Better Unwed Than Dead (5 page)

He demanded details, wanting to know why she
thought so, but she simply smiled and returned to her pillows. Nick
looked to the bartender for help but the man only shrugged, saying,
“You’d better call your broad, buddy.”

“I’m okay…well, actually, no,” Julia sighed.
“This guy, he seemed really nice in the shop. He said he’s from New
Orleans and wanted me to accompany him to Put-in-Bay, just for
company, because he knows we’re engaged. But now that I’m here,
Nick, I don’t think it was such a good idea. He’s kind of giving me
the creeps. And please don’t think it was anything more than just a
curiosity to pick his brain about New Orleans.”

“Okay, hail a taxi and head for the ferry.
Stay on the line with me until you get home.”

“I will, I--” she was interrupted by a loud
beep. “Nick? Hello?” Julia looked at her phone, which had gone
dark, the battery dead. “Shit!”

“Is there a problem?” Alberic glided up
behind her, resting his heavy palms on her shoulders, his body
brushing against her back.

Julia spun around and stepped back, sloshing
some of the liquid from her glass. “No! Well, uh, yes. There’s a
family emergency. I’m sorry, but I have to go.”

Alberic frowned. “I’m sorry to hear that. Why
don’t you finish your drink, and then we’ll return to the mainland
together?”

“No, that’s not necessary. I don’t want to
ruin your evening. I can get back on my own. Thanks for the drink,
though.” She saluted him with the glass and then took a sip.

Alberic quickly stepped forward and placed
two fingers on the bottom of the glass, as if to urge her on.
“Finish it,” he demanded.

“Hey!” Julia stumbled back, coughing. The
majority of her drink splashed down her blouse. “What are you
doing? Did you drug my drink or something?” She knew immediately
from his expression that she’d hit the bull’s eye. She backed up
several paces and looked around. A police car crawled down the
street in their direction. She waved her arms frantically as
Alberic slipped into the crowd.

Marblehead, Several Days Later:

FED Ex package in hand, Nick entered the
stuffy garage where Julia was rummaging through the workbench
drawers. She looked good enough to eat in a thin white blouse with
the sleeves rolled up and the tails knotted at her belly button.
She wore a pleated, knee length skirt and flip flops, her hair
twisted and pinned up, stray wisps escaping to cling to her sweaty
neck. He couldn’t imagine what she was looking for in the garage,
since she wasn’t particularly handy, so he asked her.

She jumped. “Oh Nick! You startled me!” She
started toward him, but then stopped when she noticed the Fed Ex
package. “What’s that?”

Nick sighed heavily. Since returning from New
Orleans he’d been debating how to present her with the dress when
it arrived. Should he lie and pass it off as the original? Or
should he admit he had a copy made? He was so disturbed over her
near disastrous brush with—according to INTERPOL—international date
rapist Alberic Bontecou of Montreal, Canada that he really didn’t
want to deceive her. Added to that, the fortuneteller’s spot on
proclamation had him rather nervous now about any sort of
hocus-pocus, especially curses.

“Well, Nick? What is it? Is it for you or me?
Is it something from your mom?” Julia pulled it from his hands and
turned it over to read the label. “Oh! It’s from the seamstress in
New Orleans. It’s my dress!” She ripped into it excitedly.

Nick was flabbergasted. “What? How did you
know?”

“She called the other day and started asking
questions about my measurements. She didn’t know you were
surprising me with the dress and was extremely apologetic when she
realized her blunder.” She opened the garment bag and ran her hand
over the bodice. “Ooh, it’s beautiful! Just like the picture!”

Nick was perplexed. “You, uh, aren’t
angry?”

“I was, initially. You said you were in St.
Louis, Nick, when really you were in New Orleans. That’s not nice.
But, you did go to all that trouble to try to find my dress, and
when you couldn’t, you had a copy made. That’s pretty sweet,
actually.” She continued to inspect and pet the gown. Nick gnawed
his lip, debating whether to admit he originally planned to deceive
her. But she looked so pleased with the new gown that he decided to
keep the information to himself. “So, you’re over believing in the
curse? We’re going to get married?”

Julia shifted her weight back and forth for a
moment. “I think so. There was something I read in the diary that
bugged me, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on what it was.
Finally it occurred to me. The diary said any bride who didn’t wear
the cursed gown would soon be widowed. ‘Soon’ being the operative
word. Dad didn’t die until twenty years after mom married him
wearing a different gown.” She shrugged. “I think I’m ready to roll
the dice and see where they land if you are. If there actually is a
curse, then I think the ‘curse gods’, or whoever, sure would be
impressed with your efforts to replace the dress. This here is a
dead ringer.” She tapped the bodice with her finger then regretted
her choice of words. “What about you, Nick? Do you want to go
through with it? I know that fortuneteller seriously spooked
you.”

“Yeah, she kind of did. But I’m glad. If I
hadn’t called you, you wouldn’t have left the bar when you did, and
you may have been Mr. Bontecou’s latest victim. Oh, I had a call
from the detective a little bit ago. Bontecou was apprehended while
trying to cross back into Canada. He’s got quite a record.”

With her new dress in hand, Julia didn’t feel
like discussing the dubious Alberic Bontecou. She still couldn’t
believe she nearly walked so blindly into a trap. “Well, do you
want to go through with it? Do you still want to get married?”

“Yes, I do.”

Julia grinned saucily. “Good. Now, if I could
just find what I was out here looking for…” she reached back into
the workbench drawer.

Nick frowned, “What are you up to?”

“Here it is!” She held up a roll of black
electrical tape and grinned triumphantly.

“What are you up to, Julia?” Nick
repeated.

“Um, sit down there,” She pointed to floor in
front of a ladder.

Nick sat with his back against it, only
slightly regretting that his best pair of jeans was getting messy
and that the sweltering garage was causing sweat to form on his
upper lip and brow. “Now what should I do? Hey, are those your
panties?” he reached for them and she swooped in, capturing his
wrists and pinning them to a rung over his head.

Using her body to hold his hands in place,
Julia tore off a length of tape and started binding his wrists to
the ladder. She moaned when Nick swiped a patch of her bare belly
with his tongue, sending goose bumps across her overly warm skin.
“Damn it,” she said breathily, trying to keep focused on her task.
“This isn’t working out how I’d envisioned. The tape keeps getting
stuck on itself.”

Nick winced when a patch of hair was pulled
from his arm as she continued struggling with the tape.

“Wait…let me try these.” She grabbed her
panties from the floor, having only removed them just before he
entered the garage. Nick repositioned his wrists so she could
manipulate the elastic and lace into a pair of makeshift cuffs. She
worked so intently she hardly noticed she was pressing her core to
his face, until Nick took full advantage and thrust his tongue
deep. Julia, finished with securing his wrists to the ladder,
grabbed hold of a rung as he teased and tantalized her. Her eyes
slid shut and her head fell back as she grasped the ladder tighter,
standing with legs splayed. Nick circled and plunged with his
tongue, stretching his hands against their flimsy binding so he
could spread them over her bare rib cage, needing to feel her with
his hands as well as his mouth.

This was supposed to be a treat for him, yet
she couldn’t help giving herself over to the pleasure of the
moment. Finally, just as Julia was ready to crawl out of her skin,
to crawl the ladder she was hanging onto, anything to escape the
terrible pressure building, she came hard, bucking so violently
that Nick had to hold her in place for fear of his nose.

“You’re overdressed,” she said with a sigh,
collapsing onto his lap.

“Are you going to remedy that, or are you
going to take a nap?” Nick teased when she started fiddling with
his buttons but then stopped to rest her forehead against his chest
in sleepy repose. He kissed the top of her head as she straightened
and resumed unbuttoning his sweat dampened shirt.

“Oh,” Julia pouted, finding that her
unbuttoning revealed an undershirt rather than Nick’s bare chest.
“It’s way too hot for this.” She grabbed the neckline in both
fists. Nick’s breath hitched as she pulled at it, gritting her
teeth, but he dissolved into laughter when the fabric held steady
under her attack. At Julia’s sharp glance, he wiped the grin from
his face.

“There’s got to be something in this garage
that will handle this problem,” she muttered, wiping sweat from her
face with the back of her hand as she stood and looked around.

“Hey now,” Nick said with honest apprehension
when she plucked a saw from the bench.

“No, probably not a good idea,” she agreed,
replacing the saw.

“Scissors are in the top right drawer.”

Julia wrinkled her nose. “Boring.” She
continued perusing the garage, looking for just the right tool for
the task. “Ooh! I could burn your shirt off you. That could be
hot!”

“Very,” Nick agreed dryly, relieved when she
set the blowtorch back on the bench.

“Ok, how about this?” She turned, brandishing
a screwdriver.

“Um, not sure that’s--” But she was already
straddling his lap, pulling the undershirt away from his body to
jam the edge of the screw driver through his shirt, leaving a
gaping hole.

Setting the screwdriver aside, Julia again
tore at his shirt with her hands, until she managed to lay it open
to the hem, though the neck remained intact.

“Mmh,” hands splayed over his pecs, Julia
laved his sweaty chest with her tongue, nipping at his small, hard
nipples.

Nick gulped for air that scorched his lungs
in the stuffy garage. Dropping his head back between his raised
arms, he stared at the sky through the open garage door.

“Julia, close the door.” His order wouldn’t
help with the stuffiness, but he didn’t want the paperboy wandering
up the driveway while they copulated in the garage. When she
returned she straddled his thighs again and hitched her skirt up.
Nick’s eyes zeroed in on her core-plump, pink and glistening. He
licked his lips.

“Still hungry?” Julia dipped between her
folds with two fingers then licked them clean.

“Let me taste,” Nick demanded, becoming
frustrated with his hands bound over his head, but not wanting to
ruin her fun by shrugging his wrists free.

Julia smiled coyly, considering his request
for an agonizingly long time before finally gathering moisture from
between her legs and painting her mouth with it like gloss. Leaning
close, she teased Nick until finally he managed to capture her
mouth with his.

“Better than that banana lip stuff you’re
always wearing.”

“You think so? Well, speaking of bananas…”
She set to work opening his jeans.

Nick laughed and dropped his head back
against the rung, unable to stop smiling. God, he loved this
woman!

“Ooh,” Julia breathed as she lifted him free
of his underwear. “I’ve missed this, like you wouldn’t believe.”
She leaned back and gazed at what she uncovered.

“I was only gone a couple of days and I’ve
made love to you three times since I’ve been back.”

“True, but while you were gone you called me
on the phone and sexually tormented me. I’m still trying to satisfy
the insatiable hunger you aroused in me.”

Nick shrugged, unrepentant. “So are you going
to just stare at it all day or are you going to show me how much
you missed it?”

“That’s a good question, a very good
question. Hhm…” She considered it while she dipped her hand between
her legs again, skirt slipping down to hide everything from Nick’s
view. “I think I could just do this for a while. I like looking at
you.”

Nick groaned. “Damn, Julia, please. I like
looking at you, too, baby, but I can’t see anything of you with all
those clothes on. Take off the shirt and skirt. Please?”

She immediately removed her blouse and tossed
it aside, running her wet hand over her bare breasts for a moment
before returning it between her thighs.

“Julia, the skirt.”

“I-uh, no. I’ll leave it on for now.”

Nick frowned and then realization dawned on
him. Julia had never before taken the reigns quite like this and
was struggling with her courage. If leaving the skirt on left her
feeling a little braver, so be it. But still, she was a minute away
from giving herself a second orgasm and he was beginning to suffer.
“Julia, please touch me.”

Smiling sweetly, she greased his cock with
her glistening fingers. “Ah, yeah,” Nick moaned, his body lifting
to her touch. She stroked him slowly then wet him again with her
juice before scooting back so she could slip her mouth over him,
sucking him clean. Nick released a long, low groan as her head
bobbed up and down in his lap. “Julia, please, you have to stop or
this will be over. Come up here with me.”

Obediently she crawled back onto his lap and
lowered herself onto his straining erection. They both sighed in
pleasure as she wrapped her arms around his neck, kissing him
deeply. “I love you so much,” she whispered against his mouth.

“I love you, too. Now get that ass moving or
I’m going to break free from this ladder, and I won’t be
responsible for whatever happens.”

“Tough talk from the guy who’s tied up,”
taunted Julia.