They were in the middle of a field, in the backseat
of his car, or hiding in the shadows of a dimly lit
room. They were entangled like spiders in a web, sticky
and spun together by constant need. There was foreplay
in humping, in the hiss of fabric being torn away,
and in the hunger of their frenzied hands, skimming
over skin and sweat. And then there was friction:
the hunger that sparked on the tips of their tongues
as they rolled together, the silky cream that she
spilled onto him. They were one, moaning as volcanoes
erupted in their depths. It was what they were. Hot.
Sex. Love. They were eighteen and back then it meant
forever.
Maggie twirled a lock of curly red hair around her
index finger and bit down on her lip. She cupped her
other hand around the coffee cup, trying to warm her
nerves up enough to tell him the truth after all these
years.
He sat across from her. The same lopsided grin that
enchanted her twenty years ago still turned her emotions
upside down. The years had thinned his hair a little,
but he still looked like the same young man she loved
when she was eighteen. It made it impossible to put
out the sparks rekindling inside her.
"So, answer my question," Adam said, dealing her
a big smile and calling her hand. "Do you ever regret
leaving me?"
She studied a scratch on the table, then gazed around
at the other occupants in the small diner. There really
wasn't a way to answer that without revealing too
much or without bringing memories back that were so
passionate that they hurt. "We were kids then. Everything
seemed so real, so intense, but we had to grow up
sometime, didn't we? Life changes everything and everybody."
"You left me for a nerdy guy you met the day you
started college," he said. "Life didn't have time
to change anything. You did that all by yourself,
becoming all brains and books. Damn, you turned into
a different person. The girl I knew was as wild as
the wind on a spring day. Maybe I was wrong to think
we were in love, but it was real to me."
"We were young and experimenting, Adam. It was being
restless or carefree, whatever you want to call it.
But what did we have besides sex?" Heat rose to her
cheeks at just the recollection of how 'carefree'
they were together. "You didn't care about school
or the future, only about the next time. I wanted
more. I wanted an adult relationship, someone to listen
to me when I talked and challenge my ideas."
"You never gave me a chance to be that person for
you. But at least you're being honest," he said, slouching
back in his seat. "You know, I was going to skip our
twenty year reunion like I did our ten because I resented
you for just leaving like you did and didn't want
to see you again. I'm glad I changed my mind. You
know, I realize that we were just kids back then,
but, damn, at the time it was so real. That kinda
chemistry doesn't just happen. I don't think age had
anything to do with it."
Maggie smiled, knowing just what he meant. "No,
it doesn't." As the years passed, there were times
when she regretted breaking up with Adam. For all
the intellects she dated and all the respect her career
gave her, she had never found another man's passion
for her as earth shattering as Adam's. It was something
she craved more and more the older she got; something
she searched for in every man she met. Maybe it was
time to chalk it up the memories of Adam to the glory
of being young, but she couldn't let it go. Something
or someone had to make her feel that whole again.
"I'm not trying to make you feel uncomfortable,
Maggie. Let's change the subject for now. Tell me
something about you. Ever been married?" he asked.
"No, not yet. You?" No man could stack up to Adam.
"Once or twice." He winked at her and reached his
hand across the table. "I never quite found what I
was looking for. You were a hard act for anyone to
follow."
Maggie looked at his long fingers, his wide palm.
The guy she broke up with twenty years ago was just
beginning to fill the shoes of a man. This guy was
the whole deal, complete with the scars of his life.
She was one of those wounds and as she placed her
hand in his, his thumb caressed her skin. Maybe there
was a way to finally brush the pain away. "I'm sorry
I hurt you," she said.
"It's okay. It wasn't all you, hun. I wasn't a prize,
back then, I know. My head was stuck up my ass for
the longest time before I realized I needed to make
something out of my life. I was twenty-five when I
finally went back to school. Most people we knew back
then can't believe I did it and then became an architect.
They thought I'd more than likely end up as a convict,
I think."
"You weren't that bad," Maggie replied, squeezing
his hand. "Just aimless, is all."
He held on to her hand. When she looked up, his
eyes held her face in their blue depths. "Maggie,
I - uh - I'm just curious. Do you ever wonder 'what
if' when you think about us?"
She warmed in the softness of his gaze. He deserved
the truth he didn't get when she left him. "All the
time. I try to tell myself we were just kids and the
exploration of it all was what made it exciting, but-"
"But yet you would die to find that kind of intensity
with someone again?" Adam finished for her, his tone
softening until it was barely above a whisper. He
always lowered his voice like that when he wanted
her. She remembered too well.
Maggie moistened her lips with her tongue, and shifted
her eyes away from him. God, he was doing it to her
again. Her nerves shook her down like leaves off a
tree, leaving her bare, exposed, and wanting something
she wasn't even sure still existed. "I don't know."
He tugged her hand across the table, pulling it
closer to him, and pressed it to his chest. "Feel
my heartbeat? How fast it's pounding from just being
close to you again? It hasn't slowed down from the
moment I laid eyes on you tonight."
"Memories can do that."
"I don't think that's all it is, Maggie. Can you
tell me you do?"
She squirmed in her seat, feeling the first drops
of dew kissing her nether lips. Control. A grown woman
was supposed to know control. "I'm not sure what it
is."
Adam leaned over the table. The warmth of his breath
kissed her hand. "Don't you want to find out? God,
sweetheart, I've been looking all my life for someone
that makes me feel the way you do."
She could feel her control melting into liquid inside
her panties. "If we could go back, maybe things would
be different, but we can't. I can't. We don't even
know each other anymore. Let's be real about it. I
don't want to go through the pain again."
"I am being real. Look at us, would you? We're just
new versions of the people we used to be, don't you
see that? We're both better than we were back then.
We're all grown up, but the attraction between us
is still stronger than life itself. Can't you feel
it, Maggie?"
"What is it you want? Do you want to go back and
relive that period in your life? Is that it?"
"No, it's much more than that, sweetheart. I want
to know your every dream and try to make each one
of them come true," he said. "I want to know your
thoughts. I want to talk to you, live through you,
feel all of you." His cheeks flushed and his bright
blue eyes darkened. "Now you tell me. What do you
want?"
Maggie chewed on her lip, but the answer was evident
and consuming her. It screamed at her to just give
in, to quit doubting the only thing that ever felt
good. "You," she replied, grinning and blushing at
the same time. "I want you. In the middle of a field,
in the back seat of your car, in a dark room full
of people."
Adam smiled. "Will my place be okay? I'm not into
trespassing anymore and my car's a compact, but I
can give you a dark room, just minus the people. We
would be alone." He dangled the proposition in front
of her. Her mind batted at it, slapping it away but
pulled it closer again. It was time to give in once
and for all. There wasn't anyone she wanted more than
Adam.
She slipped her foot out of its shoe and lifted
her leg under the table until her heel rested against
his crotch. An old, familiar throbbing pressed into
her skin as she rubbed, letting her know she wasn't
the only one craving the past and looking for a future.
"No," she replied. "We never liked to do it in bedrooms,
remember? Or was it there was never time to get to
one?"
"Let's go," he said.
In a flurry of emotions coated with lust and longing,
they rose from the table. Maybe he knew where they
were going or perhaps she led them to the only place
where they could be.
Somehow they just got there, alone in the bathroom
of the diner. The inches between them disappeared
as they pressed together, flattening any doubts in
their embrace. Two sets of lips meshed together and
two tongues tasted a passion that never died. His
hands rounded the curves of her body, exploring the
fullness of a woman and feeling the hunger of the
girl he used to know quivering beneath his palms.
There was foreplay in humping, in the hiss of fabric
being torn away, and in the hunger of their frenzied
hands, skimming over bare skin. And there was friction:
the hunger that sparked on the tips of their tongues
as they rolled together, the silky cream that she
spilled from his touch. They were one, moaning as
volcanoes erupted in their depths.
It was cold porcelain against her butt. There was
heat liquefying into sweat as they became entangled,
limb on limb. His erection slid in and out of her
nether lips. She possessed him, clutched him inside
her. A slow orgasm took its time swallowing her need
and satisfying it. A soft moan rippled through her
body. Finally. Harder. Finally. Deeper. Finally. He
filled her with every inch of his spirit, pressing
himself in and releasing her frustrations.
Maggie felt the soft flutter of her eyelashes against
her cheeks. She rode the crest of a wave as it ripped
through her body. They were too long in coming already.
It couldn't wait another second.
Adam nipped her neck. His fingers scratched up and
down her back. Twenty years of being without her filled
his balls. She sighed as he groaned her name; she
held him tight as the intense passion of their youth
gushed from him and into her with a new fervor they
never had before. They were thirty-eight now and had
forever to give.
Bio
Tina Hess' work has appeared in numerous ezines
and print magazines, including Clean Sheets. Her second
book, 29 Ways to Use Everyday Objects as Sex Toys
will be available in January 2004. When she is not
writing stories, Tina reviews books for eBook Reviews
Weekly and is a Web Assistant and Contributing Writer
on Mind Caviar and Ophelia's Muse
