Human Hieroglyphix - Dex & Leila (35 page)

He positioned himself between her thighs, still holding her gaze.

"I love you, Dex." He heard her say it, heard the soft, steady tone of her voice. 

It wasn't said with too much emotion or not enough emotion. 

It was said like she spoke; sure, firm, unwavering in what she knew to be true.

He paused.

He knew how she felt about him.  Knew it when he came back to her.  But they hadn't really said those words out loud to each other. 

Not
those
particular words anyway.

He remained poised, his cock resting on the rim of her opening, holding the weight of himself on his forearms.

And still their eyes remained glued to one another.

"I love you, Leila," he said.  Finally, finally giving sound to what his heart had been feeling, for what felt like, for-fucking-ever.

"I know, honey," she said with a soft smile and he felt his heart jump within him at the words. 

His Leila didn't lie. 

She always had given him what she had, with the most truth she had inside.

"Glad you know, babe."  He did a long slow nose-slide.

"Could you fuck me now?"

"My pleasure, Elle."

*.*.*.*.*

We were sitting at a table originally made for two only there were four of us squeezed around it, our knees more squeezed together than our drinks at the small table.

Jake, Cait, Dex and I were waiting for the entertainment to start in the small bar portion of Enrique's and since we knew who was actually going to be entertaining us,  we all were kind of excited. 

Okay, Cait and I were excited.  

Jake and Dex were doing the whole bad-ass, slouch in the chair kind of excited thing.

Whatever.

Just to back track a bit. 

Emily and Evan were awaiting arraignment. 

Or, as Cait called them, the 'Ewww' twins.

Emily was the one that cracked Dex over the head and Evan was the one that dragged me around by my hair.  Emily hadn't received a scratch but I had clocked Evan with that drawer so hard that I crushed his cheekbone and he had required major surgery in order to repair it.

As Dex would say, 'big fucking wow.'

According to Ted, that would be Detective Ted Pierson, the pair were both looking at a lot of years for the trouble they caused me and Dex.  Allegedly, they thought that their antics (my words, not the cops) would break us up and then Evan could move into the Dex position, even though Em admitted that she was in love with Evan (insert full body shudder here) and hoped that her complacency, her freaking participation,  in his plot would show him how much she cared.

The growls that I had heard that horrific night were from Fred. 

Em and Evan had tossed strychnine laced steaks over the fence that Wilma had partaken of but Fred hadn't. 

The braying noise that my heart will never, ever forget, were from Fred. 

Which I'm convinced was his way of grieving, in his own doggy way.

Dex and I had talked it over and we decided to move into my house and put his on the market after we saw how Fred seemed to settle when we brought him to my place. My backyard wasn't as big as Dex's but had less memories and once we saw how Fred settled, we did too.

We had finally figured out which of our pieces of furniture to keep and which to get rid of and were slowly moving things from his place to mine. 

Dex was busy because the shop had received another award with a write up in a popular travel blog as having the best tattoo shop in the Southwest so the inkers, and even Crys, were busier than ever.

I was busy, too. 

I had confided to Dex about my interview with Dr. Weatherby and he showed me some online schools that were looking for directors, teachers and tutors that were paying more than what I was making at the University, so I had no problems when I met with Dean Hotchner and Dr. Weatherby.

No problems as in telling them I couldn't and absolutely wouldn't work for a University that valued the appearance of a person so highly that they overlooked the value of what that person contributed academically..

Okay. 

So that's not all I told them.

And I didn't walk out quietly. 

Well, okay, it was
technically
quietly. 

But I did it shooting both of them the bird over my shoulder as I went, one middle finger from each hand waving 'buh-bye'.

 Juvenile?  You bet.

Satisfying?  You better believe it.

I looked around the bar and saw that it was filling up.  Filling up with so many of our friends.

I glanced at Dex and saw him checking out the crowd as well, before his eyes dropped to mine and I felt his fingers flex.

"Good turn out," he said.

"Fuckin' amazin' turn out for our baby girl," Jake rumbled from my left.

"C'mere, Leila.  Ben won't be able to see with you bouncing up and down in your chair," Dex said on my right and pinned against the wall.  I moved my way quickly from my chair around the table and sat on my man's lap which I decided was the very best seat in the house as I leaned back against him and draped an arm around his shoulders.

Cait gave me a quick glance before I saw that she was decidedly avoiding any eye contact which in 'Cait speak' was her trying not to laugh.

Whatever.

The lights in the bar blinked and I saw Gabe weave himself around and through the myriad of tables, his guitar held high, that had previously been set in straight lines until our group managed to reset those lines into an almost impenetrable setting that you had no choice but to weave around. 

I could feel Dex's body tense behind me and heard a couple of mumblings in the crowd as they recognized Gabe.

Then Crystal made her way through the crowd to take her place by Gabe's side. 

When Crys had decided that life was too short not to do what she wanted to do, and to do it with the people she wanted to do it with, she had her own metamorphosis. 

Gone were the hot pink tips in her hair.

Gone was the clumpy mascara. 

As soon as our posse saw the change that Crys made, we staged an intervention and took her shopping for clothes, clothes that were edgy but not over the top.  As Marianne pointed out, "Crys, your ink and hair are enough to set you apart." 

So when we found a pair of low rise black trousers and a deep red tank that exactly matched the red ink on her arms, she didn't put up much of a fuss.

There were three microphones on the tiny, miniscule corner stage.  One mike for each of their voices and one for Gabe's guitar. 

I heard Gabe run through the tuning to ensure his instrument was in key.

Crys, our golden-throated girl, wiggled her way through the tables, calling 'hey' and 'how are you' over her shoulder as she made her way forward to the stage, looking absolutely stunning in her new clothes.

She was still moving through the crowd as Gabe played the opening notes of the acoustic version of the Beatles 'Blackbird' which gave her just enough time for her to make it to the stage and began singing. 

The bar, which two seconds before had been teaming with the cadences and sounds of the lot of us, stilled until Crys' voice and Gabe's guitar was the only thing heard.

 And the two of them took off from there. 

Their voices blending magically as they worked their way through the Gin Blossoms, "Until I Hear It From You," accompanied by nothing but Gabe's guitar and the soft clapping from us in the audience, which cast a spell on those of us that were listening and watching. 

The spell of not just the music but the awareness of how Gabe and Crys' eyes would catch against each other's and skitter away as they sang together, his smoky deepness working so well to showcase her vocals.

I had always known that Crys had an unparalleled voice since I'd heard it the first night I'd met her, but this was the first time a lot of the people that knew and loved her had heard it. 

Had been blown away by my girl's God-given talent.  

I knew Dex was under her spell at his first, "Damn".  Although I knew the rest of it might be harder for him to swallow.  To him, Crys was still 'baby girl' and he was very protective of her, finding it hard to realize that she was a young woman who had her
own
life to live.

It was at the end of their first set, at the end of which had included 'Cruising'', as well as a beautiful acoustic version of Pink's 'Who Knew" slowed down and sung just as she first introduced it to me, that song with the breath-taking lyrics that could, by lyrics alone, crush your heart.

It was then, right at that moment, when my man
really
got what was going on.

"How long?" I heard him ask against my left shoulder.

I turned around and caught his eyes.  I was too smart to play dumb with him.

"Six months, maybe more."

"Ben know?"

I shrugged.  I didn't know if Benny knew that his oldest son was in love with Max's one and only child, our sweet Crys.

"Benny's gonna fucking shit himself," Dex muttered as he brought his watery rum and coke up to sip.

"Honey?  It's kind of their issue, not ours, 'kay?"  I reminded him and watched him level his gaze on mine as he thought it through.

"Ben's still gonna shit himself," he murmured pressing between my shoulder blades to bring me closer as he captured my lips.

"Not our problem, honey," I assured him trying very hard not to notice the lump I felt swelling against my bottom and fighting against my normal tendency to straddle his lap.

God, I
love
this man.

#.#.#.#.#

I hope you've enjoyed reading Dex & Leila's story, the first book in the Human Hieroglyphic trilogy as much as I've enjoyed writing it.

Please take a moment to rate and comment on it.  I'm a new author and am looking for constructive feedback since I want and need to develop my skills as not just an author, but as a storyteller as well.

As some of you know, this story came to me when I was plotting 'Tap Dance', book two of the Dance series when Dex's voice came through loud and very clear one morning, interrupting my plans of plotting Marianne's book, Tap Dance.  Dex's voice couldn't be denied and, since most of the how-to-write books advise that you need to honor that voice,  I went with his voice. 

His
very
clear,
very
damn dominating and freaking
very
loud voice that I couldn't get out of my head and that filled up 19 hand-written pages.

Thank you, Dex.

And thank you, authors that write how-to books advising one to listen to the voices in your head.

But I found myself falling in love with Dex who, like most of my heroes has his own issues but who, having those issues, make us love them all the more.

I'm almost sorry to have to let go of Leila and Dex since I discovered their story much as you have.  This has been something that I've been as much a witness to as you, line by line.

But I'm now off to continue on with Marianne, Ram and Paul Adler's story ( I type that not too loudly and while crossing my fingers since who knows what tomorrow morning will bring).

 Please feel free to contact me at:  [email protected]

Feel free to connect with me at: www.jahornbuckle.com

Also, I'm always looking for beta-readers, since those essential readers are the backbone of any author's success, offering to read and help an author refine their work prior to publication.  If my work speaks to you, won't you consider helping me as I machete my way through my own tangled jungle of words?  Please contact me at: [email protected] and use Beta Reader as the subject line.

Smiling and waving into Arizona's soft winter type of afternoon,

~J.A.

1/23/2013

Excerpt from the upcoming
Tap Dance - Book Two of the Dance Series

I was awakened by a noise, and when I initially opened my eyes I didn't know where I was.  I slid up in the bed using my hands to bring myself into a full sitting position and got a whiff of the cotton nightshirt I was wearing.

Ram's.

I was at Ram's, in one of his guest rooms.

As my head processed that, I was also trying to determine what the noise was that had made me wake.  I reached for the lamp and heard it again.

It was voices, muffled, so I knew that they must have come from down the hall but even then I shouldn't have been able to hear them.

Something was wrong. 

The tone of the voices, even though I couldn't understand the words, were tense.  

I turned and got off the bed.

The voices were louder, tenser if that's a word.