Saviors 101

Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Dana made a lame excuse about having to run home and suggested Sam just get the breakfast and she’d meet him back here.

While he went and got the sandwiches, she ran home, took a quick shower, dragged on fresh jeans, dodged around Talin’s rendition of the holy scriptures in four-part harmony with himself or whatever he was doing to get ready for sixth grade, kissed Mama on the cheek as she rocked out to Janis Ian because Janis Joplin would be slamming in shortly, and managed to be back on the street corner where they kissed just as Sam arrived with a large, brown paper bag that smelled strongly of the best pastrami sandwiches on the planet.

She did her best to lean casually against the bookstore window, missed, and almost hit the pavement in the recess of the narrow doorway. He offered her a hand to regain her balance, which she didn’t need. But not being a total i***t, now that the shower had washed away the worst effects of her sleep deficit, she accepted his hand anyway.

And she kept it.

His was warm, and felt of that long, lean strength so evident in his body. He led them along the wooded street. At the overpass, he cut through a residential block and led her down into the ravine of Ravenna park. Joggers trotted along the dirt trails, tracking through the steep narrow canyon of tall forest that trickled all but unnoticed through the neighborhood.

Flocks of birds were flitting among the trees, on break from targeting BMW windshields on the streets now fifty feet above them.

There were also very few seagulls, which was just fine by her. Each one that had flown over this morning had reminded her of a certain pint-sized angel that she was beginning to doubt the existence of altogether.

She’d left Henrietta napping in the pizza box when she’d first headed to the deli with the rising sun. A doll’s blanket tossed over her had calmed the slight shiver rippling up her wings. The angel was gone when she rushed back for her shower. The blanket had been neatly folded next to the now closed pizza box. Please let it all be a hallucination.

Dana and Sam strolled comfortably, except for dodging aside for the occasional jogger, until the trail opened up to a community park that had been planted half a century before and was now lush with foliage and quiet corners.

“Why are you giving me another chance?” If she’d thought first, clearly not one of her strengths, she’d have started with an innocuous question. But his hand was so sure and steady where it held hers.

He appeared to be studiously examining the trees that were scattered around the small parking lot they’d discovered.

He shrugged.

“I dunno. No, maybe I do know.”

He turned to look at her.

“You’re pretty enough to convert a monk into a sybarite.”

She’d have to get to a dictionary real soon, but she liked the way that sounded.

“But that’s not it. Well, not all of it.” He looked away and actually blushed, as if that weren’t reason enough for the moment.

He tried to extract his hand, but a quick clench of her fingers cut off his escape.

“This is going to sound really shitty.”

“Try me.” If it was part of a frat prank, to bang Murphy, she’d flatten his ass but good.

He kept his silence until they were headed toward the only picnic table without a jogger collapsed with their energy drink and soy-based power bar.

“I, well, I couldn’t get over how good you felt.” He squeezed her hand tentatively. “I’ve never met a girl who—”

“Woman.” They ground to a halt at the table.

He swallowed hard, “Woman.” And checked her expression.

She schooled it carefully to hide that she was busy trying to bite her tongue off.

“Woman,” he repeated again, “who just felt so, I dunno, alive when I kissed her.”

“Oh, a lot of experience to compare to?” Okay, that did it. Forget having her tongue removed, she was just going to go out and buy herself a muzzle. She’d schedule tongue surgery for later.

“Some. Not much. Enough to know. s**t. I f****d that up, didn’t I?”

She kissed him. It seemed the right answer.

And he did feel good.

Really good.

Even based on her own unadmitted-incredibly-limited-experience, really, really good.

And tasted good too, like a cross between strawberries and the rugged outdoors.

They fit. Their lips fit. Their arms fit. Their bodies fit. His long, lean runner’s frame let her slender curves touch every inch all the way down to her curling toes. She had to tilt her head back just ever so slightly for the kiss. Just enough to make her feel Greta Garbo feminine without feeling Marilyn Monroe dominated.

“Oo! Oo! Oo!”

Dana didn’t break the kiss. Cracking open one eye, she saw Henrietta perched on the edge of the table with her eyes covered. A quick ping of Dana’s forefinger against the angel’s halo and she was gone as if she’d never been. The thousand ringing bells filled the air, which was oddly in tune with her nerves.

She continued the gesture to place a hand against Sam’s chest and moved him and his slightly crushed pastrami sandwich bag back just enough that she could pretend to breathe, though her chest was fluttering around far too much to allow for such measly considerations as air.

She rubbed her hand down over his pecs. Nice, nice pecs.

“You feel pretty damn good, too.”