Free Thunder In Her Body by C. B. Stanton Page B

night before. It was again firm and moving.  She squeezed first hard, then easy. She alternated the pressure.  He moaned quietly, kissing her lips softly, two, three, four times before he pulled away.  He stepped back a half pace.  With both hands he held her face close to his.
    “What is this?” he asked as if she knew the answer.  She closed her eyes, and kissed him again, long and passionately, enjoying the taste of him.  He held her close and whispered in an agonized tone.
    “What is this?” He was being swept away on a wave of something he did not understand.  He wanted an answer; he needed an answer, because what had overtaken him only minutes after he first met her, had swelled like a monsoonal surge, and it was carrying him to places he’d believed no longer existed.
    “I don’t know,” she responded in hushed words.  “You scare me.  What you make me feel scares me.  You’ve taken me out of my comfort zone and it frightens me.”
    “Me too.  Me too.  Lynette, what’s happening here?”
    She laid her head against his firm chest.  Again she said, “I don’t know,” and she rested against his body.  He wrapped his arms around her in a way she’d forgotten a man could hold her.  It was powerful, yet tender, and he gave no indication of letting go.  They were quiet together, just standing their clinging to each other; experiencing a kind of surrender, long forgotten, that both understood.
     
    There were voices returning in the common areas, but mercifully they did not come down this hallway.  They lingered in that embrace for awhile longer.  It took both of them a few minutes to compose themselves before they reluctantly rejoined Clare and Aaron.  Aaron’s hair looked a bit disheveled and they surmised that he and Clare had probably shared their first kiss – but nothing could have surpassed what they just shared.

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    C HAPTE R 4
    ¤
           The Horses and the Hay
     
    I n the three-car garage sat Blaze’s four-passenger, quad- cab, silver Dodge Ram pickup truck.  Since they’d sometimes be in rough terrain, Aaron’s Cadillac was not the ideal vehicle to take.  So they piled into the truck, with Blaze helping Lynette up into the tall cab.
    “Now, I don’t want you to hurt anything trying to step up that high,” he quipped, grinning like a possum eating a yellow jacket. Lynette stretched her 5 foot 3 inch frame up into the front seat.
    “You’re determined to get back at me for my statement at the table, aren’t you?” she laughed, poking him playfully in his ribs.
    “Payback is hell,” he laughed aloud, biting his bottom lip and wagging his shoulders.
    Blaze liked how easy it was to joke with Lynette.  Their flirting was so obvious, intentional, and a prelude to what they both knew would eventually happen.  After the events of the last night, and her shameless remark at the luncheon table, it was on!  No more pretending.  They felt free with each other, to just be who and what they were – no airs, no pretense and all the barriers were down.  They had, by their mutual actions, allowed themselves to be vulnerable and accepting.  And that suited them both.
     
    Aaron and Clare sat in the back seat and Lynette sat reasonably close to Blaze who reached over and gathered her hand into his.  He had such a wonderful touch.  As he drove he glanced back through the rearview mirror and saw Aaron and Clare quietly exchange a kiss, but he didn’t say anything to Lynette.  Gently, he massaged her hand in his.  He had a way of peeking over at her with a special smile that made her feel safe, wanted and comfortable with this newest entry into her life.
     
    All of the old feelings – the glint of passion – now a torrent of passion - had returned.  They’d never been lost, but Lynette had successfully subordinated those feelings to her work and to purposely keeping herself free.  After she and Robert mutually terminated their