Get There: (Originally Published in the Print Anthology a RED HOT VALENTINE'S DAY) (2 page)

“It’s not very big,” she said.

Ty, sitting, held out his arms. “We’ll have plenty of room.”

She let him take her onto his lap. He kissed her, his mouth gentler now. His lips teased hers open, and when his tongue swept inside, Edie sighed. She wanted to capture every moment so she’d have something to hold onto in the long, lonely months ahead.

“Touch me, Ty.”

He did, his hands running over the soft fabric of her new skirt and blouse, purchased especially for this trip. His fingers cupped her knee, then moved higher over the smooth nylon stockings—a gift from him that had made her the envy of all her girlfriends, who had to suffer with old stockings or none at all. When his hand reached the band of her garter, he stopped to trace the line where flesh and fabric met.

Edie shivered. Her thighs parted. “Put your hands on me, Ty. Please.”

Ty groaned and slid his hand higher until his palm cupped her heat. He toyed with the lacy edge of her panties and then, oh yes, he slid a finger inside to touch her. He groaned into her mouth as his tongue stabbed her. His finger moved along her folds, slick with desire, and found the secret places that made her feel so good.

“Baby, I want you naked.” Ty shifted her on his lap so she could feel his hot, hard length pressing her hip. “Get naked for me.”

Edie stood. The train clack-clattered and she shifted with the motion. Her hips swayed as she unpinned her hat and tossed it to the chair and as she unbuttoned her blouse. She shrugged out of it and tossed that at Ty, who grabbed it with a laugh. His eyes shone, reflecting her. She’d never felt so beautiful.

Her hand went to the button and zipper of her skirt, and she eased out of it until she stood in her brassiere and panties and garter belt, wearing the stockings he’d bought her and her nicest shoes. Ty’s tongue slid along his lips and again, Edie shivered. Her nipples peaked and she cocked a hip forward as she favored him with a saucy grin worthy of Lana Turner.

“Well, sailor. Like what you see?”

“I love what I see.”

Edie let the train move her almost in a burlesque dance, a dirty little bump and grind. Her hips moved side to side. Ty’s grin encouraged her and she added a little shimmy-shake.

“You’re so beautiful,” he told her.

She had fallen in love with his smile, but she’d stayed in love with him because of his words.

“Come here,” Ty said.

She took the hand he offered. Ty pulled her closer until she stood between his legs. He pressed his face to the narrow stripe of her belly between her bra and panties. His breath, hot, gusted over her skin. She squirmed at the wet flicker of his tongue.

Ty’s hands cupped her rear as he kissed each hip. He tipped his head to look up at her and she ran her fingers again through his hair. He smiled before ducking back to nuzzle her.

With careful hands, Ty unclipped her garters and rolled her stockings down, one at a time, lifting her feet to take off her shoes, too. Then he unhooked the garter belt and laid it aside. When he put his hand between her legs, the thumb pressing her in the front and his fingers stroking the softness of her panties, Edie had to put a hand on his shoulder to keep herself from falling.

“So pretty,” Ty murmured as he eased her panties over her hips and helped her step out of them, too.

Next came her bra, tossed without fanfare, and Edie stood naked in front of her husband.

“You’re still dressed,” she said with a shake of her head. “That won’t do at all.”

Together they undressed him. His clothes mingled with hers in the pile the way their bodies would soon join in the flesh. Naked, Edie stood between Ty’s thighs and looked down at his body, so lean and finely muscled.

His penis begged for her hand. When she curled her fingers around his length, not yet as familiar as his mouth, he let out a low, whispering sigh that sent thrills all through her.
This is what it means to be a woman,
she thought. This
is what it means to be a wife.

With his hands on the backs of her thighs and her hand on his shoulder, she stroked him and watched, fascinated at the way his skin flushed. She twisted her hand around the head of his erection, and he jerked under her touch.

This is power,
she thought.
This is love.

“I need to taste you,” Ty said. She bent to give him what he wanted, but though he kissed her mouth, Ty shook his head. “Not that way.”

When he laid her back on the narrow bed and parted her thighs, Edie had to close her eyes. When his mouth slid over her body, teasing her nipples and wetting her belly, she arched into the touch of hands and mouth. And finally, when Ty kissed her
there
she let out a long, slow cry of desire.

His tongue moved against her flesh, circling in a way that had her lifting her hips within seconds. Edie wanted to cry out at the sound of his breathing, so loud even above the noise of the train on the tracks.

She did, unable to keep her ecstasy silent when Ty slid a finger inside her. Then another, stretching her deliciously. Her hips rocked upward to his feasting mouth. Tension spiraled in her belly, her thighs twitching as Ty’s tongue and fingers moved in tandem with the train’s rocking.

Edie cupped her breasts, found her nipples and rolled them. Ty’s hair, too short for fashion, was barely long enough to tickle her thighs and belly as he licked and suckled. He added a third finger and the first spasm of pleasure shook her.

She cried out his name and he eased off. He moved up her body, replacing his tongue with a fingertip but keeping up the same maddening pressure. He reached between them to guide himself inside her welcoming body. He paused, his penis just inside her, and took long, slow breaths.

Edie shifted and hooked her ankles over the backs of his calves. “Make love to me, Ty.”

“Give me a second, honey.” Ty kissed her, hard, his mouth tangy from her arousal. “I don’t want to go off like a cannon first thing.”

She laughed softly, surprised she could when desire had stolen nearly every other reaction. She held his rear tightly and urged him forward. He opened her with his body, each delicious and indescribable inch. She gasped into his kiss and he took her breath, then gave it back with his moan.

“I can’t wait,” she said against his mouth.

Ty pushed forward and seated himself inside her. He bent his face into the curve of her shoulder. He trembled, and Edie stroked her hands down his back, holding him tight to her.

The spirals of tension had faded a bit, but when he moved, they flared again. Bright sparkles of pleasure radiated throughout her entire body as Ty thrust. Pleasure mounted. He moved faster at her urging.

The train rocked them together. Ty moved in her slickness and her heat, and he filled her completely. Edie brought his mouth to hers, and kissing him, she burst the first time.

As her body bore down on his, Ty said her name over and over. His hips pushed forward. He slid his arms beneath her to hold her closer as the bed rattled beneath them, and Edie no longer could tell or cared if it were the train or their bodies making it shake.

Ty slid a hand between them, his fingers pressing each time he thrust, and pleasure, unexpected, built again. Her fingers clutched his back, scratching, but Ty only moaned and moved faster. Harder.

He shuddered and thrust once more, collapsing on top of her just as Edie exploded into another climax.

The train rocked them both to sleep after that, and when Edie awoke, the first bright pink strands of morning streaked by the window outside. Ty sat in one of the chairs by the window. He’d been watching her.

“Another hour or so,” he said quietly, “until we get there.”

Edie sat without caring the blankets had bunched around her waist. The bed hadn’t been too small, after all. She reached for him and he came to her. They made love slowly and in silence, mindful they had only so much time.

Later, as the train slowed and prepared to stop, he pulled the box from his pocket. “This is why I was late. It’s not much, I know, but—”

Edie kissed him into silence, and she put the ring on her finger. It was more than she’d expected. “It’s beautiful.”

“I wanted you to have one for the wedding, but—”

“It’s enough I have it now.” She didn’t ask him how he’d afforded it. She didn’t tell him a diamond chip on a band of gold wouldn’t replace him beside her. She just kissed him again and again until the train pulled into the station and it was time for them to go.

“H
ow about this one? Can I have this one, too?” Ham held up an early-’80s issue of
Pandaman.

Ty, hands full of slippery comics trying to slither from his grasp before he could wrestle them into the packing box, looked up. “You want that one? Why?”

“Some of your best work,” Ham said seriously, flipping the pages. “Totally underrated. Worth a mint someday. Trying to get in on the ground floor.”

Ty laughed. “Right. Fine, take it. One less thing I have to pack.”

Pandaman
had been his freshman foray into the world of independent comics. A critical but not financial success, he’d managed to put out only a dozen issues before the small press that’d taken a chance on him had folded. It was possible, Ty supposed, that those issues might be worth more than a buck or two someday, but hell. His parents probably had a few boxes of them in the garage.

Ham set it in the box of stuff he was liberating as part of his “fee” for helping Ty pack for the move. He looked around the living room, mostly bare now. He shook his head.

“What?” Ty stretched, all his joints popping in protest at kneeling for so long.

“You sure about this, man?” Ham, self-proclaimed bachelor-for-life, said. “Really sure?”

“Do I have to punch you?”

Ham laughed. “Don’t get me wrong. Edie’s a great girl, but–”

“She’s a woman,” Ty interrupted. “Maybe if you went out with a woman instead of a girl once in a while, you’d understand.”

“Touché, mon frére.”
Ham couldn’t keep his look of pretended hurt for long. “Seriously, I’m happy for you. I just wish like hell she lived in Maine. Or would move here, so you didn’t have to move to Bumfuck, Pennsylvania.”

Ty used the tape gun on the box he’d filled. “Could be worse. I could be moving all the way to California.”

“Now that wouldn’t be so bad.” Ham grinned. “I could visit in L.A. You could introduce me to all the starlets.”

“In your dreams, buddy.”

Ham shook his head again. “I’m just saying.”

Ty held out the tape gun. “Less talking. More packing.”

Later, after a few beers, some ordered-in hot wings and a hockey game on the tube, Ham had finally gone home. Ty, glad for the help and the company, had nonetheless been glad for his friend to go.

The time difference meant Edie would just be getting home from work. Some days, like him, she worked from her apartment, but with finishing the final season and the move, she’d been spending more days in the office.

Already grinning with anticipation, Ty slid into his desk chair and clicked open his e-mail and instant message programs. A small box popped up immediately: “ontherun327 is offline.” It was the same screen name she’d used forever on the
Runner
message boards, and it never failed to make him smile.

She’d sent him an e-mail saying she’d been invited out after work for a going-away party with the postproduction crew. She’d
ping
him when she got home, if he could stay awake that long. Ty couldn’t blame her for going, but he did miss her. She’d left him something else, too: a story about a train that got him hard and a prompt of his own.

We could get there by magic carpet.

Ty laughed aloud at that and sat back in his chair, spinning it while he thought. She was paying him back, was she? He’d thought a train was easy, and from the story she’d sent him, it didn’t look as though Edie’d had any trouble writing it. But then, she never did. It was one of the first things he’d learned about her–give her any scenario and she could come up with something. He, on the other hand, was better with pictures to illustrate his words.

Well. He’d just have to see what he could do.

I
t’s woven of threads in many colors. Blue, black, green. Red. A hint of yellow, like sunshine, that reminds me of the scarf you wore the first time we met. It’s a rug, really, not a carpet, but it’s big enough for two, and that’s all that matters.

I know the words to make it rise and fly, but I haven’t used them yet. I’m waiting until we’ve both stepped on. When we’re both ready to go.

When I lay you down on the soft threads, your hair spreads out like part of the design. It weaves into the vines and flowers, those living, growing things. You make them beautiful.

Naked, your skin is softer even than the woven silk. The carpet cradles us, silk on skin. Skin on silk. And then, when I’ve covered your body with mine, I say the words.

And we go up.

The sky isn’t bluer than your eyes, the breeze not sweeter than your breath. The sun shines warm and yellow on my back, but it’s not nearly as hot as your kiss.

I kiss you. I touch you. I taste every part of you, there in the sky with a carpet of silk beneath us, carrying us to the place we’ll be able to stay together. Always.

“A
lways.”

Edie echoed the last word of Ty’s letter as she clicked the printer icon.

She’d missed him last night, gotten home too late for him to wait, but this morning when she’d checked her e-mail she’d found this. It wasn’t as lovely as one of his handwritten notes or drawings, but she wanted to save it forever with the others. The printer whirred into life, spitting out the document. She read over it again at her desk, while outside her office the murmur and mumble of people passing tried rudely to remind her she was at work and wasn’t supposed to be reading love letters.