“You’ve got to be careful. You can’t go flashing a bundle of money around. This isn’t some country town, it’s the big city and there are too many who would knock you in the head for a dollar.”
“I’m sorry. I guess I didn’t think.”
He stared at her, and he saw her tremble. He rolled his eyes, tried to turn away, but the look in her eyes held him. Slowly he took her into his arms and comforted her. She began to shake uncontrollably now. Tears she didn’t want to shed gushed forth.
The tears gushed from her now as he tried to console her.
Sam put his chin on her head and held her against him. His lips grazed her head and she looked up and into his eyes. She saw the mirror of her own feelings in his eyes.
“Dammit, Riley…” he cursed and then his head bent and he pulled her fully into his arms, just before he covered her mouth, possessively. He branded her with those soft comforting lips. She melded herself against him, feeling the rock hard of his body, needing those big strong arms around her. She sighed into his mouth as their kiss deepened.
“Oh Sam,” she sighed as he roused her passion, her desires and her love.
“I thought they’d hurt you…” he barely managed to whisper between kisses. The desperation in his voice told her how much he cared. “I wanted to kill them for hurting you.”
“I’m better now…” she sighed, clutching him and tiptoeing to put her lips to his once more. “I’m always better when you hold me…”
He grabbed her tighter and kissed her with surprising mastery. His tenderness made her quiver.
Slowly, he let their bodies drift apart and kissing her one last time, he let her go, and stared at her intently, his eyes going over her lazily as though drinking her in.
After a long silence, she moved away from him, but her body was still trembling from his heated embrace.
“Did I do right, Sam?” she asked in a hushed whisper.
“It’s okay, you handled it well. I’m proud of you. I didn’t know you had that much fight in you.”
“I’m not talking about that, I’m talking about just now…I’ve…never kissed a man before you…Sam. Not since I was five years old…”
“You did fine, Riley…too fine…” He cleared his throat and turned away from her. “And we don’t need to go there no more…”
“Oh we’ll go there Sam…as long as we are together, we’ll go there, and you know it as well as I do. It’s been this way from the start of it, this feeling between us. Don’t shush me Sam, I gotta say I’m convinced this thing between us isn’t going away. In fact it just gets stronger and stronger. When you kiss me, I fall apart. You don’t kiss with your lips Sam, you kiss with your heart, and my heart knows it. I feel it inside me, growing like a fire I can’t put out. You won’t admit it, but I have to, I feel crazy inside. You won’t say the words. You won’t ever say the words. But you can’t hide it from me. I was green-eyed jealous when you kissed Mavis. I wanted you to kiss and touch me like that…She had something I didn’t. She was black and you could go with her so easily.” Her breathing was erratic, as though she had to purposely draw breath just to speak of it.
“Riley…I didn’t go with her.” He shook his head, but when their eyes met across the room he couldn’t deny it, and a slow burning smile lit her face.
“No…you didn’t, did you?” She shook her head, and steadied herself. “You don’t have to say the words, Sam. I know. I know every time you kiss me how you feel, and I know too that because I’m white you’ll never say the words to me.”
She shrugged. She went to stand in front of the window. “But right now we got bigger problems.”
“What now?” Sam asked, following her.
“The lawyer says I’ve been declared dead. In order to get my money I’ll have to either go in person to the bank and have myself declared alive or send someone in my place to get it,” Riley said, shaking. “He said he could draw up the papers if I could have someone else go
in my place. A relative.”
“I guess that leaves me out. Don’t think they’d believe that.”
“No.” She almost laughed.
Sam shook his head. “Just gets better and better, doesn’t it?” He flopped on the bed and looked at her. After a long silence, he nodded slowly.
“I got an idea,” Sam began.
“Good, ‘cause I’m running out of ideas.” She turned to look at him.
“No one said this was gonna be easy,” Sam assured her.
“I know. What’s the idea?” she asked.