About Rain and Roses

by BA Tortuga
6 pages / 2000 words
ISBN: 978-1-60370-190-7, 1-60370-190-7
Available file types - html, lit, pdf, prc

Elizabeth is watching the rainstorm, trying to admit that summer is fading and that soon her roses will, too. That's when Samuel comes to her, like he always does, in the dark of the night. Samuel needs Elizabeth, but she needs him more. Elizabeth wants Samuel for more than just sex. She might even need him for life itself.

Sample

She heard the rain start outside, plopping from the gardenia onto the fencepost then down into the ground to feed the roots of the roses. Elizabeth smiled, looking up from the dog-eared pages of her novel – one she’d read so often she didn’t really need to see the words anymore. The storm had threatened all evening, the lightning taking out the electricity hours ago, thunder making the parakeets squawk and flutter in their cages. She’d wandered about, lighting emergency candles when the storm made the sky dark, and opening the shutters so the breeze would come through.

She thought it might be late enough to just open up the house, keep the air conditioner off, and admit that summer was fading and fall on its way. Maybe she should go down to the nursery and buy iris bulbs tomorrow evening, mums to fill the window boxes and…

“You’re always thinking.” It was less a complaint than an observation as cool hands sliding over her shoulders from behind the rocker, sliding her braid out of the way. It wouldn’t be long before those long fingers slipped off the tie at the end, spreading her dark chestnut hair out along her back.

Along the sheets.

“You’re here early.”  She hadn’t seen him in weeks. Not since the last new moon.

“The thunder called me.”  Samuel worked the buttons of her pale linen shirt open, one after another, relentless and unquestioning and, had the rain and wind not been so welcome, such a distraction, it would have made her growl and snap. As it was, by the time she remembered to mutter and complain, he was cupping her breasts, forefingers gliding in lazy circles around her nipples as her shirt slipped down her arms to pool on the hardwood floor. So dark against her skin. He was so dark.

“So pink,” he chuckled, tugging on one enough to make her shift, enough to send jolt of lightning down through her belly, awakening the first hint of hunger in the pit of her belly.

“I didn’t say you could do that.”

Samuel’s chuckle brushed the little escaped hairs by her ears, “I didn’t ask, Pet.”