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AFTER THE ONE-SIDED conversation with her father, Francesca ran straight to Mrs. O’Sullivan’s bedroom. She knocked and knocked until she remembered Mrs. O’Sullivan was out with Mr. Scott on their first official date. Alone and confused, Francesca dialed Tommy’s number.
“I need to see you, Tommy. I need to talk to you. Now,” Francesca said between sobs.
Hearing the tears and anxiety in Francesca’s voice, Tommy’s stomach clenched. “What’s wrong, Francesca?”
“I need to talk to you,” Francesca repeated in a whisper.
“Why are you whispering? What’s going on?”
“My father’s home and... Just come, Tommy.”
“I’ll be right over.”
“Meet me at the mouth of the creek, by the woods. Park your truck on the dirt road,” she instructed, deciding to sneak out of the house through the backway so her father wouldn’t see her.
“I don’t want you traipsing through the grounds in the dark. I’ll pick you up at the house.”
“I know my land like the back of my hand,” Francesca pointed out. “Meet me there.”
“All right.” The sadness in Francesca’s voice made Tommy’s stomach hurt.
Under the spill of moonlight, Francesca ran across the estate, through shadows, past the gazebo, and the stables. She followed the winding creek, where cattails stood erect like obedient soldiers on its banks, past the wild purple loosestrife to the farthest corner of the property.
It was a warm night, filled with the sounds of cicadas, crickets, and the continuous trickle of water from the creek chugging over rocks. Owls hooted their night call. Small animals scurried and huddled when they saw Francesca running toward them as if escaping a fire.
Fifteen minutes later, Tommy found her by the creek’s bank. Wrapped in a silk robe, fuzzy, pink slippers on her feet, Francesca’s head rested on folded knees as the tears coursed down her face.
“You came.” Francesca lunged herself on Tommy.
“Of course.” Tommy brushed the rumpled hair out of her face. “What’s wrong, Francesca? Are you hurt?”
“Hold me, Tommy. Just hold me.”
Tommy folded her into his arms. “Cry whatever is bothering you out of your system, and then tell me what’s triggered this,” he said although he already had a good idea.
Sitting by the creek’s bank, Tommy held Francesca. Her crying sound cutting through the silence of the night, he let her cry herself dry. Cried out, Tommy dried Francesca’s cheeks with his hands. “What’s bothering you?”
Francesca looked up through misted eyes to a velvet black sky sprinkled with stars as clear as glass. “Daddy got me out of bed to tell me I’ve been accepted to Stanford. Then, he handed me this.” Francesca reached into her robe pocket for the plane ticket. “I’m supposed to leave this Sunday to get settled in before school starts in a couple of weeks.”
Although Tommy knew this was coming, the words hit him like a quick, cold shock to his system. “Congratulations.” Tommy pushed back the tears.
“Did you hear what I said, Tommy? I’m supposed to leave in three days. Leave you.”
Tommy closed his eyes as the pain stabbed at him. “I heard you. Stanford is what you wanted.” The ache in his heart at the sense of loss was unbearable. He’d felt the same void when his mother left him. It had yet to heal.
Francesca bolted to her feet. “Do you want me to go away?” she said, pressing fingers to her temple where the headache was drumming in a steady rhythm now.
Tommy rose, calmly walked to Francesca’s side. “You know I don’t, but it’s Stanford. Your dream school,” he said although he suspected it was to please her father, to satisfy her overwhelming need for his validation.
“It was until you came into my life. I don’t want to leave you, Tommy. If I go, I’ll be gone for six years. I can’t stand being away from you that long.” Francesca looked at him with eyes clouded with pain.
“Six years will go by really fast. You’ll see. We’ll talk on the phone every week, I’ll write to you every day, and I’ll visit you. You’ll be home during school breaks.” The words were said in vain because Tommy knew it wouldn’t work out that way. The moment Francesca boarded the plane their lives would change—forever. “This is a great opportunity you can’t pass up, Francesca.”
“What good is a great opportunity if I have to be without you? I don’t think I can stand being so far away from you.”
Tommy brought his hand to rest on her damp cheek. “Of course you can. It’s nerves talking right now. This is what you need to do for me. For us.” He felt something crumble inside of him, and he pulled Francesca into the protective circle of his arms where he wished she could stay forever. “Look up there,” he said, pointing to the sky. “Those are our stars and moon. Look up to them when you’re missing me. We’ll meet there because I’ll be doing the same. Will you do that?”
Francesca nodded with silent tears slipping from between closed lashes. “I love you so much, Tommy.”
“I love you, and will to infinity.”
Francesca brought her lips to his, let then brush over his. There was a different kind of passion to her kiss. It was desperate, needy, and alive. She slid her tongue deep into his mouth, to taste, to tangle with his.
Francesca lifted young, vulnerable eyes to Tommy and slipped off her robe, but Tommy reached for it and slid it on. “Don’t you want me?”
“More than you can imagine, but now is not the right time.”
“It’s what I want.” She pressed a finger to his lips when he started to speak. “It’s what I want,” she repeated, and eyes never leaving his shrugged out of her robe.
Francesca watched Tommy’s eyes fill with stunned appreciation as she slid the thin straps of her nightgown off her shoulders and let it fall to the ground. There was desire, need, and want in Tommy’s eyes. No one had looked at her as Tommy did then.
Tommy breathed deeply, taking her in, appreciating the sheer beauty of the shapely curves, the skin as creamy and smooth as pearls. “You’re so beautiful and so ... perfect.”
A flush worked its way up to Francesca’s cheeks. “I’m not perfect.”
Tommy framed her face with his hands. His touch left a tingling feeling in her. “You are to me.”
Francesca slipped her hands under his T-shirt. His trim body was muscled, hard as steel. The feel of him under her touch was as she imagined it would be. Inch by inch, she brought his T-shirt up until she slipped it off him.
“Make love with me, Tommy.” I want to touch you, and I want you to touch me.”
Francesca glided fingers over him. His skin was hot now, his scent relentlessly male. Conscious of the way his muscles tensed under her touch, she took her fingers over the broad shoulders, the iron-hard chest, over scars mapping his reckless youth.
Tommy could feel the heat moving up from his toes.
Francesca raked her fingers through his chest hair. She thought she felt his heart beat thick when she lay kisses on his chest. “I want you to love me tonight, Tommy,” she said, her tongue sliding down his belly to the snap of his jeans with tormenting patience. “I want to feel your naked body pressed to mine. I want you to touch me, claim me,” she whispered, tugging at his jeans.
“Francesca,” he started to say, but she cut him off by pressing her mouth to his for a long, deep kiss.
Moonlight fell across her face when she tilted it up to his. “I want to feel you inside me. I want you to make tonight one I’ll remember forever. Will you do that for me, Tommy? Will you love me tonight?” The sensation of her warm body pressed against his was electric.
Tommy ran his fingers over the curve of her cheek, looked into the eyes steeped in dreams. He couldn’t deny her and himself tonight. This might be the last time he saw her, and he needed the taste of her in his system to take with him. Taking her hand, he brought her down to the ground with him, weedy grass cushioning them.
Tommy kissed her neck and shoulders softly at first, giving her the choice to step away, but she didn’t. She couldn’t. His breath against her skin felt like fire, and her ache for him only swelled into a drugging need. With a little moan, she begged for more.
Tommy combed her hair behind her ears. “Are you sure, Francesca?”
“I’ve never been surer of anything.”
When his hands lowered to caress, her body trembled. She never anticipated the explosion of sensations that rushed at her when he set his tongue to taste and claimed that which she willingly gave to him. In one instant, his lips were on her breasts, circling her nipples with his tongue. Taking them into his mouth, he suckled until her body arched, and she sang his name like a prayer.
Feelings, sensations swarming her went beyond her wildest dreams. Tommy was tender, loving, and gentle. He was the great lover she knew he would be. Combing her hands through his hair, she wondered why she’d waited so long to let him love her like this.
Tommy’s every touch, every kiss, set off every nerve in Francesca. Nothing prepared her for the sensations that shocked her body alive when Tommy slithered his tongue down her belly to the dark triangle between her legs. Slowly, seductively, his mouth lingered, clouding her brain, making her tingle with panicked excitement. When his mouth and tongue claimed her, an intense fire blazing and manic swept through her like an unstoppable wildfire. Every muscle in her body tensed, every nerve erupted with sensations she’d never felt before, never knew could feel so glorious, and she moaned his name into the night.
The shock hit her like a punch when the first peak rocked and dazed her. Her eyes stormy, her breath coming quickly, she latched onto his shoulders when the next orgasm ripped through her body with unrelenting force. Then he lifted her hips high, greedily took more, gave more until she arched against him. When the last wave struck her fast and intensely, she came, his name flowing from her lips into the dark of the night.
Straddling her, Tommy stared into her eyes. “I want to be inside you.” He said softly. When she opened up to him, his eyes never leaving hers, he slipped inside her gently, tenderly. She was wet and hot, he was full of want and need, and he plunged himself deeper inside her. “Did I hurt you?” he asked when her breath caught.
Jolts of shocking pain sliced through her, but she gave him a silent headshake. Feeling him inside her made her feel complete, a woman loved. No one had made her feel so desired, so wanted, and so loved.
It felt so right and so perfect.
Aiming blue eyes her way, patiently, tenderly, lovingly, Tommy moved in and out of her sinking deeper into her with each stroke until they were fully bonded. Stroke for stroke, his blood hummed, every muscle tensed, as he neared that precipitous edge. Not wanting the moment to end, he held back.
Recording in his mind every wonderful sensation, the feel of her body under his Tommy made love with her. Sliding in and out of her, he told her how much he loved her. When he was ripe for release, instinctively, she tightened around him. Her fingers digging into his back, she rose and fell with him, mated with him in synchronized rhythm as if they’d done this so many times before. Swamped with love, he emptied himself into her.
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IN A DAZED WONDER, HOT NAKED bodies, layered with a film of sweat from their lovemaking, Francesca and Tommy lay coiled in each other’s arms. Faces to a starred sky, with their minds wrapped in thoughts of how everything now felt different, they listened to the night, the calm.
It was some time before Francesca turned to Tommy, and kissing him deeply said, “Thank you for making me feel so loved and for making it such a memorable experience. I’d always wondered what my first time would be like. I never imagined it would be so beautiful and wonderful.”
Tommy cupped a hand under her chin, turned Francesca’s face, so they were eye-to-eye. Francesca’s eyes were teary and sad. Tommy wanted to tell her that for him, it had never been as it was tonight with her, but he couldn’t get the words out. Instead, Tommy reached for her robe on the grass and covered her with it.
“I’ll never forget tonight, Tommy.”
He glided his lips over hers. “You’re the best of me, Francesca. The best moments in my life have come since you’ve been in it. How you make me feel is what made our lovemaking so extraordinary and memorable, and I’ll forever carry tonight with me.”
Francesca let the tears come faster then. “Once I leave, our lives are going to change forever, aren’t they?”
“Yes, they are.” His heart wept for her. For him.
“I don’t want it to change.”
“I don’t either, but...”
“Life is full of interruptions and complications,” she finished for him.
“It is, but always remember whatever happens, wherever life takes us, I love you, and will to infinity,” he said through his tears.
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THE THREE DAYS LEADING TO FRANCESCA’S departure, she and Tommy met every night by the grove. Under the spill of moonlight, with the mellow sounds of the night and the gurgling waters of the creek, they made love until dawn when Francesca, with love in her heart, snuck back into her bedroom.
