Vivid (39 page)

She placed her head on his strong chest,
closed her eyes, and promptly fell asleep.

As she'd done on the previous morning,
Vivid slept into the afternoon. Nate knew she needed the rest, so he let her
sleep.

When Vivid awakened, she sat up groggily
and peered at her surroundings. The unfamiliarity of the room vanished as she
saw Nate standing over the table seasoning a mess of fish. "You're just in
time for lunch, madam."

"I fell asleep on you again, didn't
I?"

"That's okay, princess. You're here
to rest, remember. Besides, that just means I can keep you up till
sunrise."

Vivid felt the heat burn her face and
smiled.

Nate cooked the fish in a pan over a fire
outside. As Vivid ate her lunch of fish and potatoes, she marveled at the
beauty around them. They were on the bank of a small, clear-running river.
Stately pines grew thickly around the little clearing. The blue sky overhead
only added to nature's canvas. "This is a beautiful place," Vivid
remarked.

"Yes, it is. It originally belonged
to a Napowesipe friend of my grandfather's. When the government forced them off
the land, he sold it to my grandfather rather than let the government take it.
My grandfather pledged that if any of his friend's family should ever return,
the land will revert to them."

"Your grandfather must have been an
honorable man."

“My grandfather was taken from the mother
continent as a young man. He knew what it meant to have one's life
stolen."

After the meal they went berry hunting.

"You actually brought buckets?"
Vivid questioned laughingly as he handed her one.

"Yes, I did."

"Well lead the way."

They had a perfect day. Nate pointed out
areas that held memories, like the deserted sawmill downstream where he, Eli,
and Maddie played when they were young. He also showed her the remnants of a
large fire ring once used by the People before their forced removal. "My
grandfather would bring Eli and me here at night sometimes. We were very young.
He'd build a fire in the ring, then sit us down beside it. He'd remove his
clothes and dance the dances he'd done before captivity. For hours he would
dance under the moon, singing in a tongue we didn't know. 'Dancing
for the ancestors' he called it. He told us that as long as we remembered, and
our children remembered, the spirits of all who'd come before would remain
alive."

They continued their walk along the
riverbank, holding hands and enjoying the solitude and sunshine. When Nate
challenged her to a race, Vivid cheated and ran off early. He caught up to her
in just a few strides, swooped her up into his arms, and ran with her screaming
and laughing the rest of the way. "You little cheat," he said,
grinning, as they reached the tree designated as the goal. He playfully swung
her around until she howled for mercy.

Winded and laughing, Nate slid down the
base of the tree until he hit the ground with her on his lap. "Such a
cheat..."

Their smiling eyes held and the passion
they'd both been suppressing for weeks bloomed to life. He leaned over and
kissed her gently at first, as if he wanted to reacquaint himself with the
softness and shape of her lips. Sweet short kisses made her hungry for a
longer, fuller taste of him. Brief whispering kisses set her desire flowing and
sent her hands up the strength of his back. In the end he pulled her closer and
gave her the long full kiss she desired.

"We're supposed to be looking for
berries," she told him in a voice made soft by emotion.

"In a moment," he replied,
savoring the honey of her mouth. He brought his hand up to caress her spine and
waist, reveling in the feel of her slim form pressed against him so languidly.
He cupped her breast and rubbed his thumb over her nipple until it berried up
sweet and ripe. "Now, let's go," he whispered against her lips.

Vivid let him take her hand and pull her
to her feet. She pulsed with the haze of desire as he led her deeper into the
forest.

They never did find any berries, but Vivid
found herself braced against a tree with her shirt open to her waist while Nate
lustily picked the variety of berry he enjoyed best. She had her head thrown
back as he loved her within the shelter of the pine forest. She could only moan
as he slid her skirt to her waist and slowly dragged her drawers down and off.
He then knelt to boldly sample a smaller berry he found just as sweet.

The walk back to the cabin took some time
because they kept stopping to exchange lingering kisses and caresses. Vivid's
body was kiss-swollen everywhere, and Nate was so hard his manhood screamed for
release.

Once in the cabin, he laid her on the bed
and quickly undressed as she did the same. He set his spectacles on the table
and joined her. Neither wanted any more preliminaries, so Nate filled her
slowly and completely. The panorama of pleasure that played across her face as
she welcomed him sent his passion higher. He began to coax her with the rhythm
of love, watching her arch, listening to her soft intakes of breath. He slid
his hands over her hips, then gripped them so she could better receive his
stroking, and she took all he had to offer.

Neither of them could take the intensity
for long. Nate stiffened first, and was followed into the arms of release by a
twisting, breathless Vivid.

As Nate had promised, they made love until
dawn.

Rain kept them indoors for the second day,
but Nate found a novel way to pass the time. After a late morning meal of
coffee, fried ham, and potatoes, he picked up a canvas bag that lay in the
corner with the other supplies and placed it atop the table. As he rummaged
inside, he told her casually, "I need you to get undressed."

Vivid smiled suggestively.

"Not for that, greedy girl. I want to
sketch you."

She gave him a surprised smile. She
remembered Abigail mentioning Nate's artistic endeavors, but nude? "You
want me nude?"

"Completely." He placed a
sketchbook and pencils and charcoal on the table, then looked over at her.
"If it embarrasses you, I won't insist."

"Will anyone see it besides you or
me?"

"No."

Vivid began to undress.

"Here, look at these." He handed
her another sketchbook.

Vivid took the pad from his hand and sat
down. On the pages were sketches of a reclining nude woman. Vivid was so taken
by his outstanding talent, she'd looked at four or five of the sketches before
she realized she was the subject.

"Nate, these are outstanding, but I
never posed for..." she said with soft wonder as she continued to look
through the drawings. He'd drawn every line, muscle, and sinew to perfection.

“Thank you. I hesitated showing them to you
because I didn't want you to be offended."

"Well, some of these are very..."
Vivid searched for a word that would describe the sensual nature of his
sketches.

"Vivid?" he supplied.

A few were very vivid indeed. One in
particular had her seated with her back to the artist as she looked over her
shoulder at him. The heat rendered in her gaze was all too familiar. The line
of her back and the curves of her shoulder and hips were drawn lushly. Another
sketch had her lying wantonly nude on the porch swing, her head thrown back in
rapture.

Vivid set the pad aside and looked into
his eyes. She was speechless.

He broke the silence. "Well, will you
pose for me?"

Vivid smiled and finished undressing.

While the rain poured down outside, Nate
sketched Vivid as she lay atop the cot.

"When did you first start
sketching?" Vivid asked.

"I must've been around ten or eleven.
I started because I was jealous of Paul Crowley."

"Really? Why?"

"Because he could draw deer and I
couldn't. You probably saw some of his pictures on the walls when you went to
treat Jewel."

She did remember seeing them. The walls
had held many framed paintings of animals.

"Well, I wanted to draw deer like
Paul. Big, lifelike stags with large racks and powerful legs. I told myself if
he could do it, so could I. I found I did have a talent for drawing, but only
people. I couldn't sketch a buck to save my life." Then he instructed her,
"Tilt your head back just a bit."

He posed her in various positions as the
morning progressed. At one point he came over to where she lay and very boldly
kissed first her mouth, and then the points of her breasts. He stirred her
passion until her lips parted and her eyes closed. “Perfect," he
whispered, then returned to his sketching. “I want your eyes to be just that
way.''

Vivid held the pose, still pulsing from
his prompting.

By late afternoon, the rain ceased,
leaving in its wake a breezy, gray-sky day. Nate put away his sketching
materials while Vivid stretched to rid her body of the kinks caused by posing.
As she slipped into her clothing, Nate wondered how he'd ever repay her for all
she'd done. Because of her he was sketching again, feeling again, loving again.
Her smile had coaxed him to bask in its warmth, and after ten long, lonely
years, he no longer dwelled below ground. The only way he knew to repay her was
to love her with every fiber of his being for the rest of their lives.

"What's the matter?" she asked,
seeing him observing her with such seriousness as she recoiled her hair into a
knot.

"Just musing on how blessed I am to
have you."

Vivid looked into the eyes of the only man
she'd ever loved and replied, "I'm blessed to have you, too, Nate
Grayson."

They passed the remnant of the day in
idyllic companionship. They took a long walk through the damp countryside and
watched hawks soaring against the gray sky. Then they got an up-close view of a
big white-tailed doe and her two fawns passing by a few yards away. Over a rise
they found a valley blanketed in wildflowers that stretched for as far as they
could see. Nate offered to pick as many flowers as she wanted, but she
declined. "No, I have plenty back at the cabin. These are too beautiful to
die in a vase."

And they were, but Nate thought her more
beautiful than a continent of wildflowers.

After they returned to the cabin, they
shared a late dinner of the hares caught in the traps Nate had left in the
trees, then played a spirited game of checkers. There'd been no sun all day so
there was no sunset to cap the evening. It didn't much matter because in every
other way their day had been perfect.

In bed that night Vivid asked for a story.

"A bedtime story?" Nate
questioned, holding her in the circle of his arms.

"Sure, why not?" Vivid replied,
turning to view his face in the shadows cast by the lantern on the table. “Or
do you think I'm being silly and young?"

"No, I don't."

“I think I want to hear more adventures of
the princess and the Thunder God."

The further adventures of the princess and
her Thunder God turned out to be a very erotic, decidedly wanton tale, hardly suitable
for children. The brave, dark-skinned princess returned to the god's
underground dwelling just as she'd promised, and Vivid's own desire began to
unfurl as Nate described the princess's willing seduction. With kisses and soft
touches the god coaxed her into his bed. Nate paused a moment to show Vivid
just how softly and sweetly the coaxing had been done, then returned to the
narration.

As the night lengthened, Nate spun his
tale while his hands and lips spun her senses, until a breathless Vivid, like
the princess in the story, was begging for release.

"But the Thunder God said, ‘Not yet,’
" Nate whispered from above her, feeling his manhood throbbing within the
tight, warm shelter of her core as his hands gripping her hips fit her
movements to his beguiling rhythm. "The god didn't think the princess was
ready..."

The god gave the princess a few more
sultry strokes and watched her face tighten with sensation, then, gifting her
with a kiss, slowly withdrew from her treasured warmth.

Both the princess and Vivid groaned with
the loss as Nate said, "The god wanted the princess to be heated, and
open, and ready to experience
le petit morte,
but he didn't think she
was ready. What do you think?"

Vivid thought the princess was very ready.
He eased his hand to her center to boldly judge for himself, and her body
trembled in response.

"Are you ready, princess?"

His fingers questioned her core with such
blazing magnificence, her hips rose from the bed as she answered, "Yes..."

So the Thunder God slowly filled his
princess with the smoldering iron of his desire. His hands tutored her hips,
her straining nipples, the fever-wracked bud at the base of her thighs. The
Thunder God loved the princess as he'd never loved anyone else before, and the
aching release that followed, filled the cabin with mingled cries of joy.

However, the cries that awakened Vivid
later that night had no root in pleasure. Nate was in the throes of a
nightmare. Terror-filled moans escaped him as his head moved back and forth
upon the pillow. She tried to wake him, but was unable to. She shook his strong
shoulder, calling, "Nate!"