Focused, page 17
part #2 of True Images Series
She flashed a smile at me—an attempt at humor. “Think you can?”
I nodded, confident in one thing—I was going to enjoy trying.
I ran my fingers down her arm and grasped her wrist, feeling how delicate it was. It reminded me to be gentle. I was not feeling gentle. I put my other hand at her waist and slowly ran it around her back until my arm was around her. But then I was done moving slowly.
Pulling her across the seat, I let go of her wrist so I could wrap both arms around her and get her as close to me as possible. She immediately ran her hands up my arms and wrapped them around my neck. She looked like she was going to say something, but I kissed her before she could get it out. I didn’t want to talk. I wanted to feel and taste and claim.
Yes. That’s what was driving me. I wanted her to be mine. Not Layton’s. Not any other guy’s who saw how beautiful and desirable she was. Not anyone else’s—ever.
As I kissed her, I realized it wasn’t enough. Sometimes, it was, but not tonight. I pulled my lips from hers and traced a line across her jaw, to her ear, and finally into the sweet smelling hollow of her neck. I heard a soft groan escape her lips and it should have warned me to stop, but I wasn’t ready to. Not yet.
I ran my hands across her back, up and down, because I forbade them to go anywhere else they wanted to go. But as Sienna leaned even closer to me, her shirt came up just enough for my sensitive hands to feel a sliver of exposed skin. Before I could stop myself, I eased my hand beneath her shirt and up the smooth expanse of her skin. I felt Sienna tense, and take a deep breath as I touched her, but she released it with a sigh and buried her face in my neck.
Her skin was so unbearably soft. I followed the curve of her side around to even more tempting places. My index finger hit the barrier of her bra and I froze. How had I gotten that far? This needed to stop. But I didn’t.
Instead, my finger traced the line of fabric back and forth, like a dog looking for a hole in a fence. And like a dog, it didn’t take long before I’d gone under it, my finger tracing it around until I felt the curve that waited there.
Every instinct urged me to continue my exploration, but Sienna was frozen, and so was I. I ached to keep going. I’d never wanted anything more. But I knew it wouldn’t satisfy me—just feed the fire burning ever hotter between us. Every part of me was saying it was okay – to go ahead. Except the part of me that loved her most—the part that didn’t want to hurt her. So, with a sigh of frustration, I pulled my hand away, smoothed her shirt back into place, and lifted her away from me.
“I’m sorry,” I said. I tried to mean it.
“Why?” Sienna asked.
“Well, for starters, because I broke about five of your mother’s rules.”
“Six,” she corrected.
She sounded so serious, but the corners of her mouth were quivering like she was trying to smile. Or cry. Oh, please, don’t let her cry.
“Sienna, I didn’t mean to lose control like that. I’m just… on edge tonight.”
“Well, good. Sometimes I think you’re a little too controlled. I’ve even wondered if you are as attracted to me as I am to you.”
I stared at her. What was she talking about? I saw her fingers nervously playing with the hem of her shirt and I knew I’d waited too long to say something. “Do you even know how close I was to…? Sienna, if you only knew…” I took a deep breath to let my brain catch up with my mouth. “Listen to me. I sound like an idiot.”
“You sound adorable,” she said. “I don’t think you did anything that bad.”
“No, but I didn’t want to stop there. That’s the problem. I didn’t want to stop at all. Why do you think I waited to kiss you until we were in your driveway?”
“Uh, because that’s usually when you kiss a girl goodnight—when you drop her off at home.”
“Oh, that wasn’t your goodnight kiss. I’ve been wanting to get you alone all night long, but I knew that I’d better wait. This is probably the one place on the planet I could be sure I wouldn’t let things go too far – not with your mom likely to come out and check on us any second.”
Sienna laughed, a deep, musical sound that was uniquely hers. “I doubt she would. She’s probably tangled up in her own attempts to not lose control.”
“Well, lucky for them, they only have a couple of weeks left before their wedding. When I think of the time stretching out in front of us, it almost drives me crazy.”
“We can do this, Lee. We can wait.”
“Sure we can. You know, this whole saving yourself for marriage thing is definitely easier when you’re dating a girl who’s on the same page you are – except when everything about her is so tempting.”
“I’m not trying to be.”
“I know you’re not. You just are. I mean your voice, the way you walk, the way you smell… it drives me crazy. Not to mention the way you look at me like I’m Captain America or something.”
Her laugh was more of a hiccup than a laugh. “You’re like Captain America. Especially the way you’re always there to save me.”
“Yeah, well tonight I had to save you from myself. Don’t worry. I’ll be more careful from now on.”
“Too bad,” she said, pouting adorably.
“You’re going to be the death of me. Now, you’d better go in so both our moms can stop worrying about us.”
“Oh yeah. Your mom is probably getting antsy to get her hands on you. Let her take good care of you. You don’t have much time to get better.”
“I’ll be fine by the championship game.”
“Actually, I want you ready to dance with me at my mom’s wedding next Saturday.”
“Oh yeah. Well, since the game is the night before, you’d better hope I don’t hurt it again. Are you ready?”
“Pretty much. Since Mom and Alex wanted a small wedding, there wasn’t much for me to do. I’ve got my dress. It will work for a prom dress if anybody asks me.”
I smiled at her not too subtle hint. Sure I was going to ask her, but not yet. Apparently it’s a big deal to girls, but so far I was drawing a blank on how to make it special. So, I ignored her raised eyebrows and said, “That wasn’t what I meant. Are you ready to have a step-father?”
She shrugged and looked bewildered. “It’s going to be weird, but kind of nice too.”
Her phone started ringing so she paused to pull it out and look at the screen. “It’s Parker. Hold on a sec.”
I leaned back in my seat while she listened to him. I hoped she wouldn’t be on the phone long. My ankle was throbbing worse than when I hurt it. Maybe lifting it up in the air and rotating it a few times would help it feel better.
Maybe not.
Sienna’s voice erupted beside me. “No way! Oh my gosh!”
I sat up, alert, and strained to hear what Parker was saying on the other line. All I could hear, though, was a garbled murmur.
“Well, that’s good, right?” Sienna asked him. “Now they have to know for sure that it isn’t you.”
She turned to me, trying to communicate with her eyes, but I was as clueless as ever except that this had something to do with the robberies.
“An inside job? That’s ridiculous!” As she spoke, she reached over and grabbed my thigh.
I knew she wasn’t paying much attention to what she was doing, just reaching out for comfort, but I was all too aware of where her hand had landed. I gently took it and held it in my hand instead. She didn’t even notice. She was too focused on her conversation with Parker.
She squeezed my hand and looked over at me again, this time with excitement. “That’s awesome,” she said, still talking to Parker. “Of course I’ll come. Be there as soon as I can. Bye.”
“What was that all about?” I asked.
“The rental store where Parker works was broken into tonight.”
Everything I’d heard from her end of the conversation clicked into place. “What do they need you for?”
“Parker says the thieves managed to turn off their security system like they did in all the other robberies, but that they have an independent camera hidden in the ceiling that caught them on video. He thinks he knows who they are even though they have masks on.”
“Well, who is it?”
“He won’t tell me. He wants me to see what I come up with on my own.”
I let go of her hand and reached for the gear shift. “Well, let’s go then.”
“No, Lee. You don’t need to go. I’ve kept you too long as it is. You need to get off your ankle.”
“It’s fine.”
“Whatever. Regardless, your mom wouldn’t like it.”
She had me there. “I don’t want you going alone.”
“I’ll get my mom to go with me.”
I wanted to be there with her—for her—but I did need to get home. “Okay. Go see if she’ll take you. I wouldn’t put it past you to go by yourself if she won’t.”
“You know me so well,” she said, laughing mischievously as she reached for the door handle. “I’ll be back in a second.”
It was actually several minutes later when she emerged from her house with her future step-father in tow. I liked this arrangement even better.
As she came over to my window, I rolled it down and reached for her stuff. I handed her camera and jacket to her as she said, “Alex is going to take me.”
“Good. Call me later and let me know what happens, okay?”
“Definitely.”
She was about to turn away, her mind already focused on getting to Parker’s store, but I grabbed her shoulder. “Sienna, wait a sec.”
She turned back and curled her hands over the door frame as she leaned in. “What’s up?”
“You didn’t kiss me goodnight.”
She blushed and grinned. “You mean you didn’t get enough of that yet?”
“Never.” I gently pinched her chin and urged her closer. Her kiss was hesitant at first, probably because Mr. Greeley was there, carefully not watching. Then, she melted into me.
I was the first to pull away. I looked into her eyes and saw that they were shining like glass with the street lights reflected in them. She was so beautiful. “Love you,” I told her softly as I let her go.
“Love you too,” she whispered. Her smile was as soft as her words as she hurried away.
As I drove home, my thoughts rolled around like a silver ball in one of those little maze games. I thought about my ankle and the game next week – the last of my high school career. I worried about the robberies and the mess Parker was in, and worried even more over the way Sienna was getting pulled into it somehow. But mostly I thought about what I was going to tell my mom. I knew she wasn’t going to be happy that I’d taken so long. I knew she wouldn’t stop worrying about me until she’d looked me over and treated my ankle herself.
When I pulled into our driveway and stepped out of the truck, I groaned as my weight settled on my left foot. Somehow it hurt worse than when I’d first sprained it. I limped inside and found my mom waiting with a huge bag of crushed ice and a mountain of pillows. She wore her most determined expression, and from the tight pinch around her mouth, I knew she was as upset as I was afraid she’d be.
I dropped my jacket onto a chair and set my phone and keys down on the coffee table. I still hadn’t decided how to appease her. An apology was probably my best bet. “Sorry, Mom. I was….”
“Don’t bother. I can guess what you were doing. But didn’t you realize that you need to get injuries like this iced and elevated as quickly as possible? Were a few kisses worth it? It’s probably swollen so bad I’ll have to cut your shoe off.”
I grinned and limped over to the couch. “Nah. It’s not that bad. And yes, it was worth it.”
“You two have plenty of time to spend time together. Tonight wasn’t the best idea.”
“Maybe not, but I needed some time with her.”
“What you need is a swift kick in the rear,” she said. I wasn’t worried about getting it from her though since she was busy nursing me. She eased my shoe and sock off, cut the tape off my foot, and examined the swelling. “Hmph,” she grumbled as she settled my foot down on the pillows. She laid a towel over it and arranged the ice bag where the swelling was the worst. “Well, do you feel better now?”
“Yeah. That’s great.”
“I mean about Sienna. I could see you were stewing over that photographer that’s been flirting with her all season.”
I laid back on the couch and closed my eyes. “I wanted to break his hands for touching her.”
“Well, thank you for curbing your violent impulses. That wouldn’t have been good.”
“That’s why he’s still in one piece.”
“You know, Sienna’s a pretty girl. There’s always going to be some guy or other buzzing around her. Can you handle that?”
My mom knew, better than anyone, the way I’d struggled with my temper through the years. It was thanks to her that I’d disciplined myself so completely. “Yes—unless they hurt her or bother her. I won’t allow that.”
“Of course not. But be sure you aren’t acting out of jealousy.”
“It wasn’t jealousy—not tonight. Oh, I was jealous at first. I mean, the guy looks like he should be in some boy band and they have a lot in common. I could tell Sienna liked seeing him at the games and talking to him about photography. Mostly though, it bothered me that he’s older than her and she’s still in high school. But tonight, I could tell she wanted him to leave her alone and he wouldn’t.”
“Well, she needs to learn to take care of those kinds of things herself. In a few months, she’ll be meeting lots of new guys at college. She’ll probably be working closely with some of them in her art program. ”
“Mom, do we have to talk about this right now?”
“I’m just saying that you’re going to have to learn to let some of this go.”
“If you mean I need to stop protecting her, that’s not going to happen.”
My mom started to say something, but my phone range. She sat back to wait, motioning for me to answer it.
I knew from the ring tone that it was Sienna, so I grabbed it off the coffee table. “Well? Did you recognize them? Was it those two guys you saw breaking into the school?”
“I’m sure it was, and they weren’t alone.”
“Oh? Do you know who the other one was?”
“Yes. You’re not going to believe this, Lee. It was Caleb Murphy.”
Chapter 18
Sienna
“Well it’s starting to warm up, finally,” I told my Dad as we ate lunch at a burger joint on Saturday. “I’m glad. I hate the cold.”
“It’s because you’ve got southern genes.”
“Yeah, I guess so. It’s supposed to be nice all next week—which is nice for my mom’s wedding. It will be even better in Mexico for Mom’s honeymoon, but I’ll be stuck here.”
“Uh, yeah…. I’ve been meaning to talk to you about that.” He shifted in his seat.
He looked uncomfortable and I wondered if it was because of what he wanted to say or because the metal swivel stools I’d picked for us to sit in were too small for his large frame. “About my mom’s honeymoon?”
“Well, I was wondering what your plans were for when she’s gone. I wanted to let you know that you can stay with me if you want.”
I scrunched up my nose in surprise, but quickly forced my expression to relax. I wasn’t expecting it, and the idea of staying with him had never occurred to me. Even if he was my dad, it wasn’t like I knew him very well. Maybe it was a nice gesture, but it was never going to happen.
I produced a decent smile and said, “Thanks but I’m staying with Marisol. We’ve been looking forward to it for a while. Lee’s is going to be out of town visiting his grandparents in Arizona, so we’ll get some girl time in. We don’t have much time left before we graduate and go our separate ways, you know?” Ooh. Saying it out loud made me sad.
“Well, I’m glad you’ve got something fun planned. I just wanted you to know I’m here for you. And if something comes up while your mom is gone, call me.”
“I appreciate that, but I’ll be fine.”
“Sure.” His picked up a fry, but tossed it down again. “Hey, I forgot. I’ve got something for you.”
“Is it in there?” I asked motioning with my eyes to the paper bag on the stool beside him. I’d been wondering what it was since we came in, but hadn’t wanted to ask.
“Yep. You want it now?”
“Of course. I’ve never been good at waiting.”
“Me neither,” he said, reaching for the bag.
“Obviously not. That’s how I got here”
He raised an eyebrow at me. His expression showed his opinion of my comment, but he didn’t have to say anything to make me feel guilty.
“Sorry,” I murmured. “Forget I said that.”
He nodded and moved my tray to another table with one hand while he sat the bag in front of me with the other. He handled it like it was fragile, so I was careful as I opened it.
What looked like a short black cylinder lay inside, wrapped heavily in bubble wrap and cushioned by newspaper. “Oh my gosh… you didn’t!”
“What else would I get you? I didn’t do too well with that teddy bear on your birthday, but you accepted the antique photos so, clearly, I need to stick with photography stuff.”
“But a lens? Don’t forget I know to the penny how much these cost.”
“Not this one. It’s one of my special deals from the pawn shop. Your mom told me what kind of camera you have and which lenses are on your wish list, so I’ve been watching out for them. This one just came in.”
By now, I had pried the tape off the bubble wrap, and as I slowly unrolled it, I handled it like the expensive and delicate instrument it was. The last thing I wanted to do was smash it on the red and yellow tiles under our feet. I shuddered as I imagined that happening.
When I finally held it in my hands, excitement coursed through me as I looked it over. “Oh wow. It’s the prime lens I wanted – the 100mm. Awesome. This is going to be great for the macro work I want to do. Someday I’d like to get a 180mm too, but this is the one I wanted first because it’s also great for walk-around shooting and I’ve read that it’s great for portraits too. Oh my gosh. I can’t wait to try it. I wish I didn’t have to go run wedding errands with Mom when we’re done here.”
