Addison closed her eyes to get a moment’s break from the cloud of dust and the blinding sun. She had already decided she would sleep for the entire trip home, and for days after, if necessary, but she wasn’t giving up even a minute of her time with Mary Kate. Last night had been another incredible exchange of touching, soaring and cresting. Mary Kate had abandoned most of her inhibitions, even taking the lead at one point as she rolled them toward the candle to watch her own hand at work.
Today, they were sated. They were also exhausted, reminiscent of the mornings after their sleepless nights on Kili.
Click!
Click!
Click!
“You’re cruel,” she winced as Mary Kate played shutterbug. “I look like death warmed over.”
“Not true. You look much better than you did this time last week.”
“Okay, let’s see. What day is it?”
“Wednesday.”
“Wednesday was Shira Two. That was the day after your flying bath exhibition.” She laughed as she remembered the image.
“You could at least have the decency to cover your mouth again if you’re going to laugh.”
“Sorry, I can’t help it.”
“Cheetah!” John yelled excitedly, veering off the road toward a lone bush in the midst of a speckled plain.
Addison and Mary Kate strained to see what their guide had found so easily, but couldn’t make it out until they were nearly on top of the beautiful creature. The spotted coat blended perfectly into the shaded landscape as the lazy cat posed for the curious onlookers.
Addison got a dozen spectacular pictures before several other safari vehicles joined them. John reversed their vehicle, drifting back to the roadway. Signs all over the park warned them not to stray from the marked trails.
“So what’s been your favorite sight so far?” Mary Kate asked.
She lofted her eyebrows suggestively. “You mean my second- favorite sight?”
Mary Kate no longer blushed. “Okay, your second.”
“I think I liked the baby giraffes best. What about you?”
“I liked seeing all the elephant families, and how they crowded around the little ones to protect them when we came by. I can’t believe poachers kill such beautiful animals for profit.”
“And then there are the ones who kill for sport. There were some guys on my plane from London who had prepaid as much as thirty thousand dollars for a lion or a cheetah.”
“I thought the cheetahs were endangered.”
“They are, but in some places that just means there are limits on the number you can kill, so they’re higher priced.”
“That’s just plain sick. I have a hard time swallowing the fact that half the men in Hurston County live for deer season, but at least they eat what they kill.”
John suddenly veered off the road again, coming to rest in a heavily wooded area beneath a broad shade tree. “Leopard.”
Addison scrambled for her camera, focusing just as the beast sauntered lazily into the woods, his long graceful tail disappearing from view. “Great. Remind me when I download that one that it’s a leopard’s butt.”
“You should get a picture of that,” Mary Kate gestured up into the tree, where a half-eaten Thompson’s gazelle was wedged snugly into a forked branch. “Leopard lunch.”
“Ewww!” Nevertheless, she got a photo.
As quickly as they had veered off, John ventured back onto the roadway, stopping to compare notes with another safari driver. He was clearly proud that his clients had what most safari outfits considered a clean sweep—a rhino, a cheetah and a leopard. The other animals were plentiful and not nearly as elusive.
They got a break from the standard box meal, returning to the Seronera Lodge for the lunch buffet.
“Where do you eat lunch, John?” Mary Kate asked. She made an eating motion.
He gestured to a banana and bottle of water on the front seat, and pointed to a shady parking lot off to the side.
“It isn’t fair how these drivers are treated,” she groused as they walked into the restaurant. “I wonder if Tom Muncie knows that John slept in his car the other night when the temperature went down to freezing, or that he eats bananas while his customers are leaving food on their plates.”
“So let’s buy him lunch,” Addison said.
“I bet they won’t even let him in here.”
“We’ll get it in a box and take it out to him.”
John was the envy of his friends, dining on roast beef and fresh bread, enjoying an ice-cold Coke. “Rhino, cheetah and leopard,” he said with a smile, assuming this was his reward for doing a good job.
“How do you feel about leaving Miami?” Mary Kate asked as they sat down to lunch.
Addison grew wistful at the thought of the sign in her front yard. “It’s funny. I’ve always liked it there because of my friends. But when my parents split up, it honestly didn’t feel as much like home anymore.”
“I think I’d feel the same way if my folks ever left Mooresville.”
“My best friends are probably leaving too, the ones who were supposed to come with me on this trip. They want to raise their family in Puerto Rico. I can’t blame them.”
“You don’t sound all that attached for someone who’s lived there all her life.”
She shrugged. “I’m adaptable. Roots are more about people than places, but I guess I’ll go back for visits.”
“So let’s suppose we met someday in Miami—I’m not saying we will, but if we did—what would we do?”
“Everything. We’d go to the Everglades, to the Keys. We’d hit South Beach and Little Havana. We’d snorkel, sail. Something different every day.”
“Sounds wonderful.”
“And what would we do if I came to Mooresville?”
“Nothing that exciting, that’s for sure.” Still, her face lit up as she talked. “First, I’d drag you over to meet my Aunt Jean. She’d get a kick out of you, especially if you were telling her stories about me busting my ass in the water. She’d love that.”
Addison laughed. “I’d enjoy that too.”
“And then I’d show you all of the sights, like my grandpa’s barn where we used to play when we were kids, and my school.” She stole a piece of mango from Addison’s plate. “We’d drive up to Lake Hampton and make out.”
“Is that where you went with all your boyfriends?”
“Just one.” She visibly shuddered. “For a second there, I went back. It was horrible.”
“When do you start back to school?”
“Third week in August.”
Addison did a few mental calculations. “Maybe I can come for a few days before then, before I go to London.”
“That soon?” By the look on her face, she was alarmed.
Addison backpedaled. “Or some other time, or maybe we just meet somewhere like Jacksonville.”
“Sorry, I was just trying to think what else I have to do before school starts. Most of all I need to settle things with Bobby.”
The specter of Bobby reared its ugly head again, as it had done nearly every time Mary Kate started thinking about going home. Addison couldn’t imagine feeling so oppressed, not even under her father’s schemes.
What twisted her stomach was Mary Kate’s subtle reluctance to make firm plans, as if she feared she would change her mind once she got home. Only last night, they had confessed to one another they were falling in love, and today Mary Kate was doling out hospitality as if it were in short supply. Something was bothering her. Perhaps it was only the anxiety of the breakup. Maybe she needed to get that behind her before she could let herself think about a new life.
Addison’s rational side told her to give Mary Kate the time to work this out on her own. It was wrong to push her, even if giving her too much space meant this new love they felt would fizzle. If it truly was real, it would persevere. If not, she would have to accept that she was only a player in Mary Kate’s self-discovery. A bittersweet memory for both of them.
The lodge staged a show in the bar after dinner, much like the one they had seen their first night, with costumed African dancers moving gracefully to a drumbeat. Addison was so distracted by her thoughts that she was suddenly compelled to leave.
“I’m going back to the room. Enjoy the show.”
She was lighting the candle in anticipation of lights out when Mary Kate came through the door. “What’s wrong?”
She shook her head, unable to articulate her concerns. “It just doesn’t feel right, Mary Kate. I don’t think we’re being honest with each other about what this means.”
“I’m being as honest as I can. What do you want?”
Addison sighed. “We should be talking about what we’re going to do about our feelings. But when I said that about coming to see you, you acted like—”
“I know where you’re going with this. I can explain…probably not very well, but I swear to you I’m being honest.”
“That’s all I ask.”
“I freaked out. I tried to imagine how I was going to explain to my family who you were, and why you were coming to visit so soon when we’d just spent two weeks together.”
“Do they know every little thing you do?”
Mary Kate threw up her arms in frustration. “You don’t understand. We talk to each other practically every day.”
So the issue wasn’t Bobby, but paranoia about what to tell her family. “I don’t want to sneak around, Mary Kate. I already had one girlfriend who kept me shoved in her closet, and I don’t deal with it very well.”
“Well, I’ve never had a girlfriend at all, so pardon me if it takes a few minutes to get used to the idea.”
Addison slumped on the bed, feeling ridiculous. “You’re right. I’m just hauling around old baggage.”
Mary Kate knelt in front of her and grasped her hands. “I don’t want things to end here, Addison. We’ve started something that feels better than anything that’s ever happened to me, and I want to see where it goes. But I have to figure out how to make all the pieces fit. And it doesn’t help matters that you’re getting ready to move to London.”
“I know, but we have to find a way to do this.” How ironic that her father was as much a problem as Mary Kate’s family. “I’ve never felt like this before, Mary Kate. I always knew the other women I was with were temporary, but I feel like you and I really have something. I don’t want to screw anything up by—”
Mary Kate cut her off with a searing kiss, and Addison suddenly found herself being driven backward onto the bed. She abandoned trying to understand what was happening in favor of helping it happen. In only seconds, both of them were nude with Mary Kate still on top, kissing her ravenously. A hand slid through her wetness and she gasped, aching for the touch.
Mary Kate’s mouth followed her hand, and before Addison knew what was happening, a warm tongue stroked the length of her center. For her first time, Mary Kate seemed to know exactly what she was doing.
Addison moaned her encouragement, and writhed in utter bliss when Mary Kate found a rhythm with her tongue that matched the pumping of her two fingers inside. She held out as long as she could to enjoy the sensations, but finally spilled over when Mary Kate added clitoris sucking to her sexual repertoire.
“Oh, my God…oh, my God.” She held out an arm as Mary Kate scooted up to lie beside her. “You’ve killed me.”
Mary Kate chuckled. “I understand you now.”
“What do you mean?”
“It’s about the things I want to do to you that define who I am, not the things you do to me.” She snuggled closer and let out a contented sigh. “But those things matter too.”