Page 83 of Going Once

“She told me. She said, ‘Get up, Nola! Get dressed. Get food. Get water. Run.’”

The hair stood up on the back of his neck. Her eyes were open, but she was walking in her sleep.

“Mama?” she said.

He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Had her mother actually come to her in a dream and saved her life? Damn. This was seriously heavy stuff. He didn’t want to scare her, but he knew better than to wake her too abruptly, so he took her by the hand.

“Come with me,” he said, and led her back into her room. “It’s safe now,” he said softly. “You don’t have to run anymore. Lie down, baby. It’s time to rest.”

She crawled back into bed, lay down on her back and pulled the covers up beneath her chin. Her eyes were still open, but she didn’t react to the flashes of lightning that were clearly visible through the curtains.

Tate frowned. She was still in sleepwalk mode and fully capable of taking another walk out the door. Rather than worry, he just pulled back the covers and crawled into bed with her.

She let him pull her closer, and when he slid an arm beneath her neck and pillowed her head on his shoulder, she sighed. He watched her face until her breathing eased and her eyes finally closed.

“Poor darling,” he whispered, and brushed the tangles of hair away from her face. “Everything and everybody washed away and you watched it happen, didn’t you, honey?”

* * *

Nola woke up in Tate’s arms and thought about waking up that way for the rest of her life. Emotion welled within her, blurring his features. Even in the dark, the strength in his face and his body was evident, and she loved him so damn much it hurt.

She didn’t know when he’d crawled into bed with her or why, but she wasn’t going to complain. She glanced at the digital clock. 4:45 a.m.—the perfect time for making love.

She shifted to accommodate her stitches, slipped out of her panties and then leaned over his chest to kiss his cheek before kissing her way across his face to his lips.

He woke with a sigh and tightened his grasp.

“If I’m dreaming, don’t wake me up,” he whispered, and cupped her backside with both hands. He felt the bare skin and rolled over, turning her beneath him. Without a second of foreplay, he slid inside her and began to move, pushing hard and deep.

Nola moaned. She’d been right. It was the perfect time to make love.

The security light outside her window sent a faint glow into her room, casting shadows of their bodies onto the wall. She watched, fascinated by the image of what she saw combined with the lust of what she felt, then closed her eyes, meeting him thrust for thrust as their lonely years apart fell away.

Time was no longer measured by seconds but by the building waves of rushing blood. One moment she was riding the waves of ecstasy, and then the climax slammed into her so fast she forgot to breathe.

Tate felt it, heard her groan slip out from between her lips and lost control. His body was on autopilot and his mind had already shattered as he rode his climax to the end and then, conscious of her stitches, rolled onto his back, taking her with him and pulling up the covers. The next time they woke, sunlight was spilling into the room and they could smell coffee.

“Good morning, pretty lady,” Tate said, and combed the tangles of her hair away from her face.

“What happened?”

He smiled. “You mean besides us making love?”

She nodded.

“You were sleepwalking. I was afraid you’d get out of the trailer and I wouldn’t know it.”

She frowned. “I used to do that when I was a kid.”

He sat up and combed his hands through his hair. He started to get out of bed and then stopped. After what he’d heard her say last night, he had to know.

“You said you’d been sick for days and didn’t know about the flood. So when the river got to the house and you woke up in the dark, how did you know to get up?”

“I was dreaming. Mama was running through the house, going from window to window. I could see the frantic look on her face. And then all of a sudden she started yelling at me, telling me to get up and get dressed. She said to get food and water and run, so I did. When I stepped out onto the porch in the dark, I felt water up past my ankles. Even as sick as I was, it scared the hell out of me.”

“Lord, Lord, baby. Your mama’s spirit saved your life. You know that, don’t you?”

She nodded. “Yes. I knew it the moment I saw all that water.”

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