Royce (56 page)

Royce was excited; he’d entered Joy’s Fury in his first race.  “He’s ready baby, Gustave says he has the time to quality and I think he’s ready to race.”  “Well that’s what you’ve been training him for, so go for it baby,” she rested her head against his shoulder, “I mean he’s been racing against No Mercy and Windstar,” and Royce chuckled.  Even though No Mercy and Windstar were retired they sure didn’t act like it.  They pushed Joy’s Fury hard around the track and true to his name with no mercy.

Royce watched as the horses were lined up in the gates, he’d already placed his bet on Joy’s Fury.  The gun went off and the gates opened and he felt like he was in the rodeo again, the heart pounding excitement of man and beast on a thrill ride of their lives.  He watched as the horses took off.  Joy’s Fury was in the middle, and then other horses passed him, and others and he finished dead last and Royce couldn’t believe it and went home and started training again and Lindsey was accepted to Cambridge. 

Lindsey was happy just to be going to university so she could stop running, and afraid she’d be disappointed she didn’t want to think of Amar but in her excitement her happiness showed, she smiled bright that first day.  She dressed the way she was accustomed, heavy boots, black tights, her hair straight and flowing free, and that god awful red lipstick her mother hated.  The first day was beautiful, the sun was bright in the sky and she’d been to two classes already and she was in the Great Court in the midst of her fellow students all going about their business and she loved it, she walked amongst them happy.

“Lindsey!  Lindsey!”  She heard someone shouting her name and looked back and saw Fabio coming from a building running towards her.  She’d met him on the plane and they’d talked nonstop.  She stopped to wait which was a mistake because there was a throng of people behind her and someone bumped her hard spilling her backpack to the ground. 

Amar had been waiting for two years.  He’d lived the life his uncles wanted, he prayed five times a day, celebrated Ramadan with passion and fasted and prayed with the strict Muslim doctrine.  He took an interest in the family business and graduated with top honors, and he only asked one thing, “I want to go to university.”  His father was dead and no one knew why and he thought it was a bad business deal, at first his uncles had been relentless in their pursuit to find who did it.  They were angry and determined, but as time went by and nothing surfaced they calmed down, but his father’s death was not the thing that consumed him.  Only one thing consumed him, one thing had burned in his soul for two years.  He had to find her, he had to find Lindsey.

Lindsey squatted to pick up her things as many pairs of feet walked around her and someone stopped in front of her, she saw black men’s shoes and khaki pants. 

“Lindsey?,” a male voice said softly and unsure.  She looked up and at first he didn’t recognize her, her hair was straight, her lips painted red and then he saw her eyes.  Lindsey’s soft dark eyes and his eyes brightened, he smiled and Lindsey saw his dimple, “Amar!”  She hadn’t recognized him so quickly either.  He was a man now, he’d grown tall and had lost that little boy look, but that dimple and his eyes, “Lindsey!”  And she was up in his arms, and he held her tight, so tight, “Oh Lindsey, Oh Lindsey, I found you, I found you,” they stood there holding on tight and Fabio ran up.

“Lindsey!”  He said out of breath and they released just enough. “Oh Fabio this is Amar the one I was telling you about,” and Amar loved that she’d thought about him. “Oh ciao,” Fabio said and Amar saw the look of disappointment and Amar held Lindsey a little closer.  He could see Fabio liked her and he wanted to show him she was his and then his heart beat faster, maybe she wasn’t, maybe he was her boyfriend?

“Can we talk Lindsey?  We really need to talk,” she looked into his eyes.  “Sure, Fabio I haven’t seen him in a long time and I need to talk to him, I’ll call you later,” she touched Fabio’s hand and Amar saw Fabio brighten and he thought,
oh no he is her boyfriend
, and his heart was crushed.  Fabio walked away and as he looked back he saw Amar kissing Lindsey and he was disappointed again. “Oh Lindsey, I have missed you, missed you,” Amar couldn’t help it if she was going to tell him she had a boyfriend then he had to kiss her lips just once before she broke his heart to pieces.  She kissed him back, and he felt her lips smiling as he kissed her. 

“Let’s go somewhere and talk,” he picked up her backpack, “Where can we go?”  “My housing unit is over there, we can go there, it will give us the privacy we need,” Amar took her hand and Lindsey let him.  Lindsey watched him as he led her away, he looked different he was so much taller and more filled out, but he was wearing the same school uniform she’d seen him in last, khaki pants and blue blazer.  She smiled,
Amar was here,
she held his hand and let him lead her to his room.

“My roommate is an Aussie, I’m sure he won’t be back until later,” and Amar thought he’d probably be out trying to get a girl to shag since that was the first thing out of his mouth when they met.  Amar sat at his desk and Lindsey sat on his bed and he looked at her, stared at her.  He found Lindsey, this was Lindsey, but not the Lindsey he remembered, “You straightened your hair.” “Yeah, but the curls come back when I wash it, all I have to do is wet it and boom,” she said spreading her hand out from her head and smiling her Lindsey smile and he smiled back. “Yeah, can you do that Lindsey?  I’d love to see your curls, I love your curls.”

Lindsey looked at him, he was looking at her in that special Amar way, the way that made her heart melt, “Sure, the shower is the quickest.” “Okay you can use mine,” he wanted his Lindsey, the one with the ton of curls and not this red lipstick on her beautiful lips. 

Lindsey was smiling,
Amar was here
, and she turned on the shower and let the warm water wash over her and down her body.  Amar sat waiting, and after too many long minutes he was growing impatient and he wanted to be near her, he’d waited so long to find her and she was taking too long.  He went into the bathroom and took off his clothes and stepped in the shower. 

Lindsey yelped and covered her breast with one hand and with the other her crotch, “Amar!”  “You were taking too long,” he said smiling and he hadn’t thought about her being naked, he’d only thought about being near her.  He didn’t care that she saw him naked, after he’d seen his father going inside a man’s rear nothing could shock him more than that, and being naked in front of Lindsey wasn’t shocking to him, but he could see it was to her.

Lindsey had never seen a naked man before; she’d only seen boy parts when she changed Justin and Christopher’s diapers.  She’d seen their little male organs and to her they were something to be avoided or you’d get peed on so she’d change them quickly before the water works but here was Amar standing there naked and she looked at him not knowing what to think. 

Amar saw her looking, but to him he saw his Lindsey, her hair had curled up and the red lips were gone, “There you are my beautiful Lindsey, that’s the girl I know,” and he took her hand from her breast, “You’re beautiful you don’t have to hide from me, you’re beautiful,” he took her in his arms and Lindsey believed him.  He was the one person she believed and she let him kiss her and she felt his warm wet skin against hers and he kissed her wet beautiful lips, and he didn’t want to stop, and when they did he looked at her, her wet body. 

Amar had never seen a naked girl either, and what he saw of Lindsey was beautiful, her breast upright and full with dark nipples, her tapered waist and those legs, long with beautiful calves, he marveled at her. 

They talked and washed up, not because they thought they needed it, but because they were in the shower and that’s what you do.  He took the soap and washed her body, caressing her soapy breast in his hands and cupping her beautiful behind.  Lindsey washed his chest, and marveled at how he’d filled out, he was a man now, that was all she could think.  She leaned up and kissed him, something was stirring in her, stirring in her belly as she looked at him, and his eyes were soft and loving.  He turned off the shower and they dried off, she wrapped her hair in a towel and they ran to get warm under his cover laughing and giggling.

“So cold, so cold,” they ran shivering their skin raised in goose bumps and pulled the cover up high. “I’ll warm you,” Amar said rubbing her arms and then he pulled her to him, “I’ll hold you, maybe that’ll be faster,” and he kissed her forehead and then he went further, kissing her cheeks and she put her arms around him.  He let the towel fall from her hair and her mass of curls fell free and he saw his Lindsey, “Oh Lindsey,” he went for her lips and kissed her.  Their naked bodies warming up and Amar felt a stirring in his groin, and Lindsey felt it in her belly and in her heart; she’d missed him so much.  Amar felt his heart warming, and the ice he’d had around it melting; he’d been holding everything in for so long. 

He kissed her and she kissed him back.  He began to touch her and she him, he went down and took her nipple in his mouth and she moaned out and so did he, and before long his male part responded as it should and he knew what to do.  He lay on top of her and she knew too, she spread her legs, he felt for the thing he wanted and found the spot he knew he wanted and pushed, and pushed. 

Lindsey held on and he broke through, “Amar!”  She cried out. “Did I hurt you Lindsey?”  He asked concerned, “No Amar, I want you too,” she said looking at him ready and wanting to be loved, and he pushed and moved his hips and he made love to Lindsey.

When they were spent he lay next to her and couldn’t stop kissing her, “I love you Lindsey, I love you, I came here to find you and I’m so happy I did,” he said holding her.  “I love you too Amar and I missed you so much,” and Lindsey knew she hadn’t realized how much she missed Amar until she saw him standing there, and her soul soared at the sight of him and they lay there and talked.  He held her soft hair in his hands, “I love your hair like this,” and they told each other of their lives, and when he said his father was killed, “Oh no Amar, when?”  “That’s why I left.” “Oh my god Amar I didn’t know,” “I know, I didn’t get a chance to say good bye to you,” and he knew that had been the most painful thing he’d endured, not letting her know what happened to him.

“I know I didn’t get to say goodbye to you either, we moved to Italy,” and neither knew they’d left South Africa the same day. “Is that where you met Fabio?”  He asked, after what they’d done he hoped she’d break up with Fabio now, after all she let him have her first that says a lot. “No, I met him on the plane.  We thought it’d be nice to know someone on campus.” “So he’s not your boyfriend?”  “No, I don’t have a boyfriend,” she looked down, “Do you have a girlfriend?”  She asked shyly.  They had come here to talk and now they’d done something else and she realized she didn’t know anything about Amar.  “I hope I do now, I hope you’ll be my girlfriend,” and he saw the brightest smile on her face and he pulled her to him and kissed her, kissed her deeply and before they knew it they were doing it again.

“Oh Lindsey I will never get tired of doing that,” he said holding her afterwards, she giggled and just then they heard a key in the door.  “Wait a minute Steven!”  Amar shouted but his roommate was already opening the door. “Oh my god,” Lindsey said and pulled the cover up.  Steven saw them and froze, “You got a girl already mate?  Well done, well done,” and Lindsey was mortified. “Can you excuse yourself and wait outside for a moment?” Amar asked. “Oh yeah, sorry mate.” “Let’s get dressed and get out of here!” Amar said happily.

His roommate was standing outside waiting when they left and he looked long at Lindsey and she covered her face, “Wow mate, you did good she’s pretty,” and he gave Amar the thumbs up.  “I know, thanks,” Amar said and took Lindsey’s hand from her face, “Don’t be ashamed of our love Lindsey, I’m not,” he said holding her.  His father had tried to make him ashamed of loving her, saying she wasn’t good enough and that didn’t stop him from feeling the way he did and he never wanted to deny he loved her again.

That night Lindsey called her mother, “Mom, he’s here!  Amar is here!”   “Oh my god Lindsey that’s wonderful!  How did you find him?”  “Can you believe it we were just walking on campus and he was there, just there!  Oh mom it was so beautiful, he’s so handsome, he’s grown up and he looks so good,” and Joy could hear her excitement.  Royce listened to Joy’s end of the conversation and so did Jameson, “Oh no, what happened?”  Royce heard Joy exclaim, her hand over her heart, and after they hung up.

“Don’t tell me is she with someone already?” Joy looked to be in shock, “Amar,” and Royce’s mouth dropped too, “You mean he’s at Cambridge?”  “Yes, he’s there and Lindsey is beside herself,” and Joy pretended to swoon, “He’s so beautiful, so handsome,” she said swaying back and forth her hand on her forehead.   Royce chuckled.
“And oh get this, Amar’s father was  killed,” and Royce had to act shocked, “No! Really!  What happened?”  “Amar thinks it was a bad business deal or something but they never found out, but he moved to Saudi Arabia right after it happened.”

Jameson listened and on the one hand he was happy, happy for Lindsey, and now he knew all this time he’d been worried about her she’d been in love, and on the other she was like a daughter and now he was worried all over again.

Royce had been entering Joy’s Fury in races and he lost race after race until he figured out he needed to let him win against No Mercy and Windstar, those two horses were true race horses they wanted to win and right after Lindsey settled into college life he won his first race at Capannelle in Rome and because of the odds he won a big purse.  “Wow!  Wow! He won!  He won!”  Royce yelled excitedly over the phone to Joy.  “Oh my god Royce, he won!”   Either Jameson or Conrad would attend the races with him and it turned out to be something they both enjoyed.  Conrad always came back excited and put in his own bets and Jameson often reminded him, “You do remember why you’re there, to protect Mr. Harrington,” and Conrad would look sheepish, and Jameson understood, they knew Gibeau was still searching, he was scouring the continent of Africa, the last they heard he was in Tanzania.