Summer Sin

© By Jade Marqueen

 
Susannah recalled when she didn’t need shoes to travel the old dirt road leading down to the swimming hole. With the other kids, she’d race down it barefoot to leap into the clean, cold water. Later, when her body grew curves and her heart went wild, she’d take mama’s old Chevy truck around to pick up all her friends and cold beer first. It was always the perfect escape from the heat of summer.

Now with her soft, city feet, she shuffled along in an old pair of flip-flops borrowed also from her mama who’d taken the truck into town for church. It was a sign of her mama’s intrinsic kindness and understanding that she’d hadn’t insisted her wayward daughter come. Instead, mama reminded her there was sweet tea in the fridge and biscuits leftover from breakfast and went on her way, no matter what questions folks might be asking about her daughter.

Some of her tea would taste good now. Walking under the heat of sun was burning up her skin, but she was too close to turn back. At the crest of the hill, she spotted the green of the old trees still marking the location of the little Eden and breathed a prayer of thanks. When she stepped off the road to make her way down the hill, the dry grass scratched at her legs. Once a path of stamped-down grass marked the way down to the water, but now it stood up thick all around so she guessed the popularity of this place had faded. Today that was fine because she figured being alone might do her some good.

Walking into the cool shade of the cypress trees felt so good, she stopped to close her eyes and soak it up. She inhaled deeply the sweet scent of the green around her and caught the promise of water on the faint breeze caressing her skin. Laughing in delight, she kicked her shoes off, not caring where they landed, and ran forward, intending to leap off the worn outcrop of rock into the water gleaming below, but stopped short when a dog barked.
“Now what’s gotten into you, Belle?”

That voice stirred up memories, but she didn’t fix it to a face until a man came striding from the thicket to the water’s edge. In the years since she’d seen him, from the deepened voice to the broader shoulders, he’d grown from a cute, skinny boy into a sexy, powerful man. Now not only was she glad not to be alone, she knew exactly why she came back. “Noah.”
His body stiffened at the sound of her voice and he slowly raised his head to stare up at her. “Susannah, you don’t belong here.”

Busting up that skinny kid’s heart was about the lowest thing she’d ever done. She guessed he hadn’t forgiven her and she wasn’t about to ask him to. “Why aren’t you in church with your daddy?”

“I ain’t talking this out with you.”

The flatness of his voice cut her deep, but she wasn’t about to let him walk away. She peeled off her t-shirt, damp from sweat, and shouted, “Now how could a gentleman leave a lady alone out here?”

“You ain’t no lady.”

That was true enough. Next, she unhooked her bra and slid the straps down her shoulders. “Well then, how could a man let a tramp skinny dip alone?”

He stopped at the edge of the thicket and slowly turned around. Even from a distance, she caught the intensity of his steady look and it made her toes curl against the edge of the cliff. She shucked her bra and watched it drift downward to the calm surface of the water.
His golden retriever jumped in the water after it, but Noah didn’t move, transfixed by her. He’d know from today she hadn’t changed, that being around her still led to sin.

When the dog loyally returned to his side, dropping her bra at his feet, he chuckled and picked it up. “Well, Susannah,” he waved it in the air, “you’re going to have to come down here to get it.”

There’d never been a dare she wouldn’t take. She bent her knees down to add spring to her leap and enjoyed a few seconds of falling through the hot air before slashing into the cool water. It’d been a long time though and she came up choking on the water she swallowed.

Noah was right there, holding her up in his warm, brawny arms. “It’s good to see you again, Susannah.”

His dog rested her head on her paws, clearly sensing her master wasn’t going anywhere.
Once he’d been innocent. She’d fixed that by putting on a show not so different from this one. Like then, the thrill of his attention shook her body when her fingers brushed against the damp, heated curls between her thighs.

He growled and undid his jeans.

Triumph heated the base of her spine. Just like that first time, he was going to show her his, too.