Okay....so the troll is wondering if he should let me go or scritch me after this one....heh...
Here it is...
Chapter 168: Anyone Who Thinks I’m Getting on that Floating Lunchbox Can Kiss My Aft…“ By ‘TAKING’ I hope you mean hitching up a big ‘ol truck to the front and lugging it out of the water to some yet undisclosed LAND location…” I say to her…withdrawing my hand from hers before she can pull me any closer to the edge of the pier.
Tara stops to cast me a look of surprise…
I’m sure I’ve told her before…I’m almost…well…sort of …certain….“ You’re afraid of the water?” She says incredulously…I think it’s incredulity, because frankly, she’s seen me swim a thousand times…we’ve gone to pools…we’ve spent many an hour in a cozy tub together… If I were slimy and disgusting…and wholly evil…I think I could have been a frog in another life.
“ Not of the water….it’s the…” I motion emphatically at the bobbing tomb of death disguised as a boat floating a hundred paces away…
“ BOATS???” Tara says…her eyes flying as wide as she can get them….” You are afraid of boats???”
Okay…maybe I didn’t tell her…maybe that one slipped my mind….“ Yeah…Horses, Boats, and Frogs….not in that particular order because I run equally fast from all of them…no special privileges for the harbingers of ultra-paralyzing fear…” I say, not realizing I am backing down the pier until my feet sift into sand again.
Tara is still standing in place…looking at me as though suddenly I’ve just told her that I was actually a space alien bent on the destruction of the Earth….or something more boggling….like I got a C minus on my last Statistics test…
“ But we played
Love Boat….just last week… I was Julie…your guide…and you were the insatiable Charro….” Tara says numbly …trying to mentally get a grasp on the fact that our plans were going to have to change drastically.
“ Love Boat was a great show…and we weren’t ACTUALLY ON the Princess….We were under the covers…and on the floor…and …well on the vanity….it doesn’t count….” I say…finally stopping a good distance from the pier…
But oh did she make a great Julie in the little white shorts suit….“ So….so you’re afraid of the BOAT… even if we pretend it’s the Princess…?” Tara asks.
“ Baby…I love you…but not even you in a cute little sailor skirt could get me within missile-launching range of that boat.”
I can see her gears churning as she thinks about this.
“ Not even if I told you I saved up all of my money to rent it for the night?”
Ah…the old guilt tactic…well Lover…guilt does not override mind-numbing fear…“ I’ll buy you off…with interest.” I say.
“ And…I spent months learning how to….you know…” She makes a driving motion with her hands.
“ Nope…sorry…I really CAN’T get on that boat…” I insist.
Strong….like an Amazon…that’s me.Tara looks exasperated and defeated.
“ Then this was all a waste?” She says. I indicate the quiet beach.
“ A nice walk on the moonlit sand…a little kissy-necky type action is not such a waste.” I offer with a waggle of my eyebrows.
She turns and walks down the pier to the side of the boat…and steps boldly onto the deck.
“ I’m going for a ride, and YOU are going to come with me.” She says.
Hold on a minute…did I not just offer kissy-necky goodness here on dry land? What did I just miss?“ Uhm…Honey…still not getting on the boat here…Did we just have a totally non-linear…completely separate… conversation just now?”
“ I bought this THING just for you and THIS boat ride…and if you aren’t going to enjoy it…then I’ll take me…and this horribly uncomfortable suit…and get my Date Night Money’s worth….” Tara says with a defiant lift of her pretty chin.
Okay…what’s all this about a suit…and why is she so worked up about it?? I don’t even see a …..“ I spent a week an a half picking this thing out and I’m SURE AS HECK not going to wear it anywhere else…”
Tara takes this heated moment of self-conversation to work the buttons off her blouse.
“ I can’t believe I didn’t ask her if she even LIKED me in black…” She says to the night air more than to me.
She peels the blouse off and tosses it down on the deck of the boat with a definitive little dance-like gesture of wanted to stomp on it…but liking the blouse too much for such inappropriate anger…
Oh good Night NURSE in the ever-loving morning…that is the smallest cut bikini top I have EVER seen…She is working on the buttons her skirt and having a rough time getting them to cooperate in her anger…and though I am still not going to get ON that boat…I can’t stand to see a lady in distress…
I gingerly move closer… hands out…making the unbuttoning motions in front of me even before I reach her.
I must look like one of those Half-tame zoo squirrels that creep up gingerly to a person with a particularly tasty-looking peanut…
I’m a professional, Miss…let me help you get rid of that… Willow the Zoo-squirrel offers.
She looks up from her skirt at me as I reach her, and take over the distressing task of saving her from the perils of skirt-wearage.
I’m still on the dock…leaning way over…not quite willing to give up my land advantage…
She leans in then and…and kisses me… Her braids fall against my face and shoulders…
And for the life of me…I can’t recall what my original mission was or even how those toggle things function…my fingers fumble with the skirt… and then lose the battle all together…
I only know that I need one thing….
To be closer…
To be much….much closer to this woman….
Okay… now…Picture in your mind a great big scale….
Mind-numbing fear on one plate….and all-consuming lust on the other….
We all now what’s heavier in Willow-World…
Boat fear be damned!Tara pulls me in closer as I step onto the deck so I can get my arms around her.
She kisses me for several more moments before she pulls back and does something wholly odd.
She waves.
She waves to someone over my shoulder.
I turn to look…and I see a pair of headlights turning away in the distance. Xander.
Okay…what kind of kinky thing is going on here…? “ You want Xander to watch???” I bleat.
When she notices my expression, she smiles.
“ He wanted to wait around to see if you would really get on the boat. He didn’t think I could do it.” She says…kissing me pertly…if not a little smugly.
“ You knew…?” I say wondrously.
“ Xander told me last night…” She says kissing me again…just enough so that I forget my name…and where I am…and who my parents are….
“ And we have ALL night on the old…BOAT thingy…here…?”
“ Well it looks like Xander’s paying now…so we could make it ALL night…and into the day…” She says.
“ You made a bet on me?” I say slowly. She busses sweet kisses on my lips and chin…
“ Yes.” She says…gauging my expression for a moment.
“ Well I hope you made sure to add dinner next week into the mix…I’d hate to think he got off with only one Date Night…” I say.
“ Of course, Sweetie…I learned about The Deviously Innocent Poker Face, from the Best of the Best…..that would be Dawnie...by the way...” Tara says sweetly.
“ Atta girl…” I say. “ Okay…let’s see the rest of this suit…”
“ There’s not much to see…” She says as I work on the skirt buttons.
“ I’m counting on it.”
TBC…
" I mock you with my Monkey Pants!" - OZ
" You're NOT the source of me" - Buffy
" If you imps are lookin for a fight, then ya come to the Chapel Oblige-ya!!" - Legend