By Micki L. Bailey

"C’mon, Earl Ray. Tell me a story. I wanna know the real bottom line on why you left town back there," Maggie said, across the table from him.

"That dump?" He didn’t look up from the meal he was thoroughly enjoying.

"Yes, that dump……..or hellhole……..or whatever else you’ve been calling it now. Stop avoiding the question. What the fuck went on after we left anyway?"

He glanced up, and Maggie felt an almost physical blow from those powerfully emotional green eyes of his. She sat back unconsciously.

"That’s just it, angel………I couldn’t stay ‘round there after you were gone……….Ya know I still live for ya, Mags." He smiled.

Mags. No one had called her that in years. Not since their divorce. She couldn’t hold his painfully honest eyes any longer. She looked away.

"What about…………your wife, Earl Ray?" Remembering his earlier, very negative reaction to this subject, she dared not say the name.

"Fuck her," he scowled rather viciously. More so than Maggie had been prepared for. His eyes seemed to be looking at something far away, somewhere in his memory.

"Goddamn shallow bitch………Ya wouldn’t even recognize her now, baby. She got lazy and sloppy……….turned into a huge, basically worthless pig………All she ever wanted to do was eat and screw ‘round on the Internet……….And it took me a while to catch on, but she lied to me all the damn time too……….about trivial crap." He shook his head disgustedly and resumed eating.

"Earl Ray, maybe you’re being too hard on her…….I know she loved you." She kept her own true feelings out of sight.

He chuckled sarcastically. "Maggie, Maggie, don’t be a fool. She woulda fucked Roger’s brains out if given half a chance………Believe me…….I saw her coming in her drawers over him plenty of times………..A deceitful, conniving whore, if ya ask me……..And who the hell needs that? Hmmm? Let ‘er rot in hell."

"Honey, you’re a little too cruel, don’tcha think?" Maggie asked him, still concealing intense bitterness disguised as memories.

He looked up and smiled slightly. "Actually, I’m holding back, sweetheart, just ‘cause she used to be your so-called friend and all."

She was a little distracted and didn’t readily answer back. So he went on. "And by the way, she never had me, baby, not like you always will………..She was just a diversion, a diversion that turned into a nightmare."

Maggie peered out into the restaurant. They were having a friendly lunch in Portland’s finest steak house, Earl Ray’s favorite place. He’d warmed up to this city quite a bit since his initial bad impression.

"She wouldn’t have gotten Roger……..He never much liked her to start with," she said quietly, almost to herself. Earl Ray recognized her distraction, the hot-blooded possessiveness he knew very well was part of her nature.

"Ah, but she swallows, and I know Roger wouldn’t turn THAT down." Earl Ray laughed and instantly regained Maggie’s full, fierce, and unkind attention. She glared at him. "Just kidding, baby…….It’s obvious Roger needs and wants nobody’s attentions but yours…….I didn’t mean nothing by it."

She visibly softened. "I’m not the sharing type, ya know."

"Yeah, I’d know that better than most people, Maggie………..And I’d also know that YOU swallow too." He winked and smiled at her simultaneously.

She laughed. "Without complaints, I might add."

He grinned. "So did you and Roger get started on that next baby yet?"

The laugh disappeared. She blinked and paused. "We’re so selfish about each other, Earl Ray, I’m not sure a baby’s a good idea……….especially now……..He’s more protective of me than ever, and I need him like crazy………He’s my everything. We’re simply not good without each other, it seems……….a strange little puzzle that fits together and locks, ya know."

He watched her face for a moment before he spoke. "Mags…….a love that exclusive……that obsessive………can hurt."

She audibly expelled air out of her lungs and looked down. "I know……….but I love ‘im……with every cell in my body, Earl Ray………He’s in my soul, and I’d die for him……..I believe he feels the same way…….I’m sure of it."

"Like Catherine and Heathcliff?" He smiled warily. She’d begged him for months while they were married to read Wuthering Heights. He’d finally given in, as usual.

Now she returned his smile. "Exactly."

"Well, Roger’s certainly got the anti-social, brooding parts down, no doubt about that……….And you and that Catherine chick both got the same fiery, outspoken personality, baby. Yeah, it works."

"Thanks for listening, Earl Ray…….even if it’s sometimes uncomfortable for ya," Maggie said.

"Pshaw! I’d rather be here in goddamn Oregon listening to this shit than be anywhere else in the world wondering how you’re doing, Maggie."

"And I’d rather you be here too, honey. Really. Thanks for staying."

"Ya got a good man there, too, to tolerate me being ‘round, ya know."

Maggie smiled. "I know."

"So, sweetheart, do me a favor since it looks like I’m gonna hang out here for a while. Wouldya?"

"What’s that, Earl Ray?"

"Don’t bring HER up again, okay? It’s a dead, past-tense subject that doesn’t interest me at all anymore." He looked at her pleadingly.

"Whatever you say, Earl Ray. No problem. She interests me none whatsoever anymore either."

"Thanks, Mags. Now where’s that damn waiter? I want another beer."

Maggie felt positive that his incredible luster, dulled only temporarily, was being turned up on high again. Back up to breath-taking levels.

* * *

God, he’s outrageously beautiful, she thought. He’s beyond stunning without ever trying to be. Each tiny muscle movement, even the darting of his eyes over the magazine he was scanning, was violently erotic to her.

She could smell the faint essence of cologne he’d dabbed on that morning. That faint essence mixed with his own familiar scent had wildly enflamed her entire body. She touched two fingertips to her hot cheeks.

How will I ever have enough time in all the rest of my days to love him as much as I want to? Maggie was thinking. Not all the nights left in the future of time would be completely sufficient for her to spend with him. She’d want/need more, for sure.

She and Roger were comfortably stretched out on their bed that evening after dinner. It wasn’t the beloved iron bed in which they had first made love long ago. They’d left that one far behind when they had trekked up here.

This bed, along with the rest of the suite, Maggie had found at an antique market a week or so after they’d skidded into Portland. It was made of old sturdy dark oak and had a footboard that was half as high as the very tall headboard. Very classy, very sexy, she’d thought.

Roger was reclining gracefully against that headboard now, in a relaxed slump against two pillows. He wore faded jeans and a dark blue, stretched-out T-shirt. No socks. His legs were crossed at the ankles.

I can look at this image a million more times in my life and still never get used to his alarming gorgeousness, she heard in her mind. He was all-over pleasing to her, strangely and absolutely fulfilling.

He had been her all-encompassing savior since the accident three weeks ago. She understood that he felt grateful to some higher being that she had been spared and was relatively okay. He was acting accordingly – showering her with unerring kindness and overt attention, constantly staying home with her and placating her every desire. He was her grand, comforting angel.

Now that she felt like driving again, he’d even given her his prize black Benz until she could decide how she wanted to replace the wasted Saab. She certainly felt cared for and loved. But if she had to hear, "You feeling okay, sweetheart?" from him or from Earl Ray again, Maggie thought she might go ballistic for sure. How "lucky" she was to have not one, but two of them around.

Moving only those magnificent, knowing eyes, Roger glanced up at her now, and she felt her heart stop.

He smiled just a tiny bit as his gaze moved lovingly over her face and then slowly down the length of her slender body. "What’s on your mind, baby?" he asked softly while he caressed one of her long, tanned legs lying next to him.

Maggie shuddered at his touch. And at his soothing bedroom voice. His hand was warm and lovely on her skin.

"Just looking at ya, Roger………..thinking ‘bout how good I’ve got it."

He pulled her legs over closer to his body. "Is that right?"

"Yeah," Maggie gasped. He knows exactly what he’s doing to me, she thought, gently cupping my calf like that.

Roger looked back up at her flushed face. "So talk to me………How was lunch today?"

She took a breath. Had she forgotten to do that? "It was great. Earl Ray filled me in on what happened in town after we left."

"Yeah, he already filled me in." He rolled his eyes. "How very tragic."

"Don’t be sarcastic, Roger. It’s sad."

"Sad for who? Not me, that’s for sure. And not you. And Earl Ray doesn’t seem to give a damn," he said dryly.

"He said Jack French had been asking ‘bout us." Maggie changed the subject.

Roger laughed a fading-off laugh. "No, baby, ‘bout you. Jack always had a thing for you."

She smirked. "Whatever……..He’s one of the only people I miss from back then."

"Any word from LaMont?"

Maggie frowned. "No. Nothing."

Without warning or explanation, Scottie, one of their close friends, had simply disappeared a few months before Roger and Maggie had left town. No one in town had heard from him since. Even Roger’s web of contacts had failed him when he’d attempted to find some news on the dangerous, unpredictable "Monk."

Roger dropped his magazine on the floor. "I’m going to Seattle Thursday……..Earl Ray’s coming with me."

"For what?" Maggie realized too late that she’d responded a little too strongly, too urgently.

But Roger smiled. "Gotta go to work…………Some guy up there’s got one of those little twenty-five-year-old convertible Beamers I been looking for……..And it’s baby blue………..baby."

"How long will you be gone?" She still sounded a little panicked, though she tried not to.

"It’s just a day trip, sweets. In and out. Ya really think I’d leave you here alone overnight?"

She knew he would never do that. Not again for a long time. Potential evil loomed everywhere, and he was her guardian angel. He was just her angel. All purpose and dependable. Safe.

"Earl Ray’s going too?" she asked.

"Yeah, a kinda of a boys’ road trip. We’ll try to behave." He laughed quietly.

"Yeah, right."

It made Maggie smile that Earl Ray had turned out to be so good at public relations in this vintage auto business. People, especially Pacific Northwest indigents, took a liking to his Tennessee accent and his sincere charm almost immediately. And when he wasn’t supplying social graces for Roger, he happily served as the knowledgeable weapons expert in one of the local gun shops. He’d even secured a nice little apartment not far from their loft. All was well.

Maggie eyed Roger now with a sly smile. She was happy that Earl Ray was around again, and Roger had been totally responsible for that too. How utterly frightening that one person could mean so much, be the source of so many things, she thought. He was amazing, and he was hers.

"What?" he whispered.

"Nothing…………I have to pee," she said. Then she got up from the bed and from his grip, stretched her legs, and went into the bathroom.

She did, in fact, have to pee. But she was aware of other warm fluids in her body that needed releasing as well. When she returned to the bedroom, she had full intentions of taking care of those too.

Aware of Roger’s silent watching, she walked over and stood in front of the bedroom suite’s antique vanity. She wore the snow-white lacy slip she knew he adored. She heard him slide easily off the bed as she brushed her hair with her back to him. Then, without hearing another sound he made, she felt him behind her.

Only his warm, heavy breath touched her, touched the back of her neck, ghost-like. She dropped the hairbrush and trembled. His lips brushed over her hair and neck, where she’d felt his breath, and she sighed out loud. He lightly grazed her shoulders with his palms and then brought his hands around to her front where he barely touched her upper chest and breasts with his fingertips. Her nipples hardened and ached.

Maggie inhaled his essence and shivered with want as he ran his hands, still lightly, over her body, finally arriving at her ass. He used his palms to slide the silky slip up over her hips, and then he eased his fingers down into the front of her now-moist panties. His mouth was on her neck, and he gently massaged her throbbing opening.

"Ahhh, baby……..Is it hot in here, or is it just you?" he whispered in her ear.

She knew it wasn’t just her ‘cause she’d felt his hardness against her ass. He turned her around then to face him and kissed her mouth fully and openly, probing her with his tongue, as he hugged her to him. Then, while she held onto him, he swiftly lifted her in his arms and carried her the short distance to the bed they shared, laying her down tenderly, taking care with her still-fragile ribs.

Time stopped being measured then for Maggie. She was lost in the whirlwind of adoration and passion. The keeper of all her dreams was devouring her, touching every inch of her with every inch of him. And she was giving him back all that he was giving her.

He seemed to be sucking all the salt from her skin, all over her body. And when he reached her most intimate folds and crevices, she moaned out loud and writhed on the sheets. But he held her down and lapped at more of her saltiness until she was screaming and exploding, not caring about anything else.

Then he was over her, driving into her still-convulsing, still-flaming little hole. Slowly and gently at first, then bludgeoning her with his hardness until she was screaming and exploding yet again.

His own violent orgasm caught them both by surprise, and he cried out above her, sweat dripping from his fevered body onto her chest and face. She held him tightly when he collapsed beside her, gluing them together.

So, lying there peacefully and blending into Roger, Maggie felt refreshed. Cleansed, as it were. The past few months had been emotionally and physically trying and debilitating for her. Sometimes even painful and depressing. But recent events had magically renewed her, healed her.

Huge chunks of the past were drifting off into the distance, to be forgotten. Brightness and freedom were up ahead, to be embraced.

"Take what ya need to survive, and then just walk away," she’d heard Roger say before. Now she understood exactly what he meant.

She had all she needed to survive. With her lovely angel and her best friend, she knew she could make it now. She no longer had to worry about anything that had hurt her before. Her life was good again. She was free.