Tangled Up in Blue Read online

  Blue throws his head back and laughs. “You never fail to surprise me, bar girl. And I’ll tell you something.” He pulls me to him. “You are bad-ass. Don’t ever forget it. I was so fucking proud, watching you bounce down that rope. I felt like an expectant father or something.”

  “Okay, that’s kind of weird, but I get what you’re saying.” I tilt my smiling face up, and his lips find mine. We stand there for several moments before Blue finally pulls back.

  “We’ve got to get to that cave, bar girl. Let’s hit the trail.” He hoists the heavy backpack onto his shoulders and picks up the guitar that he'd leaned against a nearby tree.

  The ROTC guys tried to hide their sly grins when Blue pulled the guitar out of the car after we’d finished rappelling. He’d already stuck the ax, matches, blanket, champagne bottle and glasses, extra water bottles and snacks into his backpack. It was bulging, but he wouldn't let me carry anything in my own backpack except one water bottle and the sweats he'd told me to bring. Henderson had stood by Blue's car, eying the guitar. “Wow, looks like you’ve got quite a romantic afternoon planned, Mr. Danube.” Blue just glared at him.

  When we said goodbye to the group, Henderson kissed my hand. “Great meeting you, beautiful. If Danube doesn’t treat you right, you can always give me a call.” The murderous look he got from Blue wiped the grin off Henderson’s face. Then Blue turned without a word and stalked down the trail so fast I had to run to catch up.

  He didn't speak again for several minutes, at least not to me. But I could hear him mumbling. “. . .fool is just a glutton for punishment. Well, he’s going to get it. . .”

  “You’re not really going to make Henderson scrub toilets, are you?” I ask as he turns to help me over some boulders. Blue being jealous over me is kind of cute, I have to admit.

  “That smart-ass will be lucky if that’s all that happens to him.”

  By the time Blue extends his hand to help me cross the river on several slippery, moss-covered rocks, I’m really hot and sweaty, even though the air has turned much cooler. Blue pulls me to the other side and tells me to watch my head as we duck under a bluff. He’s smiling; he looks excited.

  There’s barely enough room in front of us to scramble single-file around a curve. As I make my way carefully around the rocks, I gasp at what I see. The river tumbles down the bluff right in front of me and cascades into a dark pool below that’s surrounded by green, mossy rocks. And just beyond the rocks, a ring of fiery maple trees encircles the pool. The trees are reflected in the water, and the sun lights up the whole scene as if it has all been deliberately arranged. It’s like stepping into a vibrantly-colored oil painting.

  “Oh, Blue! This is so beautiful.”

  A smile of pure pleasure creases his face and warms his eyes. “I knew you’d like it,” he says. He takes my hand, and we make our way down one side of the bluff until we are standing next to the waterfall, looking down into the pool. A cool mist settles on my face and arms. Blue slips his backpack off. “Come on, I’ll show you the cave.”

  Carrying the backpack in one hand and the guitar in the other, he presses his back against the rocks and inches his way behind the waterfall, with me following. A few feet in, the rocks curved away, and we find ourselves standing in a cave that’s about 10 feet deep and maybe seven or eight feet wide. Blue leans the guitar against the back wall of rock and sets the backpack on the ground. I set my backpack down too.

  “Blue, this is amazing. Really.” I am teary-eyed and touched by his thoughtfulness. “It’s perfect,” I whisper.

  Blue cups my face with his hands. “No, you’re perfect.” He kisses me. “Now let’s open that champagne.” He pulls the bottle out and tears open the plastic package of glasses with his teeth, then hands the package to me. I pull out two glasses and hold them as Blue twists the top off the bottle. He whoops when it goes off with a loud pop. He fills our glasses and raises his in my direction. “To us, Keegan.”

  “To us.” I take a long sip. “To making kick-ass memories.”

  Blue downs his drink, refills his glass and downs it again, then throws the plastic glass against the wall. Then he pulls off his boots and socks. "Drink up, woman, and let's go put our feet in the water.”

  I tilt my glass up and finish the champagne, then bend down and remove my sneakers and socks, wriggling my painted toes in the dust. Blue takes my hand. I expect him to lead me back toward the side of the pool. Instead, he pulls me right into the waterfall.

  I shriek as the cold water courses over my head and down my body. But before I can say a word, Blue is heating me up with his mouth, with his hands, with his hunger. He hooks one arm around my neck, steadying me against his body, and kisses me over and over again. His tongue explores my mouth, then makes its way down my throat, sliding down my chest, over each shoulder and down each arm. I can feel the delicious contrast between the warmth from his mouth and the icy water moving down my body. I am gasping, panting, wanting his lips, his tongue, to move to my breasts and further down where, despite the cold, I’m on fire.

  As if he read my mind, Blue pulls his arm away from my neck and slowly sinks to his knees in front of me. I run my fingers through his wet hair, over his face, as he leaves a trail of kisses on my stomach. His hands reach up and find my breasts, and his thumbs circle my nipples. I cry out and grip Blue’s hands with my own, amazed and almost frightened by the urgent ache that is spreading throughout my body.

  Blue brings his hands down to my hips and rolls his face against my abdomen, his eyes closed. Then he reaches for my shorts zipper and very slowly begins to pull it down, kissing each newly revealed bit of skin on my stomach as he goes. “Blue!” I pull my hands across my face, clearing the water from my eyes, and look down at him with my lips parted. He is torturing me; it’s exquisite, spine-tingling torture.

  He tugs on my shorts; they slide about halfway down my hips, and he glides his tongue along the waistband of my panties. I inhale and close my eyes for a moment. I’m starting to shudder, from desire or cold or maybe a bit of both. I look down in time to meet Blue’s eyes as he gazes up, his face crinkling into that mischievous grin I fell for the first day I met him. And then he tightens his grip around my thighs and falls sideways, plunging us both into the ice cold pool below.

  I’m wrapped in the blanket and huddled in front of the pile of wood Blue hurriedly chopped and is now trying to turn into a roaring fire. I stripped off my clothes as soon as we got back to the cave and had to dry off with my sweatpants as we have no towel. I can’t stop shivering.

  “I didn’t think to bring a towel. Sorry about that,” Blue says sheepishly, his teeth chattering. He is still in his wet clothes. The scorching look I shoot him should have warmed him up. He smiles a little hesitantly at me as the flame finally takes hold and the kindling he placed under the logs starts to crackle. “Aw, come on, Keegan. It was fun. You gotta admit it was fun.”

  I scowl, doing my best to stay mad. “It was fun up until you dumped us into the water!” I’m irritated by the smile that’s breaking through on my face. “What the hell made you do that?”

  He shrugs as he strips off his clothes. “I don’t know. Just seemed like the thing to do.” That wicked smile again. “You could have woken the dead the way you screamed!” He’s standing there nude in front of me, practically daring me to look him up and down. I’ve never just brazenly stared at a naked man before. With Tyler, it was dark, and he’d shucked his pants off at the last minute. And that had turned out to be a blessing. Much, much better that it is Blue Danube initiating my virgin eyes.

  “Like what you see, Keegan?” He’s obviously noticed me staring. He shakes his hips, smiling playfully at me, and again, I can’t help blushing. But I definitely like what I see.

  “I’ll say it again, Blue Danube. You are unbelievable.”

  I stand up and pull the blanket off my shoulders, then spread it on the ground near the fire. Then, keeping my eyes pinned on Blue’s, I pull the sweatshirt over my head a
nd slowly take off my sweatpants, using my foot to kick them aside with what I hope is wanton disregard. And then I’m standing there naked too. Blue's eyes roam over me greedily, and he shakes his head slightly while a long, ragged breath escapes his lips. “Like what you see, Blue?” I shake my hips, smiling playfully at him.

  But Blue doesn’t blush. He crosses the space between us faster than I would have thought possible and pulls my head back so that I’m staring directly into his eyes. “Let me show you how much.”

  “I love the way you growl at me,” I say. “Keep on doing it.”

  He dips an arm under my knees, picks me up and slowly lowers me to the blanket. Then he stretches my wrists above my head and holds them there with one of his hands. He says nothing for several moments, just purses his lips and blows softly, agonizingly, along my jaw line, down my throat, over my breasts. Finally, squirming and feeling as if the flames have leapt onto my body and are racing along my nerve endings, I find my breath long enough to quip, “It’s actually going to happen this time, right, Blue? You’re not about to leave me high and dry again, are you? Well, not exactly dry.”

  He laughs. “I love your sense of humor. And yes, it’s actually going to happen.” He kisses my lips and run his fingers down my stomach. “Now. Right. Now. Are you ready, Keegan?”

  “Absolutely. And unless that’s a piece of firewood poking into my leg, so are you.” Clever, Keegan.

  “Wait, that reminds me.” Blue turns, still holding my wrists, and stretches out his arm, barely able to reach his pants and pull something out of the pocket. He holds it up before my eyes. A small blue square. “Gotta have this.”

  At first, I’m bewildered, but then I realize what it is. I close my eyes for a second, embarrassed. A condom, you idiot. “I’m such a newbie. I didn’t even think about that.”

  Blue releases my wrists and turn aside to put on the condom. Then he stretches out next to me, his skin melting into mine. “Never fear, young pupil." He kisses me, tenderly at first, then harder, more urgently as I pull him to me. “I’m here to teach you everything.”

  But that first time with Blue, it’s almost like I am the teacher and he the student, he the eager explorer and my shuddering, twisting body the tangled terrain he’s trying to conquer. A totally cliched, romance-novelish metaphor, yes. But entirely, deliciously, true.

  Blue takes his slow, sweet time, his hands and mouth bringing me along with him, making my fingers and toes curl and then spring open, sending my hands over his back, around his ass, down his arms, chest and abs, without any instructions from my brain. My eyelids are fluttering, and every part of me tingling and burning at the same time when he finally thrusts into me. Then it’s a steady, scorching ride until we cry out together, and an electric storm of sensation passes between us. Blue holds my lip between his teeth for an instant, then kisses my mouth, pressing his face against mine before moving to my side with a heavy, satisfied sigh.

  I’m lying on his chest afterward, watching the flames dance and listening to the soft thud of Blue’s heart. He strokes my back, his fingers sending an electric buzz through my skin. The wind is much stronger now; we can hear it rustling through the trees, and every once in a while, drops from the waterfall land on my back. I shiver, then took a deep breath.

  “You okay, bar girl?” He squeezes me against his body, and I rub my face against him in a nod, then draw circles down his chest, across his stomach, with my finger. He kisses the top of my head. “So, was it better than with Tyler?”

  I raise up to look at him, then press my lips to his. “You really have to ask? No comparison. But I don't want to talk about Tyler right now.” I run my lips down his neck, then softly kissed his shoulder, lingering on the dog tags tattoo. “What about for you?” I prop on my elbow next to him. With my other hand, I trace the tattoo with my finger. “I mean, I'm not experienced. I assume for you there's been a lot of others?” I don’t really want to know the answer to that. Or maybe I do.

  Blue lifts my hand up and kisses my fingers. “It was perfect,” he whispers, running his hand down my back and making me shiver again. “You are perfect.” He pulls me back onto his chest. “And yeah, there have been others, but. . .”

  I look up at him after a few seconds of silence. He has one arm behind his head, and he’s staring at the rocks that form the top of the cave. “But what, Blue?”

  He closes his eyes for a moment. “I was trying to figure out how to say this without it sounding like a cheap line, but I can't, so I'm just going to say it.” He stares into the fire, and then his eyes latch on to mine again.

  “Even though there have been others,” he says carefully, “I've never felt with anyone else the way I feel with you, Keegan. I've never had this kind of connection with someone, this kind of. . .God, I hate to use the word chemistry, but I guess that's what it is. We have this bond, bar girl, that's special. At least I think we do.”

  I’m fighting the stupid tears gathering in my eyes and the ridiculous sense of panic fluttering my heart. “I'll bet you say that to all the girls.” I bury my face in his neck. Say something better than that. Tell him you feel the same way. I can sense the tension in Blue's body: the moment he goes from breath-holding expectation to deflated disappointment. That moment shudders right through my skin. But I still don’t say what he wants to hear. Still can’t quite do it.

  After a few more moments, Blue rolls me onto my back and gives me a long, passionate kiss. Then he smiles. It’s a rueful smile edged, for just a second, in pain. I've hurt him. But I seem to be unable at that moment to do anything to fix it.

  “Sorry to lay all that heavy emotional shit on you,” Blue whispers. “Leave it to me to ruin a perfectly good cave romp. Sometimes I just don't know when to keep my big mouth shut.” He starts sliding his body down mine, leaving a trail of kisses as he goes. “But now I'm going to make it up to you, bar girl. I'm going to show you what else I can do with my mouth.”

  The fire’s almost died by the time I notice the long afternoon shadows on the cave walls. “Not that I wouldn't like to stay like this forever," I say, “but I can’t miss that meeting. Shouldn’t we head back?”

  “Yeah, I suppose we should.” Blue doesn’t move, though. “Plus, there’s no telling what critters might want to use this cave.”

  I sit up suddenly. I hadn’t thought about critters. Blue laughs at the look on my face. “For a girl raised on a ranch, you sure aren’t all that outdoorsy.”

  I reach for my sweats and quickly put them on. It’s starting to get cold, even with the fire still glowing. “My brother Buick got the ranching genes.” I brush leaves and dirt off my sweatpants. “He’d stay outside on a horse 24/7 if you’d let him.”

  “Buick? Another cool name.”

  I sigh. “As in the back of, where he was conceived. My parents.” I try to act like I found them ridiculous, but actually, I loved my parents together. It was obvious to everyone they were crazy about each other. They always gave off this aura, I guess you’d call it. It made me feel good, even if I sometimes didn’t want to admit it. But that was over now.

  I notice the guitar still leaning against the back wall of the cave. I need to change the subject. The last thing I want to talk about were my parents. Or my unlucky brother. “Hey! You never sang to me!” I do my best girlfriend pout. “I can’t leave here ‘til you sing. But you’ve got to do it, like, right now.”

  Blue raises his eyebrows and gives me an arch look. “Well, I was planning to when we first got to the cave, but somehow I got distracted.” He grabs my wrist and pulls me down on top of him. “Can I help it if you make me sex-crazed? I’m the victim here.”

  I kiss him, our tongues interlocking. He tastes smoky. “I want my song, music man.” I giggle as he nuzzles my neck. He kisses me again, then pulls himself away and slips on his jeans.

  “Yikes,” he says, walking in a circle and pulling at his jeans. “They’re still wet.”

  I stretch out on the blanket, my hands behind my
head. “So why'd you put them back on?”

  “It seems weird to be playing naked.” He grabs the guitar. “Besides, as much as I'd like to continue this, we do need to get out of these woods. And if I stay naked. . .” He doesn’t need to finish the sentence. For a moment, I am so tempted to just blow off the editorial meeting. But that cannot happen.

  “Okay, then, Double D.” I can hear the regret in my voice. "Start singing.”

  He leans against the cave wall, one foot propped up, tuning the guitar. “This is a song that Bryson wrote about his wife, after she died of an overdose.”

  I rise up on my elbows and give him a look.

  “Yeah, I know, that sounds like a downer.” Blue is playing softly. “But it’s a stunning song. It’s all about his love for her.”

  And then he starts singing. I lay back and close my eyes. Blue’s voice washes over me, full of sadness and longing, but at the same time packed with sweetness. It sounds like childhood. My childhood anyway. The song’s about a life cut short. But it’s also about a love that can never be extinguished. And Blue's voice envelopes every word, first with a harsh edge that somehow bursts open each syllable and then melts away like overheated candy. Like the Tootsie Pops my Grandpa used to slip into the pockets of my jeans. That's the picture that forms in my mind: Grandpa's sun-spotted hand clutching a fistful of Tootsie Pops.

  Tears slide down my cheeks. Probably not what Blue is hoping for, me thinking about my dead grandfather. Every time I hear Blue sing, I can’t seem to stop the tears. Or the memories.

  When Blue finishes the song, he walks over and crouches down next to me, still holding his guitar. “I didn’t mean to make you cry. But I wanted to sing that song to you. Because it's the song that popped into my head the first day I met you. I know that sounds like a line too, but it's not.” He strokes my cheek.