Designer Genes (17 page)

“Buffy.” His
hands gripped her shoulders. His breathing speeded, his eyelids closed halfway
and his lips grazed hers.

A deep sigh
welled from him, and he slipped his arm around Buffy’s waist as he kissed her
harder. Happily she rumpled Carter’s hair and arranged herself on his lap. He
was so big that he surrounded her, making her feel utterly safe.

“You can do
that some more,” she said when he stopped.

“I don’t
believe... I never thought...” His fingers stroked along her rib cage. “Would
you mind if I...I mean, if I touched your...?”

She couldn’t
recall having a man ask permission before, let alone be so overwhelmed he
couldn’t complete a sentence. “You mean this?” She drew his hands up until they
cupped her breasts through the thin fabric of her sundress.

He groaned,
deeply and heartily, as his thumbs explored her small nubs. Buffy had always
been self-conscious about her size, yet now, as the tips sprang to attention,
she felt voluptuous.

Leaning
against Carter’s shoulder, she trailed kisses up his throat and undid the top
buttons on his shirt so she could enjoy the unadorned expanse of muscles. “I
like your chest, too,” she whispered.

Her comment
inspired him to lower the spaghetti straps of her dress. Because of the skimpy
design and her modest shape, she hadn’t bothered to wear a bra, a fact that
must by now be obvious.

“Beautiful,”
Carter murmured. Any notion Buffy had of proceeding slowly vanished as, with
easy power, he lowered her from his lap onto the truck seat and bent to claim
her breasts with his mouth.

The entire
front of her sundress had obligingly dropped, she discovered when his hot
breath and eager tongue moved from one swelling mound to the other. A stray
thought crossed Buffy’s mind, that she ought to call a halt. It disappeared
quickly, never to be heard from again.

When Carter
paused, she seized the chance to run her hand across the expanse of skin bared
by a gap in his shirt. Down she stoked to the flat stomach, hardened by hours
of sweaty labor.

His sharp
intake of breath revealed the intensity of his reaction. It inspired her to
give him even more. He deserved something special, Buffy thought.

With a
delicious sense of acting naughty, she unworked his belt and slid the jeans
lower. Male hardness sprang into her hands.

“Buffy, oh my
gosh.” One of his palms stroked the inner silkiness of her thigh. “You don’t
have to do this…Don’t stop!”

“I won’t.” She
bent to take him in her mouth.

His whole body
went rigid, and a cry of unbelieving pleasure tore from him. Buffy had never
had any desire to do this to a man before. Carter was different. His joy
infused her as if it were her own.

Halfway to a
climax, he lifted her up and kissed her. Then he laid her along the seat and
raised himself over her. Oh, wait. She hadn’t intended to go any further than
this tonight. Not far enough to risk bringing another little Allie into the
world, although it
was
the wrong time of the month.

Buffy was
about to lodge a protest, when he bumped the gearshift and uttered a funny
curse. While she was giggling about that, some other part of his anatomy hit
the horn with a loud “Aoogah!” that sent her into a fit of laughter.

Helpless with
mirth, she didn’t even know when he removed her panties. She felt the long
hardness of him penetrate her, hesitate, and then push until his entire
throbbing length made its home inside her. Buffy didn’t feel like laughing
anymore. She lost herself in relishing a surge of incredible raw hunger and its
simultaneous, massive solution.

“I didn’t know
a man could be this large,” she whispered.

“You ain’t
seen nothing yet,” he whispered back. One fact about Carter, Buffy acknowledged
in the small part of her brain that still functioned, was that once he
committed to a course of action, he threw his full self into it. There were no
more questions, and there was definitely no more asking permission.

When he bent
to taste her breasts, the nip of his teeth put an edge to her pleasure. At the
same time, his buttocks scythed rhythmically through the air as his unleashed
masculinity sheathed and unsheathed itself, pressing her into the seat.

Buffy caught
at his muscular forearms, trying to regain a measure of control. But she had
freed the genie inside Carter and it was too late to push him back into the
bottle. Besides, he was granting all sorts of wishes, including some she hadn’t
made yet.

It surprised
her when he let out a whoop. He hadn’t even climaxed yet, so she supposed it
was his way of announcing his plans. His unrestrained enjoyment was so precious
and rare that she found herself smiling again.

And gasping.
Because if she’d thought he couldn’t master her any harder, she’d been wrong.

“Oh! Carter!”
She clutched his hips and drew herself along him, not minding the cramped space
of the truck cab. Nothing mattered but the heat of his shaft radiating through
her, all the way to the points of her breasts and the tips of her toes.

In her arms,
he vibrated so hard the entire vehicle rocked. He shouted her name, he growled,
he moaned, and then he held himself stock-still, poised over her, as if
transported to another plane of existence.

Buffy didn’t
wait for him. Up, up she soared, through the trees and above the little town of
Nowhere Junction, into an everywhere connection. Her molecules expanded until
it was hard to believe they would ever return.

Carter cried
out and flew with her. They completed several circuits around the solar system
and explored the far reaches, discovering new planets and demonstrating the
potency of life on earth to a host of astonished aliens.

Eons later, he
sank down, sighing in satisfaction. Slowly, Buffy’s molecules chink-chinked
together into a form she might recognize in a mirror.

There wasn’t
room for them to lie side by side, so Carter angled Buffy partly on top of him.
She pressed her cheek against his chest and nestled there.

There was no
need to talk. They’d said everything without words.

*

Carter had
never dared to hope for anything like this. He hadn’t meant to take advantage
of Buffy, but he didn’t think she minded.

He’d never
dreamed that he would lose his virginity in a tow truck. It hadn’t been
 
as clumsy as he would have expected. In
fact, it had been downright ecstasy. Still, he’d like to try it in a bed, too.

The formality
of asking her to marry him seemed almost unnecessary. Of course they would get
married. A man and woman didn’t do this unless they loved each other. They
could work out the details later.

A twinge of
apprehension pierced Carter’s bliss. Where Buffy was concerned, he should take
nothing for granted. The sooner they tied the knot, the better.

In the
meantime, they had no business lying half naked on the front seat of his truck,
within spitting distance of Hidden Creek. It was hardly a decent place for a
respectable—well, almost respectable—man and woman to linger.

“We should
head home.” Carefully he righted himself and helped Buffy into a sitting position.

“I suppose
so.” Hair obscured her face as she pulled up the straps of her dress and groped
around for her underpants.

Carter began
to fasten his clothing and tried, in vain, to figure out the exact right words
to convey his love. He wished he had a direct line to Quade, with his vast
vocabulary and presence of mind. On second thought, this wasn’t the sort of
thing a man should entrust to someone else’s sensibilities. “We need to talk.
Now that we’re, er...”

“Can it wait
until morning?” Buffy wriggled into her underwear.

“Fair enough.”
The prospect of spending the night with her and possibly repeating this
experience in a bed made him wish the tow truck would sprout wings.

When it came
to chitchat, tomorrow would be more than soon enough.

*

The ringing of
the phone woke Carter. He opened his eyes to a wash of sunshine and realized
he’d slept late. Then he remembered that it was Sunday, so it didn’t matter.

His leg
muscles had a cramp from last night. The rest of him felt uncommonly fine.
Beside him lay the most beautiful woman in the universe, all curled up and as
blonde as ever. Her sweet perfume infused the room, and his soul.

The bedside
phone rang again. The damn thing had no respect for occasion. Carter fumbled
for the handset. “Murchison’s Garage.”

The man at the
other end identified himself by a name that sounded like Royce Bingo, and asked
for Buffy. Carter rolled over and woke her. In response to his whispered
question, she said, “That’s Boyce Fringo, my lawyer. I’ll take it.”

Why was a
lawyer calling on a Sunday? If it concerned her credit card, surely it could
wait.

Carter handed
her the receiver, stretching the cord tight. Without a trace of
self-consciousness, Buffy leaned over him to conduct her conversation.

Her satiny
breasts landed atop his chest, and her shapely derriere peeked from beneath the
covers. Silk-soft hair trailed across his sensitized skin.

Carter felt
himself growing hard, until Buffy’s end of the conversation distracted him.
Then it alarmed him.

“Really...?
She said
that
...? But where is it...? Ohmigosh, can he do that...? You
know he doesn’t mean it! I don’t see how I can... Well, yes, I do see... Of
course. I’ll call you when I get there.” She replaced the receiver on the
cradle. “This is awful.”

Carter
especially distrusted the I’ll-call-you-when-I-get-there part. “You’re not
leaving.”

“You won’t
believe what that rat Roger is doing.” Buffy unrolled herself from the covers
and snatched her bathrobe from the back of a chair.

“Come back
here and explain.” The command hung in the air as she paced out of the room.

Carter was
about to tear after her when he heard the clink of dishes from the kitchen.
Mazeppa.

She’d been
asleep on the living room couch next to the baby’s portable crib when they
arrived home last night. Obviously she was up and at ’em now. Carter couldn’t
go rampaging around the house naked.

He found his
bathrobe and, wrapping it in place, stalked into Buffy’s room just as she
yanked her suitcase open on the couch. “What’s going on?” Then he saw that she
was crying. “Oh, honey, what’s wrong?”

“It’s Roger,”
she sobbed. “He dumped Yoko and went back to L.A. She got mad and for revenge,
told my lawyer Roger’s been hiding a whole bunch of money from the divorce
settlement.”

That her
ex-husband was a liar came as no surprise, given what Carter had heard about
the man. “That sounds like good news. Your lawyer should be happy.”

“He is,” she
conceded. “He hasn’t been paid, the bills are way overdue and he wants Roger’s
money
now
.”

“Okay.” Carter
strained to introduce a note of calm. “I don’t see why that requires you
running back to California.”

“Because Roger
says he’ll demand custody of Allie unless I sign away every penny!” Tears
rolled down her cheeks.

That
ugly-hearted man didn’t realize who he’d just come up against, Carter mused.
“I’m Allie’s father. If you’re worried about the lawyer’s bills, I’ll pay them.
I can always mortgage the garage.”

Astonished
eyes met his. “You’re the most wonderful man in the world. If only it were that
simple.”

“What’s
complicated about it?”

“Under
California law, Allie is Roger’s daughter because of our marriage, regardless
of the DNA results,” she said. “I can waive my share of the money, but I’m not
sure I can waive hers.”

All these
legal issues struck Carter as a mite confusing, so he kept his focus on the
main point. “I still don’t see why you have to go in person.”

“Roger
finagled a court date this Wednesday. There’s hardly even time to prepare!”
Buffy wiped away tears with the heel of her hand. “He’s only seeking custody to
be spiteful, but he might get it. He’s rich and important and I’m a nobody.
What judge would pick me?”

The solution
was obvious. “We’ll get married,” Carter said. “That way, you have a home to
offer Allie. A two-parent home with her biological father. We’ll go see Pastor
O’Rourke tomorrow.”

Buffy
sniffled. “You’d do that?”

“I’d do
anything for my little girl, even make a fool of myself in church.” He drew her
close and kissed the top of her head. “It might be a simple wedding, but who
cares about that?”

He felt her
grow rigid in his arms. He wasn’t sure why, until she said; “Well, we can’t.”

“Why not?”

“Because I’m
still married to Roger,” she said.

*

Carter’s body
hurt worse than the time he’d skidded on motor oil and cracked two ribs against
a Jeep. Buffy had led him to believe she was free to make love, something he
would never, ever have done with a married woman.

Maybe, by her
lights, she
was
free—to have a fling, anyway. Permanence, commitment,
marriage, the things he wanted with all his swollen-to-ten-times-its-normal-size
heart, apparently hadn’t entered her mind.

He knew Buffy hadn’t
deliberately deceived him. She’d simply been doing what came naturally, acting
on impulse and enjoying the moment. It was this joyful unpredictability that
drew him to her, he admitted. And which had kept him at bay, although not quite
long enough.

He’d known
better. He just hadn’t expected the consequences of his heedlessness to arrive
this fast.

*

What was
eating Carter? Buffy wondered when he drew away. She was the one who ought to
be offended, after he’d as much as said that marrying her meant sacrificing his
dignity for his daughter’s sake.