Free Lena's River by Emily Caro

shoes and jeans and sat down on the
blanket. In one movement he pulled off his T-shirt over his head. “Now I am a
true son of nature. Au natural.” He grinned. “But it’s a little chilly.”
    “I’ll keep you warm.” Lena lay down on top of him and
he wrapped his arms around her. They fell laughing sideways onto the blanket,
their legs entwined.
    “Ouch!” Lena cried out.
    “Now see, that’s what I was trying to avoid!” Levi said
when Lena grimaced holding her shoulder.
    “I’m fine, it was nothing.” Lena said and rubbed the
shoulder. She took his chin in her hand and kissed him lying on her left side,
on his right. The sun filtered down through the hemlocks above making a small
light show in their hair and faces.
    “Look, little fairies are dancing in your hair.” Lena
ruffled his dark curls.
    Levi smiled and locked eyes with her. His expression
became serious. “Lena, I really like you a lot. I’ve never met any other woman who’s
so easy to be with.”
    Lena continued to play with his hair. “You mean you’ve
never met any woman so easy.”
    She bent over him and kissed his mouth. She played with
his tongue and sucked at his lips before he disengaged.
    Levi shook his head: “That’s not what I said. I never
expected to meet anyone like you when I drove out here. I don’t want it to end.
Is there any way we can make this more than just a vacation fling?”
    Lena lifted up on her elbow and looked at him. “What
are you saying?”
    Levi rolled over onto his back and studied her with his
arms behind his head. He was silent for several moments. “I don’t know. Maybe
we could find a way to keep in touch. Especially if I get this job in Olympia…”
He let his sentence trail off, as if uncertain.
    “Olympia’s quite a drive from where we are, Levi. I
don’t know. Right now I’m a live-in-the-moment kind of girl. I don’t want to
think ahead any further than this vacation. And then after that I have the
family business to run.” She looked at him. His face had lost all its humor.
“I’m sorry, Levi. I’m on an emotional merry-go-round right now. I don’t know
what I want.” Lena paused and said: “I really like you too.”
    Levi started playing with a piece of grass, no longer
making eye contact. “You’ve had a lot to deal with; I understand.”
    Lena felt liked she’d stepped onto sand going downhill
and her foothold had given way. She hurried to add: “Let’s see where we are
next week. I mean, if you plan to stick around that long. I’m still trying to
deal with the accident yesterday. I’m not quite myself.”
    “No, no it’s my fault. I shouldn’t have brought it up –
I’m the prince of poor timing. Just forget it. You’re so right. I’ll chill the
hell out.”
    Lena gave him a weak smile. “Thanks for understanding,
Levi.” She put her hand up on his cheek, smoothing his black eyebrow back with
her thumb. “All I know is you are one hot dude and I’d like to get back to what
we were doing. I mean, unless our discussion was too much of a weenie-wilter.”
    Levi looked shocked. Then he started to hoot with big
bursts of laughter. He stopped abruptly, looked at Lena and then started
laughing again; holding his sides. “You are… too much! Where did you come up
with that phrase?”
    Lena raised an eyebrow. “I don’t know, but there’s
plenty more where that came from. Want to hear a few?”
    “No! No, that’s sufficient - it’s tattooed onto my
brain.” Levi was smiling again which Lena was relieved to see.
    “You’re cute when you laugh.” Lena rubbed her one free hand
across his bare chest. She let her hand linger above his navel which was
circled by fine, curly hair. She felt him pull her closer as he lay on his
back. She straddled his hips and began to caress his chest which felt firm and
tense under her left palm.
    She felt him rise underneath her – a hard shaft under
the seam of her shorts. She leaned into it, and pressed down as she bent