Sapphire and Shadow (A Woman's Life) by Marie Ferrarella

Author:Marie Ferrarella
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2014-05-12T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-one

“Did it bother you?”

She turned to look at him. The sky beyond the van was turning a deep, murky gray, a forewarning of the coming storm. She wondered if they’d make it back to the hotel in time. She felt uneasy about driving on these narrow country roads in the rain. To the left, far below the winding road, the river churned and lapped, its restless waves reaching toward the sky and the dark pregnant clouds that loomed there. One aspect of nature communing with another.

“Did what bother me?”

“When Mrs. Foggerty called me your young man.”

Johanna looked down at her hands and shrugged, feeling a little uncomfortable. “I thought it might bother you ...” her voice trailed off. Nerves began to rise within her, nudging, urging.

“It didn’t. It doesn’t.”

She looked up at him, surprised. The promise she had detected in his voice once or twice before was there again.

But the promise of what? What was it he was offering her? And what was it she wanted? She wasn’t sure she knew any more. But she did know she liked being with him, liked sharing the afternoon. It made her feel young, carefree. Happy. Did anyone have a right to ask for more than this?

“I’m older than you are, Tommy,” she said quietly.

Her voice was barely audible. He regretted the question. She looked awkward. He should learn to think a bit more before speaking, he chastised himself. Yet he felt so comfortable with her that he didn’t really feel the need to edit his words. “A couple of years don’t mean very much.” He turned his headlights on as the road grew darker still.

“I’m thirty-four, Tommy.”

It was only a number. And it didn’t fit her. “And I’m twenty-nine.”

“Five years.” She breathed the words out as if they were a death sentence to anything that might have been between them.

The van felt small, cozy. The light scent that she always wore filled every crevice, filled his head, his very pores. “Only makes a difference if I were two and you seven.”

She laughed softly. “You’re hard to resist, you know that?”

Tommy pulled the van over to the side of the road. The thunder rumbled ominously overhead as he touched her cheek gently, running his thumb along the soft hollow. His touch felt soft, so unbearably soft. Her eyes all but fluttered shut.

“Then don’t try.”

He breathed the words against her cheek just before he lowered his mouth to hers. Cupping the back of her head with his hand, he drew her closer.

She wasn’t certain how this moment had come into being, only that it was there. When his lips touched hers, a hungry need exploded within her. The hesitation she felt was only for a moment, and then it was gone as if it never existed. Johanna wound her fingers into his hair, holding him close, drifting miles away from earth. With a mindless passion that she hadn’t realized lived within her, she lost herself in the heat of his mouth as it slanted over hers.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.