had
become habit for him.

“Lucky, I love you.”

His heart spasmed.
 
“I know you
do,
darlin’.”

“You do?”

“Yes.
 
It’s why I asked you to marry me earlier.”

“You were just joking, or speaking
hypothetically.”

He gazed out into the sleepy nighttime
sky that surrounded them, sure of what he was about to do.
 
He poised himself up onto his knees so that
he could more easily remove the folded up handkerchief from his back pocket.
 
His head grazed the soft top of the Jeep but
he ignored it to bring out the cotton that was folded over a couple times.
 
Unwrapping
the
folds, he held it out to her, cradling it in his open hands.
 
It was a beautiful yellow daffodil that he
had plucked from the church’s flower garden.
 
It matched the color of the lively threads of the dress Trista now wore
which brought a heat to his heart he couldn’t and didn’t want to cool down.

“Trista Jeane Hart, I would be honored
and extremely happy if you would be my wife.
 
I love you, darlin’, more than anything in this entire world.”

He handed her the flower.

He admired the way she tried to calm her
trembling jaw with a soft, feminine hand and hold the flower in the other.
 
“You really want me, don’t you.” she said
shakily.

“Oh Trista, you are insane.
 
Yes, I want you so badly, I’m about two
seconds away from scooping you up and sneaking you into your old room, and
having my way with you.”

“But I mean, forever, you want to keep me
forever.”

“Forever.
 
Yes.”

“I would love to be your wife.
 
Yes Lucas!”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

He bounced off his knees in his
excitement and hit his head on a roll bar.
 
“Ouch.”
 
He lowered his head and
Trista rubbed it for him.
 
“I kind of
like the sound of that.
 
Yes, Lucas.
 
I think I could get used to hearing you say
that more often.
 
Yes and Lucas.
 
Just like that.”

“I might be insane but you are a nut,
Lucas
.”

“So you’re going to marry me?”

“Yes, Lucas.”

“And we’re going to figure out a way to
live together, somehow?”

“Yes, Lucas.”

“And—“

“Lucky—” She set down her flower and
brought her hands to his chest.
 
“I want
you to make love to me.
 
Here, now.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.
 
This is our spot.
 
Remember, you
held my hand that very first night, right over there.
 
Well, on those two rocks.”
 
Trista pointed over to the stony perch just to
the side of her parking spot.
 
“I’ve
spent quite a few nights over the past few months imagining what would have
happened if you’d have let me keep kissing you.
 
Do you want to know what I’ve imagined the most?”

He coughed.
 
“Yes.”

“Are you sure you won’t be embarrassed?”

The only thing that would embarrass him
right now would be if he came in his pants.
 
“Please, tell me.”

She brought his hand up to her lips and
sucked the tip of his middle finger.
 
He
was so aroused right now.
 
How long had
he waited for this night?

“See your fingers, how long they are and
how your skin smooths out just perfectly over them but is still soft?”

He nodded yes, feeling freer to feel than
he ever had and closed the tiny distance between his groin and her tummy.
 
She was so sexy and warm pressed up against
him.

“I imagine that your—.”

Dear Lord, would she tell him the
rest?
 
He touched her face and
concentrated as best he could on keeping his eyes on hers so she would know he
was dying to hear it.
 
She moved her
hands to his hair that he’d left loose just for her and massaged.
 

“That,” she kissed his
soul patch.
 
All his inhibitions
died when she spoke into his mouth while staring straight into his eyes.
 
“That your beautiful penis would be just as
long as these fingers, but even softer, like velvet.
 
And even though I haven’t had the pleasure
yet, that it would taste so good if I was ever lucky enough to have you on my
tongue, in my mouth.”

“Holy shit, darlin’.”
 
It was the best he could come up with after
hearing the sexiest thing he’d ever been told in all his thirty-two years.
 
He took her hand and led it down, and slowly
folded her fingers over the rock hard bulge in his pants.
 
She gave him a squeeze which made him
moan.
 
His whiskers must have tickled her
ear when he leaned in to whisper.
 
“I
can’t wait anymore.
 
I have to have
you.
 
Now.
 
But are you sure about out here?
 
You’re not worried about getting caught?
 
I think the seniors would revoke your guest
pass for something this illicit.
 
I told
you this was a sin wagon.”

 
They both smiled and he kissed her lips,
slowly at first.
 
He sucked her bottom
lip into his mouth, keeping hold of it as he also captured the skin of her
chin.
 
Unoccupied, her mouth started to
speak distractedly.
 
But then he slid his
hand firmly to the back of her head, his fingers danced through her curls and
his lips were on her neck like lightning bugs in the thick, humid air of
summer.
  
Her nipples hardened as he
played with them and continued to suckle at her neck.
 
Lucky for them both she loved her short
dresses.
 
She grabbed one of his hands
and he could only guess what provocative place she intended on burying it.
  
Maybe between her legs where he hoped he was
making her wet, readying her for his body, but instead, she led it back to her
butt he loved.
 
She flexed her tush
muscles and he groaned, then found his way inside her underwear and squeezed
her cheeks, pulling her flesh into his erection.
 

He felt her swallow and then speak with a
breathy fervor, “Well, that’s okay if I get booted.
 
I’ve got a future husband who I could move in
with.
 
Or I bet he could probably even
build us our own home down here somewhere.”

He replaced his lips with his fingers at
her neck, and wiped some of the moisture he’d left from his suckling.
 
He trailed them into her mouth and over her
hot tongue, and then traced her lips with their moist tips.

“Oh, Lucky.
 
That feels so incredible.
 
You’re making me so wet right now.”
 
She whimpered at the end while he continued
his tracing.
 

“Shh.
 
Building a house isn’t the only thing your future husband could do for
you, darlin’.
 
He paused, aware of the
sexual desire burning her just as much as it was
him
 
But
he wanted to be clear about one
thing first.
 
“I want to make a life with
you.
Day by day and night by night.
 
I want you to be my family.”