The Reunion (5 page)

She knelt down and clasped her hands behind her back. Ethan instinctively stood up, his cock fully erect. The two of them were a study in contrasts. He was white, muscular, and sporting a massive erection, while she was black, soft, accepting. Ethan moved forward, his heavy cock swaying, and put his hands behind his head. Ebony stared at it, licked her lips, and opened her mouth. Ethan squatted slightly, lined his prick up with her soft lips, and slid it into her. He moaned loudly, tossing his head back and forth. Ebony had never done what she was doing now, but it gave her immeasurable pleasure, both because she knew it was pleasing him at an extraordinary level and because it felt so natural and liberating to be sucking his big, heavy, musky dick. She put both hands on his tight buns and looked him in the eyes. He looked down at her with absolute bliss, making love to her mouth in a near delirium. Ebony sucked like there was no tomorrow, licking the head and rubbing her lips up and down the shaft. She flicked her tongue over his balls and kissed them, knowing they were burdened with a full and heavy cream.

He withdrew, and she stood up. They wrapped their arms around each other, felt each other’s backs and butts, and kissed passionately. Without even thinking about it, Ebony suddenly turned around, held on to a tree, bent over at the waist, and spread her legs, presenting herself to her lover. Ethan pressed his big cockhead to her lips and slowly rubbed it up and down the length of her opening, teasing her clitoris and preparing her entry. She eventually relaxed, and he pushed two inches of his cock inside her. Ebony moaned and wiggled her hips, wanting more of his love. Ethan looked down and slid three more inches of his shaft into her. Ebony groaned and spread her legs even farther, presenting herself with no semblance of modesty. Ethan drew out until his head was partly exposed, then slid six inches into her. Ebony quivered, and her tight ass jiggled. He pulled out, pushed in, pulled out, then slowly and steadily went forward until his full length was inside her. Ebony laughed nervously and bent her head forward, looking between her legs and seeing only his balls pressed against her lips. It amazed her to think that this man’s huge cock was all the way inside her body.

As she watched, he began to stroke her, slowly at first, then more steadily and rhythmically. She opened up like a flower to the early morning sun and found herself pushing back as he pushed forward, their bodies smacking in hot intercourse. He held her breasts and pumped her, driving his masculine power into her feminine softness. She reached down and began stroking her clit, which was now sticking out farther than she had ever seen. It felt wonderful to touch it, and soon she was on a flight to nirvana. Ethan panted and pumped, his strong body focused exclusively on Ebony. Suddenly he gasped and pulled out at the exact moment she reached the summit. As Ebony coaxed the most intense orgasm she had ever experienced out of her pussy, Ethan unloaded a massive store of hot cream on her tight, smooth ass. It kept firing in blast after blast until she was literally covered. He pulled back, and they watched his cock twitching as if it was being shocked by some kind of invisible machine. Ebony moaned and rubbed herself until every last particle of pleasure expended itself, her hot, glowing pussy exposed to the warm sunlight and Ethan’s appreciative eyes.

* * * *

Thinking of this intense lovemaking, Ebony staggered into her bedroom, stripped naked, and climbed under her blankets. Within seconds she was rubbing herself, the image of the powerful man surging clearly visible in her thoughts. Then she caught herself. This was not a dream, not a fantasy. It was a damned horror movie. Ethan’s return was a disaster in every conceivable way. It was something she had to face, no matter how much she dreaded the thought. And she wouldn’t have long to prepare herself.

She would see him the next day.

Chapter Three

Ebony awoke first thing in the morning from a restless, unsatisfying sleep. She had awakened numerous times during the night, and even when she had covered her head with a pillow, the thoughts of Ethan would not go away. Feeling totally agitated, she rose, put on her housecoat, and hurried to the window, looking at the big island. The conditions outside were blizzard-like, but just as the night before, smoke curled from Ethan’s chimney. Ebony gazed at it longer than she wanted and then pulled herself away and started a fire with the last of her wood.

She slipped on her boots, put a winter parka over her pajamas, and went into the porch. The wind howled, and a sudden gust pulled the door out of her hand. It banged violently against the wall. Ebony went outside and pushed the screen door closed. Snow swept over the landscape, spinning in miniature, swirling tornadoes and depositing in high drifts. The brutal wind howled through her eaves and made her pull the hood over her head.

Hard to believe it’s spring
, she thought.

Ebony again gazed at the island. It was barely visible through the driving snow, and when the wind did abate for a moment, the snow fell straight down like confetti in a ticker tape parade. The island looked like an enclosed little world, a gigantic snow globe depicting an idyllic scene. But this was far from idyllic. A gnawing sense of anxiety, combined with a dark, looming dread, made her feel helpless, hopeless, crushed under the weight of Ethan’s unexpected return. She continued to stare at the island, as if hoping to suddenly awaken from this heartrending nightmare. Yet the smoke continued to rise. He was there right now. There, only half a mile away. As impossible as it seemed, Ethan Harrington was home. But it was too little, too late. Much, much too late.

Ebony went back inside and made a cup of hot chocolate. After a couple sips, she felt warm at last and walked to the window. The glass was almost completely covered in amazing patterns of ice, as if Jack Frost’s hands were ballerinas gone mad. Ebony scratched away some ice with her fingernail, then looked at the big island again. A steady stream of gray smoke, indicating that he had just put more wood on the fire, rose from the red brick chimney, and two seagulls circled overhead, dipping and soaring on the fickle winds of a capricious spring. Though she hated to admit it, the scene looked like a beautiful postcard in a country store.

Suddenly Ebony saw something move. It was Ethan. She stared hypnotically, unable to take her eyes off him. He walked to the end of the island, got into his aluminum boat, and shoved off. He rowed toward the beach, avoiding the ice in Shad Bay. Ebony finally pulled away, her heart pounding, and she took a deep breath. A moment of confused silence followed, and she felt mixed up in her mind, like someone who has had too much to drink.

Getting control of herself, she shuffled into the porch, where she picked up her ax. When she opened the door, the wind again pulled it out of her hand and banged it against the wall. Ebony groaned irritably and walked out holding her coat at the collar. Again she forced the door shut, the wind wildly tossing her hair like frayed black rope. She uncovered her woodpile, picked out a dozen pieces ready for burning, and tossed them aside. The rest were all chunks discarded during the year because they were too big. She hacked at the frozen hardwood with her ax, but chips of ice flew off and shot past her face. In fifteen minutes, she was able to split only a few pieces and a small amount of kindling.

“I’ll do it later,” she said, leaving her ax sticking in the chopping block. She carried the wood into her living room and piled it. “Rebecca’s counting on me, and
I
keep my word.”

She stoked the stove and then walked down the hill, where winds whipped unabated across the landscape. Ebony lowered her head, gathered her coat, and literally pushed her way through drifts of knee-deep snow that had collected across her driveway. At the bottom of the hill, where the road was protected on both sides by a row of huge spruce trees, it was much calmer. She stopped and admired the wild fruit orchard. Long fingerlike branches of apple and pear trees, glazed with sparkling ice, shook in the wind and tinkled like melodic chimes. A half-frozen brook ambled alongside the orchard, its crystal-clear water funneling through a black wooden culvert and blasting out the other side over a thick, frozen mass of ice. The water snaked its way through mounds of brown seaweed, under large chunks of ice, beside the old wharf in the cove, then emptied into the ocean. When Ebony noticed Ethan’s boat tied to the wharf, her mood instantly changed.

“How should I act?” she mumbled with the concentration of a general going over his battle plan. “Greet him with formality, just as I would any acquaintance. But what will he think…Who cares what he thinks? His opinion is meaningless to me.”

Ebony started walking again, and the closer she got to Jenny’s, the harder her heart pounded. Going up the Harrington driveway and past Ethan’s car, she felt as if every cell in her body was hypercharged, every neuron firing madly in all directions. Her breathing was shallow, her fingers twitched, and a prickly heat broke out all over her skin. She wanted to turn and run, but continued on, hardly cognizant of what lay before her. It was all dreamlike and surrealistic. Ethan Harrington—Ethan Harrington—was back. Unbelievable! How could she even conceive of it, let alone deal with him face-to-face? Again she wanted to retreat, but she pressed forward, her body on cruise control.

“Glad you could make it,” Rebecca greeted warmly, opening the door before Ebony even knocked. She looked hard at her new friend. “How’s the road?”

“Snow covered,” Ebony said, her eyes and ears on red alert.

“Think we can move today?”

“Yes.” Ebony shook the snow off herself, walked in, and quickly glanced around the room, breathing a sigh of relief when she saw only Rebecca, Jenny, and Doc. “The plow will go through soon, and then it’ll be clear sailing.”

“You look nice today,” Jenny said to Ebony with an awkward smile, an unnatural tension between them.

Ebony nodded quickly to Jenny, then turned away. “I think we should get ready.”

Doc rose from his chair.

“Where are you going, Dad?”

“I’m coming along,” he boomed. “Heaven knows what dangers await.” He gazed at the ceiling. “Did I ever tell you about the blizzard of forty-six? Now that was a storm. Not isolated flurries like today. In those days, a man had to be made of steel.” He puffed up his once-impressive chest.

“Sure, Dad, we know all about it. Forty-six? Wasn’t that the year you won five gold medals at the Olympics?”

“No, sweetheart, you’re confused. Forty-six was the year I swam across the Atlantic Ocean”—he paused—“underwater.”

Rebecca and Jenny laughed. Ebony, self-conscious to a fault, laughed too, but wondered if the others found it unnatural. She also wondered if Doc, obviously well aware of the situation by now, was making a special effort to distract her. It seemed to her that she was almost floating in the air and looking down at herself, as if every word she spoke, every action she committed, was forced and being minutely scrutinized.

“You were thinking of sixty-eight,” Doc corrected, putting on his coat. “In Montreal, or was it Mexico City? Anyway, that was the year I won six gold medals in what many have called the greatest single achievement in sports history.” He casually yawned. “It’s not every day that someone wins seven gold medals, my dear.”

“And I know in what events,” Rebecca teased. “Eating, sleeping, not picking up your clothes, not shaving.”

“Acting the fool,” Doc added. “Don’t forget that one, love.” He smiled at Ebony. “A tired old soul like me might not have much to offer, but I hope I can still make people laugh.”

Ebony knew he was trying to cheer her up, so she smiled warmly at him. “God knows we all need to laugh sometimes,” she said, forcing a smile.

Ebony wanted to throw up her hands and run out the door, so conscious was she of herself, but in her tone was an undercurrent of anger, an anger directed at the man who had betrayed her, the man in whose house she now stood, the man she never wanted to see again so long as she lived.

“You’re an angel, Ebony,” Doc said, “and because you’re so wonderful, I’m coming along as a personal bodyguard.”

“Sorry, Dad, but we’ve got nowhere to put you. Unless you want to sit on the roof.”

“Good enough. I’ll ride shotgun.”

Rebecca laughed. “It might be too cold even for the man of steel.”

“Nonsense, sweetheart. If I lived through last night, I can certainly handle this balmy weather.”

“Are you still complaining about last night?” Rebecca said, shaking her head. “His heating vent accidentally got closed, but to listen to him, you’d swear he camped out on top of Mount Everest.”

Doc looked offended. “I’m telling you it was so cold last night that I’m sure polar bears would have migrated south.” He tilted his head and lightly tapped it with the palm of his hand. “If I had poured some water on the floor, I could have skated in there.” He tapped his head again.

“What are you doing?” Rebecca asked.

“I was sleeping soundly,” Doc began, “when all of a sudden I heard this clunking noise. So I opened my eyes and looked around, but there was nothing out of place. No sooner do I turn over, and presto, there it is again. It took me awhile, but I finally figured it out.”

“Well?” Rebecca cried impatiently. “What was it?”

“In all my years, I’ve never run across a similar case.”

“What!” Rebecca shrieked.

“It was so cold in my room last night,” Doc said, “that my dreams were freezing solid and banging around inside my noggin.”

The women laughed, and even Ebony smiled at his silly manner.

“Oh, Dad,” Rebecca exclaimed, “you’re incorrigible.” She flattened his cheeks with the palms of her hands and kissed him on the nose. “But I love you anyway.”

Doc assumed a serious expression. “It was cold last night, though, wasn’t it, Ebony?”

“You can say that again.”

Suddenly she saw Ethan standing in the living room doorway, looking at her. The world stopped. Everything ceased to exist except him, a few feet away, staring into her eyes. Ebony could hardly breathe, her throat tightened, and a rush of sticky heat surged over every pore of her body. It was like a moment frozen in time, yet a moment in which worlds clashed, battles raged, and a history, long and deep, surfaced. Years of love, hopes, dreams, crushing misery—everything combined in that moment as Ebony Evans and Ethan Harrington stood face-to-face, eyes locked, lives on hold, futures undetermined. Doc, Rebecca, and Jenny looked from Ebony to Ethan, and then back again. But Ebony and Ethan saw only each other.