Small Town Girl (15 page)

Lauren buried her face in the pillow and moaned as his hands slid slowly down her back, caressing, teasing, fondling. She should have felt vulnerable, naked as she was and unable to see him. She should have felt exposed or defenseless. Instead, she felt empowered. She felt liberated, free to express her own incredible and indescribable feelings. Free to revel in her own body, and his. She arched the curves of her buttocks and felt his hands cup them, slide down them and catch her thighs. He lifted her up and back. Lauren cried out loud with the abandonment of pure lust as he brought her down upon his steely erection. The darkness was pierced with her cries of delight as she opened herself to him, meeting his thrusts, pushing back into his hard belly. He reached under her, his fingers searching until he found that place, that usually soft button, grown harder with its erotic exercise. Ever thrusting, he pressed it, caressing it between his thumb and forefinger. And now Lauren was lost in her lust. She felt herself go over the edge, past the point of no return. Her body shuddered with her climax as she felt Caleb’s own explosion of his pent-up longings.

They collapsed into the soft bedding, awash in the sweet sweat of their mutual desire. He did not move from inside her, but covered her with his body while she shivered with the last delicious spasms of her orgasm. Finally, as their breathing slowed and their sweat cooled, he slid gently off her.

“Lauren,” he whispered her name. “Lauren.” His arms were around her, holding her close to his body. She wriggled into the curve of him. It was so lovely to hear the person you loved say your name. The thought struck her like a thunderbolt.
The person you love
.

Caleb bent his lips to her ear. “I love you, Lauren,” he whispered.

Lauren’s heart began to beat faster, and before she thought, she whispered back, “Oh, Caleb, I love you, too. I love you so much!”

They fell asleep in each other’s arms, the words echoing in their ears.

They awoke at eight o’clock. It was Caleb’s phone that woke them. He reached over to the bedside table and picked it up. “Hello?… Yes, I was sleeping. I’m on a little vacation here. What’s up?” As he listened, he eased his arm out from under Lauren’s shoulders and sat up in the bed.

“Son of a bitch!” he exclaimed. “What an idiot! Did any fuel leak out?… That’s the important thing. Well, good. Was the foundation of the house damaged?… They’ll have to get an adjuster out there and tell them to let us know. Son of a bitch! I try to get some time, and things go to hell. Well, call Rick and have him get over there. He may have to call L-and-L Truck Service because you can’t be hauling those fuel trucks around on a winch. They’ll lose it and we’ll lose fuel all over and then we’ll be in big trouble.” He stopped, apparently listening to the person on the other end explain something at length. “Yes, I know. I know. Look, do that and do it right now. Call me as soon as you can and let me know what’s happening. Thanks, Kathy… Yes, actually I am having a good time.” He looked over and smiled at Lauren, who was lying back on the pillows, watching him, the memory of their lovemaking still fresh in her mind and body. “Okay, okay. Yes. Yes. Thanks, Kathy. I’ll talk to you later. Bye.” He placed the phone back on the bedside table.

“It’s none of my business,” said Lauren, “but what happened?”

“Anything I do is your business,” said Caleb, nonchalantly. “Actually, that’s what happens when you run your own business. You can’t turn your back for a minute. Kyle, our newest fuel truck driver, was making deliveries and left the truck on the incline and tried to short-cut across the lawn. Kathy said the emergency brake failed, the truck slipped backward, took out their picket fence, and crashed down the lawn bank into the house. Now it’s wedged there against the foundation.”

“Oh, no! That sounds serious!”

“Not half as serious as it could have been if oil had leaked all over.” Caleb sighed. “My guess is he just forgot about the emergency brake. Oh well, Kathy will just have to take care of it.”

“Who’s Kathy?”

“She’s my office manager. Fairly competent, although I have to keep all the bases covered all the time.”

“Do you work out in the field, too?”

“Most of the time. Kathy does the bookwork and everything like that, but I still have to check it and follow up, things like that. It’s just a part of running a small business.”

“It doesn’t sound so small to me.” It was refreshing, thought Lauren, to ask a question and have it answered, and to have your opinion valued.

“I’m hungry,” said Caleb suddenly. “Let’s have some breakfast.”

“I could use some coffee,” Lauren replied.

“Don’t you eat breakfast?”

“Not usually. Mostly just coffee or a latte.”

“Well, you’ll need more than coffee this morning, after the work-out we’ve had!”

Lauren blushed, and Caleb laughed as he climbed out of bed. Walking over to the window, he drew back the heavy curtain and stood for a moment, naked, looking out. The morning flooded into the room, illuminating everything with a golden wash, a surreal glow. The light glistened through the curling hairs on his arms and legs, giving his body a subtle sparkle. His back was to her, and Lauren thought she had never seen a more beautiful body on any man. She recalled the strength of his arms from the night before. How could they be so rugged and yet so tender, so gentle, at the same time? He turned to face her, and she caught her breath at the sight of him, relaxed now, satiated, the muscles of his stomach rippling smoothly down into his groin.

They showered together, taking turns soaping each other’s bodies, exploring. Lauren reveled in the tactile sensation of touching him. She ran her hands over his chest and back, feeling the firm strong muscle sheathed in the smooth, supple skin. Caleb reciprocated, tenderly massaging her back, covering every inch of her body with his open hands, cupping her breasts. He bent his head and kissed each of her nipples in turn.

“Hey,” she giggled. “No taking liberties!”

“I couldn’t resist. They were begging for it.”

“And what gave you that idea?”

“Well, just look at them, pointing right at me, all at attention.”

Lauren laughed. “I think we’d better get out of this shower and order some breakfast before everything stands at attention!”

Caleb stepped out of the shower. He wrapped one of the thick white towels around his waist and wrapped her in another, patting her dry. They put on the luxurious robes provided by the hotel. Caleb called room service, ordering coffee, pancakes, scrambled eggs, melon, bacon, toast, and orange juice.

“Wow! That’s quite a breakfast,” said Lauren, fluffing out her hair. “You must be hungry.”

“You’re going to help me eat it,” he said.

When room service delivered the food, they sat at the table in front of the window, sipping their coffee and looking out over the city.

Caleb set the coffee cup down and cut off a big fork-full of pancake dripping with syrup. “I couldn’t live here,” he said matter-of-factly.

“Oh, it’s exciting to live in the city,” Lauren replied. “There’s always something to do. You can walk to get anything from groceries to a doctor.”

“Well, I’m primarily an outside person,” said Caleb, chewing slowly. “And here, even when I’m outside, it feels like inside. It’s hard to breathe. I like to live in a place where I know almost every person I see on the street. I bet you don’t even see your own friends on the street.”

As they finished breakfast, Lauren suddenly began to feel agitated. The daytime hours had a way of putting everything under a microscope. Lauren could see clearly, almost too clearly. There was a knot of guilt in the pit of her stomach. Guilt because she was lying to Charles. Guilt because she was lying to Caleb. And mostly, guilt because she was lying to herself and knew she must persist in this lie because this was what she had chosen. Situations and options were so muddled in her head, she felt she might explode.

Caleb frowned. “What’s wrong?”

Lauren stood up, gathering the robe around her, abruptly aware of her own nakedness underneath. “I — I — I have to run back to the apartment and get to the museum. This was to be my last day, and I need to organize things for the person who’ll be taking my place.”

She scooped up her clothing and the little evening clutch, which, thankfully, held mascara and lipstick, as well as a small hairbrush. She hurried into the bathroom. Through the door, she could hear Caleb talking to her.

“Will you meet me for dinner? You pick the place,” he said.

“I don’t know, Caleb. I — this might not be a good evening.”

“It has to be tonight, or even today sometime because I’m going back home tomorrow. We have to talk. Somehow, we never to seem to get to that part.”

Lauren pulled the brush through her hair and twisted it back into a bun suitable for daytime. Her mind was racing. It was the most foolish thing she’d ever done, she thought to herself, to become involved with this — this plumber from the sticks. Yes, he was sweet and certainly the most handsome man she had ever seen. Yes, she was wildly attracted to him, but she was leading another life. She threw open the bathroom door and stuffed her feet into her shoes. Caleb had pulled on his jeans and a T-shirt, but she could still see that extraordinary body.

“We have to talk,” he said. “Something happened between us.” He approached her and took her hand. “Something exists between us. You can’t deny that, Lauren.” He held up his hand, palm out. Then he took her wrist and lifted her open hand, pressing it into his own, so that they were palm to palm. “Tell me,” he said quietly. “Tell me you can’t feel that energy. Tell me you can’t feel it when we touch.”

Tears burned at the backs of Lauren’s eyes. She blinked hard to keep them from splashing down her cheeks. “Caleb, I — ” she started.

“Don’t speak right now,” he said, kissing her ever so lightly on the temple. “Just meet me here after work.”

She nodded, then smiled up at him. “I’ll be here at six.”

Caleb put a hand on each of her shoulders and kissed her tenderly on the mouth. “I’ll be here, too.”

Lauren reached up to touch his face. The green lights in his eyes flashed darkly. She kissed him on the cheek. “I’ll see you then.”

L
AUREN
F
INALLY
M
ADE
I
T
into work at noon. Nearly everyone had gone to lunch except the doyenne at the front desk. Lauren skipped up the short marble stairway that led to her office on the mezzanine. She opened the door a crack, scooted in, and shut it quietly behind her.

Since she had left Caleb at the Gramercy, her mind had been in a tumult; her brain was whirling in an agony of effort to figure it all out. Her thoughts were like moths, trapped inside a jar, beating their wings against the glass to try to find freedom once again. She felt as if she were two people: the Lauren she knew who was curator of one of the finest museums in the city, who appeared in
The New York Times
and
Town & Country Magazine
, who shopped at Cartier, who was engaged to one of the most prominent businessmen in the world…and then…then there was this new Lauren — or was it the old Lauren? — pushing up from somewhere she had forgotten existed, dropping in from nowhere. Lauren, the small town girl, drinking beer on the porch steps with the man of her dreams. Lauren, the girl in the gauzy sundresses who mopped old kitchen floors just to see them shine. Lauren, whose unbridled passion was so earthy and vibrant, she could make love to her man, naked, in the grass on a warm, spice-scented summer night.

Lauren sat down heavily in her green velvet upholstered chair and laid her head in her arms on her desk. The sound of the door opening brought her out of her reverie.

“
What
is going on with you!” Kelly’s dark, always attractively disheveled curls fairly quivered with indignation.

“What do you mean?” Lauren tried to sound cool.

“You know what I mean!” Kelly bent over the desk, looking into Lauren’s eyes. “Something’s up. You’re three hours late to work! I’ve been trying to call you. You turned off your phone. You
never
turn your phone off!”

Lauren opened her mouth to speak, but Kelly continued with her tirade. “And don’t you lie to
me!
Dennis said you met friends from out of town last night at the Gramercy. What a crock of crap! You don’t
have
any friends from out of town. In fact, I’m not sure you have any friends at all. You’re either here, or being arm candy for Charles, or you’re with me!” As she spoke, Kelly stomped across the floor and picked up the priceless Queen Anne chair that sat by the door. She plunked it in front of Lauren’s desk and sat down determinedly on its white satin cushioned seat. Lauren winced when she considered that probably no one had sat in the chair for two hundred fifty years, but there was no stopping Kelly now. “So you tell me — and tell me the truth —
now
.”