Pier Lights (14 page)

“I can’t stand the thought of ... if I let
you see me. Caroline...”

“Please. Just come to me
now. We’ll deal with that later. I won’t ask you to do it now.” She
listened to silence. Except the birds. The waves. A few voices in
the distance. She would not turn to him. He had to come to her.
He
had
to come to
her.

The electricity sparked in her body. Her
skin tingled. Her heart rate accelerated as she felt his legs close
to her back, as she felt him crouch behind her. His fingers sent a
shock through her soul as they reached up to smooth her hair from
the side of her face.

“Caroline.” His lips barely touched her just
below her ear. “Yes.” They touched her neck. Her body drew in, her
head fell back, closer to him, her eyes closed. “I am so sorry.
About your foot. It has to be extremely painful, at least mentally.
You’re such a beautiful dancer, I know it’s in your soul. I’m sorry
you’ve lost that.” He kissed lower on her neck. And he lowered to
the sand behind her, close against her body.

“It is extremely painful. Mentally. And
physically. Sometimes I wake up in so much pain I can’t help but
cry out. I try not to. I do try.” She had never told anyone. She
didn’t acknowledge pain. She was a ballerina. It was part of who
she was.

But she wasn’t anymore. Truth was, she
didn’t have any idea who she was anymore.

Dio slid a hand around her face and tilted
it to his own. He was in his mask, but his dark brown eyes drew her
in. His full lips, the ones that gave her so much pleasure in so
many ways. “How can I help you?”

She laughed. It started out a small
sarcastic laugh and turned into a deep wild crazy laugh. He looked
at her like she was crazy. Maybe she was. How could he help?

As her body wore itself out with the heavy
thick hard laughter, Lina grabbed deep breaths. Her eyes watered.
She shook her head.

“Oh Lina.” He drew her face to his with both
hands and kissed her. Softly. Tenderly. Lovingly.

And it broke all of her control. She grabbed
him, his shoulders, her arms against his arms, pulling herself to
him, using one leg, her left leg to help her turn herself to face
him better. She threw her body at him, pressed into him.

His strong thick talented hands wandered her
body, down her hips, up again to slide under her shirt to hold her
waist and up farther to her rib cage where his thumbs scissored out
to touch the bottom of her breasts. Lina wouldn’t care if he
stripped her right there in the daylight under the pier next to the
water and took her, meshed his body with hers, excruciated her with
pleasure, with longing, with need.

“Oh Dio. I’ve missed you. I’ve missed your
touch. Your eyes. Your ... all of you.”

“And my sword?” He nuzzled his lips against
her neck. His hands moved to hold her breasts, still under her
shirt.

“Oh yes. And your sword. Go ahead.”

He pulled back enough to catch her eyes.
“They’ll throw us in jail.”

“I don’t care.”

“Mm, but I do. They’ll put us in separate
cells.” He teased her lips.

“Oh. No, that... No.”

“Come home with me, Caroline.”

Home. With him. “Your mother... How is
she?”

“Not good.” He slid his hands back down to
her waist, to her hips. “And I have to get back to the hospital.
But she wanted me to come find you before I was stupid enough to
lose you.”

“Find me? She knows about me?”

“Yes.” His chest rose hard and fell fast.
“Caroline, I’m sorry I told you to go.”

“You said that already.”

“Yes, but I...”

“No, don’t. I’ve done some really stupid
things in the past few days. Dio, I ... I nearly took someone home,
some guy in a bar, a tourist. I ... I thought you were blowing me
off. And yet, at the door, the thought made me so sick...” She
settled in half turned away, leaned against his body, sitting
between his legs.

“You didn’t let him past the door.”

“No. It was the day you put my bikini top on
my doorknob. I got in trouble for that. But I...” She grabbed a
breath and drew in the sand with her finger. “Tell me your name. Is
it really Dio?”

“It is. Shortened.” He rubbed a finger along
her face. “My name is Diomedes. Yes, my mother has a strange sense
of humor. She wanted me to be different, to stand out. I guess she
got her wish. I’m Diomedes Troy, a farmer who doesn’t like to farm,
at least not full time, obsessed with boats and water and unable to
do much with either because I’m all my mother has and she’s all I
have and she gets very sea sick very fast and when ... she had me
very late and she’s up there in age so she’ll leave me soon and her
greatest fear is that I’ll be alone. I don’t disagree with her. I
figure she’s probably right. I do my shopping in Columbus where no
one knows me and I stay on the farm during daylight hours and work
at the club at night because it’s something I can do in a mask and
people think it’s just the costume. My mother says I’m too vain.
She says the right girl won’t care about my face. I have trouble
believing anyone would be willing to ... walk down the sidewalk
with me the way normal couples do and not be embarrassed by the
stares, by the way people go out of their way to avoid me. I don’t
know that I can let myself allow someone I care about to go through
that.”

“Oh Dio.” Caroline stroked the hair above
his mask. “What happened? Were you born with it?”

“No. I seared it all to hell when I was
young. Lucky I still have my sight, that it didn’t destroy my lips,
my eyebrows. It’s not just a burn scar, Lina. It’s ... worse. Far
worse. My mother insisted on taking care of it herself since she
figured they’d take me away from her for letting it happen, or
accuse her... Anyway, it’s not something people want to see.”

“I don’t care, Dio. And I will walk down the
sidewalk with you. I don’t give a flying fuck what anyone thinks.
Really, I don’t. I learned not to years ago. And you can let me
prove it whenever you decide. Until you feel safe enough with me,
I’ll understand. Just tell me you’ll give me that chance. Because I
want a real chance with you, Diomedes Troy, even with that name. I
do. And I don’t want you to be alone any more than your mother
does.”

“Would you be willing to meet her?”

“Will she want anything to do with me, or
for you to have anything to do with me, when she knows I’m a
stripper, an ex-stripper, with a bum foot and limited options for
the future?”

“She knows where we met. She knows we were
together the night we met. She knows where you work, or worked. She
finds it all terribly romantic and yes, she wants to meet you. I
told you, she has a strange sense of humor.”

“Okay.” Caroline ran a finger down his huge
chest. “Dio.”

“Hm?”

“Take me somewhere and screw me. And then we
can go tell your mother I don’t plan to let you be alone so she can
rest better.”

“Caroline, until you see me, until you
know...”

“I don’t care. I told you I don’t care. Wait
to tell her if you want, but I don’t care. Yes, I’ll go home with
you. No, not just because I’m desperate to find a place to live.
Because I want to be with you. I’ll do anything I can to help, you
or your mom. Just tell me she’ll let me share your room at night
because I...”

He closed his mouth over hers, rolled her
down onto her back and lowered on top of her. A beautiful deep sexy
kiss. Yes, it was good that the searing didn’t ruin his lips, his
wonderful, passionate, full lips. They moved to her neck.

Lina gripped his back. “Take me. Here. Right
here. I want you now.”

He groaned.

Someone yelled from a distance, something
about public display. Dio pushed himself up off her and said they
were leaving. “Let’s find somewhere else to be. It’ll have to be
quick. I need to get back...”

“Of course. Quick is okay. This time.
Sometimes it is.” She winked and reached for her crutches.

Dio helped her get up. He didn’t ask.
Caroline was glad he didn’t ask yet. Enough was enough at the
moment. He was taking her home. The rest would come.

She stopped a third of the way up the
path.

“Are you all right?”

“My palms get sore. Give me a few seconds.
And they’ll get used to it again soon so I won’t have to stop so
much. The sand makes it harder.”

“Come here.” He took the crutch out from
under her right arm and replaced it with his arm. He handed it to
her then took the one from under her left arm. “Just carry these. I
have you.” He swept her up in his arms, against his body. She
wrapped her right arm over his shoulders and threaded her left in
the crutches to move them out of the way.

Caroline had never let anyone help her
because of the foot, other than the cowboy only for a minute, and
the taxi driver, and never like this. She was determined to do it
on her own, not to let it slow her down or need special attention.
But it was different with Dio. She rested her head against him and
gave into his concern, his care giving. It felt ... excruciatingly
wonderful.

“Where are we going?”

Dio maneuvered the car down the gravel path
as he watched for wildlife that often jumped in front of him. “Last
time we went to your place. This time I figured we should go to
mine.”

“Since I don’t have one, good idea. You live
way out here?”

“I love privacy. So did my father. My mother
always wanted to be in town around people and she would have when
we lost him if not for me, because I refuse to be around people
more than I have to be. Sad that she never got what she most
wanted.” He turned off onto his own drive, still gravel but
smoother. He kept it smoother. “I feel guilty about that a
lot.”

“I’m sure she understands.”

“No, she says I’m too vain. Still, I ...
well, I promised my father I wouldn’t sell the place so it makes
more sense to live in it than to rent it, I guess.”

“A farmer who doesn’t want to be a farmer.”
Caroline’s voice was nearly a whisper.

“Right.”

“What do you want, Dio? What is it you would
do if...”

“If not for this face? You can say it.”

“If you weren’t so vain. That’s what I
started to say.”

He chuckled. “Great, now I’ll have two of
you telling me I am.”

“Oh well I can’t say much. I’m just as vain.
Enough I don’t know when to say when.”

He took the curve around the clump of trees
and watched her reaction as the house came into view.

“Wow. Now that... Wait, you live down
another path here?”

“No. That’s my house.”

She stared. “Your mom’s house.”

“Mine, technically. Hers in reality. She’s
bad at figures, at business, at real-life decisions, so he left it
to me. And she never wanted to live out here. He figured it would
be gone the day after he was if he left it to her. But it’s hers. I
call it hers. I just want to be straight with you.”

“Bet there are a lot of stairs in that
thing.”

He grinned. “There are a lot of stairs. But
there are two rooms on the main floor. One’s turned into a library
but it has a nice big daybed, so if you want that, it’s yours.
Or...”

“Dio.” She rubbed his leg. “If I stay, it’ll
only be to share your bed. So if that’s not okay with your mom,
I’ll find somewhere else.”

“Actually, she’d let you have her library if
you want, but I think she’d rather you have me. It was only an
offer. I didn’t want assume.” He pulled in and turned off the
engine. “It’s a lot of stairs up, though.”

“I can do stairs.”

He took her hand and kissed it. Then he went
around to open her door.

“I need my crutches.”

“Not right now, you don’t.” He scooped her
into his arms. “Right now, you are at my mercy, and I think I like
it that way.”

“Do you?” She gripped his neck with both
arms and kissed him hard. “Well come on, then. Take me wherever it
is you want to take me.”

“Oh Lina, watch what you offer. This grass
looks good to me about now.”

“No stickers?”

“Absolutely not. I don’t allow it.”

“You put a lot of love into this place you
don’t like.”

“No, I like the place. It’s the everyday
farming I don’t like.”

“Ah.” She looked around him at the grass.
“Put me down, Dio.”

“You want your crutches?”

“No. I want to feel the grass on my bare
back.”

“Your back isn’t bare.”

“Hm. Not yet. Put me down. There’s no one
around, right? It’s private property?”

“No one comes here without notice. I don’t
allow that, either.” He moved over to a soft grassy spot away from
the parking area and kneeled. “My bed is nice, too.”

She grinned. “Guess we’ll have to try that
later. Put me down, Dio.”

It wasn’t what he intended when he asked her
to go home with him, but it was a gorgeous day, warm, sunny,
breezy, and taking her outside in the midst of nature, on the land
he tended was too much temptation. He set her down gently and
kissed her, moved over top of her, still on his knees, laid her
back on the grass and leaned down over her body.

She reached between them to unbuckle his
belt.

“In a hurry, are we?” He kissed her
neck.

“You said it had to be quick. You have to
get back...”

He’d nearly forgotten. Hell. He didn’t want
it quick. Maybe... “Hold on. Let me check. I’ll be right back.” He
got up but she grasped his leg, still on her back looking up at
him. He bent enough to take her hand away with a grin. “Don’t go
anywhere.”

“Oh, funny. Don’t be long.” She unsnapped
her own jeans.

Fighting himself not to get hard, he hustled
into the house, to the phone, called the hospital’s number, and
waited impatiently through the automated garbage he hated until he
found a voice. He asked about his mom, if she was all right, if he
should get back immediately.