Chapter 9
It was nearly dawn and the beach was quiet, peace once more reigning supreme over the blood of battle. And the sun rose a bit higher and peeked inside the deserted boat house.
Both Darcy and Zip turned when the bright orange showed its head above the distant shore. They smiled. Then they turned toward each other and smiled again. And then they continued, picking up the all-night thread of their conversation.
"So you see," Darcy said, "suddenly it all seemed so incredible to me-it was almost as if I couldn't believe I was doing the things I was."
"I know," said Zip, nodding his head in agreement. "It's almost the same with me. I've had this kind of restless feeling for a long time, and I kind of suspected that it was because I wanted to quit the Devil Cats, but I wasn't sure. And then, when I saw you that very first time, everything kind of popped for me."
"You're kidding?" she said shyly.
"I'm not, it's the truth."
Darcy shivered beneath Zip's jacket, which he had wrapped around her. She held it close together over the tatters of her clothing.
"What's the matter, cold?" Zip asked solicitously.
"No."
"But you're shivering."
"No I'm not."
"You are," he insisted.
"Maybe. Just a little bit. But not from the cold."
"What from then?" he asked.
"Happiness, I guess. I guess that's what it is."
"I hope so," he said.
"It is," she assured him. Then, as she looked down the beach and saw only sea gulls at their morning wanderings for food, Darcy's expression turned serious, and she asked, "What's going to happen to them? To the Devil Cats? To everyone."
"Everything seems pretty well settled," he said. "When I left you here the second time and went back, the fight was pretty well over. And so were the fuzz. All over the place. Well, the way it ended up, the Devil Cats will just move on some place else. Ham took over and led them off on their goddamn bikes."
"It's kind of sad, isn't it?"
"Kind of," he agreed. "But everybody's doing what they want, so maybe it isn't so sad after all."
"Everybody?" she questioned. "Everybody's doing what they want?"
"Sure, the police just sent the Honda Club home and the Devil Cats on their way, so-"
"What about Mr. Masters?" she asked.
"Oh. I forgot about him. Well, he's not getting his way, I guess. But they'll probably put him in a mental hospital, and maybe in a couple of years he'll get out."
"Yeah," she laughed. "Maybe he'll even be assistant principal at a new school."
"None I go to, I hope," Zip said.
"You're really going back to school. You really are, aren't you?"
"Yip," he said confidently. "I guess it's what I've always wanted. It's been bugging me."
Darcy smiled, then reached out and took one of his hands in both of hers. "Come on, tell me once more; where are you going to go to school?"
"Right here in Sanford, I guess," he said, showing considerable embarrassment. "I might as well. I've got no family. Guess Sanford's as good a place as any to start a new life."
"Sure it is. You can start clean-very clean."
He cocked his head and looked at her with an odd expression.
"You can start a clean life with a clean shave," she laughed.
"Oh, yeah," Zip grinned, bringing one hand away from Darcy's to stoke his reddish beard.
Zip returned his hand to Darcy's. She held it tight. They smiled at each other. Then Darcy shivered again. This time Zip did not question her. Instead, he brought his arm around her shoulder and cuddled her close. She nestled her lips into his neck and kissed him lightly. And for Darcy it was cause for her emotions to storm, to boil, to cry out for greater contact with this boy for whom her love now flowered. Gently, she lifted her hand and touched at his beard. She stroked it lightly. Then she cupped his chin and turned it toward her as she raised her mouth and parted her young lips.
Zip's first contact with Darcy's lips was as gentle as a rose petal. But when her tongue shot into his mouth, he gasped and clutched her closer to him. Zip's jacket fell from Darcy's shoulders, and she was partially bared and crushing against his own bare skin. Her breasts burned him, then burrowed closer. And all the time her tongue spun a crazy pattern of giving and receiving, nipping at his lips, then healing them with the quick swish of her sharp-pointed tongue.
Slowly, carefully, as if he was afraid to disturb the mood they were in, Zip raised his hand and touched Darcy's breast. He gripped her gently, fondled her, then brought thumb and forefinger into contact with her nipple. He spun it. He rolled it. And then he had to have more of it.
They separated the cling of their mouths, and Zip gently urged Darcy to her back. For a moment he only looked at her, loving her with his eyes. She smiled up at him. Then he bent and kissed her eyes and nose and throat. He nibbled there, causing red-mark bites that Darcy would view later in the day and love. And then he lowered to her large breasts and lost his face between them. He lingered here for a long time. And while he lingered, Darcy stroked his head, touched at his face, at his lips, and ran her hands over his bare back, massaging carefully at the small of it just above his slim hips.
Finally, Zip came to life. He raised. He pressured his lips against a nipple, then lolled it within his lips, moving it from side to side and around in a circle. And then he released it. And then he became more excited and gulped the whole of her flesh, jamming as much of it as it was possible for him to take. And he took a great deal, for Darcy arched, pressing more of her flesh for his hungry taking. He took it. Deeply.
Now, Darcy could no longer cuddle and soothe, she could go no further with the delicate fore-touches of sex. Her body cried out for him love. She heated and thrust and wiggled beneath him in a signal of her desire.
He lowered his kisses, brought them to her hips, to her belly, and lingeringly to her navel. He rested. Darcy could not. Her body began to undulate, moving Zip to raise again and bring new kisses to a new area of her body.
Finally, Darcy could not stand the one-sidedness of Zip's love-making. She pushed upright and smiled at him. In a moment, she shifted her position, arched her thighs in a new signal at the same time that she shifted in the opposite direction to bestow the glory she could give to Zip.
After a very long time, they separated. But their parting was only one that promised greater and ultimate closeness.
Hurriedly, their mouths came together again. Now, their tongues turned wicked as they adjusted their bodies to each other, as Zip rose, secured his place at her feet, then lifted her knees from the place beneath them. Darcy reached out both her hands, wiggling her fingers in a frantic plea to know more of her lover, to take him and guide him and bring him to the reward that awaited them both.
And then they were placed. They moved slowly at first, so slowly that it seemed impossible that the fire-spark of stimulation would ever overtake them. But it did. Frantically, hurtfully, beautifully.
They went harsher, longer, more enduringly to each other. Thrusting and receiving, holding, grinding together, then grinding even tighter as Darcy's hips left the ground and spun, spun, spun in a crazy circle of enchantment.
And then at last they rode the wave of completion.
He pumped madly, crazily, insanely, so lightened by love was he. And Darcy received his every thrust, every caress, and gave it back fourfold. She twisted and churned and pumped up and down as if she must hurry and catch the wave of his giving.
And catch it she did. And with astounding strength as she squeezed her legs tightly about his waist.
Finally, from the high, tight togetherness of their bodies, they collapsed. Immediately, they rolled their satisfied bodies together. They cuddled the softness of themselves to each other. They rested. They slept. They knew the comfort of well-founded love. And they both knew that when they awoke, it would be the same. For tomorrow. For a million tomorrows.