“She doesn’t like me, huh?” He said, holding the door open for Annabeth.
“Not even a little bit,” Annabeth agreed with a grimace. “Can you blame her?”
“She knows about Wade?”
“Yeah.”
“Then, no. She has every right to think the worst of me.”
The heat of the day had finally broken. A refreshing summer breeze was moving through the car park. She’d stood in front of The Whistlestop a thousand times in her life, but that night, everything felt more sensually vibrant. The light tickle of the sea breeze on her bare legs was like a caress.
“What did you want to show me?” She needed to get back to the safety of the bar, as soon as she could.
“Here.” He dangled a set of keys out to her.
Annabeth frowned. “What’s this?”
“It’s your new car.” He nodded towards a red SVU in the middle of the car park.
Emma shook her head resolutely, shock making her fingers numb. She passed the keys back. “No. It’s not.”
“Emma,” he sighed in frustration. “Think of it as alimony, or a back pay in child support. Just, take the damned car.”
“No, Kirk.” She turned away from him, looking out towards the water. “I don’t want anything from you, of all people.”
“Don’t be so selfish, Annabeth,” he intoned harshly.
She whipped around. “Selfish? How do you figure?”
“You could stand on your principles when it was just you. But our son’s in the picture now. He shouldn’t be getting from A to B in a car that looks likely to explode any moment.”
She sucked in an indignant breath, fire in her belly. “You’re accusing me of being a lousy parent?”
“Of course not,” he responded angrily. “I’m accusing you of being as stubborn as ever.”
“You can’t just give someone a car, Kirk. It’s ridiculous.”
“Why? Why not? You know I’m a wealthy guy, Annabeth. I have more money than ten thousand people could need in a lifetime. Why can’t I give you, and our son, something that you need?”
“Hush,” she demanded, pulling at his arm. “Keep your voice down.”
He narrowed his eyes. “People are going to find out I’m Wade’s dad eventually, you know.”
She nodded groggily. Yes. But she hadn’t realized it until that moment. “I don’t want the car. I don’t want anything from you, Kirk.” Oh, but she did. She wanted the promise of their future back. She wanted to feel true joy again.
“Don’t make me prove to you how much of a lie that is,” he said warningly.
“It’s not a lie!” She spun around, ready to launch into a full argument with him, but he was too quick. He kissed her before she could guess what he was doing, his lips demanding and angry on hers.
“You want me, Annabeth, just like you used to.”
“No,” she denied, a word wrenched from her tormented soul.
“Yes,” he contradicted, kissing her soundly, his tongue at war with hers.
“Yes.” She could have sobbed, but her whole body was at a fever pitch of need for him. “Damn it, Kirk.”
He broke the kiss just long enough to pull her with him.
“Where are you… what are we…?”
He didn’t answer, just increased his stride, tugging on her hand so that she fell into step behind him, until they reached the old disused boatshed behind The Whistlestop.
They didn’t make it inside. He pushed her against the wall, and reclaimed her mouth as his own, exploring what made her moan, and what made her shiver uncontrollably; her desire was a force to be reckoned with.
Annabeth had lost the ability to think. Her hands, mouth and body were in charge. She un-tucked his shirt and pulled at his belt, freeing his pants and pushing them, down, while he nudged her shorts away, removing all barriers. Against the weatherboard side of the rickety old building, hidden from view by overgrown shrubbery, Kirk drove himself into her core like a man who had been denied what he needed for far too long. He hadn’t dared dream he would ever possess Annabeth again, but now, as he pushed into her most intimate soul, he knew that this coming together had been inevitable.
“Oh, God,” she moaned, as he drove into her again. “Yes!” Her body arched, her legs clamped around his waist. “Oh, Kirk, yes,” she whispered, running her hands down his back, over the cotton shirt he wore. She didn’t notice the way he paused; the way he seemed to freeze for the smallest of seconds, and so she didn’t stop to wonder why.
Kirk cupped her rear with his hands, holding her against him, as he moved inside of her. He heard her cries, but not his own guttural calls for release, as together, they moved as one. Their bodies were in complete unison, joined by more than just the physical, there were a force of the past and the present, brought together in one moment that defied logic and sense.
Annabeth cried out and gripped his shoulders as wave after wave of sensation flooded her system. “I’m…” she whispered, throwing her head back and moaning. Her release was swift and complete, and bone meltingly intense. She shuddered from the strength of her body’s satiation.
Her muscles spasmed around him and Kirk could hold on no longer. He joined Annabeth, gripping her tight as together they rode their wave of ecstasy, combined completely.
His breathing ragged, he held her close, feeling her heart racing against his chest, her body shaking in his arms.
He didn’t want the moment to end.
They had a volcanic mountain of issues to discuss; an emotional minefield to navigate, but all he wanted was to stretch the string of this moment out for as long as he could. Gently, he kissed her neck, tasting her salty perspiration on his tongue.
“Beth,” he whispered into her ear, squeezing her tight. “We were made to do that together.”
She wondered at her lack of remorse. Perhaps it would come. In that moment, with the only man she’d ever loved still deep inside her, her body weak with sexual exhaustion, she could only be glad. What Kirk said was true. There was such rightness to their coming together, and she couldn’t over think it.
“I’ve missed that,” she murmured against his cheek.
“I’m glad.” Regretfully, he lowered her back to the ground, still supporting her, because he wanted to touch her. To hold her.
“I should probably say something, like ‘that shouldn’t have happened’,” she bent down to pull shorts pants back up. “But I’d be lying. I don’t feel that. Strange, huh?”
“No.” He put a finger out and touched her cheek, wishing things were different, that their past could be re-written so their future stood a chance. “I feel the same way.”
She was drowning in his eyes. A mosquito buzzed somewhere between them but she didn’t so much as lift a hand to bat it away. Her lips parted, as her body seemed to spark anew with need for him. Her stomach was a pool of jelly. “I have to get back inside,” she complained huskily. She wanted nothing more than to disappear with Kirk. To forget everything that lay between them except how they made each other feel.
“I know.” He couldn’t stop staring at her. He must have looked like a fool. But she was so mesmerizingly beautiful, with her cheeks flushed, her eyes sparkling, her body glowing. “Let me help you.” He ran his hands over her hair, pulling it together on top of her head.
Annabeth watched, fascinated, as he concentrated on putting her blonde curls back into a high pony tail. His expression was so serious, as though he were calculating figures that might remedy third world debt.
“There.” He stood back to admire his work.
“Do I look like someone who’s just been ravaged against the side of the Boatshed?”
“Only to me,” he promised throatily.
She straightened her shirt and took in a deep breath. “Okay. I have to go back in.”
“Beth,” he called after her. She paused, turning to look at him. He was every bit as much the hometown hero now as he had ever been. Against the dilapidated building with its peeling paint and wonky slats, he was stunning. A vision of strength and masculinity. “The car is yours. Don’t argue with me.”
She cast him an impish smile. “But arguing with you is such fun.”
When she walked back into The Whistlestop, Annabeth told herself the inquisitive look Emma gave her was in her imagination. She cleared her throat. “Did I miss anything?”
“Nah. Quiet night. Doc’s looking for you.”
Annabeth scanned the bar and smiled when she saw her friend sitting in a booth, his eyes on one of the many medical journals he subscribed to. “Did he order dinner?”
“Yeah. Go sit with him, hon. I’ve got you covered.”
“You sure?” Annabeth frowned.
“Heck, I’d rather you spend time with Dan over Kirk any day,” Emma said honestly.
Annabeth grimaced as she walked away. She suspected Emma would not view their tryst in quite the same inevitable way that she and Kirk had.
“Hey, Dan,” she interrupted, tapping him on the shoulder to get his attention.
“Annabeth,” he smiled up at her. “Join me for a minute?”
“Sure.” Her legs were like jelly anyway. Sitting down was a fine idea. “How’s things?”