Miracle Man (18 page)

She watched his full, wet
lips kiss each breast in turn in ever-decreasing circles, refusing to take her
nipples between them, prolonging the anticipation for longer than she could
withstand. She watched his tongue move slowly, tantalisingly, in a tight ring
around the tip of her breast. And then his warm mouth was upon her, doing
things with his lips and his tongue that took her to the very verge of
swooning. Through dreamy eyes she watched his hungry action for as long as she
could before she had to close her eyes and surrender to the complete desire
that had taken hold of her.

With every motion of his
tongue, with every caress of his hand, dormant urges were coming to life within
her. The heat between her legs had awoken a sensitivity she barely remembered
existed. Through her jeans, through his pants, she could feel his need for her.
His teeth bit down into her breast, stopping at the threshold of where pleasure
became pain, and she involuntarily moaned.

Her hands went to the
buttons on his shirt. She needed to feel his skin against hers, hard against
soft, man against woman. She pulled the wet shirt back over his shoulders,
panting heavily, and as he finished taking it off she cupped each side of his
chest in her hands and leaned down to kiss him. It seemed impossible, but every
contact with his lips raised her to an even greater level of euphoria. His arms
free, they enclosed her, and she hesitated a moment before relenting to their
pull, letting her nipples rub gently on his body. Finally she fell against him,
their bare chests coming together like warm magnets. She began to feel a
tension building inside her that before too long would demand release.

Swiftly and smoothly,
without breaking the intensity of their kiss, Marcus stood, lifting Lahra above
him without the slightest exertion. Giddy with pleasure, she let herself slip
down, feeling his excitement slide over her own. Her mouth went instinctively
to his chest, too affected by his spell to be artful about her motions. If she
could she would have simply pressed so firmly into him that they merged as one,
so that they may experience every part of each other, all at once.

Like some erotic dance, he
moved behind her, his fingertips running a course from her shoulders onto her
breasts as he went. She leant back into him as he pressed forward, their bodies
slotting together as if they'd been designed as a pair. He kissed the nape of
her neck as his hands reached around and massaged her breasts, slowly and
firmly. A rhythm was being established between them, a primordial beat to which
they were responding as one. His hips pushed into her slowly, repeatedly, his
hard yearning against the curve of her wet jeans alerting her to his
intentions, intentions she shared in breathless anticipation.

 She felt the
smoothness of his hands travel down over her abdomen, as every curve of her
body gave him permission to go further. His lips had discovered sensitive zones
around her ears and neck that she never knew existed, and she couldn't help but
wonder what other undiscovered territories they might soon come across. Her desire
was almost at critical point, and she tilted her head back and joined her mouth
to his, reaching up to clasp the back of his muscular neck. Her breathing
quickened as if trying to match the pace set by her heart, but when she felt
his fingers unbuttoning her jeans her heart took an unassailable lead.

She turned to him then,
pausing in her rapture to absorb the look in his eyes. They were dark and full
of want. And blazing there deep inside was something more, like flames alive
with joy. The same flames that were finally free to run wild inside her. It was
love. Pristine, all-consuming love.

He kissed her deeply and
helped her sit on the edge of the leather seat behind her. She closed her eyes
and floated on a sea of erotic bliss as he gently removed her shoes then
carefully did the same with her jeans and panties. She had never felt freer in
her life. She let her eyes half open, observing him standing there as if in a
dream, sweet vibrations running over her skin. She took his belt in her shaking
hands and unbuckled it, then unclasped his pants. She ran her tingling
fingertips down over his hard, undulating stomach. They caught the waistbands
of both his pants and his underpants, and dragged them down over his muscled
thighs and taught calves with one long, slow motion.

He stood naked before her,
every inch utterly desirable. She let her eyes do what as yet she couldn't
bring her hands to do, feeling every masculine curve, every defined contour,
every rigid muscle with her gaze.

He knelt on the pile of clothes
that spread over the floor, taking her hands in his and gently kissing her
fingers one by one. Even his simplest acts charged the building tension inside
her, and she squirmed in the seat as even greater waves of longing enveloped
her. He turned his attention to her bandaged knee, kissing it as if to make it
better. But he already had. She couldn't feel it at all. She couldn't feel
anything but the love that coursed through her like a tempest. The thunder of
her heart, the lightning of her desire, the flood of her joy. These were all
that existed for her now.

His lips began exploring the
inside of her thighs. The tension swelled inside her, linking all the parts of
her body that he had so expertly brought to life into one. It wouldn't take
much more to overwhelm her now. She feared the power of what would happen when
the tension reached its final, inevitable conclusion, but she wanted it more
than life itself. She wanted to reach that magical plateau, that place of which
she had only ever dreamed, only with Marcus, with the man she loved.

A sharp gasp escaped her as
his tongue fulfilled its promise. The slow, soft, gentle strokes sent delirious
sensations up and down her entire body. She couldn't remain still under such a
tender barrage, and dug her fingers into his hair and arched her back as the
mounting tension within her squeezed uninhibited groans from her lungs. Her
legs went weak as his tongue probed deeper into her burning epicentre.

The hot breath that had
swelled in her chest suddenly dispersed, as his mouth, having taken her to the
very edge of paradise, moved away. His moistened lips worked slowly up over her
stomach, pausing every few inches to mark their territory with a luscious kiss.
Her navel, her breasts, her neck. All belonged to him now. They were his to
invade, to besiege, to ravish. She closed her arms around him and searched for
his lips, melting into them with the ultimate consent.

Suddenly, every nerve in
Lahra's body ignited with indescribable rapture. Their union was complete,
penetrating shockwaves of pure pleasure radiating in every direction at once.
It felt as if the physical laws that bound all things and gave them shape no
longer applied. She felt the edges of her being lose their cohesion as if she'd
become a part of the atmosphere itself, and he was sweeping through her like a
delightful, uplifting breeze. Earthly flesh no longer played a part in their
love making. There was now only this state of ethereal transcendence, writhing
and swaying with a life of its own. She could no longer distinguish an end to
her physical self and a beginning to his. They had united as completely as a
man and woman could, in a way and with an intensity that she never dared dream
were possible.

Something at the very core
of their union tightened. As their rhythmic dance quickened, the universe they
had created began to suck all the stars and planets into one ever-tightening
nucleus. Tension gathered, drawing every sensation inward with an irresistible
gravity. Every feeling, every awareness, every inexpressible pleasure. Until at
last nothing more could be accommodated. Everything that they were was
condensed in that one central place, quivering with a tension which couldn't be
held.

And so it exploded. A cosmic
release, shuddering and profound, sent euphoric swells through their bodies,
and Lahra writhed and thrashed as she rode their peaks. Burning shards of
ecstasy from the fullness between her legs shot to every extremity of her
trembling body. Her muscles twitched and her legs shook, as she continued her
undulating journey through this uncharted pleasure. Ever so slightly the
billowing eased, and a calm began to wash over her like no calm she had ever
experienced. Her jangling nerves gave way to soulful relaxation as the tempo of
their climactic moment slowed. Feeling came back into her hands and fingers,
and with them she embraced the gently pulsing body above her. As his arms
returned her embrace, she succumbed fully to the serenity it brought. And then
her lips returned to her, awoken by a tender kiss that sealed the fulfilment
within her once and for all.

No words were spoken. There
were no words that could follow this. Instead, Lahra held Marcus to her bosom
and felt their heartbeats slowly return to normal. Beat by beat. Breath by
breath. Together.

And the only witness to any
of it was the blank screen of the Miracle Cinema. Lahra smiled and closed her
eyes. They held each other in the soft glow of the exit lights for quite some
time.

*

Something was missing. And
something new was there. Lahra opened her eyes abruptly, emerging from a deep
sleep. Her bedroom was full of a comforting mid-morning light, and she knew
that something was missing. A second later she realised what it was. The rain.
The rain had gone, and with it the grey, voluminous clouds. Through the window
she could see their replacements. Blue skies with a hint of wispy white cloud,
and startling spring sunshine.

"Good morning."

And yes, something new was
there. Lahra rolled over and looked into the green-gold eyes of Marcus Dean.
His head was propped up on one hand, the other reached out and stroked her
hair.

"Good morning,"
she said through tired smile. "What time is it?"

"I don't know. Ten,
maybe."

"How long have you been
awake?"

"An hour or so. I've
just been lying here, watching you."

"How terribly exciting
for you," Lahra said with a laugh.

"It was."

Lahra sighed deeply, brushed
the hair from across the forehead of the man before her, here, in her bed, and wondered
if the universe has somehow been created so that this very moment might exist.
But then the moment was gone, and she found her mind drifting back to the drama
of the night before. "I wonder how Wally is. We must go in to see him
today."

"I have a feeling he'll
pull through this like it never happened."

"Thanks to you."

"Besides, he'll want to
be ship shape for when we re-open the Miracle Cinema next year. Good
projectionists are hard to find."

She wanted to say something,
anything, that would let him know how grateful she was for saving Wally's life.
But her words were constricted by the love that swelled beneath her breast.
Instead, her lips sent him an invitation, which he answered immediately. Lahra
felt her body come fully awake, like a flower opening in the sun.

"Marcus," she
said, looking into his eyes with concern. "Won't you be in all sorts of
trouble with your work? Hasn't your company made a huge investment in all
this?"

"Huge, no. Substantial,
yes. But I'm hoping it's nothing I can't talk my way out of. Especially now
that insurance plays a part. Besides, they can fire me from now until doomsday,
but I still have all I want right here." His free hand traced slow circles
on her stomach. "I've been living in my father's shadow for way too long.
It took you to make me see that. You were right. What I’m feeling for you right
now? That what’s really important in life. These feelings are the dreams you
should chase, and never stop chasing. My father dedicated his life to his work,
and to this day I have no idea if he's a happy man. I won't end up like him.
Not now. I may be able to live without Olympic medals. But there's no way in
the world I can live without you."

That surging feeling that
told her she was losing control radiated through Lahra's stomach yet again. But
this time she welcomed it. She encouraged it. She could still barely believe
that any of this was happening. "Perhaps the next time we meet on a bridge
you'll be a little nicer to me, then?"

Marcus’s dimples lit up his
face. "Now all I said was that I couldn't live without you. I didn't say
anything about backing up when I'm already virtually all the way over a
bridge."

"And siphoning petrol?
If I really need it, I mean…"

"I might be able to
make the occasional allowance. Wouldn’t want those lips to be exposed to any
harsh chemicals. They look incredibly sensitive." He looked down at her
with an obvious longing, and Lahra thought that she might burst such was the
happiness that filled her. "Perhaps we ought to see exactly what they can
tolerate," he said.

She reached up and stroked
the side of his head. "I have a feeling you'll talk things out with your
bosses just fine. I happen to know for a fact that your mouth can work
wonders." She slipped her grasp behind his neck and pulled his lips down
to meet hers.

*

Five months later, Lahra
stood beneath a canopy of stars, the balmy summer night bathing her in its
warmth. The sound of distant revellers drifted down the hill to this peaceful
place, and she smiled, sharing their enjoyment of the night. She tilted her
head back and stared at the universe.