Echoes of Tomorrow (12 page)

Reed grinned, a tender look in his eyes, and moved forward to slip his arms around her waist.

"You have a similar effect on me."  He growled deep in his throat as he nuzzled her neck.  Chill bumps danced across her shoulders and down her spine.

This was one of the many times she wished Reed wasn't so honorable.  After their first memorable night together when he had waltzed her around the ballroom and then swept her upstairs to his bedroom, he had remained a perfect gentleman.  Oh, there had been lots of kisses, and more, and a few times she thought they would have a repeat of that night.  But Reed always pulled away before they were both carried to the limits.  Elise wondered if his behavior was his way of telling her he'd carried things as far as he cared to.  It couldn't be the "honorable thing" he'd been insisting it was all along. 

"Reed," she said, pulling away from him and looking into his eyes, "do you find me unattractive?"

Reed stared at her for several seconds, his eyebrows raised nearly to his hairline.  "Unattractive!  What in the world makes you think I find you unattractive?"

"What am I supposed to think?  Every time we're together and things start to heat up, you pull away and find something else to do.  You know, it doesn't do a lot for a girl's ego."

She wished now she'd never brought the subject up, but she couldn't rid her mind of that night with Reed.  She had assumed he felt the same. 

Reed remained silent.  The longer the silence stretched on the more she wished she'd kept her mouth shut.

You just had to open your mouth didn't you?
she thought, picking up dish towel and wiping her already clean hands. 
When are you going to learn to just
-

Reed's mouth covered hers as he took the dishtowel from her hands and tossed it into the air.  Slowly, his lips never leaving hers, he pulled her to the floor, until she found herself on her back, the cool of the tile floor creeping through her clothes, and the heat of Reed's arms wrapped around her.  His long, languorous kisses drugged her, set butterflies free in her stomach.  A trail of nibbling kisses along the sensitive tendon of her neck ignited a ribbon of fire that rippled through her blood.

Eyes closed, Elise moved her head to make her neck more accessible as his lips began the tingling journey back to hers.  After literally kissing the breath from her, he slowly raised his head and gazed at her.

He continued to stare, the corners of his mouth curved upward in a mischievous grin.  He shifted position slightly, and those blue eyes looked into her soul.  He shifted again, and then again, and as his eyes rolled upward he moaned in a choked whisper, "Do you honestly think this means I'm not attracted to you?"

It was obvious, in the physical sense and more, that he was.

"But then why...?"

"Elise, how can I explain this to you?  I was raised by  Nell, a wonderful woman, and surrounded by women throughout my childhood.  Maybe because of that I have more respect for your gender than what you've come to expect.  Uncle Ian, as well as Nell, taught me that making love was reserved for a husband and wife. 

"I realize things today are totally different from what they were in my time, and I've tried to adapt, honestly, right down to trying to speak like people today.  But as much as I'd like to, this is one aspect of the twentieth century I won't adapt to.

"Don't think I'm trying to tell you that I was as pure as the driven snow before you came along.  I had...indulged...the ‘raging hormones,’ as you quaintly put it so many times, but never with a woman who's life would be affected by my actions."

By this time Reed had rolled onto his back and pulled Elise against his side.  Her right leg nestled over his and her arm draped across his chest.  The top of her head rested against his cheek, and he nuzzled it thoughtfully.

"If you want to know the truth, little one," he said softly, sounding as if he wasn't sure he wanted to continue, "I'm more than attracted to you.  I love you."

Elise tensed and she studied him, waiting for the "but."  It didn't come.  With more conviction he said, "I've loved you since that first day, when you sprayed me with tear gas and then clanged around the kitchen in that ridiculous, cheap gown.  The first time you galloped up the stairs after flashing a view of those ugly Reeboks was the clincher.  But I don't think I admitted it to myself until after you left on your first trip.  I was barely maintaining a firm grip on my sanity to begin with, but when you left I felt like you'd taken the sun with you.  All I could think of was doing something special to show you how I feel."

With this last comment Elise propped herself onto her elbows and stared at Reed, afraid to believe what she was hearing.

"Special!  Do you realize that no one,
no one
, has ever gone out of their way to please me like that?  Geez, making one of my daydreams come true!  You overwhelmed me, darlin'.  I felt like a bystander watching it all happen to someone else."

Reed covered her face with little, nibbling kisses and pulled her closer.  She felt that if she tried hard enough she could actually climb right into his skin.

"You know, I've tried to fight it, but I think I fell in love with you when I took you for that first ride in the Jag, and you got so excited you wanted me to teach you how to drive.  I was half afraid you were going to backhand me after my little joke."

Reed jerked his head back several inches, a deep crease etched between his brows.  He gently cradled Elise's head in his hands, studying her face, shaking his head slowly back and forth in denial.

"Elise, have I ever done anything to make you think I would react in such a manner?"  The concern in his voice made her uncomfortable.  Self-conscious now, she pulled her head out of his grasp and refused to meet his gaze.

"No.  No, you've never done anything to cause me to feel that way."

"Someone else, then.  Has someone else threatened to hurt you?"

She slid out of his embrace and slowly pushed herself into a sitting position.  Pain, indecision, and embarrassment warred inside her.

Resting her chin on her knees, she stared off into space for several seconds.  Now was as good a time as any.

"No.  I was never ‘threatened’, so to speak." She had never told this part of her life to anyone, even a friend.  Swallowing her pride and taking a deep breath, she went on. 

"I had a fiancé once."  At Reed's inquiring look she clarified.  "Betrothed.  We were going to be married.  He was very attentive, but also very controlling.  He hated it when I teased him or had my own life.  One night when I decided to spend the evening with a few girlfriends he demanded that I stay home.  And that," she said with a grin directed toward her feet, "is the quickest way to insure that I do exactly what I want to do."

Elise continued to stare at a spot on the floor.

"Anyway, I went with my friends and when I came home he was here waiting for me.  He accused me of being with someone else, and when I tried to laugh off his accusation, he grabbed me and backhanded me.  He got several blows in before the shock passed and I managed to get away.  Before it was over though, he'd slung me against the wall, then yanked me off the floor by a handful of hair."

Reed closed his eyes, trying to calm himself, to erase the picture of Elise being beaten.  He'd never felt such an overwhelming urge to kill someone. Tenderly, he cupped Elise's chin and turned her face until their eyes met.

"You ended the betrothal then, of course," he stated matter-of-factly.

Elise chewed on her lower lip and slid her gaze to study the pattern of the brickwork on the kitchen floor.

"No...not exactly.  Jeff had been drinking that night, and the next morning he came to me with flowers and apologies and tears in his eyes.  He swore he didn't know what had come over him and that he'd never do it again.  I think I was still in shock, but he convinced me to give him a second chance."

A long, silent pause seemed to stretch on forever before she continued.  He let her take her time to tell the story.

"A few weeks later a fellow pilot called - a guy I work with -  and Jeff answered the phone.  Allen just wanted to trade a trip with me, but Jeff read his own story into it.  When I hung up he started giving me the third degree, even after I'd explained.  When I got disgusted and tried to walk away he grabbed my hair and threw me to the floor.  He cracked a rib when he kicked me on his way out the door. 

"The next night when he arrived with the flowers and the tears I told him we were through and to get out.  When he tried to force his ‘apologies’ on me I ignored the pain in my ribs and drove a well-placed knee clear up to his tonsils.  I haven't heard much from him since he crawled out of here that night, except for his visit here the day you arrived."

During her monologue, Elise had flicked a few glances in Reed's direction, but now she turned and looked him straight in the eye.

"Maybe it's because his voice is a few octaves higher."  Her attempt at humor fell flat.

Reed felt as if he might burst something in his brain as he jumped to his feet and began to pace, slamming a fist into his palm.

"Good God!  I'll call the blackguard out!  NO!  No, a quick death is too good for him.  I'll do to him what he's done to you, then I'll call him out!"

When he swung back to Elise, fury distorted his vision.  He watched with alarm as her body involuntarily flinched and dodged an anticipated blow.

In a split second he was on his knees beside her.  He gathered her into his arms to comfort her, much as she had done with him the night before.

"It's okay," she insisted.  "I'm all right now.  All this happened a long time ago.  Besides, the only time he ever bothers me is if I'm seeing someone.  I guess if he can't have me, he doesn't want anyone else to."  Elise pulled far enough away from Reed to give him a reassuring look.  "He's ancient history as far as I'm concerned.  I will tell you this, though.  I've made certain that no man will ever be able to physically abuse me again.  At least not without crawling away in a great deal of pain."

As he pulled Elise to her feet he commented with typical nineteenth century mentality, "How do you plan to manage that?  Not all men leave that area of their bodies vulnerable, especially the second time around."

He should have known better than to be skeptical.

One minute he was standing there holding Elise's hand.  The next thing he knew she'd grabbed his hand, stepped to his right as she swung his arm down and behind him, forcing him to bend at the waist.  Her left hand shoved his upper arm toward the floor and her right hand held the back of his.  All the while she applied a gentle, yet very effective pressure in the direction of his elbow.

"Well, this is one of the ways I had in mind," Elise said casually as she maintained her hold on her victim.  "If I showed you the most effective way, we'd be calling 911."

Reed had a close-up view of the floor but he didn't see it.  All he was aware of was that this slip of a woman had managed to put a man twice her size in a position of total submission.  If he moved she could easily break his wrist or dislocate his shoulder.

"I think you've made your point," he conceded to the floor, "and I'm really not interested in a demonstration of the most effective technique." 

He shook his arm when she released it.  She grinned and batted her eyes with an overdone sense of innocence.  A whole new respect for this woman swept over him.

"It's call Akido.  It's very effective self-defense, but it can also be very dangerous.  That's why part of the training is learning when to use it and how much force to use when you do.  If I ever have to use it for real I'll put every ounce of energy I have into it."

Elise smiled up at him.

Dear God,
he thought,
the woman I love flies airplanes and can have men twice her size on their knees in pain, begging for mercy.  What have I gotten myself into?

Slowly, pride at her abilities began to mingle with his awe, and a hesitant grin tugged at his mouth.

"Since I've known you, you've sprayed me with chemicals, taken ten years off my life in automobiles and airplanes, and nearly broken my arm.  No wonder I love you."

CHAPTER NINE

The cloud of depression that had hovered over Reed since his learning of the War refused to go away entirely.  However, he was a man of logic and common sense, and he told himself there was nothing he could do, especially one hundred and thirty years after the fact.  He even admitted to himself that, had he been forewarned about the impending disaster in 1844, there would have been very little, if anything, he could have done to alter the path of history.

He also did some serious thinking about his present situation.  Adapting had been a way of life for him.  He'd adapted to losing his family; to being raised by a distant cousin - one who had lacked any ability to show affection.  His everyday life on the plantation had always been a series of situations that one could not control and had to adapt to.  If rain ruined the cotton crop before it could be harvested, he salvaged what he could and prepared for the next planting.  If a hurricane hit, he got everyone into a storm cellar and came out with hammer in hand to repair the damage after the storm had passed.  When a drought hit, he irrigated, hauling water side by side with his workers. 

He'd dealt with being thrown into the twentieth century in the same manner he dealt with everything else in his life.  He'd accepted the situation and done his best to live with it.  Brooding and moping wouldn't get him back to 1844, and now he wasn't sure he even wanted to go.  What he'd found here, in 1994, was the thing he'd wanted most in his own time.

And there was the problem.  The mere thought of living without Elise caused an unbearable ache in the center of his chest.  Yet every passing day made him more and more aware of how totally unsuited he was to live in the twentieth century.  He would have to go to school to learn some sort of skill, but how could he explain the huge gaps in present-day knowledge that were sure to surface if he did?

He hashed these things over in his mind while he worked, shaving some wood off the bottom of a door that had been sticking.  Doing some repair work on his...no, Elise's...home had kept him busy while she flew her trips.  He felt as though he was paying her back in some small way for all the money she'd had to spend on him.

His mind drifted back to Elise as he hefted the solid cypress door and maneuvered it back onto its hinges.

She hadn't been happy when he continued to treat her as he'd been taught to treat a lady.  He chuckled deep in his throat and shook his head at the thought.  Only Elise.  But she never once asked him to put his morals aside, and heaven knows it probably wouldn't take much to persuade him to.  The night of their "private dance" had haunted him like a melody, playing itself over and over in his head no matter how hard he tried to change the tune.

Elise was his friend, as well as the woman he loved, and the next time he made love to her he wanted her to be his wife.  Nevertheless, he couldn't ask her to marry him.  He couldn't ask her to live with the constant fear of him vanishing looming over their heads like a huge, black cloud.

That thought surfaced from the back of his mind every time he held her in his arms.  At these times he felt as if he held her with one arm and pushed her away with the other.  If only he knew for certain that he would spend his future in the twentieth century.

"Penny for your thoughts."  Elise shoved herself off the door frame
and ambled into the room.  Concentrating on his task, he apparently hadn't heard her barreling up the staircase, so she'd taken the opportunity to  study the man who'd become the most important part of her life.  Her career, her home - nothing in her life even began to measure up to what Reed had grown to mean to her.

He swung around with a welcoming smile and automatically reached for the shirt he'd discarded earlier.

"Here, let me help you with that."  Elise closed the gap between them and held his shirtfront as if to button it, then slid her fingertips down the center of his chest instead.  She lightly massaged the bare skin of  his sides before encircling his waist with her arms, reveling in the warmth of his body.  She gave him an impish grin when she looked up at him.  "Well, what were you thinking?"

Reed stared at her with the corners of his mouth curved in a sad little smile.

"I'm afraid my thoughts would cost you more than a penny."

"Try me."

He continued to stare for a few more seconds, then sucked in a deep breath and held it, as if struggling with a decision.  He released it with an air of resignation.

"I was thinking about us."

"Oh?"

"I was thinking about how much I love you...how I want to spend the rest of my life with you."

When she perched on the edge of the bed of the spare room they were in, he took a seat in the rocker.  Butterflies launched in her stomach at his words, but after he paused for several seconds she quirked a questioning eyebrow at him.

"You want to spend the rest of your life with me
but
..."

"But how can I ask you to marry me, never mind plan for the future or a family, if we don't know how long I'll be here?  I'd marry you this minute, if you'd have me, if I could be sure I'd be here for you tomorrow."

Elise came off the bed and dropped to her knees in front of  Reed.  Her sundress billowing around her.  With a gentle touch she reached up and placed her hands on both sides of his face.  Her thumb softly traced a path across his lips. 

"Do you know what I think?  I think that we were meant to be together.  I feel like you're the missing piece to the puzzle of my life - the biggest piece ¬- and when you fit so perfectly into that huge, empty space I had, you filled my life up and made it perfect.  We will be together, darlin'.  Other pieces of the puzzle can be removed, but yours is the only one that makes the picture of my life complete." 

He took her hand, pressed a kiss to her ring finger.

"You've described my feelings exactly, little one.  But I could never have found the words.  I believe we were meant to be together.  I feel in my heart that someday all our fears will be dealt with, and we'll be free to plan our lives together forever.  I want you to know that even though I can't put a ring on your finger this minute...it's the ring around my heart that holds me to you.  It's more permanent than any wedding ring."

If Elise had harbored even the slightest doubt about her love for this man it was wiped away with his words.  Her heart melted as she repeated them in her mind and stored them away as a keepsake.

She rose from her knees and brought Reed with her, then pressed her body against the warm, solid length of his.  Her head snuggled lightly against his chest.  She could hear his quickened heartbeat and felt the evidence that their declarations to each other had affected him as much as they had her.  The warmth of his hands seeped through her clothes as they slid down both sides of her body.  With one hand she smoothed his mussed hair back over one ear.  She kissed the hollow at the base of his neck,
heard his intake of breath.  He made a move toward the inviting bed just a few feet away, then stopped.  With a frustrated sigh, he wrapped his strong arms around her, squeezed several times in rapid succession and growled playfully into her neck before releasing her and grabbing  up some of the tools he'd been using.

Elise stood still for several seconds, attempting to slow the heated blood Reed had sent rushing through her veins.  She knew the frustration he was feeling.  She felt it herself.  She also knew this abstinence was a matter of honor to him. If she pressed him into giving in to their desires, she would be the cause of the guilt he would suffer later.