“Did we really just do that? In public? Again?”
“Yeah … we did, Sweetness.
Steve and Kayla panted as their powerful orgasms ebbed inside them, Steve’s penis still nestled tightly within his wife’s slick sheath. In broad daylight. In public.
“Are you worried that anyone saw us?” Kayla said as softly as she could while breathing so heavily from the exertion.
Steve looked up and out over the crowd from his position low on the floor. They were obscured, but people did surround them on all sides. “If they did then we really showed ‘em how it’s done.” Something about those words set Kayla off again, a thrill shooting through Steve as her sex pulsed just one more time around him. “Mm … baby … you came so hard that you’re still comin’.” Kayla smiled and buried her head into his neck as he held her on his lap. “God Kayla,” he whimpered. “Feels so good when you do that. So good,” he repeated while she nuzzled him.”
“Are you worried about anything else?” Kayla asked with more emphasis.
Steve felt very sure that, in fact, Stefano’s men were nowhere near their very public location in the middle of the day where they’d just gone at it like the two horniest teenagers that ever lived right under the noses of the immediate world. It was hot, it was hard, and it was an abyss of dangerous satisfaction.
Very dangerous.
********
Steve and Kayla had been trying not to count the days as they passed, because watching this pot try to boil was only going to make them crazier than they already were. So they took it one day at a time, and life went on in a mixture of happiness and frustration for everyone. They were, certainly, thrilled to be with each other – Steve got to have his daughter in a cheating (or was it rectifying?) of fate, Stephanie got her father in the exact way she’d always dreamed he’d be, and Kayla got the unique what-if of this road not taken – but all three of them were going a little stir crazy.
It was one thing for Kayla as an adult to keep up appearances, but Stephanie was beginning to struggle. She enjoyed her automotive class, and her buddy, Jessie, was becoming a bit of a mentor to her, but life-or-death secret-keeping as a ten-year-old was hard. It wasn’t any easier on her parents, either. They kept her close, but there was a compounding factor that added a layer to their protectiveness. It was unspoken between them but absolutely understood: Steve couldn’t lose another child. Stefano was too much of a threat for them to loosen the reins yet. Steve knew what that man would do – had seen and felt what he’d do. He knew it would reset with Stephanie, that if the unthinkable happened she’d live in the next time, and that none of it was technically real. But, it didn’t matter. He simply couldn’t go through it again; he knew he’d die if he did. So he and Kayla kept Stephanie with them at all times that they could.
By the week leading up to Christmas Steve was going batshit crazy. He’d been in the house for three solid weeks. He and Shane communicated via extended text conversations on a daily basis on the enforcers’ whereabouts, which afforded him a little bit of freedom to head into the backyard now and again, and that helped. Shane kept Kayla similarly informed; unfortunately, when the house was free from surveillance, it was often because they were now staking out the hospital garage. ISA eyes were on them at all times, so the threat to Kayla and Stephanie was diminished, but the fact was that Stefano had turned up the heat. Steve had smartly stayed one step ahead of them since his first moment in this jump and made only smart decisions here, but Stefano’s efforts to recapture his property were clearly escalating. Steve hated that reinforced feeling of true helplessness and not being able to take an active role in protecting his family. He had to trust that the two undercover agents that had now been placed inside the hospital would keep her safe.
Shane had brought Steve a laptop, and that eased the boredom significantly, as it was quite a bit more powerful and robust than Kayla’s older desktop model. Loaded with sophisticated software of the time, it was a little bit closer to what he’d last enjoyed in 2009. It was virtually unhackable by today’s standards, and Steve was given a level of ISA clearance under an alias. It enabled him to do extensive research and help as part of the remote infiltration team. That clearance wasn’t very high, however, so there was only so much he could do.
“Can’t you just Google it?” Steve blurted in frustration during a conference call one morning while trying to pinpoint which mountain Stefano had built the concrete entrance into. “How many uninhabited mountains have concrete entrances built into them, there’s gotta be something financially or visually searchable on that, right?” The silence this was met with was unnerving. “Hello?” Steve snarked.
“You know about Google?” Shane asked surprised.
Steve had no idea when that company went public, but Shane sure seemed surprised that Steve knew about it. “Yeah,” he said very neutrally. “Why?”
“It’s just rather new. Small company in Silicon Valley. The CIA has commissioned an application from them that’s … Steve, how on earth do you know about them?”
Shit. “Dunno, man,” Steve replied dismissively. “Guess it’s in that part of my memory that’s still missing.” He could tell from the silence Shane was giving him on the other end of the phone that Double-0-Donovan knew there was more to it.
Anachronism Alert, Sweetness, Steve later wrote to her in his daily e-mail. Do you know how hard it is to remove Google from your brain? Pretty hard. Steve worked hard to not make any more mistakes like that.
Despite it all, most of the time they were grateful. Yes, they were in a real bind with Stefano intent on recouping his AWOL investment, but Steve and Kayla had no words for what this jump meant to them. And all three of them knew, on some level, that this was, without question, amazing. They they took every single opportunity to enjoy each other as a family. They ate dinner together every night, Steve and Stephanie enjoyed book club, and the three of them talked incessantly about everyhthing – life, school, California, Salem – and they bonded more strongly than any of them had ever imagined. The loving, devoted feelings of 1979 and 1987 burned in them, fostering happiness, despite the dire situation. Christmas was around the corner, and given how few of these they got to enjoy together, Steve let it give him a little joy.
Also giving him joy? The unyielding amounts of sex they were having. It had been hot and intense, and they made sure that trembling with pleasure in each other’s arms was the last thing they did each night before they fell asleep in them. Some nights they made love in the loft, other nights in their bed. Sometimes both.
One morning at almost 3am Steve felt his wife riding him in her sleep. She rolled over to nestle against Steve’s side, her hips gently rubbing up against him as she dreamed. Steve began to rouse and moaned softly, enjoying a few moments of his wife’s sleepily roaming hands. Then he turned in her arms so they were facing each other. Only then did he realize she was still asleep. It wasn’t the first time she’d done this, and it wouldn’t be the last “What are you dreamin’ this time, Sweetness?” he whispered, just barely this side of sleep, himself. He kissed Kayla’s forehead, then her temple, then brushed her lips lightly. Her motions remained steady and matched the expression on her face. “So sexy,” he said.
Steve slipped his hand inside his wife’s underwear and hardened at the wetness he found there. Still asleep though fully aroused, Kayla began riding Steve’s hand the moment his fingers touched her. He called her name, and this time Kayla felt his hot breath in her ear. She opened her eyes and immediately felt the pleasure Steve’s fingers were giving her. “You were havin’ a real good dream,” Steve whispered so softly. “Thought you might want the real thing.” He gently put some pressure on her clitoris, causing her to bite her lip and sigh with the building climax she’d woken up to.
Nodding, Kayla lowered the waistband of Steve’s pajama bottoms and began fondling his balls as he continued to stroke her. Just moments later, Steve pulled his wife’s underwear off, lifted her leg, and slipped inside of her for the second time that night. Their lovemaking in the loft had been intense; now just a few hours later, it was tender and gentle in their sleepy haze beneath the covers. They held each other and kissed languidly as their bodies moved in loving harmony. Steve stroked her hair, and she reveled in the feel of his smooth, warm skin against her cheek.
When she arched her back and froze, Steve encouraged her with a loving sexiness. Moments later Kayla whimpered softly as the tremors gently shook her in his arms. Steve allowed himself to let go, too, and Kayla felt his body surge with orgasm. She kissed his jaw and smiled when his palm rested on the back of her head.
“So sweet, baby,” he whispered as he caught his breath. “And so sexy.”
The release felt so good. Their bodies felt so good. And loving each other so completely felt so very good. Every night was like this, their connection a craving that would never be completely sated. Every climax was like a burst of the deepest possible hues of color, and they both assumed their heightened emotional states helped them along in that deeply felt sexuality.
One night after they got the rare text that the coast was actually clear for a change, Kayla opened the loft door and sat on the steps. It was chilly, but the night air felt good on her skin. A cup of tea warmed her hands as the love that had erupted within her just minutes ago warmed her belly. She looked reflective and so beautiful in the winter darkness.
“Hey baby.” Kayla sensed Steve behind her before she heard him.
“Hey,” she turned and smiled warmly at him.
“What are you thinkin’ about out here?” There wasn’t quite enough room for two across on this stairwell, so she patted the step above for him to sit with her. He did, and she leaned back against him.
“I’m thinking about how great it is to be outside with you.”
Steve snickered and took some of her smooth hair in his fingers. “You wanna try that again?” Kayla exhaled heavily. “You’re an open book, baby, come on. What’s bothering you?”
“It’s not really bothering me, I’m just thinking. About home.”
“Emily?”
“Always. But I meant the other home, the one in 2009.” Neither one of them were surprised by the fact that the first place they associated with home was the one they left in 1989. “If we’d never started jumping we’d be in 2012.”
“2012. Wow, Sweetness, that’s wild isn’t it?” Steve said with genuine wonder.
“What do you think we’d be doing there right now?”
“Right now in 2012? Freezing.”
Kayla chuckled. “Yes, winter here definitely has its benefits.” She stared up at the crisp stars and leaned her head back against Steve’s chest. “Do you think we’d be making love like we just did?” Her tone was melancholy, but there was something deeper beneath it. Steve had been caressing Kayla’s neck but now had paused abruptly. “Do you think …”
“Do I think what?”
“Do you think we’d feel … like this? So … connected to each other.” She took his hand that was resting on her shoulder and turned her head to place a kiss in his plam. “I feel so connected to you. It’s so strong.”
Steve relaxed a little. “Baby, of course we would.” But Kayla shrugged, and he knew where she was going with this. Steve was tired of talking about the slipstream. They’d already been over it more than once. The changes were profound, nothing good would come of this jump as far as stability was concerned, and he didn’t want to talk about it anymore.
“I’ve just been thinking. About things.”
Suddenly, the context of what she was talking about hit him. “Kayla. You’d better not be thinking that we’d somehow not be together or love each other or something.”
Kayla turned on the step to face him. “What? No,” she said very emphatically. She took his hand in hers and placed the palm she’d kissed against her cheek.
“Well, that’s good,” he smiled. “Then what?”
“It just seems like there’s something between us that’s so strong,” she said again. “It’s like I’m desperate all the time.”
Now Steve leered. “You’re desperate for me, huh?”
“Yes!” she almost chuckled. “I feel – so much inside of me, Steve. I can leave the house and go to work or the market, I can drive to school, and I’ll be fine. But when I’m with you … I feel it so much. That connection. And I just have to feel you inside of me. I need to feel you touch me, have your lips on mine. I need to feel my arms around you. It’s sex, it’s love, it’s my whole heart. It’s … so strong, our connection, don’t you feel it?” He could. And all Steve could do was nod. Something was stuck in his throat, the emotionality of her words. And it did not escape him that the intensity of the love he felt for her was exactly what she was talking about. “It’s desperate, that’s all I can say to describe it.”
“Sweetness.” He looked down upon her on the step below and swallowed down the lump. He just wanted to hold on to his wife.
“It’s so intense. I feel out of control sometimes. Would we be feeling it if we were home in 2012?”
“You wanna wonder if it’s all real? It is. I want you every minute of every day and love you as much as I know I do, nothin’ is makin’ me love you other than you.” He rubbed his fist in a circular motion over his heart for emphasis.
“I love hearing that,” Kayla said in a soft, warm tone, “but no, that’s not it.” Steve cocked his head down at her. He was so sure she was thinking the jump effect was artificially amplifying their feelings for each other. Kayla laid her head on his thigh. “I mean, I do think we feel our love more intensely, but that’s not the same as feeling something that’s not there. It’s definitely there. I’m just saying, we’ve been through so much since we started jumping. Things we wouldn’t have been through otherwise. There are times I never felt closer to you than on these jumps.” Now Steve was starting to get it. Kayla laced her fingers into his and played with them.
“Would we feel that deep connection you’re talkin’ about without having gone through those things. If we were still in 2012 and it was three years later. If we hadn’t had the three years we did. That’s what you’re sayin’?” Kayla nodded.
“My virginity,” she said softly.
“Livin’ with your folks in 1979,” he added with a smile.
On the beach that night with the shells.” Steve stroked her hair with his right hand as she continued to play with his left. “We’d never shared anything like that before.”
Steve fingered the hollow of his neck where his shell necklace sat with such meaning for more than two years. Then a flash of Kayla laying in his hospital bed with him in October of 1990 flashed into his mind like a sudden blaze. He’d known she loved him, but never had he felt just how much until that moment when she loved him so selflessly into his death and refused to leave him.
“Emily.”
The whisper of their daughter’s name in the cool evening air led Steve away from that nightmarish memory. Steve squeezed Kayla’s hand. “Emily Gwendolyn Johnson,” he repeated with a loving pride.
“Your Littlest Sweetness.”
“My littlest girl.”
“Would we feel in 2012 like we do right now in 2000? If we didn’t have all those things?”
They were silent for a little while, then Steve spoke again. “That night in the loft. After I beat the sh*t out of Jack.” Kayla heard how tight his voice was. “Seeing how bad he hurt you, baby. I couldn’t take any more. Finally broke down. Faced everything. I didin’t think I’d ever come to terms with losing Emily. But you made sure I did. After everything. That night, Sweetness. It was that night.” Kayla looked up at him, but he was staring at their interlaced hands. “It was so deep. What I feel for you. It’s so deep that I’ll never be able to find it to mess it up again. That’s how deep inside me it is. And I feel it there. That intense love for you, Kayla, I feel it, too. All the time.
Kayla couldn’t hold back her tears. “We wouldn’t have had that in 2012. We would be different.”
“No we wouldn’t. You know why?”
Kayla shook her head. “Why?”
“Because we’d still be together. And our relationship would go through other things to make it as strong as it is now. That Ava stuff we never talked about would’ve found a way out. We’d’ve work through it like we did, and we’d still be married like we are, and we’d be raising our baby boy like we did with our Littlest Sweetness. Like we’re doin’ now with Stephanie. Life would have gone on for us, and we would have gotten closer every day. Just in other ways, baby.
Kayla smiled. She wanted his words to be true. “I don’t know why I’m feeling this way. I just know that I love you so much.”
“I love you more.”
“How is it you always know when to say that?” She leaned her head up for a kiss, and Steve gave it to her.
They went into the house, checked on Stephanie, and then quietly padded back into their room. Kayla looked over from the closet where she was putting away some laundry when she heard the door softly click closed. The look on her husband’s face she knew well.
“You really feel desperate, baby?”
Kayla folded her arms under her braless breasts. “I know what you’re doing, Steve Johnson.”
“What, I’m asking you a question.”
“You’re trying to bait me into more sex,” she accused him playfully.
“Now, Sweetness,” he tossed his head arrogantly, “We just had a very deep conversation out there, I’m just askin’ you about your feelings. That’s what you wanted to talk about, right, your feelings and how intense they are?”
“Mm-hmm,” she raised an eyebrow.
“So, I’m askin’ you, how intense are you feelin’ right now?”
“Well …” she drew out as she closed the closet door and leaned thoughtfully against it, “… you just sent me into another dimension not an hour ago when you made love to me … My heart has never been so full … And you’re about the most handsome man I’ve ever laid eyes on. That what you were looking for?”
Steve’s grin was full of promise as he swaggered over to her. “Possibly.”
Kayla ran her fingertip down Steve’s patch, then let it continue down his chin, over his chest, all the way down to his groin. “How are you already hard as a rock down there?” she smirked.
“Old man’s got stamina,” he whispered into her neck before placing wet kisses onto it. “Must be all that desperation.”
Kayla blinked slowly and nodded her head in appreciative agreement. “The good news is, you’re not old. The bad news is, you just used our last condom.”
Now Steve frowned. “Really?” Kayla nodded. “You sure?”
“Yeah,” she said with a bit of her own disappointment, “that was it.”
Steve wanted to suck on her earlobe but grunted instead. “How much longer for that, Sweetness?”
“Next week. I’m sorry.”
“Nah, don’t be sorry, I’ll live.”
“Yes, but now with all that teasing, I might not.”
Steve laughed. “Well how ‘bout we can settle for some of this then?” and danced her around the room.
“Hmmp. That’ll work.” After a few silent moments, she looked up at him. “But Steve … I wasn’t talking about the side effects out there, but we do have to watch the anxiety.” Steve nodded. “That’s dangerous, it really is.”
“Ok.”
“But the good stuff … I was thinking …”
“Aw, baby, come on, you think too much.”
“I was thinking,” her tone chided him for interrupting, “let’s enjoy it.” Steve’s eyebrow shot up when her hand began stroking him. His penis, which had begun deflating with the realization that no condom would be availing itself, started to stand back up.
“Are you teasing your husband, Swetness? ‘Cause I think we’ve been enjoyin’ it every night,” Steve smiled, then lowered his head to kiss her. When Kayla broke it, she licked his lips sexily before coming back in for a much deeper kiss. It made Steve’s groin tingle even more than it already was.
“I’m just saying …” she kissed his chin then trailed those kisses down to his neck, continuing to tease him mercilessly and relishing it, “… maybe we should take this thing out for a spin and see what it can do.”
Steve looked up as she nibbled on his neck. “Say what?”
“Experiment.”
“Experiment,” he repeated.
“See just how intense we can get it.”
Steve let out another sigh as his erection grew between her talented fingers. “Why, Nurse Brady, I think you’re horny again.”
Kayla pulled back to look at him. “You haven’t called me that in a really long time,” she said. “Maybe I should go put on a sexy little nurse’s uniform and let you have your way with me on an exam table.”
“Oh, I’ve already done that.” He looked her right in the eye while they teased each other, and he could see the quickly building arousal in the look she gave back to him. “Ate you up.”
“Not while I was wearing a nurse’s uniform.”
“I think you were in your lab coat.”
“Ok, so what haven’t we done before?”
“You’re serious about this?”
“Mm-hmm.”
Kayla’s words were like a siren call. One that he couldn’t answer without risk. It would be so easy to just slide into her, slick from climax, and pour himself into her with the rush of another orgasm they both wanted. Kayla saw the need in his eye and licked her lips with her own want.
“Feeling desperate?” Steve nodded. “This is what I mean,” she whispered.
“I know.” Steve untied Kayla’s robe and let it fall to the floor. “I see how much you want me.”
“As much as you want me.” Steve backed her up against the wall and pinned her there, his cock hard against her belly.
“So bad, Sweetness. So damn bad.”
“Kayla breaths were getting short. “Tell me instead!” Kayla reached into Steve’s pajama pants and palmed his cock. Tell me what you want to do to me.
“I want to make love in the back yard, Kayla.”
“I want that, too.” She was starting to pant.
“I want to take you on those steps under the stars.” He shoved his thigh between her legs, held onto the back of her hand so he could feel her stroke him, and started grinding against her hard. “Show you just how intense I can give it to you.”
“What else?” She whispered as loud as she dared, her desire to moan and make him hear the pleasure he was giving her driving some of that irresistible desperation.
“More sexy e-mails! I wanna read the words, baby. And know you wrote ‘em.”
The friction against Kayla’s clitoris was very direct and very good, and the provocative tone in Steve’s voice made it better.
“More e-mails telling you to f*ck me?”
“God, Kayla!”
“You know what I want? I wanna f*ck you in the car!”
“We’ve done that!”
“Been too long!”
Steve ground himself in a fast rhythm against her tight palm he held there while Kayla leaned all her weight agaist Steve’s thigh and rubbed herself against him hard and fast. She whimpered his name so softly, and Steve felt that she was almost there.
“Gonna come, baby, can’t stop, I gotta come!”
Just then Kayla jerked, her breath catching in her throat as she tossed against him. Steve did the same, his cum shooting into her hand. She used it to lubricate her final strokes.
“Mm … Kayla … baby …”
“I love you so much, Steve,” she barely whispered as the last of her spasms shook her.
Steve told her he loved her, too, and brushed his fingertips against his wife’s back as he held her against him.
“Mmm … I’m not sure phone sex could really match that.”
Steve grinned evily. “You wanna add that to the list and give it a try?”
Kayla chuckled. “Yes, I believe I do.”
Every night was like this, but every day was part of a week that went on without any real progress. Day in and day out, Steve’s life consisted of boredom, ISA texts, the van’s on-again-off-again presence, and, as Steve had predicted, calls from Sam just about every night. Steve had stopped reacting and just sort of accepted that this was how it was going to be, but he didn’t like it. What he did like, however, was that Kayla was finding her stride here. Oncology wasn’t something she’d end up sticking with, but as far as he could tell, she was very good at it. He enjoyed and actually felt quite a bit of investment in her nightly debriefs on how her patients were doing and what she’d do differently today. Every night was like an episodic story that Steve found himself caring about. These people existed, and he wondered where they would be ending up nine years later, especially Scott Riley, whom Kayla was especially focused on helping this time around. He knew in their rightful timeline that Scott would not live, but he made a mental note to check on these patients one day, anyway. In the meantime, cancer treatment was a very good fit for Kayla, and Steve was very proud of her. Her work was important. She saved lives, and the ones she couldn’t didn’t mean any less to her. So, he tolerated it when Dr. Oncology called and just kept his mouth shut.
Steve also found himself drawn into the research this level of ISA clearance had afforded him. Stefano’s file contained a lot more history than had ever been on his radar. There were maybe four offspring Steve knew about, including Benji, but he was shocked to learn that they only scratched the surface. “Jesus, Kayla, the man’s a regular sperm village.” It would have been funny if it wasn’t so tragic. There were ISA dossiers on every one of the eight children known to this point (nearly all of them deceased), every extended family member, even known associate, and every henchman that he’d ever employed. None of it really bothered him – until he saw the photo of the white-haired doctor that Kayla would eventually shoot in the thigh. This drew a visceral reaction out of Steve, the conditioning he suffered at the man’s hands an emotional wound. But he didn’t run away; he read the man’s file. He read every file he could and found that he could fill in some blanks he found there for the ISA. Such as the fact that the white-haired doctor was was a trained hypnotherapist and very skilled at brainwashing. In some ways this was nothing more than busywork to keep Steve from dying of boredom, but in other ways it was actually somewhat cathartic to watch his watchers this way.
Steve also traded emails with his wife on a daily basis. A few of them were downright sexting, but most of them were just affectionate communication.
Hey Baby. Guess what I found. A whole lot of nothing on that multiple male orgasm thing you dropped on me last week. I give up, I don’t want to mess up the computer again, so no Excite searches for me. I’ll just have to find other ways to excite you.
Kayla laughed when she read this, as if it would take any effort to accomplish that.
Steve, she wrote back, I think we we’ve established that all you have to do to excite me is look at me and I’m ready to go. In fact, I might be ready to go right now. Did I mention I brought a banana from home? I’m peeling it right now. Mm-Mm. Wish you were here.
Steve had kept their secret e-mail exchanges to Kayla’s computer, not the fancy thing Shane had brought over, and definitely not their cellphones. This line of discussion was exactly why.
Well well. It looks like you want to get started on those dirty e-mails we talked about. Banana huh? Sounds like you might not need me there at all. Maybe all you need is some of your own home grown porn from me right there. At your fingertips. Then you can look at it any time you need to use it for a quick pick me up before you get home for the real thing. What do you think of that? Oh and by the way bring home tomatoes, will you Sweetness? I need them for the cacciatore I’m going to make us tomorrow night.
Kayla laughed right out loud. “Sex and tomatoes in almost the same sentence. Only you, Steve.”
“Who?”
Kayla nearly fell off her chair she was so startled. “Jesus, Stacy, you scared the sh*t out of me!”
“Who are you talking to, Kayla?”
“No one, just babbling to myself.” She closed the browser very quickly and turned red with the anxiety of possible discovery. Stacy didn’t miss a beat, however, and noticed her change in complexion.
“Babbling to yourself or your husband?” Kayla’s heart dropped into her stomach, and for a moment, she couldn’t speak. “I think it was your husband,” Stacy said with tone that didn’t think at all – it knew. The resident lithely sat in her chair and crossed her legs under her desk. “What, you think you’re pulling one over on anyone. You talk to him every day.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Kayla found her barely under control voice.
“Ok,” she replied dismissively. “Whatever.”
“No, not whatever. My husband is dead, Stacy.” Kayla stressed this a little too much, eliciting a pair of very narrow eyes from her coworker.
“Yessss … That’s the point, isn’t it?”
Kayla blinked. “Excuse me?”
Stacy scoffed. “Sam might not realize that you’re playing him to gain favoritism, but I do, so please, don’t play innocent widow with me, it’s insulting.”
Kayla glared at the woman nearly 15 years her junior and started to realize that they were having two different conversations. “You’re wrong on both counts, I’m not playing anyone.” Stacy held up her hand in a very dated talk-to-the-hand move that would have otherwise make Kayla laugh. “And I wasn’t talking to anyone, I talk to myself, it helps me think sometimes.”
“Good for you. Now please don’t talk to me unless necessary.” Stacy switched on the small string of Christmas lights decorating her desk and began working on her charts.
Kayla, meanwhile, was dumbfounded at the nerve she had to be like this. So incredibly mean. The girl was always a snob, but these confrontations were not as blatant first time through, so obviously Kayla was doing something wrong enough this time that elicited it. She didn’t want to court any more talk of Steve, but she didn’t like being perceived as having a stake in Sam. So, against her better judgment, Kayla tried to reason with her. “Stacy, I don’t know why we can’t just find a civility between us. You’ve never liked me, I know that. But I’ve given you no reason to treat me like this.
“Yes you have. You’ve shut me down. And for no good reason. You undermine me at every turn, question my treatments—”
“I’m sorry if I’ve done that, I don’t question any of your treatments, I just think your bedside manner—”
“Is none of your business.” Stacy’s tone remained very calm and even, and Kayla matched it, so this was a very deceptively civil sounding tete-a-tete.
“You are consistently unkind to Melissa Matteo.”
“Miss Matteo has a problem. I don’t have to be nice to her, I just have to give her the highest standard of care that this hospital can offer, and I do that. Every single day, Kayla. If I’m a little tough on her, then good, maybe that will inspire her. You, on the other hand, coddle her and every one of our other patients.”
“Is that how you see it? Coddling?” She couldn’t have disagreed more. It went against everything Kayla knew as a doctor, nurse, and born nurturer.
“Yes, and if you don’t, then you’re not helping your patients. You’re lying to them. Melissa needs to take off that weight. Any way she can, that weight has to come off. Being her buddy hasn’t worked, because she has a lot of those. I’m being her docor. If she’s lucky then she’s young enough for her skin to bounce back and she can be normal.”
“She looks normal, now, Stacy, Jesus, there’s not just one normal in this world.”
“That’s what you do, lie to people. I’m sure you believe your own bullshit, too, because you’re very convincing. That’s why you have Sam wrapped around your little finger. He doesn’t even see me as an option, because you’re telling him what he wants to hear while you’re still talking to your dead husband every day. I’m exactly who I say I am, I’m telling him the truth. We could do great things together, and I don’t have any baggage. You’re lying in the worst way. Making him believe he has any kind of future with you. I know he doesn’t because you’re still stuck in your past.” She shook her head and narrowed her eyes at Kayla. “Ok then? Good chat?”
Kayla just stared. The fact that Stacy was so off the mark but also so on the mark spooked her. She didn’t dare react, she had to just calm down. After a few moments she opened a chart. “I believe,” Kayla said very cavalierly without looking up from the paperwork, “that you’re looking for someone to cover on Sunday, right?”
“It’s Christmas Eve,” she narrowed her eyes, “I already put in for coverage.”
“You won’t be getting it.”
“Like hell I won’t, you weren’t even on the list, I checked.”
“Well, I am as of right now, and you’d better plan a nice evening with your blinking lights over there.”
“Why, because you have a daughter?”
“No. Because you’re unkind, I have more seniority, and I refuse to cover it.”
“What seniority?”
Kayla smoothly raised her pinky and very slowly twirled it as she smirked. It was a gut reaction to the verbal assault and couldn’t bring herself to feel bad about it.
Stacy’s desk twinkled with the festive colors. This would hit her hard, even if for now she was showing only her poker face. “Yes, well … age before beauty.” With that she gathered up her charts, stood, turned on her heel, and left the room.
Kayla took out her secret cell phone and texted her husband. Run in with Stacy. She tried to concentrate on her work but all she could do was stare at the phone waiting for a reply.
What kind of run in, he replied less than two minutes later, patient or personal?
Personal. Can’t call. Caught me talking 2u. Had to cover.
When!! Steve was immediately on high alert that their cover was blown.
She misunderstood, was just talking to myself, but it became big fight. I’m fine. Just bad day.
Jesus baby don’t scare me like that.
Kayla apologized, forced herself to focus on the rest of her day, and came home in a very bad mood. That night after dinner they picked the conversation back up.
“You can’t let her get to you,” Steve said. The woman’s not even real.”
“Yes she is. She’s real enough. And she’s right, I am stringing him along.”
“No you’re not!” This really upset Steve, because whether he chose to admit it or not, there was a ribbon of truth to it.
“Lower your voice, Stephanie can hear you!”
“No I can’t!” she yelled from her room where she was making a list of Christmas foods from Harry Potter that she planned to spring on her father later that evening. “What does stringing along mean?”
Steve was annoyed. “It means your mama needs to talk more softly, that’s what it means!”
“Does it have anything to do with the woman who’s not real?” came another innocent volley.
“That one was you,” Kayla whispered.
Steve couldn’t help but smirk. “Takes right after you.”
“More you than me,” she smirked right back. Neither of them were truly angry, however, smiles replacing the smirks quickly.
“Ok, I’m talkin’ soft, now, so you listen real close. You’ve told him a million times, you’re not ready to date, you’re takin’ it slow, I’ve heard you say it, and I’ve heard him push you.”
“Ok, so he pushes me. But he’s not pushy. He’s nothing short of good and kind and genuine – Steve, come on,” she griped when he reacted to this, “stop it.” He put his hands on his hips and leaned against the counter.
“Sorry. But listen, Sweetness, stop with the guilt. Ok, yeah, you’re not being honest with him, but nothing happened the first time through it, so what’s the difference? Anything Dr. Oncology believes is on him, not on you.” Steve had a point, she wasn’t encouraging him and was doing the very best she could.
“God, Steve, I need a break. I just want to stop living this lie. I don’t know how you’re doing it.”
“Baby, I’m not doin’ sh*t, here, I’m in the house 24/7.
“Bored silly.”
“While you’re goin’ to work every day, going to get Stephnie, steppin’ into your old shoes. You got it much harder. This thing with that bitch was just a hard day. You’re really doin’ so great, Sweetness.” She was, actually, and she kind of knew it. But it did take a lot of effort to get it all right.
Just when Kayla was falling into a comfort zone with who she was here and where she was expected to be, the Christmas holidays threw everyone’s hospital schedule completely off. Kayla ended up with an unexpected Saturday at home, as well as the next day, her regular Sunday off, which was Christmas Eve. But she’d be on every single day after that until January 1st. Today was also Stephanie’s last automotive class, so she dropped her off as usual, then did a little shopping and keeping up appearances. She came home to Steve on the phone with Shane. And this time he was the one not in a good mood.
“Men aren’t out there,” she mouthed to him with some broken ASL supplementing it.
Steve replied with the sign for yes and said, “I know. That’s cuz they’re at your Mama’s house.”
“What?!”
Steve pulled the phone away from his ear at the same time he backed his head away from his wife, the both of them reacting quite loudly.
Put me on speaker, Steve, right now!, Kayla heard him clearly, Shane had yelled it so loud.
“A’right, a’right, you’re on.”
“You had to spring it on her like that?!”
“Nevermind that,” Kayla insisted, “just tell me what the hell is going on!”
Shane went on to explain that there were now several teams deployed to find Stefano’s missing soldier. Steve was amused that one was actually staking out Ava’s father. The teams on the pub and his sister were far less amusing. Interestingly, no teams were deployed to Jack. Kayla assumed it was due to the strained nature of their relationship, but Shane suspected that Jack traipsing around Africa and Europe made him an unlikely option. But Kayla still didn’t understand where the LA team was.
“Oh my God, Stephanie! I-I-I just left her alone at the garage for her Y program!”
“Calm down, Kay, they’re not with Stephanie,” Shane assured her.
“They’re not? You’re sure?”
“Positive, we’ve got eyes on them at all times, remember?”
“Then where are they?”
Steve huffed out a sneer. “Havin’ a little office Christmas party.”
“Huh?”
“Believe it or not,” Shane said, “it seems they’re taking the day off.”
“At a strip club.”
Kayla blinked. “You’re kidding.”
“Apparently not. Your favorite agent is on premises as we speak.”
“My … Oh. Mark Chase. Wait, at 11 o’clock in the morning?”
“It’s not the classiest joint,” Steve added snidely.
“To say the least,” Shane added. “So it seems you can breathe a little easier today. Go into the back yard if you like, it’s an unseasonably nice day.”
“Look, man, the back yard isn’t good enough anymore. You gotta get her done, here. You said January, so set a date and just do it, ‘cause I swear I’m losing muscle tone I been stuck in here so long. I need some sun, Donovan, I’m turnin’ translucent!
Kayla went out to sit on her front stoop with a cup of coffee while Shane and Steve finished up. No van. No goons. And Christmas was in two days. A thought started to form in her head. And the more she sat there eyeing the street, the more sure she was that this thought was nothing short of brilliant. When she came back in she found Steve in their room lying on the floor lifting weights.
“We’re getting you out of this house,” Kayla blurted. “Today.”
“How are we gonna do that?” he asked without missing a rep.
“You’re going to get into the car, lie down in the backseat, and I’m going to drive us to Venice Beach.”
Steve curled his lip slightly. “What was in that coffee Sweetness?”
“I’m serious, Steve.” She stood over him with one leg on each side and dropped down to sit on him in a straddling position. “We can do this!”
“Steve laid down the weights and rubbed his palms up and down her thighs. “How do ya figure?”
“Because it’s just you and me all day, and no one is watching you right now, so we can get you out of the house without any problem. Venice Beach is going to be packed with people last minute Christmas shopping. It’s perfect, we’ll hide you with all those thousands of people right in plain sight!” Excitement shot through her husband, she could practically feel it in his grip upon her thighs. “This will work, Steve.” She could barely contain her own excitement. “I need us to get out of here as much as you do.”
Steve leaned up on his elbows. “What if they come back?”
“From all those tits and ass?”
“I’m not joking, here, Kayla, this is dangerous. What if they come back before we get here?”
“So, then they do. All they’ll do is see me, which is exactly what they’d expect to see. We’ll figure out a way to sneak you back into the house.”
Steve sat all the way up now. “What about this thing?” Steve flicked his patch. “How does a man with a patch hide in plain sight?”
Kayla laughed. “It’s Venice Beach, Steve. Remember? A man with a patch probably isn’t even unique in that crowd.” She was right. If there was a place in the state of California for Steve Johnson to blend in, Venice Beach was it.
Steve tried to be rational, but the genie was out of the bottle. “Are you sure about this, baby?”
Kayla kissed her husband. A very deep and passionate kiss. “What I’m sure about is that you need a field trip. The fresh outdoors. And that you’re not going to get another chance, because even if they take another day off, Stephanie’s on break, so this is our last opportunity that will be this simple before the January raid.” Steve very silently stared at his wife, his thoughts on the very cusp of whether or not this was a good idea. “Which there’s still no date for.” That was the final push.
Nobody saw it when the guy that didn’t live there snuck out the back door. Nobody saw it when that guy dove into the back seat of the car. And nobody batted an eye when that car left Kayla’s driveway with that little house in Los Feliz empty for the first time in more than three weeks.
“I thought you said you don’t eat blue food.”
“I never said that.”
“Yes you did, baby.”
“No, I said blue food didn’t occur in nature, not that I wouldn’t eat it.”
Kayla took another piece of licorice out of the cellophane bag and started in on it. It was blue just like every other piece of licorice in that bag. The technicolor offerings of sugary, corn syrup goodness from the bulk candy store called “It’s Sugar” were too enticing to pass up. Ridiculous and terrible for you as they were, the little bag of treats they walked away with were the perfect indulgence to start their day out with.
“I know what I heard.”
“Steve, that conversation was three years ago, you can’t possibly remember exactly what I said, because I don’t even know exactly what I said.”
“See, you don’t remember, I do. You denounced my blue slushies, called ‘em unnatural. I don’t forget those words. Steve gave her a shit-eating grin and held out his hand expectantly.
“Oh, I’m sorry, were you expecting me to share now? After that?”
“Yeah I am.” He nodded toward the bag. “Hand one over.”
Kayla smiled. “Ok. But only because it’s you.” She handed the bag to Steve, who took four pieces out of it. Kayla whistled. “That’s a lot at once. Better watch out all that blue doesn’t go to your balls.”
They were watching the Goliaths at the very famous Muscle Beach, an outdoor gym for only the biggest and muscliest of the big and muscley, right in the middle of Venice Beach. Steve guffawed out loud at this very public statement.
“I don’t know why you’re laughing,” she said with impressive reserve, “blue balls are a serious problem in this country, you do not want it to happen to you.”
“You’re killin’ me, baby,” he laughed before biting off half a blue stalk.
Now Kayla turned toward her husband, leaning her back against the blue fencing separating the walking specimens of brawn from the common man. The slight incline of the concrete foundation forced Kayla’s breasts slightly upward, which Steve thoroughly enjoyed. “I dunno,” she said said with the sexiest fake innocence she could muster, “I think all that testosterone in there might be a contributing factor. You don’t want to tempt fate, now, do you?”
Steve snickered. “First of all, our fate is so f*cked up that it’s anyone’s guess what these little blue twizzler wannabes are gonna do to it.” Kayla smiled, pleased that for the moment Steve was willing to joke about the instability. He threw the other licorice half in his mouth. “Second of all, I’m pretty sure there’s enough performance-enhancements out there,” he twirled another piece at the men beyond the fence, “that their balls couldn’t perform enough to get blue in the first place.”
Now it was Kayla’s turn to giggle. “Touche’ on that one,”
“And third of all, if you keep talkin’ ‘bout my balls my dick’s gonna get hard, then where will we be?”
Steve was no more subtle in this loaded conversation than Kayla had been, and neither of them were worried about drawing any attention. Not here. Kayla said they’d hide in plain sight here, and she really couldn’t have been more right. Venice Beach was the most eclectic collection of uniqueness in about a million different combinations. If you were hungry, walk 20 yards for the next food vendor. If you were thirsty there was no shortage of juice bars. It was not only everything Kayla said it would be, it was also everything Steve had remembered. Years had passed since he’d last strolled this boardwalk, yet it felt no different. Street artists drew characitures on the spot; musicians opened their cases for tips while they sang, strummed, or both; men ate fire, women walked across broken beach glass; and the sound of the rolling wheels of aspiring skateboarders whose asses Tony Hawk would one day beat carried quite a ways down from the skate park. Crafters of every kind sold their pieces, and budding reggae artists used all kinds of flattery to bait everyone into becoming buyers. The faint smell of pot permeated the air at all times, and Steve wondered if there was enough of it out there to get a contact high.
The artists may have turned over in the decades since he’d last seen this place, but the buildings? They were like snapshots in time. Venice was more than just a beach, it was a whole community. The small town was the pure definition of alternative, the murals on the boardwalk’s buildings and neighborhood homes accentuating its art culture.
Steve held his wife’s hand in his own and felt such … freedom. Freedom as they strolled down the winding bike path and just absorbed spending the time together. No running. No hiding. And no warning texts from anyone on the ISA team meant there was no worrying, either. They didn’t have to fill every moment with conversation, they just felt their contentment. Between the people-watching on the east side of the path and the breathtaking view of the ocean on the west, the contentment was easy to come by.
“Feels a little bit like Hawaii, doesn’t it?” Kayla said wistfully.
Steve looked out at the crashing waves and smiled. “It does, baby. Same ocean. Different sand, though.
Kayla saw him reach up to where his necklace used to lay against the hollow of his neck. She took his hand and kissed it. “No shell lady here … but I can buy you a piece of rice with our names on it.”
“Do I look like a tourist, Sweetness?”
She was joking, but part of her thought that might be good for him to wear his children’s names somewhere on his person. She filed it away to bring up another time. “You look like the best husband, and father on this earth, that’s what you look like.”
“God broke the mold with you, ya know that, baby?”
Eventually they found a bench where Steve sat with Kayla’s head in his lap. He couldn’t believe how good he felt. It was the same sun that had beat down on his face when he got in the back yard, but this was somehow different. Kayla felt the same way, her husband’s gentle touch like a gift He’d stroked har arms and run his fingers through her hair just like this since she’d jumped in – but here in public, it just felt so good. They both savored it, like each moment was a sip of the finest wine in the cellar.
“You hungry?” Kayla asked from her position in Steve’s lap.
“Why, you got any other blue food on you?”
“No,” she laughed, “I’m afraid I’ve run out of the blue food. Your balls are safe.”
Steve leered down at her. “You sure?”
Kayla loved the leer and subtly dug the back of her head into Steve’s crotch. “Feels pretty tame down there, so, yep, I think they’re safe from any potential aching.” Only just then a very specific bulkiness began pushing against the back of her head. “Now where did that come from?”
“Well, baby, you touched him.”
“I did no such thing.”
“Your head did. Your head is you. Shoved yourself right into him.”
“Shoved? I did not shove. You want to see a shove? Or do you want to see something else?”
“I’ll see anything you wanna show me,” Steve replied cockily.
“Really?” Kayla licked her lips and sighed. “Ok. That covers an awful lot of area, though. How ‘bout you just tell me what you want to see, and I’ll show it to you.”
“Yeah? Right here?”
Kayla shrugged. “Maybe.” This kind of public display excited him, and she knew it.
Steve rested both of his outstretched arms along the top of the bench. Because if he didn’t he was going to start fondling her breasts right there. “I know what you’re doing, Kayla. You know the thought of goin’ at it in public makes me crazy, so you’re milkin’ it.” Kayla smiled knowingly. “But ya know what? I think you like it more.
Kayla licked her lips, again, and Steve imagined her eyes dewy beneath those sunglasses. “You know, the last time my head was in your lap like this it ended up pretty good for you.”
“So, is that what you’re doin’ with me on this bench, Sweetness? Tryin’ to blow me while surrounded by Christmas shoppers?”
“That was the best blow job of your life, who am I to mess with that?”
“Yeahp. Gonna be hard to top that kind of public display.”
“Well, I dunno, if you ask me, that public display at the restaurant wasn’t just hotter, it was even more public.”
Steve rose to the occasion and kept this conversation going, because she was right, he was loving this.
“We were on fire in that room.” His voice was more serious now, sexuality superceding the playfulness.
“You lit that fire.” Kayla reached for Steve’s hand, so he removed it from the back of the bench and gave it to her. She held it atop her ribs, just below her breasts. “You promised me you were going to make me come when I least expected it, and when I felt your finger inside me under our table …” Steve’s erection was full now. Kayla sighed and lowered her voice significantly. “You fingered me right there. Made me come before we even got to that coat room.” Steve swallowed and exhaled heavily, Kayla thoroughly enjoying her effect on him. “Did you feel me come?” she went on. “Do you remember?”
“I remember, baby. Every minute.” I remember your face the second that orgasm hit you. I remember how wet it made you and how you tasted afterward. And I remember how good it felt to f*ck you in the coat room after.”
“That was dangerous,” Kayla said. She pulled Steve’s hand in hers so that he could feel the softness of her breasts. It was subtle enough that it drew no attention, but deliberate enough to make him continue reacting beneath her.
“Yes it was.” Steve said in low, velvet tones. “I was out of control.”
“I loved you out of control like that,” she whispered.
“So you liked it in public. You want more?”
“I don’t want an audience, I won’t go that far. But … yeah … I like … getting away with it. I think we should add it to our list of experiments.”
“Sex in public? Sweetness we did it at our table in a restaurant, then in room with no door on it. We did it a mile high and almost got caught, and we did it on the beach. We’re experts now.” Kayla grinned. “I know that smile, you little minx. Spill it.”
“Since we’re experts, now, let’s find an opportunity to … hide in plain sight.”
Steve didn’t have to even turn his head to see that very opportunity right in front of him. He readjusted slightly, and Kayla started to sit up, but Steve gently stopped her. “Stay down, Sweetness. Give him a minute.”
Kayla reached up to stroke a finger down his patch. “Too much?”
“Naw, baby, it was just getting’ good. I just don’t want any audiences, either.”
Steve checked the time, willed his dick into flcidity, then kissed his wife. When she sat up she rubbed her legs together just slightly. Steve knew what that meant, and now he was feeling some of that desperation they’d talked about earlier that week. “Come on, baby.” When Kayla saw where they were headed she knew immediately why and started moving in double time. “If we run we’re gonna draw attention.”
“Ok,” she said anxiously, “right. But that thing is 20 mintues away, so talk to me about something or I’m gonna go crazy.”
They talked a little bit about Christmas, which was going to be very tricky. Apparently, she was supposed to host her sister, Phillip, and the kids, which, obviously, was not going to work. So, they came up with a plan to get out of that. They also talked about her move to the very last of her rotations on February 1st, General Surgery. It would be where she ended up staying. A few other topics came and went before they’d reached their highly anticipated destination.
When they got to the Santa Monica Pier ferris wheel, the length of the line should have reflected the size of the crowds, but somehow their luck hadn’t run out yet, and their wait was far briefer than it should have been. Steve kept his head down as they boarded the small but enclosed gondola. Large enough to fit three across in each of the two benches that faced each other, the area was still limited. They sat next to each other facing the ocean, which caused the gondola to swing slightly. Steve put his arm around Kayla’s shoulder, the doors closed and locked, and the wheel began turning. The moment they were off the ground, they looked at each other with very hungry eyes.
“God, Steve, you look good enough to eat.”
“That’s the idea, Sweetness.”
They simultaneously fell to the obscurity of the narrow floor, Kayla grabbed Steve’s face with her hands, and attacked his lips with her own. They made out with wild abandon, tongues fighting for control.
“I’m so wet!” Without breaking their kiss, Steve reached under Kayla’s skirt and inside her underwear.
“All that’s for me.” He slipped his middle finger inside of her and twirled it around while her face showed how bad she wanted it. “I’m gonna slide my tongue inside that tight little pussy of yours, baby.”
Before he could make good on that, Kayla unzipped Steve’s black jeans. They were soft and broken in, so she could feel his erection rigid against the fly. She released it from its confines, bent over, and began sucking him relentlessly.
“Oh … f*ck, that’s good. That’s … Kayla … baby, that’s so good … Mm.” Steve whimpered with undiluted carnality. The impulses her lips and tongue produced were too good. He wrapped his fingers in her hair and let himself feel her head bob over him.
Steve’s cock was long and hard when he lifted Kayla’s mouth from it and told her it was his turn. Leaning her back in the small space, Kayla took one leg out of her panties, then Steve spread her legs wide, resting them on the benches so he could have as much access to her center as possible. His tongue slid all the way up her slit and swirled around her clitoris, a loud moan erupting from her. “Shh, baby, you keep it in. I know you can.”
“More … please!”
Steve pulled her hips toward him and shoved his tongue inside of her. He hummed into her, and teased his tongue up and down her groove. Kayla whimpered and wiggled to get her tight bundle of nerves into contact with his tongue.
Steve glanced up and was in awe of the raw sexuality showing on her face. “Do you know how sexy you look right now?” She smiled as the drunken sex continued to light her up. “What do you want, baby?”
“You know what I want.”
“I wanna hear it out of your mouth.”
“Lick my clit!” Steve didn’t waste a moment and ran his tongue roughly over her swollen sex. The orgasm was so close that he felt it building in her. He almost had her there when she told him to stop. “Together. I – there has to be a way.” Kayla looked around; it was not easy to see into one gondola from the next while positioned on the floor, but it was exceedingly difficult to find enough room to get into a 69 position. So, mutual gratification was going to be a challenge. The wheel was stopping and starting as they continued to let people on and off, but soon it was going to be hitting the bottom, again. They wouldn’t have to get off, but they would be completely busted by the wheel operator if they didn’t get back into seats, so getting naked was not an option, and an obvious sexual position wasn’t either. They both knew it, so Kayla gave up first and repositioned herself.
“I’m still hungry,” she said. Steve relented and let his wife’s tongue bring him another round of pleasure. He was awash in her very aggressive sucking when the wheel stopped very suddenly. They were about a car and a half down from the very top. The announcement that came over the loudspeaker startled them. It announced a delay due to passengers at the bottom and that they’d get moving again in five minutes. The brief interruption was enough to remind him that he wanted this to be mutual and shook his head.
Very slowly, Steve reached one arm around his wife, and then another. She responded to him in silence, knowing what he was doing. What he wanted. Because she wanted it, too. Kayla let him pull her into his lap until she was sitting astride his lap, her legs wrapped around him, her wet lips in direct contact with his naked shaft for the first time in nearly two weeks. They hadn’t brought condoms with them.
“How long ‘til it’s safe?” Steve asked quietly. “Two more days?” Kayla nodded. He held her with just one arm while lacing the fingers of his free hand into hers, and it was quite clear from the look on her face that she wanted him inside of her as much as he wanted to fill her. Desire, doubt, deliberation, and decision passed between them in that one look. In the next moment, a break in the clouds suddenly allowed the sunlight to fall over Kayla’s face. She sat atop him, positively golden. Steve reached up and ran the back of his hand down her face. “You’re so beautiful,” he said with such tenderness.
Never breaking eye contact with her husband, Kayla lifted up slightly, allowed his tip to find her entrance, and guided Steve’s penis inside of her. Steve gasped at the warmth suddenly surrounding him.
“Please forgive me,” she whispered.
Steve brushed her plump lips quickly with his. “There’s nothing to forgive.” He kissed her again. “Ever.”
“I love you.”
Steve slipped his hand up under Kayla’s shirt and held her breast in his hand. “Show me.”
Kayla began moving slowly at first, but the burning sweeping over their bodies and the finite timeframe drove a hard and fast pace. He brushed his thumb over her erect nipple and wished he could taste it. He’d have to save that for their bedroom and squeezed it provocatively instead.
Kayla had no leverage in this position, but Steve was able to hold her at just the right angle for her clitoris to make direct and sublime contact with his cock. She leaned a little farther back, and Steve slid deeper into her. Every one of Kayla’s nerve endings that could be stimulated by Steve’s actions was lit afire. He could literally feel both of their orgasms ready to crest.
The sex was hot, the love was overflowing, and the danger only added to the rush.
“Steve …”
“Sweetness …”
“Steve! Hold … hold me while I come. Hold me tight.”
Steve pulled her right up against him and felt when she came apart, her orgasm squeezing his cock in spasms he knew were making her feel so good. Steve was now beyond the point of no return. He thrust three more times, and was still holding her when he felt himself come inside her in powerful lurches.
Kayla laid her head on his shoulder like so many other times when they’d come in this position, and Steve clutched onto her until he was spent. Kayla spoke first.
“Did we really just do that? In public? Again?”
“Yeah … we did, Sweetness.
********
They departed the ferris wheel fully clothed and were confident that no one had a clue, and they were right. A long walk back to their car included six stops culminating in four small bags of Christmas gifts for Stephanie, which Kayla hid in the trunk. Now they leaned against the side of the car and kissed lovingly for the last time before having to go back to the confinement of what had become not her little house, but theirs. When they broke the kiss, Kayla looked searchingly into her husband’s handsome face.
“Told you, didn’t I, Sweetness? That I feel it, too. Too desperate to keep my hands off you.”
“I think I’m the one who couldn’t keep my hands off of you,” she said. Steve knew what she was thinking. He didn’t want her to think it.
“Your worried about the two of us jumpin’ the gun up there.”
“But it was me. I’m the one that jumped it.”
“We made that decision together up there, Sweetness, we. You and me. Besides, I would have if you didn’t.” Kayla shrugged with a mild chuckle. “It’s ok, baby. It’s gonna be ok.”
But that wasn’t an answer to the question she’d asked back on the ferris wheel. So she asked it again. “Are you?” she repeated. “Worried?”
Neither Steve nor Kayla could have known when they woke up this morning that they’d end up making love on the Santa Monica Pier ferris wheel without a hint of protection. But that’s exactly what they did. And the truth was that they were at risk for it to end badly – but that risk was pretty small. They looked at each other in deep, silent connection before he finally gave her an answer.
“We got pregnant while you were taking the pill, baby. So, yeah, I’m a little bit worried. But Kayla, we said we weren’t gonna do this. That we were gonna live, not live in fear.”
“No, you’re right, you’re right. I just – sometimes I’m bad at taking my own advice,” she smirked.
Steve rubbed his hands up and down Kayla’s upper arms. “Listen, Sweetness. I’m always gonna be a little bit worried. I think we both are.” Kayla nodded but let him continue. “But, our story kinda wrote itself up there,” he said nodding up toward the wheel now on the other end of the boardwalk. “I think our souls know what they’re doing. Learned the hard way not to fight ‘em when they’re being all insistent like that.” Kayla cocked her head in question. “Bad things happen with us when we fight what our souls need.”
“Oh, Steve,” Kayla took his hand and placed it on her cheek.
“It’s our only … indulgence for a long time. So, I don’t regret it. And I’m not sorry, We needed to love each other, so we did.”
Kayla closed her eyes and exhaled. “Ok,” she smiled.
“Ok,” he repeated with one of his own.
It was the last they’d speak of it before Kayla’s period came right on time two weeks and one day from now. Until then, they simply moved on.
It was time to get Stephanie from class, so they moved into their exit plan of willing Steve to blend into invisibility as he got into the back seat of the car.
“Steve?”
“Yeah, baby?”
“I need one more kiss before we drive away,” she said to his visage in the rear view mirror.
“You do, huh?”
“Yes, I do. If you don’t mind.”
Steve sat back up. “I don’t mind.”
Kayla turned around to meet his lips, and they enjoyed their last kiss on this truant trip to hide in plain sight on Venice Beach.
Kayla turned back around and started the ignition. “You’d better get down.”
“I was down, baby, you got me back up.”
“You’ve been up all day, Steve Johnson.”
“Kayla, are you tryin’ to start somethin’ with me?”
“While I’m driving and you’re a whole row of seats away from me?” she laughed. “No.”
Steve guffawed. “So you’re sayin’ that there’s no tellin’ what you might do with me in the same row of seats with you, then.”
“That’s right,” she replied with that unflappability that she loved to tease him with. “No telling.”
The day had been everything they’d hoped it would be. Nothing short of full release and disclosure to the world of his being not so dead could have possibly been a better way for Steve to spend his day. It was every bit the shot of penicillin that Kayla knew it would be – for both of them – and he even snuck himself back into the house without a single issue. Christmas was right around the corner, though, and New Years would be right to follow. Those days were going to be a whole lot trickier.