When Boone awoke it was still dark with the inky blackness of full night. He knew it was far too early to rise, the summer solstice was next week, coinciding with Andrews' birthday, and the number of hours of daylight were almost at their maximum, so dawn came early. He'd often marvelled at coincidence of his sons' birthday being the same as that of the Druids' most revered holy day. Randomly he considered suggesting to Andrew that next year they journey to Stone Henge to view the dawning of the boys' twelfth year in the sacrosanct circle of stone monoliths. He knew it was the kind of unique experience that his equally unique son would appreciate. He tightened his grip on Shannon as he smiled softly, still half asleep.
His left arm was thrown possessively over her waist as he spooned against her. He extended his neck slightly, burrowing his nose in her hair. He could still detect the faint scent of patchouli on her skin, and brushed his lips against the softness of the back of her neck, carefully though, not wanting to wake her.
He sighed deeply in contentment, astonished again at the path his life had taken, and that it still included the blonde beauty he encircled in his embrace. His mind catalogued the births and deaths, the betrayals and epiphanies, all the cataclysmic events that had filled their lives and lead to this point. He willed himself back to sleep, the panoramic movie of their lives playing against the insides of his eyelids.
Shannon moaned, her eyes flickering open, she sensed that Boone had been awake just moments earlier, his psychic energy still lingering like an iconic memory only she could detect. She slid her hand down to cover his as it dangled loosely against her belly; lacing her fingers with his she pressed it against herself. Her mind, as well, thinking about their history, however she went back to the very beginning of it.
They were in the breakfast area of Sabrina's kitchen, Boone sitting across from her, his long fall of fine auburn hair (he'd still had a lot of red in his hair at the age of ten) hiding his face as he hunched over his Cheerio's, skim milk no sugar; just the way his mother told him he liked them. Adam and Sabrina were standing by the sink; he was smiling at her, his hand reaching now and again to cup his new wife's cheek. Shannon gritted her teeth every time he did, she swung her legs forcefully back and forth as she spooned up her Fruit Loops, she'd already put two spoonfuls of sugar on them after she'd doused them with a generous measure of eighteen percent cream. Each time Adam showed any deference to Sabrina, Shannon swung her legs more forcibly, kicking Boone in the shin as hard as she possibly could. She hated her step mothers' home, hated her new room and especially hated her new "brother" who had quite possibly the stupidest name she'd ever heard. How dare he depose her from her rightful place as only child? Typically never once stopping to think that she was doing the same to him. She kicked him again, and listened to him apologize once more, as he had every other time her foot had connected bruisingly with his leg.
"I'm sorry for being in the way. I'm so sorry." This time though his breath had hitched on the last word. She realized that his thin shoulders were shaking slightly.
She stilled her legs. "Boone?"
His face came up slowly, she wasn't sure if she was more shocked by the bright red handprint that still lingered on his pale cheek or the unshed tears that glistened in his eyes. She suddenly wondered if he'd been apologizing to her or to his mother, who had so obviously left her imprint on her son before Shannon and Adam had joined them in the kitchen.
"Don't tell. Please?" He pleaded. She didn't know what she wasn't supposed to tell and whom she wasn't supposed to tell it to, Sabrina for his crying, or Adam for the mark she'd left on her boy?
"I won't." She promised after a beat, and reached out to cover his small hand with her own even smaller one. The pact between them had been set at that, though she'd had no way of knowing then that it would exist to this day.
She lifted his arm gently and squirmed around so she was facing him, the memory bringing tears to her eyes. No wonder he was so vulnerable, so easily hurt, the pattern had already been woven when he was a child; her heart ached for him, and her part in his never ending wounding. 'I love you.' she thought at the amazing man he'd become, and then whispered the same words aloud, brushing her lips across his. He moaned softly, his mouth twitched with a slight smile. She thought about waking him so they could make love, but settled instead for just watching him as the gradual lightening of the slowly encroaching dawn crept over them through the uncurtained patio door. They'd never closed the drapes in the room, and they didn't even have any in their bedroom at home, they'd gotten so used to the al fresco sleeping arrangements from the island that it had just become the norm for them.
She fell back to sleep, her face inches from his on the pillow.
Boone blinked himself awake, the low-lying sun of early morning highlighting a blazing patch across the white linen of the duvet that covered them.
"Hey baby doll." He stroked his hand down her thigh.
"Hey lover," her response was accompanied by a languid stretch. "How'd you sleep?"
"Next to you," he answered, getting the most out of the cheesy answer as he brought his hand back up the inside of her thigh brushing it between her legs.
She grabbed his wrist with a throaty laugh and pushed it away. "You're such a doof."
"Still married to you though, right?" Boone chuckled.
Shannon heaved a belaboured sigh. "Yes, it's my lot in life, married to my idiot brother."
"I've been thinking," he said. "You might be right about me not being twenty-two anymore. I mean obviously I'm not, but maybe I should slow down a bit."
"You aren't Superman, Boone." She thought back to last October, when he'd volunteered to chaperone Andrews' school Halloween party. It was something he'd done every year, though she'd had no way of knowing that. He'd actually dressed as Superman for the event. She'd laughed at the sight of her small statured husband garbed as a super hero for the night. She'd jokingly said that she hoped that a roaming pack of wild marmosets wouldn't get loose. She couldn't imagine five foot nine inch Boone, weighing in at maybe a buck fifty soaking wet with lead shot in his pockets, standing as a wall of defence against anything more than a bunch of tiny monkeys, though she'd certainly seen differently with her own eyes. When he'd headed off with Andrew, in her small two-seater car, she'd gone to the front counter of the store to shell out to the few goblins what came down their way. Halloween was really the only time she had any patience for children, other than her own son.
"No, I'm not." He looked introspective for a minute. "This was a really good idea, Shan, thanks."
"I do have them at times you know."
At breakfast they had their favourite waiter serve them again; then they split up, Boone going for a professional shave and Shannon for a full waxing. He'd been a bit peeved at her announcement, and a trifle slighted, like his personal shaving service wasn't good enough for her. But when she'd told him that, based on the amount of money they were spending at the resort, it had been thrown in for half price he relented. It still pissed him off a bit, but she knew the answer would appeal to his frugal nature. He had to be the most money conscious rich person she'd ever known.
The exchange set him to wondering just how much this "adventure" was costing him.
"Nothing Boone, I'm paying for it out of my own money." Once she'd started receiving a pay cheque, Shannon had opened an account of her own, understandably proud that she was earning a substantial salary, and wanting to see the tidy sum increase. He'd always paid for everything, so it didn't bother her in the least that she wasn't contributing to the household expenses and was keeping all her money for herself. She spent a lot of it on him anyway. She loved surprising him with thoughtful gifts. He was always so shocked and embarrassed when she presented him with something, not ever thinking that he deserved it, but that just made it all the more fun for her.
After the shave he wandered out to the pool, carefully shielding his mind from her. He'd made the mistake once of not doing so and the pain that she'd experienced at the ripping off of the wax had stabbed through him like a knife.
Boone had his face buried in a paperback of daunting size, ear buds firmly in place when she joined him. He looked up as she approached and pulled the wires from his ears. He'd recently decided that he was going to work his way though the collected works of Tolstoy. Shannon would rather have had a root canal with no anaesthetic, but knew it wasn't going to be an onerous task for him. He'd sworn her to secrecy when he'd gone off to university, sharing with her that he'd wanted to major in English Lit, even though he'd automatically capitulated to Sabrina's insistence upon Business Administration. In an uncharacteristic bit of rebellion however, he'd managed to sneak one English Lit course into his freshman year without his mother kicking up a fuss.
"How was it?" He asked.
Shannon put her foot up on the side of his lounge chair. "Smooth as a baby's butt, feel."
Boone slid his hand up her calf. "Nice."
"You want to feel everywhere I'm just that smooth?" She smirked suggestively.
To her surprise his hand travelled up her thigh, his thumb sneaking up under the elastic of her bikini bottom leg where it was mostly hidden from view. He brushed it against her hairless and overly sensitive skin.
Her breath caught as he pressed a little more firmly. "Jesus Boone, you're certainly getting a little less inhibited."
"You invited me, and it would be rude to refuse." He grinned dirtily. "And you know I'm never rude."
She leaned down and kissed him as he withdrew his hand much to her disappointment.
"How was the shave?" Shannon queried. "You obviously managed not to fall asleep again." She added snidely.
"Jeeze Shan, cut me some slack I just got finished putting in a string of nineteen twenty-hour days, and besides you were the one who wanted me to relax." He protested.
"Boone, there's relaxed and then there's comatose."
"I was not comatose!"
"Yeah right Mr. "I don't remember coming back to the room." She used his words against him.
He muttered a string of expletives under his breath as she gave him a "Whatever, Boone," and spread her stuff over the lounge chair next to him. "I've got plans for us for the afternoon."
"The afternoon?" He whined. "I figured we had to check out soon."
"I've actually got the room booked till two o'clock on Monday." Shannon told him casually.
"Tomorrow? We're not leaving until tomorrow?" He sounded even more distressed.
"You tired of being with me already, brother dear?" She raised an eyebrow.
"No, it's just that I didn't get a real chance to say goodbye to Andrew, now did I? You don't get a hell of a lot of prep time when you're a kidnap victim." Boone shot back, holding his hand to his chest and assuming a wounded expression.
"We can leave today Boone. If you're missing him that much, why don't you call him?" She laughed, reassuring him.
The guilty look on his face told him that he already had.
"And what did you tell him?"
"That we'd be home for dinner, I asked him to take something out of the freezer for me."
"Cool your jets, Boone. We're leaving today. I already figured that you'd want to." She told him about the lunch plans she'd made for them and the hike she intended. She hadn't gotten a lot of exercise over the last couple of days, and really wanted to stretch her legs.
Shannon knew it was something that he'd appreciate. "And you can show me where you saw the deer."
He agreed enthusiastically, watching her for a bit before he went back to his self-assigned course load of classic literature. As she pulled her book out of his bag; he always packed everything for both of them; he winced again, as he had in the room, at the lurid front cover and lame title. She read the trashiest stuff, he thought, but at least she read, so he couldn't really complain.
At one o'clock a uniformed spa employee approached, the straps of a backpack suspending it from his forearm. "Ms. Rutherford?" When she acknowledged her identity he put it down and got her to sign for their picnic. Boone watched her scrawl her name carelessly, really enjoying being a kept man for a change now that he knew she was picking up the tab.
She took his hand as they headed up the path, increasing the intimacy of it by wrapping her other one around his bare upper arm, pulling him closer. He was dressed, as he'd often been on the island, in a sleeveless t-shirt, comfortable sturdy hiking boots, with jeans low slung on his hips, then as now from loss of weight. She really had to watch him more astutely she reminded herself, he'd dropped at least fifteen pounds in the last three weeks. She'd carefully selected the outfit when she'd packed for him, for some reason feeling a bit nostalgic.
Part way up the path Boone suddenly stopped and glanced around. 'Come with me.' He pulled her off the trail and moved carefully though the woods. It amazed her that he could move so silently through the forest, his determinedly acquired and applied jungle hunting skills totally ingrained, simply coming naturally to him, even after all the intervening years.
They broke into a small clearing just a few yards off the path. It was as if he'd known it would be there. Shannon couldn't discount the fact that perhaps he had, that he'd scoped it out on yesterday's run, or maybe he'd even just had a psychic sense of it existence.
He pulled her to face him and kissed her, his mouth exploring hers for several moments. She kept her hands low on his waist, the backpack he wore preventing her from wrapping her arms around his shoulders. Boone shed himself of it and unzipped it, rummaging through until he found the blanket; then flicked it out, spreading it open over the ground while she watched with interest. She didn't really think that he had food on his mind quite yet.
When he stood again and kissed her once more, she knew that she was right. "We're only a few yards off the trail Boone, aren't you worried about someone seeing us?" She didn't particularly care, but she knew he had to.
He pulled back and looked in her eyes; she saw something shift in his gaze as an idea formed in his head. "What if they did? What if they're watching us right now? What if they're watching me kiss you?" He slid his hand up to her face and worked his mouth against hers. "They can see that my hand is under your shirt, cupping your breast." He went on to describe exactly what he was doing to her as if it was from the perspective of a pair of voyeurs. When he got to the parts where they were watching Shannon do things to him, she followed his instructions instinctively. "They can't believe you're going to strip me naked when you slide the button of my jeans open and slowly unzip them."
His words and the thought of being watched, even though it was a complete fabrication on his part, drove her into a barely controlled frenzy. But whenever she tried to do something that he hadn't described, he batted her hands away. With the little part of her brain that wasn't caught up in the eroticism of it all, she was in awe at his concentration as he kept up with his monologue, his breathing shaky as he described how the fictitious people watched her stroke him.
Once they were both unclothed he lowered her to the blanket, words finally beyond his ability, replaced instead by guttural sounds of pleasure as he gave up any further attempt to continue the fantasy.
Unbeknownst to them, Boone's words had been somewhat true. There was in fact another couple watching them. Wide with mild alarm, two sets of brown eyes regarded the pair as they made love on the forest floor. Shafts of sunlight beamed down on the naked figures through breaks in the leafy green canopy as though fingers from the heavens were stroking them.
Startled by the sudden gasps and moans that issued from the self-absorbed lovers as they climaxed, the couple that had been observing them flicked their white tails, the two deer bounding silently out of the clearing.