Impossible Things (11 page)

She lay there drifting, unable to form a coherent thought, and from time to time little tremors, after-shocks of pleasure, would run through her muscles again, and she let out soft sounds.

She could feel Lucas’ hand running softly over her
thigh and she felt the warmth of him against her back. She was too content, too satiated to move and after a few minutes she fell into a light sleep. She woke some time later to feel him running his tongue down the curve of her back.

She smiled in pleasure and she felt his hand kneading her buttocks. She groaned at that and he gently pushed her to her stomach as his hands softly massaged her. When he made his way down to rub her calf she stretched in pleasure at the feel of his strong thumbs pressing into her. She had given many messages but she had never been on the receiving end before.

Lucas’ hands came back up and she felt his mouth against her backside as he gently bit her. The feel of it was unexpected and a flood of wetness hit her and she turned over. He was smiling as she looked up at him, his hair was mussed and standing on end and she smiled back at him. He pulled her up to her knees and kissed her and she felt him hot and hard already against her stomach.

She started to move to her back but he sat back on his heels and lifted her so that she was straddling him. She looked down and watched as they joined and when she looked back up at his face the desire that she saw there matched hers.

He held her up and sat a rhythm that she was soon able to match as he pulled her to him and buried his face in her neck. She felt his mouth against her neck, open and wet as he searched for the sensitive spot that he had touched before. When he found it she flexed her hips into his and he moved to push her back to the bed.

He was suddenly frenzied as he moved above her. He looked down at her, “I’m sorry,” he grunted and she squeezed him with her internal muscles as she whispered back, “Harder.”

Hr groaned and began to move furiously within her as she met him thrust for thrust. This time they climaxed together and their voices as they came meshed together in the now darkened room.

He pulled back and sat back on his heels again and she looked up at him. She could just make out the faint sheen of the white of his eyes and in a voice that was hoarse and thick he said, “Lucy,” as he gathered her to him and squeezed her as if he would never let her go.

This time she didn’t doze but he did and she watched him, just a shadow now, as his chest rose and fell and his soft breathing filled the air around them. The sheets smelled of their lovemaking but they also smelled of him and she buried her nose in her pillow to bring the scent of him deep into her lungs.

She reached out then and gently traced the shape of his face. Wanting to imprint it on her mind so that she could remember this day when she was old and gray. He was her adventure, her only foreign lover
, and this was a day, and a man, that she would look back on and know that even though she didn’t get all the things that she had wanted as a young girl, she had at least had this.

She leaned forward and kissed his lips softly and his eyes opened and his long black eyelashes fluttered against her face. She pulled back and whispered, “Thank you.”

He reached out and rubbed the back of his hand over her cheek and whispered back, “No. Thank
you
for his beautiful gift, for today.”

She felt tears threaten then and she pulled back from him and sat up. She felt his hand brush against her back before she stood. She felt something soft brush against her foot and she reached down. The room was so dark that she could only see that it was his shirt when it was next to her face. She heard the click of a lamp the second before the room was lit and she laid his shirt on the bed behind her without looking at him.

In the light she felt conscious of her body and she quickly grabbed her clothes and held them up in front of her. She turned back to him and he pointed at a door and said, “The bathroom.”

She nodded her thanks and went in, shutting the door firmly behind her. When she came out ten minutes later it was to find him sitting fully dressed on the end of the bed. He stood when she came out and smiled at her
but it was a smile filled with apprehension. He obviously didn’t know how she was going to feel about what they had done.

She smiled at him, to reassure him, and she reached out her hand. He took it in his big, warm grasp and she moved towards him and softly kissed him.

Still holding hands they made their way down the stairs and she gathered her purse from the sitting room. When she turned back to the door he was standing there and he had a box in his hand. “I have something for you.”

She was instantly mad. “Is this payment?”

His face contorted and he looked shocked as he said, “Of course not! I bought this last night after our day together. I saw it and thought of you. I just wanted you to have it.”

She shook her head. “I can’t take it and I have to give the ring
and bracelet back.”

He shook his head. “Now you insult me. I bought you the ring because it gave you pleasure. Because I had never seen such a look of longing on anyone’s face before as I did that day. I wanted you to have what you wanted. I wanted to satisfy that longing for you.”

He was still holding out the box and she shook her head again. “Thank you but I can’t.”

“Can’t or won’t?”

She frowned. “Does it matter?”

He nodded. “To me it does. I want you to have it. I like buying you things. I like thinking of you and seeing something that I think would please you. So please take it.”

She took the box from him and opened it. It was a necklace. The pendant was shaped like a teardrop, coated in diamonds, at least three carats, and it hung from a chain that she knew by looking at it was platinum.  It was delicate and beautiful and she felt sad looking at it.

“What’s wrong? You don’t like it?” His voice was concerned and he came towards her to touch her arm.

She looked up at him and there were tears in her eyes. “It’s beautiful but I can’t take it.”

His face was concerned and he reached out and pulled her to him, pinning her arms, and the box between them. The smell of him, the feel of him was too much and she began to cry. He rubbed his big, warm hands up and down her back for a minute but then she pulled away.

She stepped back and held out the box to him. “Thank you Lucas. For everything, but I can’t take it.”

He took a step back and put his hands behind his back, his voice when it came was thick and his accent was prominent. “I can be stubborn too. I’m not taking it back because it belongs to you and always will.”

She thought about setting it down on a table and walking away but she didn’t. Looking at him, looking deep into his green eyes she opened her mouth and said the words that she had never said to another human being. “I can’t take it because I have a problem…an addiction.”

She saw that he was perplexed. A line formed between his heavy eyebrows as he frowned and asked, “What kind of addiction?”

She took a deep breath and looked down at the box in her hand. “Jewels. Ever since I was small I’ve wanted jewels. And….and when I was younger I did things for them.”

She stopped and looked up at him. His face was clouded and his eyes were curious. “What kind of things?”

Not taking her eyes from his she said, “I stole. I was a thief when I was young. I went into jewelry stores and I would ask to see something and when the sales people were distracted I would run. I got into a lot of trouble and had it not been for my parents I would have gone to jail.”

His face had cleared and as she watched he bit down on his lip before asking, “You were a jewel thief?”

She nodded. “And now…now I have a lot of debt because I don’t steal them anymore, I buy them.”

“What does your Sam think about this?”

She searched his eyes, trying to get a sense of how he felt about her revelation but she couldn’t read him. She told him, “He doesn’t know. He thinks I like sparkly things and that they’re all fakes. I don’t have anything as nice as this or the bracelet or ring because I can’t afford things like that even on my credit cards.”

He rubbed his jaw. “You don’t think you should tell him before you marry him?”

She looked down at the floor and her red, ballet flats. “He won’t understand and besides I’m going to try and borrow money to pay my debts off.”

“Who do you think will lend it to you?”

She looked back up at him. “My grandmother or…,” she stopped and smiled, unable to help herself, “Maybe my new grandfather. He’s a nice guy.”

He nodded. “Let me get this straight. You don’t want to take the necklace, which is real, because you’re addicted to jewels. Is that right?”

She snorted. “You make me sound stupid!”

He held up a hand. “No, no! I didn’t mean it that way. I just want to understand you.”

He stepped towards her and took the box from her unresisting hand. He opened it and looked at the necklace again before snapping the case closed. “Will you quit cold turkey?”

She nodded and whispered, “I have to.”

He held the case out to her again. “I understand, but do it after today, take this now. Tell him it’s fake if you want to wear it, or if you don’t put it in a drawer and twenty years from now take it out and think of me. Remember today.”

She closed her eyes, took a deep breath and started up at the ceiling. She wanted the necklace, there was no doubt about that but more than the necklace she wanted to grab him and kiss him and lead him back to the bedroom. He was more addictive than any shiny, pretty thing.

She took the box from him and moved towards the door. She turned to see him looking at her and she quickly went back to him and reached up to bring his mouth to hers. She kissed him with everything she had in her and when she pulled back she felt dizzy with longing. She didn’t look at him as she walked over to the door, opened it, stepped through it and shut it behind her.

She hurried down the steps and out the gate, not daring to look back. At the end of the block she began running, uncaring of where she was
. She didn’t stop until she saw a sign for the underground.

             
It was half past ten when she walked in her front door and Sam wasn’t home yet. She was glad. She didn’t have the strength to face him yet. She went through to the bedroom, took off her clothes and stepped into a hot shower. The warm water felt good on her back but she didn’t linger. She got out and started a load of clothes, trying to wash away the smell of Lucas.

She left the kitchen and made sure that both bolts on the front door were engaged, that way she would hear Sam when he got home. Taking the necklace case from her jacket pocket she put it on the bed before digging in her drawer and getting out the bracelet and ring that Lucas had given her.

Paranoid she looked out the window at the street below, checking to see if she could see Sam, and when the street was deserted she went over to the closet and got out her suitcase. Inside it was a smaller suitcase that she pulled out and took to the bed with her.

Sitting down in the middle of the bed she carefully unwrapped the ring and put it on before taking the bracelet out of its wrapping and putting it on her wrist. Once those were on she opened the suitcase and dug down.

What looked like sweaters actually concealed her treasure. Three layers down she found her first treasure, a platinum bracelet with a small, diamond heart dangling from it. It had been her first purchase and it had cost her five hundred dollars, a lot of money for a poor, college student. Next was an emerald bracelet, surrounded by tiny, glittery diamonds. It had been her biggest purchase at four thousand dollars but she loved it still.

She put it on, next to the filigree bracelet that Lucas had given her, and she smiled. Reaching back into the suitcase she came up with two diamond tennis bracelets, two pairs of diamond earrings, a pair of ruby earrings, a tiny diamond and sapphire necklace and a small emerald and sapphire brooch that had reminded her of one that her grandmother had.

She looked down at the bed, at her treasure spread out on it, and while she knew that she was looking at forty thousand dollars in credit card debt, part of her didn’t care. She loved every single piece and while she was holding them and touching them, they made her feel good. They made her feel for a few minutes like the glamorous woman that her grandmother was.

Slowly and carefully she packed everything back in its wrapping and put them back in her suitcase. The last thing to go was the ring that Lucas bought her and she stared at it with longing. It cost more than all her other treasures combined but it wasn’t about the money.
While it was the most beautiful piece of jewelry that she had ever seen, it was more about the fact that Lucas had bought it for her.

She stared at it for a few minutes before taking it off and tenderly wrapping it up.  She got up, put the small suitcase back in the larger one and zipped it up. She had been terrified bringing everything through customs, afraid that at any minute they would see and say something in front of Sam
, but they hadn’t.

She put the suitcase back in the corner, hidden behind some long dresses and patted it lovingly before shutting the door and crawling into bed. She had no idea what time Sam got home because she was asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.