Vivid (27 page)

Vivid walked with him out to the porch.

He smiled at her. "I enjoy your
company."

Vivid looked up into his handsome dark
face and saw the Grayson jaw and the smoke-colored eyes. "I enjoy your
company also."

"But you're probably never going to
have dinner with me, are you?"

"Never is a long time."

"If my cousin has his way it will be
a long time. Mother told me she believes you're Nate's pillar of fire.''

His words caught her off-guard. "Did
she tell you I believe she's mistaken?"

"She did."

"And what do you think?"

"Truthfully?"

She nodded.

"As much as I hate to admit it, she
may be right, which means, my dear Viveca, you and I are destined to become no
more than friends."

His dark eyes held hers and she said,
"Is that so awful?"

"It is when I'd planned on being the
one kissing you the way my cousin obviously had been doing when you first
walked up."

Vivid blinked at his bluntness.

"No offense intended, but your lips
give you away."

She guiltily brought her fingers to her
lips.

He chuckled. "Thanks for providing
verification."

Vivid's eyes narrowed as she said,
"Eli Grayson, you tricked me!"

He grinned. "All part of my
charm."

"Well, you turn that charm on someone
else," she warned teasingly.

Their eyes held. Vivid thought of how he
was going to make some woman very happy one day. He was as handsome as his
cousin, and had an infectious, exciting air about him, but Vivid knew that she
would not be the woman in Eli's future.

After he left, Vivid went out back and sat
on the swing to watch the beautiful sunset. Her reverie was broken by Nate
walking up to the porch.

He stopped at the lip of the porch and
stood facing the sunset. Vivid ran her eyes over the strong lines of his shoulders
and back and once again marveled at his magnificent stature. She then heard him
say, "Eli's gone, I see."

"Yes, he is."

Silence.

"He get what he needed for his
paper?"

"Yes."

He turned and faced her then, and their
eyes held. She realized she had a very serious problem; her attraction to him
made her want his kisses whenever he came near. Surely she should be able to
exercise more control over her desire.

Their moment was broken by Magic running
and yelling, "Pa? Where are you?"

Nate left to see what his daughter wanted
and returned with the young girl in tow. "I promised her a story tonight
before she went to bed. You'll have to excuse me," he explained.

Magic piped up. "Maybe Dr. Lancaster
would like to hear the story, too. My pa is an excellent storyteller."

Nate chuckled. "When did you start
using words like 'excellent'?"

"Becky Carpenter said we should all
be striving to increase our vocabulary."

"I see," Nate said.

Magic looked at Vivid. "Well, Dr.
Lancaster, do you want to hear the story?"

"I don't want to intrude on your and
your father's special time."

Magic craned her neck up to her father and
asked, "Do you mind, Pa?"

He shook his head that he did not.

Vivid scooted over to make room for Nate
on the swing and Magic hopped onto his lap. "What's the story going to be,
Pa?"

Nate leaned his head back on the swing as
if thinking, then asked, "How about 'How the Bat Got Its Wings'?"

"No, let's save that for lacrosse
time. How about a princess story then?" Magic asked eagerly. "You
haven't told me a princess story in a long, long time."

She looked at Vivid and said, "Widow
Moss said Pa's princess stories were bad for my constitution."

"I see," Vivid replied, though
she didn't at all. She was still trying to sort out what a bat story might have
to do with the game of lacrosse. She leaned over to ask that question just as
Nate started to speak.

"This story is called 'How Mother
Africa Got Its Rain.' Once upon a time there was a beautiful dark-skinned
princess. Her father was a great African king and her mother a beautiful
Spanish queen."

Vivid raised an eyebrow. The princess's
ancestral tree sounded a lot like her own, but Vivid kept her peace.

"Did she have a tree house?"
Magic interrupted.

Her father looked down at her and asked
with a smile, "Majestic, haven't we agreed that you would not interrupt a
story when I'm telling it?"

She nodded yes.

"And didn't I promise to build you a
tree house when you return from Detroit?"

She nodded yes again.

"Then will you please stop pestering
your old pa?"

She nodded yes a third time.

Before Nate could begin his story, Magic
whispered loudly to Vivid, "Pa doesn't like me to ask a lot of
questions."

Vivid whispered back, "My pa didn't,
either."

"Lancaster?" Nate said, leaning
over.

"Oh, sorry," she said guiltily.
She and Magic shared a silent giggle.

Nate continued. "Anyway, the
beautiful princess was loved by her people and she loved them. She was also
very brave. When slavers came to their little land, she and her parents led an
army and drove the slavers back into the sea."

"She sounds very brave," Magic
said softly.

"She was. She had a very big problem,
though. There'd been no rain for many years, and all the crops and animals were
dying in the heat. Her people were starving."

"So what did she do?"

"She went to the village shaman, and
he told her to go and search for the Thunder God and see if she could barter
for some rain."

The tale continued with the princess's
long search for the Thunder God. Nate's descriptions of the tricksters and evil
spirits the princess defeated and outsmarted on her quest made Vivid understand
why Magic loved her father's princess stories. The princess was smart, brave,
and true, and Nate was indeed an excellent storyteller.

The princess searched for so long that at
one point in the tale her small sack of food became nearly empty, but even
though she was down to her last corn cake, she shared it with a magic raven who
was very hungry, too. The raven repaid her for her generosity by revealing the
whereabouts of the Thunder God's cave.

"That was nice of him," Vivid
supplied.

"I think so, too," Magic added.

Nate, smiling at yet another interruption,
simply shook his head and continued. “The princess found the cave, but the
Thunder God took one look at her beauty and told her to go away."

"But why, Pa?"

He looked down at his daughter and said
softly, "He was frightened."

"He didn't know that the princess
wouldn't harm him?"

"No, he didn't."

"But he was a big strong god, Pa, why
was he frightened?"

"Because he really wanted her to stay
and visit, and he didn't think she would like someone who lived underground.
He'd been alone most of his life and was very, very lonely."

"He didn't even have a
daughter?" Magic asked.

"No, Majestic, he didn't even have a
daughter. He lived in his dark underground cave all alone, making
thunder."

"That's sad, Pa."

"Very sad," Vivid whispered,
looking at him.

"Well, the princess thought so, too.
So she stayed with him awhile and taught him how to play games and read books
and most of all how to smile again. He'd forgotten how to do those things
because he'd lived underground for so long.

"After teaching the Thunder God all
the things he'd forgotten, the princess then asked about water for her land. By
now, the Thunder God was in love with the beautiful princess and he didn't want
her to leave."

"Did the princess love him, too,
Pa?"

"Yes, and she didn't want to leave
him, either, but her people were depending on her for the rain, so she struck a
bargain. She agreed to stay underground with him for six months every year and
make him smile, and in exchange he promised to give her people all the rain
they wanted for those six months. So now in Africa there is a rainy season and
a dry season, all thanks to the beautiful brave princess."

Nate glanced down at his daughter's face
and smiled. "How was that for a story?"

"I liked it, Pa. Too bad the Thunder
God didn't give the people rain all year round, though."

"Well, you know from other stories
how gods act sometimes. He probably didn't want the princess to go home at all
and pouted the whole time she was away."

Magic nodded, then said, "Well, I
liked the story anyway. How about you, Dr. Lancaster, did you like my pa's
story?"

He wouldn't look at her but Vivid spoke
directly to him anyway, "I liked your pa's story very much."

His gaze brushed over Vivid just long
enough to increase the pace of her heartbeat, then he asked his daughter,
"Are you ready for bed now?"

She nodded yes. Magic laughed when her pa
lifted her to his strong shoulders and carried her home.

The darkness settled in star-studded
abandon over the countryside, bringing with it the night's velvet hush and a
beautiful moon. Vivid could hear the song of the crickets and the occasional
menacing buzz of a mosquito as she sat in the swing. The little biting beasties
were an increasing problem now that the nights were warmer. She'd been warned
they'd only worsen as the summer progressed, but she sat outside a bit longer
anyway, enjoying the night air and mulling over Nate's story of the princess
and the Thunder God. Had he purposely chosen this fascinating way to reveal
himself and his feelings? She heard a footfall behind her. She turned and heard
Nate say, "Thought you'd be inside by now."

Just the sight of him made her senses
soar. She hadn't expected he would return. "No, I'm just enjoying sitting
here and not having anywhere to be. I love this swing, Nate Grayson. I also
loved your story. Magic is lucky to have a storyteller in the family."

He smiled in the dark and said, "I
can't believe she's still after me about that tree house."

"She's a persistent little
girl."

"That she is," he replied.

Silence settled between them as they each
pursued private thoughts.

Nate could feel himself teetering on the
edge of an abyss as he gazed at her in the moonlight. His need for her grew
stronger with each passing moment. He walked over to where she sat with her
trousered legs drawn up onto the seat of the swing. He then stood over her as
if coming closer would somehow solve the riddle of his attraction. Being so
near only made the need sharpen. Moonbeams streamed over his shoulder, bathing
her as she sat looking up at him. His devouring eyes took in the beautiful
glory of her coiled hair, the graceful line of her throat, and the soft rise
and fall of her breathing from within the loose-fitting shirt as she waited for
his next move.

Before he realized what he was about he
sat down next to her, moved closer, and with a hand placed gently behind her
head, eased her into a kiss. Her mouth was as sweet as he'd remembered,
sweeter. He thought kissing her again would cure him of what he knew to be
madness, but the dementia spread and flared, making him pull her closer so he
could slowly run his hands over her delicate shoulders, the sturdy softness of
her spine, and the lush curve of her hip.

"We aren't supposed to be doing this..."
she whispered, her heart beginning to beat with a familiar sensual rhythm.

He was kissing his way down her throat and
up to her ear as his hand cupped her breast. "I know. I'm hoping to find a
reason to stop...but I haven't yet..."

He bent his head to her captured breast
and bit her softly through her cotton shirt. Vivid shuddered, and then as he
moved to pay tribute to the other side she shuddered once more. His mouth was
warm, hot, her nipples aching when he raised his head. "You have a mouth
as lush as spring..." he whispered just before covering her lips with
another long lingering kiss.

Vivid could do nothing but feed on the
sensations he evoked. Every brush of his lips across her mouth, the throbbing
point of her temple, and the shell of her ear promised passion and gentleness.
His touch was like wildfire, his hands like flames as she felt them slowly
blazing a trail down her back. There was no sanity here, just a man and a woman
caught up in the raw vitality of desire.

Slowly he unbuttoned her shirt and she
felt the night breeze sweep her bared skin. He placed kisses against her
trembling throat and she moaned softly as his heated palms slid feverishly over
her breasts. His touch made her arch, his teasing fingers made her swell. When
he eased his hot hand inside her gaping chemise and squeezed her nipple
seductively, piercing ripples swept her up and overrode all.