Breakdown: Conclusion

Chapter 02: Conclusion.

Once again, my thanks to my team. Harddaysknight is my mentor and gives me critical review. SBrooks103x reads for me, as well. My editors are NoraFares, Hal, GeorgeAnderson, Girlinthemoon and Pixel the Cat. Thanks to you all for all you do, Randi

Barrett and Malley were at Barrett's house. This had become their Friday routine. Barrett picked up Malley from the house she and her mother now occupied, they went somewhere for dinner, then back to Barrett's house. They popped popcorn, Barrett made caramel and they had caramel popcorn and played games or watched TV. Malley really didn't care what they did, as long as she got to spend time with Barrett. Barrett felt the same, so they were quite content.

The reason for their frequent time together was that Rain, Barrett's brother, and Tabora, Malley's mother, went on dates on Friday nights. To Malley's eternal delight, they often also went on Saturday nights, taking her with them, and on Sunday evening, Malley went out with Rain, by herself. She was undecided which she liked the best, but she was most satisfied when all four of them were together.

She had quickly adopted Barrett as her "Auntie," and she regarded Rain as the father she'd never had. Memories, bad ones, she had of her biological father had quickly become just disquieting ghosts that seldom crossed her mind.

Tabora's memories were more vivid, but it was likely that anyone who had seen the frightened woman, on the run from a monster, saving herself and her daughter, would hardly have recognized her, after six months. Rain certainly appreciated the change.

It was mid-summer, they were at Caballo Lake State Park, and she was standing on the grass in front of him, dancing. Rain had brought his portable radio, they had a cooler, now considerably emptier than it had been when they came, since they had eaten the food and drank several of the beers, and they were mellow. He'd turned on the radio and Tabora was drawn irresistibly to her feet. Her mop of glossy curls was wild and her eyes shone as she lifted her arms over her head, her tight little body swaying to the rhythm of Aretha Franklin's "Spirit in the Dark."

She had on a red tube-top and denim shorts, so short that pockets showed below the frayed remnants of the legs. Rain felt like his eyes bulged every time she turned her back to him and shook that fantastic ass, a hint of round cheek showing below her shorts. All those brown glorious dancer's legs were on display and her tiny feet were in platform sandals.

They had been spending as much time together as they could, between her school and his latest project car he was building. Rain found himself missing her every moment they were apart. Her personality had blossomed, showing the intelligence, humor and quick wit she had. She teased him unmercifully, and she took it as well as she dished it out. Other than Barrett, he realized that she was the best friend he'd ever had. She was also an enchanting little gypsy, and being close to her made his heart pound.

He knew she'd been broken, hurting and afraid when he found her in that car dealership, and he'd been going slow, at a glacial pace, and she came to trust, like and then love him. She was very physical with him, staying in contact, touching him with her little hands that were constantly in motion, molding her body against his at every opportunity, and he felt that she was completely comfortable with him.

For her part, Tabora was completely in love with this gentle, huge, kind and handsome white boy in a way she had never dreamed was possible. She had been frightened at the intensity of her feelings the first time they kissed, but that had long since passed.

When Aretha sang the words, "You feel like dancing? Get up and let's start dancing," she beckoned to him. He grinned and got to his feet. She swayed into him as he circled her with his arms. He pulled her in and they swayed together, her cheek against his chest and her mop of curls tickling his chin.

When the song ended, he scooped her up in his arms as she squealed a mock protest, carrying her to the picnic table and sitting on the bench with her on his lap. She squirmed around until she was facing him, her hands locked behind his head and her legs straddling his.

"I can't tell you how beautiful you are," he said.

She dimpled up. "Try," she said with a trill of laughter. "That's something I can listen to all day."

He laughed, touching her little button nose with the knuckle of his index finger. "If your head gets any bigger it won't fit in the truck."

She giggled, tilting her head and gazing into his eyes. The smile slowly faded and a different look stole over her features as she saw something. She leaned toward him and he pulled her in, his hand on the back of her neck, under her hair.

Her lips parted slightly and he saw her little pink pointed tongue moisten her plush lips. They were alive against his, and he felt that tongue against his lips, seeking admittance. The kiss went on for hours, it seemed, and they were both breathless when it ended.

"Tabora, I need to tell you something." He looked serious.

"What?" she asked.

"Well, I kinda need to ask you something, too. You're my girl, right?"

She leaned in, hiding her face against him, and he felt her nod. "Yes, I am, Rain. I want to be. Do you want me to be?"

"Very much," he said. He pushed her back until he could see her face. He took her little pointed chin and tilted her head back until she was looking in his eyes.

"I love you, Tabora. Did you know that?"

"I thought you did," she said softly. "I love you, Rain. I have for a long time, now."

He smiled at her. "I was hoping you might feel that way. I thought you did, but I needed to be sure. I'm going to tell you all the time, now. You should get used to it."

She nodded, then smiled. "Every damn day," she said.

"More than once a day," he said. "I don't mean that I just love you today, or this week, I mean like forever."

He watched as she seemed to struggle. Her eyes became liquid and two big tears started down her cheeks. He pulled her into his embrace. "Why are you crying, baby?" he asked. "I thought you'd be happy."

"I am." Her reply was muffled. "I cry when I'm really, really happy, Rain. I'm just so emotional. I never thought... Malley and me... we're just so lucky, Rain. You, Barrett, my job, everything is just so perfect. I never dreamed we'd find anything like this."

Rain discovered that his own eyes were moist and he found it difficult to speak. He cleared his throat. "Well, you deserve to be happy, Tabora. So does Malley. How anyone could... everyone who knows you has to love you. Believe me, you're very easy to love."

She leaned back and looked at him. "Let's go back to your house, call Barrett and ask if Malley can spend the night," she said.

"Are you sure?" he asked. "I mean, God knows I want to; I have since about the second I met you, but I don't want..."

Her finger across his lips shushed him. "I've never been surer of anything," she said. "Take me home, Rain."

The drive home was filled with building tension. Tabora was plastered against him the entire time, and she stayed that way when they got out, sliding across under the wheel and getting out his door. She walked with him to close the garage, and then back into the house.

"Go pour us a glass of wine, and I'll put on some music," he told her. He heard her talking on the phone to Barrett as he thumbed through his albums. He chose Simon & Garfunkel's "Bridge Over Troubled Water" and Joe Cocker's "Mad Dogs and Englishmen," dropping the first, and as the guitar started "The Boxer," he went to the kitchen. Tabora was pouring wine and she gave him a smile.

He walked up behind her, pressing against her, making her step forward against the counter, his hands on her waist, fingers nearly wrapping around her slenderness. He nuzzled her curls, taking in the scent of her floral conditioner or shampoo. She sat down the wine bottle and looked up at him. God, she was gorgeous, he thought.

He licked her ear, causing her to shiver, then kissed his way down her neck to the declivity where her smooth brown skin made a hollow between her bare shoulder and her collar bone. She got goosebumps, and turned her face, offering him her lips. He turned her around, cupping her butt in his hands and lifting her against him until their faces were on a level, her legs wrapping around his hips.

They kissed, and Tabora could feel her heart racing wildly, also feeling the beating of Rain's heart against her breasts. It went on a very long time, and he finally set her down. She handed him his wine glass and took her own. "We should have a toast," she said with a giggle.

He raised his glass and they clinked them together. "To my dusky little goddess," he said.

She smiled. "To my man."

He put his arm around her shoulders and they walked to the living room, her hip bumping purposefully against him. Finishing their wine, they sat the glasses down and danced, just pressed into each other, only swaying to the music.

Her eyes shown up at him. "Make love to me, Rain," she whispered. "I'm afraid. Please don't hurt me."

That nearly made him cry, and he held her tightly. "I'll never hurt you," he said.

"I want you so much," she said. "Rain, sex has never been... good for me. I don't want you to be disappointed."

"I'm going to make it good for you," he said. "It's going to be so good that you're never going to want to stop."

He swept her up in his arms as she gasped. She felt so small and so cherished, she already never wanted to stop. For Rain, she was so light it felt like he was carrying a feather. He carried her to the bed and sat her down, making a bit of distance between them so he could see her.

His hands were at her waist and he pushed up with his thumb, exposing the smooth brown flatness of her stomach, her navel a dark mystery waiting to be explored. He knelt, kissing her belly and working his lips and tongue over her skin,to her navel and dipping his tongue inside, making her shiver with sensation. He continued to push it upward, exposing the undersides of her breasts and she shivered again as he licked the full undersides of both globes.

She raised her arms over her head and he slid the top up and off. She stood there a moment, arms raised, as Rain hastily shed his shirt, craving the feeling of her skin against his. As he stepped forward, pulling her into his arms, hers fell across his shoulders. He could feel her nipples scraping across his chest and the sensation was maddening. She felt like hot silk against his torso, and he ran his hands up and down her back, reveling in the smooth bare skin.

She took a step back, sitting, then lying back on the bed. Rain drank in the sight of her, her light-brown skin in contrast with the white comforter. Her hair was a mass of curls, spreading around her head in a dark glossy foot-long halo; she was breathtaking.

She reached for the button of her shorts and Rain helped her, pulling down the tight denim as she raised her butt to allow him to remove them. She had on lacy yellow panties, which came down with the shorts, leaving her gloriously naked on the bed. Rain shed his own shorts and underwear and sank down beside her.

His fingers explored her curves and she moved restlessly under his touch, sometimes pushing herself into his touch, sometimes drawing back with a gasp. Her breasts were perfect little mounds, dark-chocolate nipples centered on lighter areolas, standing up and a little puffy. He slid his hands onto them at the same they kissed, testing the firmness and softness, rolling a little nipple between his fingers, bringing a low moan from her.

Tabora was becoming more aroused than she could ever remember. Her nipples were achingly hard and she knew her moisture was beginning to flow. Rain was so gentle with her, and so sensual, that she was falling into a trance of pleasure, where only Rain and Tabora existed. The night became a dream of gasped pleasures as his mouth moved over her body, doing things to her she had never experienced and taking her places she had never been. Her cries rang in her own ears as she orgasmed, again and again.

When she felt his cock at her entrance she had only the desire for him to bury himself in her and never leave. He felt huge, and she was very uncomfortable at first, pressing her little hands against him, needing time.

Again, his gentleness overwhelmed her, and she wanted him more than ever. When he was fully inside her, she felt completely loved, completely filled and as he began to move, the waves of love and pleasure swept over her, bringing her to a peak that exploded. The first time was in minutes and they came together, months of pent-up love releasing and cresting.

He never went soft inside her, and the next time went on and on until she was a sobbing laughing bundle of sensation, and all thought of anything beyond this man, this place, was beyond her reach.

They rested and slept, her body snuggled safely against his, the big spoon and the little spoon.

When Rain awakened the next morning, it was to exquisite sensations, and he looked down to see his cock in the mouth of a disheveled little goddess as she worked on him until he exploded. She never missed a beat, and Rain felt like she had emptied him of his soul. When she had the last drop, she crawled up onto him, resting her head on his chest.

"Was it good?" she murmured. "I like doing that, Rain. You should get used to it."

"I've died and gone to heaven!" he said. "Tabora, I didn't like it; I loved it; I love you and everything about you." She snuggled in, content in his approval and they slept again until it was time to pick up Malley.

For the next six months, three and four times a week, Tabora and Malley were at Rain's place. His house was a nice size, four bedrooms, and Malley established her own little queendom there. She had her room and Rain was constantly getting her new things for it. She loved zebras, and the entire room was full of zebra things. Stuffed zebras, zebra posters and toys and a zebra bedspread and pillowcases. Barrett even made her zebra curtains.

There was one splash of color. Rain came home one day and Malley and Tabora were already there, making dinner. He had a stuffed tiger, which he gave to Malley. She looked at him in puzzlement, standing in front of him as he sat in his chair.

He looked at her seriously, while Tabora looked on in amusement.

"Not all zebras are black and white," he told her. "Some of them are orange and black, like this one."

She looked at the tiger, back at Rain and back at the tiger. She turned it over in her hands, studying it. Finally, she looked up at him.

"This is not a zebra, Rain," she said.

He feigned shock. "It's not? The lady who showed it to me promised me it was an orange and black zebra."

Malley shook her head. "No, Rain, this is not a zebra."

"What do you think it is?" he asked.

"This is a giraffe," she said, looking at him seriously.

There was a moment of silence, and a snort exploded from Tabora. Rain burst out laughing and rolled off the chair into the floor. He grabbed Malley, pulling her down on top of him, tickling her until she squealed.

"You got me good, baby girl," he told her as she snuggled down into his hug. "I thought I would get you, for sure, but you're too smart for me."

She nodded. "Yes, I am." She giggled. "I love it, though, Rain. Thank you for getting it for me."

The tiger occupied the center of her bed from then on, any time she wasn't in it, and she slept holding it.

After that six months, Rain asked Tabora if she was going to renew her lease on her house. "Do you want me not to renew it?" she asked.

Rain was very nervous, but he also wanted her very much not to renew that lease. He had been building his courage for a couple of weeks, and he had his speech all rehearsed. "Well, it's up to you, of course," he said. "I was just thinking; you know you and Malley spend nearly as much time at my house as you do at yours. It would be less expensive if you... if you and Malley moved in with me."

"That's all you got, Rain?"

He blushed and stammered. "No, I don't even know why I thought that would be a good thing to say. I'm a damn idiot, Tabora, or maybe just a coward. I want you to move in with me because I'm crazy about you. Every night you're not there I don't sleep well, I'm so in love with you, and I miss the hell out of you. I want to spend every minute with you. I'm also crazy about Malley."

"I know you are," she said.

"You have no idea, babe," he said. "I come home from a frustrating day at the garage where everything has gone wrong. I'm tired, grouchy and I think I want to shower, get a beer and take a nap. When I get here, there are two little brown angels waiting for me. One lights a fire in me the minute I see her. That's you. I see you in the kitchen, and it makes my heart lurch. You look so gorgeous, so sexy, so... everything I ever dreamed about in a woman, and that shitty day melts away."

Her eyes began to glisten in that way he knew she was happy emotional.

He wasn't through. "Then I sit in my chair for a minute and that other little brown angel comes bouncing in, climbs up on my lap and says, 'I love you, Rain. Do you know what I did?' I feel like I'm the king of the world, Tabora. I want that, every day. I'm so in love with you, and I love Malley with all my heart. Barrett loves you both as much as I do, and I want you with me, always."

She moved into him, offering him those puffy lips. He was happy to take them, and when they were both breathless and panting, she stepped back.

"I knew you could do it, Rain. That's what I needed." They both laughed together. "Yes," she said. "The answer is yes. I want to move in with you. Or, maybe the answer is no." Her brows drew together in a cute little frown. "No, I don't want to renew my lease. I want to live with you."

Her lease expired after two months, and they became a family. It was everything Rain dreamed it would be. Tabora was in heaven: she lived with the man she loved with every fiber of her being. He loved her daughter, he was dependable, gentle and he rocked her world in bed.

Her job was better than she'd ever dreamed it could be. She was close to her colleagues, especially Debbie Collins and Steve Garner. They were so nice to her, helping her with every difficulty she had, and she felt like she belonged to the community in a way she had never felt before.

The most important thing, to her, was that she had a best friend, for the first time in her life. Barrett had become so important to her. She confided everything in Barrett, and the tall beautiful redhead held a place in her heart that no one else could touch. Barrett obviously felt the same way about her. Tabora was the first one Barrett told that she was dating an engineering professor from New Mexico State University.

Barrett introduced Drew to her a month before she introduced him to Rain. Tabora liked the tall quiet humorous man from the first, and as Drew and Barrett became lovers, she was nearly as excited about it as Barrett was.

They had been in Las Cruces long enough that Tabora and Malley knew many people, were invited to social events and Tabora felt that she was respected because of her teaching job. The parents of her students spoke to her when they saw her, and, for the first time, she felt stable and like she had a place in the world.

Rain had been building a 1951 Mercury custom rod. It had taken him a good while and he was ready to sell. He was taking it to an auction in El Paso. He was planning to be gone three days, and Malley needed to enroll in kindergarten while he was going to be gone. When Rain learned that they wouldn't be going with him, he was dismayed, but it gave him the impetus and courage to do what he'd been trying to work up his nerve to do for a while.