Silken Tide Page 8

  Mark rested his head against the back of the seat and closed his eyes. Minutes later, he felt the truck come to a stop and heard the engine cut. Mark opened his eyes and looked around. Just when he thought his emotional roller coaster of a day was coming to an end, there was another incline staring him straight in the face. They were in the parking lot of Bonnie’s.

  “What are we doing here?” Mark sat up straight in his seat.

  “I’m starving. Let’s get something to eat.” Jeremy opened the door and got out of the truck.

  “Nah, man. I think I’ll just walk home from here.”

  “What’s the matter? Come on.” Jeremy didn’t wait for Mark to respond and walked toward the front door.

  Mark looked through the windshield at the front of Bonnie’s for a few seconds. He knew he would have to deal with his bad behavior toward Jessica sooner rather than later. He hadn’t seen her since the day before. Maybe she’d had time to cool off. He reluctantly got out of the truck and made his way into the diner.

  The bell on the door announced Mark’s entrance and he found Jeremy waiting for him in a nearby booth. Just as Mark started to walk toward the table, Jessica pushed through the double doors of the kitchen with a plate in each hand. Their eyes met and they both stopped in their tracks. At first, the look on her face was soft and full of surprise. He even caught a trace of the awe that he had seen at the festival. Then, like a storm rolling in on a sunny day, she narrowed her eyes and her full lips stretched into a thin line. She looked away and moved quickly toward the table she was delivering the plates to.

  As if he were walking across a field of land mines, Mark made his way to the table and carefully slid into the booth across from Jeremy. He jumped when he heard Jessica slam the plates down on the table behind him. A moment later, two plastic menus slid across the table. Jessica’s stance was stiff. He could almost feel the anger radiating from her skin.

  “Hey, Jeremy.”

  “Hey, Jess.”

  “What can I get for you?”

  “I’ll take the special and a Coke. Thanks.” Jeremy handed her the menu.

  Before Mark had the chance to speak, she turned on her heels and walked away. Mark’s eyes widened as she made her way back to the kitchen without taking his order. He rested his palms on the cool table and rested his forehead on the backs of his hands.

  “What the hell is going on?” Jeremy asked.

  “It’s a long story.” Mark lifted his head and rolled his eyes.

  “I’m no expert like you, Mark, but isn’t that the opposite effect that you wanted to have on Jess?” Jeremy’s laughter filled the small restaurant.

  “Shut up, here she comes,” Mark warned Jeremy.

  Jeremy did his best to keep a straight face as Jessica placed a Coke in front of him. She charged away again, this time to the counter.

  “Look, man. Seriously, I don’t know what happened between the two of you. But maybe it’s nothing that an ‘I’m sorry’ wouldn’t fix.” Jeremy took a sip of his drink.

  Mark hesitated, but finally stood up from the table.

  “Go get her, tiger!” Jeremy chuckled and slapped Mark on the backside with the leftover menu.

  Mark ran his hand down his now five-o’clock-shadowed face and took a deep breath. His feet felt like lead and his heart pounded as he walked over to Jessica. He had never been this nervous around a woman. Why did her opinion mean so much to him? Finally, he had made his way to the counter. None of his corporate charm was going to work here. He knew it. Jessica busied herself tallying a check and didn’t look up. She wrote angrily, her pen making sharp movements and hitting the pad of paper with force. He stood for a few moments longer. She still wouldn’t look up at him. He had to duck his head down. At last, she stopped writing and made eye contact with him.

  “Hi,” Mark said.

  “Can I help you?” She tilted her head.

  He flinched. Those four words hurt more than any words of fury she could have slung at him. Words of indifference. Words for a stranger. He would have walked away if he didn’t see a glimmer of recognition in her eye.

  “Look, Jess. I shouldn’t have said what I said. I was out of line.”

  “Okay.” She went back to her tallying.

  “Okay? That’s it?”

  “Okay. I accept your apology, if that’s what that was. But, you have made it perfectly clear how you feel about me, Mark.” She lowered her voice to a whisper. “I’m not one of those little girls in New York you can play games with and they’ll chase after you. I’m a woman and I know my worth. Have a nice day.”

  She glared at him, ripped the piece of paper from the pad, and brushed past him. Mark leaned against the counter. For the first time in his life, there, in the middle of Bonnie’s diner, he felt completely out of his league with a woman. His stomach lurched as his emotional roller coaster took a free fall.

  Chapter 14

  The sky was so thick with clouds over Silk Cove that Saturday, it seemed as if the heavens above would rip open at any moment and unleash a torrential downpour. The air was oppressively humid, making it difficult to breathe. Jessica wished she could have spent more time in the air-conditioned art supply store, but she was afraid that if she didn’t leave she would end up spending what little money she had left. She had already made one trip to her truck with canvases of all different sizes. Now, she would have to lug a bag overflowing with paints and brushes to her truck as well. More than ever before, she felt the overwhelming urge to paint. She painted day and night. She had to pry herself away from the canvas to go to work. It all started a couple of days ago. Four days, seventeen hours and twenty-eight minutes ago, to be exact. That was when she last saw Mark.

  Jessica thought she was doing the right thing when she walked away from Mark that day at the diner. Yet every evening as the usual parade of trucks passed by the restaurant carrying the fishermen home from the docks, she would stand by the window hoping to catch a glimpse of Mark. She never did. In fact, he hadn’t stopped by Bonnie’s at all. Her mind constantly had to remind her heart that she could not risk losing her dignity over a man that thought nothing of tearing her down, just because he was having a moment of weakness. But a part of her that was bigger and stronger than any free will she could gather hoped that he would come back.

  As Jessica stepped out of the shop, she immediately started to sweat and her clothes stuck to her body. Since her bungalow had no air-conditioning, she would most likely end up with the oscillating fan blowing on her while she painted. How miserable. She slung the bag into the bed of her truck and when she looked up, her heart skipped a beat. It was Mark. He was jogging down the road and the heat obviously got to him as well, evidenced by his sweat-soaked NYU T-shirt. God, he was gorgeous.

  Go home, Jessica, she thought to herself. He’ll only break your heart.

  But as she got into the truck and put her seatbelt on, she couldn’t help but look at him in her mirror. Once again, he was moving in the opposite direction of her. Before he disappeared over the hill, she put the truck in reverse as quickly as she could and turned around.

  Jessica didn’t have a plan. She didn’t know what she was going to say or do. Like so many times before, her body trembled wildly at the mere thought of being in Mark’s presence. Trying her best to overcome her symptoms, she threw the truck into the next gear and sped up the road. Once she was even with Mark, she slowed to his pace until he looked over and realized someone was driving next to him. At first he looked confused, but then his face seemed to light with recognition and he slowed to a walk. She stopped and rolled down her window.

  “Get in.”

  Mark walked up to the truck. He placed his hands on the roof and leaned toward her through the opened window. “What?”

  His breathing was labored and she could see his amazing build through his wet T-shirt. She almost lost it right then and there. She never had the urge to literally lick the sweat off the side of a man’s neck before. She held on to her steering wh
eel as if tightening her grip would get her body to behave.

  “I said, get in.” She motioned with her head toward the passenger seat.

  Mark circled around to the side of the truck. He looked a little cautious as he opened the door. But once he was sitting next to her, she could tell by his confident posture that he could sense that she had let her guard down. She knew that she should tread carefully. He played the field. He had made that perfectly clear to her. But, there was something about him that made her want to throw caution to the wind. There was that nagging voice inside of her that told her not to do it, but it was no match for the overwhelming urge to jump. Not just jump. Leap. Soar through the sky. Arms spread out and hair blowing back. Who cares if she fell to her death? That momentary feeling of intense passion would be worth it. Death be damned. Just then, she had an idea.

  “So, where are we going?” He buckled his seatbelt.

  “You’ll see.” She smiled.

  *

  Mark blamed it on the heat that day. It had to be. Only the stifling heat would drive him mad enough to get into a truck that was headed deep into the woods, with a woman that just days ago looked like she wanted to rip his head off. Or it could have been her beautiful smile. Or the way her fiery hair pressed against her glistening neck…

  As they headed away from town, the trees became denser on either side of the road. Minutes later, the truck slowed and veered left onto a beaten path that led into a wooded area. Suddenly, the world around them became a disorienting, luminescent green. Low-lying branches reached out and tickled the sides of the truck, as they slowly made their way through the woods. At last, they came to a stop in front of an incline embedded with rocks draped in moss. Jessica opened her door and started toward the hill. Reluctant to follow just yet, Mark got out and stood by the truck.

  “Are you going to tell me where we’re going or not?” The thick brush muted Mark’s words.

  She met his glance and without a word, she pulled her shirt over her head. Her full breasts threatened to spill over the top of her lacy, dark green bra. She smiled and then turned to make her way up the rocky slope.

  Mark didn’t understand women. One minute, they were seething mad. The next, they were undressing. But right then, he didn’t have time to ponder their baffling behavior. Mark took off his shirt and tossed it into the truck through the open window. As quickly as the slippery rocks would allow, he climbed the hillside. Once he crested the top, the hazy sky came into view and he realized that he stood under a canopy of trees. Just several paces in front of him, the land gave way to a precarious overhang. He strained his neck to look down at the water below and laughed.

  “Oh, now I get it. You’re going to seduce me and then shove me off a cliff.”

  “No. Not exactly.” She grinned.

  “Then, what?”

  “We’re going swimming.” She motioned with her chin to the water below.

  “But, how are we going to get down there?”

  “We’re going to jump.”

  “You’re kidding, right?”

  She shook her head.

  “All the way down there?”

  She nodded.

  Jessica unzipped her shorts and let them drop to her ankles, revealing her matching lace panties underneath. Just then, a slight breeze picked up sending wisps of her hair in a playful dance around her face. She closed her eyes and smiled. She tilted her head as if the wind were caressing her cheek. All at once, Mark felt robbed of words. It wasn’t that she stood before him barely dressed that had him tongue-tied. It wasn’t that she was asking him to jump off a cliff that rendered him speechless. Mark fell into a quiet reverence; there were no words that were good enough to describe what he saw. They simply didn’t exist. Jessica was a part of this place. She was in the trees, in the air, in the water. All of it would be incomplete without her. It was magnificent.

  “So, are you ready?” Jessica nudged Mark, breaking his thoughts.

  Mark bit his lip and looked over the edge.

  “Trust me,” she said.

  “No offense, Jess. But, I don’t trust many women.”

  “I’m not just any woman, Mark.”

  “I’ve never fallen before.”

  “Never?” Jessica asked.

  “Never. Have you?” Mark asked.

  “Yes.”

  It was obvious to Mark that they were not just talking about cliff diving anymore. Suddenly, his chest burned with jealousy. The thought of Jessica being with another man was almost too much to handle. But he knew she couldn’t erase her past. He couldn’t erase his either.

  “Does it hurt?” he asked.

  “Sometimes.” She shrugged.

  “Then, why chance getting hurt? Why take the risk?”

  “The real risk is not taking the chance.”

  Mark looked over the edge once more and shook his head in disbelief of what he was about to do. He kicked off his sneakers and lowered his shorts.

  “This is going to be interesting.” Jessica smirked, looking down at his underwear.

  Mark glanced down and let out a laugh; of all days he chose to wear white boxer-briefs.

  “Give me your hand.” Jessica held out her hand and wiggled her fingers.

  Jessica’s hand seemed to quiver in Mark’s and he found himself rubbing his thumb across her fingers. Maybe he did it to attempt to calm her. Maybe he did it because he was nervous. Or maybe he did it because her skin was so soft he couldn’t resist.

  “One…” Jessica said softly.

  Mark rolled his shoulders and stretched his neck from side to side.

  “Two…” There was a heightened pitch in Jessica’s voice.

  Mark took a deep breath.

  “Three!”

  Even though his feet pounded against the rocky terrain, he could barely feel the ground as they ran toward the overhang. In an instant his feet left the cliff and he was free falling. His stomach tightened. He thought it funny that the only thing that kept him grounded was the delicate hand that still held his in midair. His feet were first to hit the water. The stinging sensation surged from his toes to the top of his head. Soon, his whole body was immersed in the cool darkness. The world around him seemed to slow and his body suspended in the water. He felt weightless and bubbles surrounded him, tickling his skin. He felt energized. He felt alive. His heart raced. Between jumping off the cliff and the effect that Jessica seemed to have on him, he was sure that he would have a heart attack that day.

  Once the fizziness around him dissipated and he was able to get his bearings, Mark came to the sharp realization that he was no longer holding Jessica’s hand. He pushed to the top and as he emerged from the water, he could hear the sweet melody of Jessica’s breathless laughter. Mark wiped the water from his eyes and found a smiling Jessica waiting for him at the surface. The water had made his vision hazy and a soft glow seemed to set around her. Suddenly, Mark felt like they were under the pavilion again. But this time, they were alone. There were no dancing couples. In fact, the only music to be heard was that of singing birds in concert with the rustling leaves in the breeze. There was no Jeremy. There weren’t any interruptions. They belonged in this moment. It was made just for them. And this time, he would finish what he had started. Pure instinct ran through his veins and overcame any reasoning that tried to block his actions.

  Mark took hold of both of Jessica’s wrists and pulled her to him effortlessly. Her hair trailed behind her on the water like a velvet red cape. Her smile seemed to wash away into the depths of the water below and her face wore a look of surprise. Mark’s strong chest pressed against her soft, cool skin. Her lips quivered and just like under the pavilion, she seemed to shake uncontrollably under his grip.

  “Still trembling?” he whispered.

  She simply nodded.

  He stared down at her, looking back and forth between her eyes and shivering mouth. He brushed his lips against hers. When she didn’t resist, he pulled her in closer. Even the water between them wa
s too much. He wanted to rip it away so that he could feel her closer still. He let go of her wrists and placed his hands on the small of her back. His arms felt as if they could have wrapped around her tiny frame twice. His lips moved fervently over hers. Like the nectar of a honeysuckle flower, her mouth tasted sweet and felt just as soft. A passion so great pulsed through his veins that it roared in his ears, drowning out the noises of the world around him.

  This wasn’t like any other kiss that Mark had ever experienced. In the past, a kiss was a means to an end. A fleeting moment without further consideration. But this kiss? This kiss was a beginning. A predetermined event. There was no doubt in Mark’s mind that this kiss had set into motion a course of events that would forever change his life.

  Just like an alarm clock waking him from dream into reality, fear grabbed him by the back of the neck as if to keep him from taking another life-changing plunge. Uncertainty gripped and twisted his gut. Mark released Jessica from his arms.

  “I just remembered. I promised my father I would help him.”

  “What?” Jessica looked at him, stunned.

  “Yeah, sorry. I have to go. I’ll catch up with you later.”

  Mark swam to the rocky shore as if he had a school of piranhas on his ass.