Behind the Curtain - Page 12

“My cousin. Always the joker. No, I think I’ll just take a dip in the lake to cool off, but thanks for the offer,” he said, already untying his shoes.

“That sounds good.” A sweaty-looking Rudy agreed, attacking his shoelaces. “You coming, Ash?”

“You guys go ahead,” he said as Eric plowed into the surf. Rudy jogged in after him, whooping at the feeling of the cold water splashing against his overheated body.

While Eric’s back was turned and Rudy took a dive into an oncoming wave, Asher jogged inland along the banks of the stream, seeking the coolness and cover of the shrouding trees ahead. As he entered the canopy of the woods, his perspiration-dampened skin roughened and prickled. The sounds of the distant waves and his companions’ shouts faded. The wind rustled the leaves of the trees, creating a flickering of gold and green light all around him.

He slowed.

It had been years since he’d been here, but he was able to make out the path, overgrown as it was by weeds and brush. For some reason, his heart raced faster now than it had when he’d been running on the beach. He strode rapidly along the trail, his muted footsteps the only thing interrupting the thick hush that had descended.

A strange prescience overcame him. The surface of his skin tingled as if from electricity. It felt like the atmosphere before a storm, but there wasn’t a cloud in the clear blue sky. Was he really looking forward that much to seeing the place of his childhood? Or was it just his longing to escape his life and disappear for even a few seconds into a place no one else knew about that had him so tense with anticipation?

The stream flowed from the inland lake just ahead.

Abruptly, he paused on the path. He strained to listen, thinking his ears had fooled him for a moment.

Then he heard it for certain: the sound of a woman’s clear, melodic singing.

His feet moved without him telling them to. Between the branches of overhanging oak, sycamore and maple trees, he spied the still, green waters of the small but deep lake. Her singing continued in the distance, each note flickering along his sensitive skin and amplifying his sense of the otherworldly.

He left the side of the swift stream and began to circle toward the south side of the lake. Without any conscious intent, he moved on the forest floor silently. He wasn’t trying to be stealthy. It was just that he didn’t want to take the chance of interrupting her song. The soothing sound of trickling water intermingled with the sweet notes. His gait quickened, his muscles straining tight.

Finally, he paused in the shadow of a bowed sycamore at the edge of the familiar rocky, rough sand beach, peering through the foliage to find her.

He stilled. His already roughened skin grew even tighter.

She sto

od knee-deep in the shallows, water running in streams down graceful arms, high breasts and a smooth, taut belly. As she tossed her head to the side, a spray of water flew from waist-length dark hair like a shower of sparkling diamonds. She fisted the wet mane at her nape and pulled, causing a rivulet of water to cascade along a breast and down her ribs and belly. He watched, enthralled, as her full, dark pink lips moved.

“I may be blind, but you I can see,” she sang.

Her eyes flickered and suddenly she was staring right at him. He was sure he hadn’t moved and given himself away. One second, she’d been utterly lost in her own private world; the next, she’d sensed him. For an electric few seconds, neither of them moved. He didn’t breathe and was sure she didn’t either.

Asher considered himself a good writer. He despised hyperbole and strived for lean, matter-of-fact prose. But how could you tell a truth like the one he experienced at that moment as he stared in wonder at this naked, glorious woman? It was something felt, not told. It was like unexpectedly sighting a mythical creature or something. His senses overflowed with the reality of her. His lungs forgot how to work. Even his blood seemed to come to a screeching halt in his veins.

She was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen, let alone imagined. The inland lake had long been his secret, special place.

But somehow, she’d just made it sacred.

She suddenly started. Fear leapt into large, almond-shaped green eyes. The spell was shattered. He staggered onto the beach, his hands up.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you. Don’t be afraid,” he begged. “Please,” he added desperately when he saw her glazed expression of shock and fear. The thought of her being afraid of him made him sick.

“Ash? Where are you?” Rudy called in the distance, his voice muffled by the trees. Asher’s eyes widened. Hers did too. She lunged toward the beach, her lithe arms covering her bare breasts and dark pubic hair. She pulled back, her desperate gaze jumping from the pile of clothing and what looked like several notebooks on the beach over to him.

He shook his head, a horrible feeling swooping through him when he realized she was looking at him like a wild, trapped animal would at its captor. She was wondering about her chances of escape with him standing so close. He stepped backward quickly away from the shoreline, giving her space.

He heard a sound like a branch snapping. “What the fuck, man? Where’d you go?” Eric yelled, irritation ripe in his tone. He heard the sound of Eric and Rudy tramping on the distant path, their tread much louder than his had been. More aggressive sounding too, he realized as he took in the girl’s panicked expression.

“I’m going,” he said very quietly. “I’ll lead them away from you. Don’t worry. You’re safe.”

She stared at him mutely, a strange, blank expression of shock on her beautiful face.

“I won’t let them see this place either. It was my secret place too. Once.”

He took one last look at her, absorbing her like a man inhales his last breath before he submerges underwater for a long dive.

Tags: Beth Kery Erotic
Source: readsnovelonline.net
readsnovelonline.net Copyright 2016 - 2024