Into the Woods: Tales from the Hollows and Beyond(138)
Author: Kim Harrison

She gave in to her desires, meeting his passion with her own, standing in the shadowed sun between earth and sky as he met her mouth, hungry for all, for everything. To live, she thought, feeling everything as sharp and new as if she’d never felt the kiss of the sun or caress of the wind. Each touch was a shock through her, each soft sound drove her to more daring, more freedom. His hands were a demanding pressure, and she pressed into him, feeling a rising desire.

His hands rose, a thumb running under the curve of her breast, and she pulled away as a thrill of adrenaline ran though her. Wild, his eyes met hers, enticing, daring, promising more as his hands moved unceasing, and she panted, wanting it to never end. But it would. They all screwed it up in the end. "Do you promise?" she breathed, a trembling hand shifting a lock of hair from his eyes. "I want to hear it."

"Everything," he whispered, and she ran her hands down his body to feel him, to see his response, shuddering his delight at her touch.

It was enough, and she hooked a finger in the top of his jeans, pulling him deeper into the cave. Only now did she allow a wicked smile to play about her lips, and seeing it, he held her tighter as they moved, his hands always shifting, changing pressure and demand like the pulse of the world across her. "Tell me you’re not a ghost," she said as they found the comforting dark of the back, and her shoulders pressed into rock. "That you’ll never leave me."

The heat of him covered her, and he kissed her neck, his teeth sending jolts through her. "Give me this, and I’ll be beside you every morning. I promise."

It was what she wanted to hear. His hand tugged at the hem of her shirt, and she moved sinuously, raising her arms and letting him take it from her. The darkness brushed her, raising tingles, and then his lips as he found her. Her head flung back, and she gripped his hair, encouraging him as her leg twined about him.

"You are everything to me, Lilly," he said, her breast going cool where his lips had been. "Everything. I promise you everything."

His lips found her again, and she arched her back as his hand ran lower, finding the curve of her back, and then lower yet, tugging her into him. All but oblivious with desire, she found his zipper and lowered it tantalizingly slowly as he pulled upon her, mirroring her tease. She was gasping when the zipper would move no more, and almost she was willing to abandon herself to the lie of Penn to have this . . . forever.

And with that thought, her resolve came rushing back. It was a lie. Nothing was forever.

"Wait. Wait!" she gasped, and he made a growl of frustration, pinning her shoulder to the wall.

"I have waited forever," he said, his eyes inches from hers, the glow of her passion reflected in them.

"Then you can wait thirty seconds more," she said, reaching past his zipper to find him. "Wait."

Eyes shut, he trembled as she touched him. Slowly they opened as she reluctantly left him, and he moved aside and let go of her shoulder to make it clear he was indeed . . . waiting. "I have watched you grow up, Lilly. I have seen your tears, and I have dried them. I will wait," he said as she pushed herself in motion, her pace unsteady and her pulse fast as she moved from him. Every step was hard, every motion cried out that she was a fool. Yes, men lied. Yes, they were stupid. But the way he had made her feel, the power she had over him . . . The power he had over her . . .

She turned, seeing his eyes glowing gold at the back of the cave. Her thoughts turned to Meg and Em, to her mother a tender fourteen. He was a monster. It would end here.

"But I will not wait forever," he said, and staggering, she picked her shirt up.

"You won’t have to." Feet stumbling on the uneven floor, she fumbled for a candle, lighting it from the lantern still glowing by the door.

"Lilly?"

Shaking, she lit the fuse, the sparks as it ignited making her resolute fear easy to see.

"Lilly."

He was unsure but clueless, and she steadily paced to the front of the cave, her blood cooling and her ardor already ash. "Good-bye, Penn."

"Lilly!" he shouted, but she ducked outside, putting her back to the wall as the earth shook and a billow of cool dust and rock-chip cloud exploded from the opening.

"Lilly!" he screamed, but she wasn’t sure if it was real or in her mind.

The second explosion was stronger, and she fell, arms grasping for anything, finding nothing to hold as she was thrown down the steep incline. Her breath came out in a cry as she slammed into a tree, and she looked up in awe as the rock face high above cracked and slid down, covering the opening that the first explosion had sealed.

Lilly!

The rumble of earth was only in her memory, and the waving trees stilled. In the near distance, a jay screamed. She stared at the raw cut of stone, seeing the shimmering line of a spider ballooning on the early rising air. The perfect fragility of it was shocking against the raw destruction. It glinted blood red in the sun, going invisible as it touched the stone now covering the opening and seemed to vanish. Another joined it, and then a third.

Lilly turned away. Her shirt was in her hand, and she looked at it numbly. Slowly, arms aching and thigh bruised, she put her shirt back on and turned her face away from the woods and to the sun. Her children waited. Her mother would be worried.

Blinking, Lilly picked her way back to the open meadow. Before her the sun rose like a goddess, powerful, uncaring, and blood-red.

FIVE

The creek’s chatter was absent as Lilly emerged from the forest, trudging past the barn to the house. Damp rocks glistened in the bright sun, the bridge spanning an empty gully. The water was gone.

Her mother had not been in the henhouse when she had gone by, and there was a clatter of silverware and cheerful, high-pitched voices coming through the kitchen window. Numb and depressed, Lilly wearily walked up the porch steps, hesitating at the top a moment before going in. The scent of fresh biscuits and eggs drifted out, making her stomach clench.

Pepper whined at the screen door, and her mother looked up from the counter, a damp cloth in her hand and an apron around her waist. Her hair was in an unusual disarray, and she glared at Lilly, understandably angry. Behind her, the kitchen table was empty of all but one place setting. Lilly pulled the screen door open, not responding when the girls at the sink splashed each other. Em was on a stool but still almost chest high with the counter as she studiously washed their breakfast plates.

"I’m sorry," Lilly said, her eyes rising from the unused plate on the table, and her mother went to the girls, her lips pressed tight as her old hands lightly touched their backs in an expression of security.