Pop!
Angela jumped back into his arms as the log in the fire exploded into a shower of sparks, bodies brushing as they laughed.
Marc was pleased when she didn't move away. He kept his hands working, almost holding her. When he finished, he laid the brush down and rested his chin on her shoulder. "You got that rolled yet?"
She held it up, and they both laughed at the misshapen joint. Angela's stomach tightened at the feel of his warm breath on her cheek, but she didn't pull away. "It'll burn, but it won't be pretty."
He grinned, fishing in his pockets for a lighter. When he leaned closer to hold out the flame, their bodies made full, willing contact for the first time in fifteen long years.
Angela inhaled, closing her eyes as her heart settled into a normal rhythm of a peace she hadn't felt in a very long time.
"Look, Honey. The moon."
She leaned her head back against his hard chest to peer up and was happy to be able to see the dim outline through the grit. "It's a good sign." She closed her eyes, didn't move her head. "We need more of those."
They smoked in silence, and Angela let the warmth and comfort of Marc's body carry her away. She was safe with him, if only for this moment.
Her lashes fluttered when he slid an arm around her to pass the joint back. Caught up in the good moment, Marc couldn't resist putting a soft kiss on her smooth cheek. "Never did I see such beauty, such courage, such passion, and such fear in her eyes. The lonely heart demands and the mind refuses, but the body, the core, pulses with need."
He inhaled and passed, continuing to speak his heart's poetry as they relaxed in clean jeans and matching Marine sweatshirts.
"Never did I see such hair. Dark as the night, and lips of love, red as a rose. A body that tempts me, begs me, and blue eyes that follow me into my dreams and beyond. Forgive me these careless slips of shameless flattery, for I cannot explain in mere words what you mean to me. Hold to the truth, to your heart, to love…to us."
"It's beautiful." Angela let her head rest against his chin, pushing away the voice screaming of Kenn's anger.
"It's the way you make me feel, what you make me see. My life was so empty without you."
Hers too. Other than her son, she'd had no one she could love or trust for a very long time, and when Marc wrapped his arms around her, she relaxed against him, the long day wearing her down.