Brown Eyes in the Storm

"That many didn't evacuate? The roads were packed when I came down."

"Well, those roads are all damaged or impassable in places, now. Interstate 10 is torn to hell. Highway 90 is a mess as well. Like everything." He shook his head, and then turned to look at a black car with two guys in it that pulled up and waved at him. "Anything else, youngster?"

"Nope, that about covers it. Thanks."

"Careful on that thing." He pointed to my bike. "There's all kinds of trash on the roads to get a wheel tangled up on. And the whole county is under martial law, by the way. There's a curfew. Sunset to sunrise."

I nodded and cranked the bike while he walked over to talk to the guys in the car. I could tell he was answering the exact same questions I had asked. As I pulled away, I idly wondered how many times he had already answered them today, and how many more times he would have to hear those same questions in the week, or weeks, to come.

Mindful of what he had said concerning the gas situation I turned the big bike back towards Wendy's. But then stopped and swerved to follow a line of cars picking their way down a road to only turn at the end. I pulled the bike over and stopped to stare at the sight before my eyes. At the end of this road, piled up carelessly like a sullen child's discarded toys, were possibly as many as ten sailboats.

This road was not, really, that close to the gulf. Flooding from the rain? Surely that can't be the storm surge line?

Then I looked to the right of the sailboats and saw that the whole subdivision next to it was simply destroyed. Suddenly, feeling both very lucky to be alive and so very small in a very big dangerous world, I headed the bike back to Wendy.

I passed a few National Guard trucks on my way back that had not been there on my way in. These didn't have the look of the "digging in the ruble to help survivors" type guard men. Their rifles were very evident. I suddenly was very conscious of the fact I had left Wendy alone.

** ** ** ** ** ** **

I shouldn't have worried over her. She was getting back to some semblance of her normal self, giving her something that she knew how to deal with seemed to be what it took to do that. By the time I pulled the 'Busa back into her garage she had the whole neighborhood organized, well to some extent moving in the same direction anyway. I saw several women setting up what looked like an outdoor kitchen. There were men carrying picnic tables of every shape and type out to an area that had been cleaned off. Pulling off my helmet and gloves, I watched her with an inner pride as she directed people like a football coach. And they went where she pointed and did what she asked I noticed.

Here was exactly what her Ex-husband had never been able to stand, and what her son grumbled about. Wendy could "manage" things with efficiency. Be it organizing a house, or getting together a dozen families to have a community dinner. She was a conductor tuning an orchestra to her liking and the two men in her life wanted to be Rock Gods breaking their Fender Stratocaster guitars across Marshal amplifiers. Well, the third man in her life didn't mind it at all. I left my jacket over the seat of the bike and headed towards her.

When I walked up, to ask her what she needed me to do, Calvin was there and gave me a look.

"Just like a young fella' shows back up once most of the work is done." There was a grin on his face but I could hear the sincerity in his words as well. I noticed he had on a blue and gold Vietnam veteran's hat that he hadn't been wearing yesterday morning. But it was the old green web belt with the side holstered .45 that really caught my attention. "We could have used you an hour ago."

"Hush, Calvin, what he was doing was more important." she looked to me. "Well?"

With them listening, I went over what the officer--and a few others I had stopped to talk to before and after him--had told me. The part about martial law, the National Guard and the curfew caught the most attention. There was some grumbling that it was going to be at least a few weeks to get the power back on. But then they had not seen the miles of downed power poles and twisted phone, power and cable lines lying like abandoned strings after a cat was done playing with them.

When I finished both where somber.

Calvin looked over to where the women were fixing a quick lunch. "Let me go tell the gossip service, we need this to spread as far as quickly as it can. Thanks and ... sorry, for what I said."

I waved off the apology and watched him walk over to the kitchen. When I looked back at Wendy she was looking at me. She mouthed the word "Bad?" I nodded. She gave a deep sigh then moved to lean into my chest. I gave her a quick hung then smiled when she pulled back quickly.

"You're all sweaty!"

"My jacket was hot. Sorry."

"What did you wear it for then ... never mind road rash on bare skin, I remember. Come on let's get you a drink."

"Speaking of drinks, I have two bottle of rum in the bag on my bike. Found them just floating in a flooded parking lot. There must be a liquor store nearby there that they got washed out of."

"Oh, I love rum, but that's looting." She linked her arm in mine and we walked over to where the food was soon going to be handed out.

"No, if I had gone into the store and taken it off the shelf that would be looting, this was just floating by. So see, I'm simply helping with the cleanup efforts."

She chuckled then looked around at the neighborhood. Hers was by far not the worst house on the block. There were some with no roof left at all. Several had trees through them. Wendy shook her head and sighed. "It's going to take a lot more than picking up a couple of bottles."

"Yeah...."

** ** ** ** ** ** **

With lunch a distant memory, and with the barbeque they had going for dinner making the whole neighborhood smell wonderful, I placed the last limb I intended to haul today on the curb. The house behind me was a mess with a tree through the back half of it, but between the efforts of five guys we had managed to get the branches hauled outside and a tarp the owner had been using to cover his boat over the largest area of damaged roof.

Dripping sweat in this terrible humidity, I had pushed myself to a point I hadn't been in years. It felt good, similar to the warm muscle glow of a good workout, but I was far too dehydrated by this point. This climate was brutal compared to what I normally enjoyed. Wiping the sweat off my face, I walked over towards Wendy's house and collapsed into the swing set in the back garden.

I know I had only closed my eyes for a moment but then I blinked and the sun had dropped to the tree tops.

"There you are. I'd wondered where you went to." Wend knelt down in front of me, smiled and placed her hand on my leather encased leg. "Come on, have some dinner."

"Almost too tired to eat." With a groan I levered myself to me feet and looked down at her. It was a pleasant surprise when she reached up and brushed my hair back from my face. Even more so when she rose on her toes and placed a soft kiss on my lips. Then her hand caught the fabric of my shirt and pulled me into a much longer, harder kiss.

"Sit. Rest. I'll bring you a plate." She let her fingers trail down my cheek. "Go on, sit back down. I'll be right back."

Easing back down, I let my eyes linger on the curved thighs, and the shapely ass, she presented in the cut off shorts she had put on this morning. Again for a moment I pondered how any fool could leave this woman. But then I let that go. I really didn't care why he had, I was simple glad he had. I sat with my eyes half-closed till I heard her footsteps and opened then to her beauty.

"Thank you."

"No, thank you, again." She eased into the seat next to me and handed me a can of semi-cold soda. "I don't know what I would have done down here without you."

"You would have managed. You're very good at that."

She shook her head. "I good with things I can handle. But this ... all of this? No, I needed you here to help me find my way back to where I even know what to try and do." She looked at my plate watching me slowly eat. "Can I get you anything else?"

"One of the bottles from my saddle bag." I moved my can over and let it touch hers. "What's a sunset feast without a cocktail hour?"

She smiled and nodded. "Not too much though. It will dehydrate you more."

Again I watched her walk away and come back, enjoying the view both times. With her steady hands she poured a shot worth of rum into the can I was drinking from, and then did the same for herself. She sat back down next to me sipping her drink and looking at the label.

"Barbancourt? Hum, can't say I've tried it before. It mixes well."

I simply nodded, enjoying a slight numbing of pain. Probably all mental, there wasn't enough in a shot to take away too much, but then I was simply happy to have a place to sit down, food and the company. All of those were probably helping as well. As I finished eating, the garden began to grow dark around us. I set my plate to the side and took her hand in mine. She had told me last night in a whisper, while we were lying next to each other, that since the storm she was now afraid of the dark.

I watched her silhouette lift the rum bottle to her lips and take a pull directly from it. Then a second.

"That is very good rum." She handed me the bottle "John, I'm going to go take a bath in the pool. Come join me ... please. I would like the company."

Setting the bottle next to my plate, I got to my feet and--with her leading me by my hand--followed her to where the steps descended into the pool. I can't think of a time in my life when I have wished for more light then when she began to pull off her clothes. As is, all I saw of her was a silky outline, with a few highlights that told me little-or-nothing, other than that she was not shaved and her nipples were dark.

"Come on, join me. The water will feel wonderful." Her hand was on mine then her fingers slipped slowly out as she moved forwards and stepped down into the water. She slid under the water without a splash and then I saw her shape in the pool dart towards the other side.

I laid my smelly leather riding pants on a fallen piece of rose trellis nearby and my sweat damp shirt next to it. When I stepped into the pool the water covering my ankles was bathtub hot. But, as I walked out deeper, it got marginally cooler around my feet.

Wendy surfaced right in front of me, rising from the pool like a shadow. I was not expecting to feel her body against mine, but I happily opened my arms and wrapped her into them, as her lips met mine. Her back was a soft warmth under my hands. But it was her mouth, those wonderfully sweet lips seeking mine in that darkness, that I paid my full attention to. I was breathless when she broke the kiss. Before I could say a word her wet fingers were on my lips.

"Just listen for a second." Her hand left my face and came to rest on my chest between my pecks. "I loved Jason, from the moment we met till the day he told me it was over between us. I loved him. I gave him my whole heart. I bore him a son, and watched him raised that son into a person that doesn't like Me." I went to interrupt her but again her hand silenced my lips and words. "Martin loves me yes, I know he does ... but like me, no. I did everything I know how to do to give my husband the easiest life that he could have. He came home to a cooked meal, every night. The house was always clean, his clothes always ironed. I ... I can't, in truth, say sex was his for the asking, but it was just about that."

Wendy pulled me into her then, leaned her head onto my chest and hugged me. "I enjoyed it and he was a lot nicer to me afterwards, not so surly when I managed him ... so yeah, sure. Why not?"

"Because he never appreciated what he had. That's why." I cupped the back of her cool, wet head; my finger sinking into her hair. "He never looked at what you were doing and saw that it was out of love. He saw it as you doing it to make him live the way, you, wanted him to live. Both of them did, I know I've heard them bitch."

She nodded, which was nothing more than a rubbing of her face against the wet hair on my chest. I took a deep breath enjoying feeling her bare breasts, the nipples twin hard points.

"John ... I'm tired of being used. I've let men do that to me, use my own nature against me to give them what they wanted and then I got treated like shit for doing it." I could not make out her facial expression in the dark but I could see that she was looking up at me. "Now, I know I'm the one that told you to make your twenties about sex, that those were the fun years, to go live them up. If that's what you are wanting from me ... okay, a fling isn't out of the question. But will you please tell me that now? Tell me that sex is all you're wanting from me."

For a second I thought she had more to say but then realized she was waiting for my answer.

"Marry me."

Her gasp alone broke the silence that followed those two words. Again I wanted to curse the lack of light that kept from me her face.

"I ... I can't ... I mean...."

Squatting down in the water, I caught her with both my arms under her ass and lifted her upper body clear of the water. She clung to my head and shoulders then moaned when my lips found one of her nipples; I sucked that tight point in between my lips. Her fingers tightened in my hair, holding me to her breast. Slowly I turned in the water, and then I let her sink back into the water till her feet were resting on the pools step. My cock, hardening quickly, was between her thighs and she was panting for breath when my mouth claimed hers, now level with mine, again. I let this kiss tell her all that I felt for her. Slowly, I titled my forehead till the kiss broke. We stood there in the water our bodies touching from that point of contact all the way down to our knees.

"I want you, Wendy. I want you tonight. I want you tomorrow night and for all the tomorrow nights after that. I want to ..."

"Shush. No, John. No. That can never happen." She caressed my face, leaving pool water to weep away like tears. "Think of Martin, what he would ...."

"I really don't care what he thinks for even a moment."

"Then think of this. I'm still in my fifties true, but what about ten years from now? You will still be so very young and I'll be a gray haired lady."

My lips brushed hers as my hand cupped her ass. "I'll help keep you young."

"Oh, lord ... JOHN! I'm not joking." She placed a hand on my chest to keep me from kissing her again and sighed. "I'm ... I ... look, I need some time to look at the idea of a man in my life again. With everything that has happened I might make a rushed judgment I would regret." Her hand slowly began to caress my chest. "Like this one. I ... I want you to take me to bed. Nothing beyond that, not yet. Just a simple night of pleasure, to drive away some of the fear from the last few days. Will that be acceptable to you?"

"It's a place to start from." I loved it when she moved to snuggle into my chest. "A very good place."

"You're just saying that because you're going to get laid." Her hand moved down and she wrapped her fingers around my cock. She slowly stroked it. "But I mean, since if I'm going to have you sleeping next to me tonight anyway, I might as well have some fun ... right? That's what I've been telling you; can't have you calling me a hypocrite, now can I?"

"I love you, Wendy. I would never call you a hypocrite."

"I know you do, John. Come on." She gave me a tug. "Let's go have some fun."

"Why leave? It's cooler here." I let my hand caress her back down till my fingertips rested on her ass cheek.

"It's also very public."

I had to laugh. "Lovely, I can't even see the nose on your face. Who will see us?" "Not see us ... hear...Me." Even in the darkness I could tell she was embarrassed. "I tend to be a bit ... vocal."

"Oh, do tell me more." My hand moved to cup her ass again and I leaned my head into to kiss her again. She was, I found when our lips touched, smiling.

"Would rather show you." She teasingly bit my lip "Come on."

She took my hand and, with me following the dark figure before me, led me out the pool. We paused, on our trek through the house, only long enough to each grab a towel. I was suddenly very glad for the time I had spent with a broom yesterday. Walking barefoot would have been impossible before that, and putting back on my riding boots, onto wet feet, was not at all an attractive idea.

When we arrived at the spare bedroom, now the only bedroom without its ceiling open to the sky, Wendy turned my hand loose and moved to where the battery lamp was. The bulb was a very dim, the batteries were almost dead. She turned towards me to find me smiling at her. She looked down at her naked body and gave a shrug. Then her eyes roamed over me, not bothering to be subtle or shy about it, a simple frank examination. Her little appreciative sigh of pleaser was an ego stroke. She set the lamp to the side and moved over to the bed.

"Come here you. I'm tired of being teased," she said, as she laid herself down. I watched for a moment her hand caress the outside of her thigh.

I did not need an invitation. That was a party I was going to attend even if I had to crash the gate. Moving over to her, I followed her onto the mattress, looking down into her dark eyes as we moved in to kiss. Her hand stopped me against my chest.

"This is just for this once. Understand?"

I nodded unable to trust my voice to speak, fearing I would say something stupid and not even get this moment. This incredibly magical moment as I crossed that last inch to her lips. Now it was my hand on her hip, then crossing her thigh. Then running through that tight tangle of hairs to touch her puffy mound. Wendy moaned into our kiss, then her lips playfully smiled and I felt her hand move between us to again wrap around my cock. Her fingertips lightly tickling my balls.

Under my fingers I felt her move; she opened her legs and lifted herself to meet my touch. Her nether lips were soaked, possibly from pool water but my mind told me no likely. The woman under me was. As she said, tired of being teased. Tired of being aroused and not sated. And as my fingers ran between those plump lips and touched her labia again she moaned into out joined lips, filling my mouth with a breath of passion.

It was a sound I copied as she tightened her hand around me.

Then her lips were by my ear, a whisper that tickled the hairs on the nap of my neck. "A small part of me wants to play with you all night, tons of caressing, all the oral we both can stand and orgasms like crazy. But the better part of me, the part that might tell you what I feel for you, wants you to simply be inside me. To cover me with your body and make me part of you. To be made love to. Please, John, take the bad choice away."

"Beautiful, there is no bad choice between those two." I pushed myself up and slid between her legs. She wrapped her arms around my neck as I slowly lowered myself into position. "There's no reason to choose, either." I felt her open up for me and I gave a solid push that moved me into her completely. She moaned under me. "You can have both."

"Come here then."

The house was no less humid than it had been but now that heat was ignorable. She felt like a sexual furnace when I felt my chest touch the whole of her; those soft breasts pushing up against me. It was a heat I welcomed as I began a slow rocking pump into and out of her. Her gripping me tightly. And then, true to her word, she began to moan.

From delicate whimpers when I bottomed out in her, to full throated growls of lust when I pulled back and pushed home with force.