Semper Fi Pt. 03

**********

If they could catch Janine Mosler's killer, it would be the first solved murder in the last two months. California was a bad state to die in; less than half of the deaths were ever solved... there were too many transients... too many people not in some system.

After their night at Disneyland, he had hoped to spend time with her again but work had gotten in the way.

"Can I see you tonight?" he asked, tapping his pen on the desktop. "I don't know, maybe eight?" Garrett looked at the wall clock. It was already six. "We could have dinner, together... at the Grotto..."

*********

They had the Steak and King Crab... a bargain at only $40, he thought, considering what he wanted to say to her.

"I missed you," he said, looking at her light coffee-colored smiling face. "You have no idea." He nervously forked a bite from his baked potato, his hand slightly shaking. How can I be nervous? he wondered. I've already slept with her. "You changed your hair," he said, trying to regain control of his voice.

Her eyes coquettely glanced up and she patted her now long spiraled curls.

She smiled. She knew.

"Barbara..."

"Yes, Garrett?"

"The other night..." he started.

"Yes?"

"It was special and..."

"Yes?"

"I think... I think I'm in love with you. I..."

"Garrett, I love you, too."

He smiled. He knew.

**********

He drew her hand across his chest, letting her feel the rapid thud of his heart, then bent his head and nuzzled at the lush swell of her breasts above the lace of her bra, teasing the chocolate softness with his mouth.

Barbara was lost as her hands slid to his waist. He moved above her, intending to be as wild and uninhibited as he was inviting her to be, an untamable passion devoted to her physical pleasure.

He said things... erotic things... graphically erotic things that made her blush in the dark as he stripped away the last cloth between them, the last barrier to their joining, calling her 'baby' in a thick, low voice. He shaped and formed her as if she was a living sculpture with his hands and his lips as she melted with ecstasy from his touch.

Kneeling between Barbara's parted thighs, holding a hand to her shimmering mocha-caramel breasts as her other held his head to her curly hair and he bent to brush his mouth there, tasting her curls and then between. She jerked at the intimacy and he did it again, lingering lovingly until she quivered and her wrists went limp and dropped from his head.

Later, he lay on his back, breathing deeply as she slowly moved her hand across his chest, toying with his chest hair. "Garrett?" she said.

"Mmmmm..."

"I... you do love me, Garrett?"

Without a moment's hesitation, "Yes..."

**********

Caitlyn pulled open the two new matching grey gym bags, determined to have all her packing done long before the flight to Honolulu. Frank remembered she had never been to Hawaii and surprised her with tickets to the mid-Pacific state.

"Oh, Frank," she had said as she put her arms around him and gave him a deep and probing kiss. "Hawaii! Oh, you shouldn't have..."

"Why not? Nothing's too good for you."

She had expected to leave Kelly with Maria while they were gone but Frank insisted she come along and pulled out another two tickets. She blushed, wondering how much noise they would make, knowing Maria and Kelly would be in the next room over but then, shyly realized they were all going to live together, anyway.

Two bikinis, one red and one blue, went into her bag, followed by new panties and bras and a couple pairs of jeans and some nice blouses and slacks and a pair of Skechers. Frank had promised Hawaiian shirts once they were there and even though they'd look like the cliché'd tourist, she couldn't help herself wanting at least one... well, maybe two... and a sarong... and a lei... and a lay, she giggled.

In the next bedroom, Maria was busy packing her own bags for the trip. She had packed lightly, knowing she was going to buy new clothes in Waikiki and wanted to have plenty of room in her bag to bring them home. If she had liked Frank before, she worshipped him now after he had presented her with a first class plane ticket.

She was astonished how easily he had bonded with Kelly and the little girl lived for him, now. "Kelly," she called, "you need to find some clothes for our trip, querida." She went back to counting her cash for the trip. To her delight, Frank had given her five-hundred dollars as a gift for the trip. In her own way, she was beginning to worship the man, herself. She had noticed how Señorita Caitlyn had come alive ever since he had really come back into her life. Soon, she was going to be Señora Caitlyn, Maria giggled, although she knew that Señorita Caitlyn was acting more and more like a Señora Caitlyn... especially... at night.

She began to hum "Tiny Bubbles," picked up Kelly and twirled the giggling girl around the room.

**********

The shock of pleasure burned through Barbara and tingled all the way down to her curling toes. Garrett's mouth was firm and warm and skilled and demanding. He ate at her lips with gentle bites and moist sucking, making her head spin.

She grabbed for something solid to hang on to and dug into Garrett's shoulder as she opened her mouth for a deeper kiss. Hot kisses in wild abandon would have buckled her to her knees if he had not already held her up and she was frantic for the taste of his mouth. She couldn't get enough and in response, he sucked her tongue deeper into the heat of his mouth.

Barbara like it... liked it so much that she was crying for more... and more... and more... and whatever little inhibition that had somehow remained quickly vanished.

Sliding her fingers into his hair, she hummed her lust deep within her throat, the same throat that she had taken him with at the Magic Kingdom's hotel. He lowered her only long enough to clamp his hands behind her lower back and then lifted and carried her forward, her feet bobbling against his shins.

His kiss became desperate with a mesh of tongues and teeth that aroused but didn't satisfy him enough and he crowded closer.

She received him against her, the hardness of his erection straining his zipper and pressing her stomach in a tantalizing tease of her emotions. Tilting her pelvis, she eased him into a long slide downward that broke their kiss and brought a sweet moan from them both and he stopped exactly where she ached the most as his breath beat hard and fast in his ear.

She opened her eyes and worked an arm between their bodies, slipped her hand inside his shirt and scored her fingernails over his taut skin and auburn hair. "Mmmm," she hummed, once again fascinated with his hard chest.

In a single swift motion, he moved back, jerked apart her blouse and trapped her arms at her sides. He thrust his hips once, then lowered his head to trace her collarbone with the tip of his tongue. Icy shivers ran down the slopes of her mocha breasts to the sensitive dark nipples barely covered by cloth.

"Tell me you love me," he whispered, but she was incoherent and unable to speak. Garrett's mouth moved to Barbara's throat, where his tongue lapped and swirled the hollow for every sensitive inch it could cover.

When her head lolled back against the wall, his tongue quickened, mimicking her wilding fluttering pulse and liquid heat moved straight downward and she grew conscious of the small fabric still left against her naked flesh.

Barbara slipped her hand beneath his shirt and marveled at his thundering heart. Sucking in a breath, he carried her through the door of her bedroom and kicked his way through. A small lamp on her nightstand gave a dim glow of light to the room and he took her to the neatly made double bed. Then she was lying on a cloud of soft blankets, staring up at the face of her lover. As he stood motionless, his gaze moved over her slowly.

"Let me touch you," she said.

He ripped off his shirt and flung it aside and their mouths met, open and hot and they began where their last kiss had broken off. Within seconds, Barbara was clawing at his smooth muscular back, bring blood to her fingertips and his knee came up between her legs and she writhed against the added feeling. She reached down to again learn the shape and feel and heat of him to give him the same pleasured agony he delivered with his own touch.

Gentleness wasn't what she wanted... wasn't what she needed... and tasted blood but didn't know whose and didn't care. She was frantic to know all of him once more. He tore his mouth away to trail hot kisses from her neck to her shoulder to her breasts. He praised her beauty, he encouraged her boldness, he told her how she made him feel and what he wanted her to do with him, to him. He quickly straddled her knees and bending over, took her dusky nipple into his mouth. She gasped and was lost in a sensual fog of pleasure and emotions.

By the time he parted her thighs, she was melting like butter on a hot day and the first touch of his most intimate kiss widened her eyes and then rolled them back as her head pushed backwards. The climax rolled upon her like thunder, building, building and then exploding as she thrashed her head, grabbed fistfuls of the blankets and cried out as lightening burst through her once... twice... three times.

Jesus Christ!!!!! was all she could barely think as he slid up beside her and lay on his side. "Come inside..." she barely gasped and at the first push of his body atop hers, she sighed. He nudged her knees apart and he began the slow delicious slide forward. "I love you, Garrett," she said as he began a slow rhythm, fluid and strong, easing her ache to be with him as close as nature made possible. His beat quickened and the body she thought satisfied became hungry once again, more than ever, feeding on his growing passion.

Barbara welcomed every powerful thrust, lifted herself to receive him ever deeper, her inner contractions shimmered in warning, then exploded, tearing a cry from deep within her soul. She clung to his shoulders while he sought his own climax in a series of thrusts that skidded her along the mattress and he suddenly tensed, buried his face in her neck and let out a long, low groan.

**********

"I'll take this one and that one... and gimme that one over there," Frank said, pointing to the large prehistoric plants in the second row. "And... I'll need some large pots to go with them... and some help getting them into the car."

He looked around, wondering what else he could buy for the new condo. The plants ancient look betrayed their primeval heritage. The sign had said, "Food for the dinosaurs," and he believed it. The large pots brought the plants high above Kelly's eyelevel so he wasn't worried about that and by the time she was tall enough, she would also be old enough to be safe.

He needed to get the borrowed Tahoe back to Garrett. As nice as the big SUV was, he missed his sports car. He stopped for gas and cursed. Each time he filled up, the hole in his pocket grew wider and deeper. Fifty dollars! Sometimes... just sometimes... he doubted his sanity in buying the Corvette but when he was doing sixty down the San Diego and stepped on the gas and was doing a hundred and ten in three seconds! There wasn't a high enough gas price to take that feeling away.

**********

Frank wrestled the heavy clay pot from the elevator into the condo, the cycad's harsh fronds scratching his face, finally pushing it into the sunny corner of the living room; he brushed one hand against the other in self-congratulation and then got the vacuum cleaner out.

He sat on the carpet leaning against the wall and watched the evening shadows move across the light cherry-colored wall as the sun set onto the nearby Pacific waters. He took another sip of beer, tipping the green-glassed bottle of Grolsh back. He played with the white swing-top cap and finally locked it closed. Glancing at his cell phone, he saw that it was almost eight o'clock and got up; walking into the bathroom, he took a shower and then put on a pair of sweats to watch a little television before he went to bed. Caitlyn had taken Kelly and was spending the night in Oceanside with her friends, having what he hoped was a quiet party before the wedding.

For his own part, Frank thought the whole idea of a wild bachelor party was insane. Once you made up your mind to marry someone, he thought, only a complete and total imbecile would do something so disrespectful to the person he was supposed to share his life with.

He came to the realization that he hated Ashton Kutcher, even more now than before. The crude jokes on the show had given him a headache after five minutes and he shut the set off and went to bed. He put the radio on and fell asleep to the sound of George Noory's impossible "Coast to Coast" on KFI radio. UFOs and ghosts and secret black helicopters filled the room, accompanied by his soft snoring.

**********

He woke up, feeling sleepier than he should. He hated that. When he went to sleep earlier than normal, he mostly woke up later than usual and with a grogginess that wouldn't leave. He padded back into the bathroom and brushed his teeth, shaved as closely as he could and stepped into the shower. He grabbed Caitlyn's Pantene shampoo and worked it into his hair, finally rinsing it off.

He usually lifted weights in the morning before showering but with the wedding so close, he had no desire to throw his back out with a wrong move so he skipped that morning ritual... at least, until after the honeymoon.

His radio was still playing from the night before and Bill Handel was pontificating about the governor's failure to act... again. He had two Eggos with some jam, a glass of milk and a cup of hot tea, along with the regime of vitamins that Caitlyn now prescribed for him. He chuckled. She said she wanted him to be in tip-top condition, as she called it.

The wedding was only three days away and he could sense the tension in Caitlyn.

Later that afternoon, Kelly was napping, Maria was fixing dinner and Caitlyn, his Caitlyn, was filling paperwork on the latest murder to occur in Oceanside. Thankfully, it wasn't another "Lonely Hearts Murder". Those had stopped and he felt less guilty taking time off from the unsolvable cases.

In the corner, his mother's vinyl recording of John Gary was playing, tiny hisses and all.

Once upon a time...
a girl with moonlight in her eyes...

The old record spun hissing on the almost ancient turntable. His mother had gotten it during her college years from her own mother and passed it down to him along with her record collection when she decided to travel the world with that sneaky bastard, Jerry.

Frank hated that guy. Why his mother thought she could replace his father with him was beyond all reason. The man was an obnoxious boor who thought he deserved respect just because he was with Frank's mother. Fat chance on that, Frank thought and wondered what would happen when all the money was gone. Of all the men she could have been with...

Thanks to Jerry, his mother was going to miss his wedding. Damn bastard...

Old romantic songs brought back memories of growing up. His mother had always been so sad, mourning the early death of his father in that car accident, haunting them both all the following years. Puccini's La bohème was a constant companion during the evening as his mother would listen to the opera, preferring the tragic romance of Mimi's death to that harsh reality of her own life.

He personally preferred Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific and could picture the film in his mind whenever he heard the various songs flow through his mind.

He picked up his hammer and lightly tapped a finishing nail into the wall to hang the latest photograph of Kelly and her mother. As easy as digital was, it never could compete with color film for depth of sensuality and warmth. The same was said for the old vinyl, he had heard, and could believe it.

Sometimes, the old ways were the best ways.

**********

Chapter 17 Always and Forever

"Will you hold still?" Barbara said, zipping up the back of Caitlyn's dress. "Seems like a lot of trouble to just take it off, later..." She had a wicked smile, wondering how long Frank would wait before he pulled that same zipper down.

"Well, just wait until it's your turn," said Caitlyn, "and we'll see what's what."

There was a knock on the door and Barbara opened it just a crack. "Go 'way, Frank. You know you can't see the bride... it's bad luck."

"I just wanted to say," he raised his voice, "I love you."

"OK, fine, you said it, now get out of here. I'm carry'n, I'll have you know," Barbara responded.

"Where the hell would you stick a gun?" Damn! Carrying a gun to a wedding, she's crazy!

"Ha, that's for me to know and you to try and find out."

"Oh, God..." He walked away, whistling the Three Stooges theme song.

The high pitched notes of the church organ begged them to start... and as first Barbara and then Caitlyn, with Kelly as her flower girl, walked up the aisle, Frank and Garrett waited near the altar, wearing their powder-blue tuxedos. The shuffling noises of the guests standing were almost drowned out by the music and finally, she had arrived at the front of the sacristy.

She had considered just having a justice of the peace... of just having a living-together arrangement... but she had always dreamed of the perfect wedding.

The priest faced them as they knelt and Frank felt good. He wasn't nervous at all and wondered why anyone could be. The time for being nervous was when you ask the woman... that was when you put your heart out there, ready to be crushed by a single two-letter word... "no."

She had said, "yes."

She had said, "yes," and his heart had skipped a beat as he had been able to breathe again.

Kelly pulled her hand away from Caitlyn and grabbed his. "Daddy, are we getting married?" she asked.

Amid the laughter from the guests, Frank leaned over to her and said, "Yes, sweetheart, we're getting married." He brought her around and had her kneel between them.

Vows were made... promises were kept... and Frank felt safe for the first time in years. He thanked whatever guardian angel looking out after him for his luck as he looked down on his daughter.

They walked back down the aisle, together this time, Kelly between them, holding their hands and they finally were in front of the church and waited as guests surrounded them, well-wishers offering hopes and congratulations. Hundreds of photographs taken, hands shaken, backs patted, and then, everyone left for the reception.

**********

The light-green waves moved higher up the black-sand beach and erased his daughter's small footprints. Frank took Kelly into his arms and let her splash in the deepening water. He looked behind him and saw Caitlyn taking their picture, once again. He smiled. Life was good.

He walked out farther and the water was waist deep, the surge of the waves pushing and pulling as he tightened his grip on his daughter. "Ready?" he asked.

"Yes, Daddy. I'll hold my breath."

"Good... here we go!" and he ducked her head beneath the wave and then pulled her back up as she laughed.

A light tap on his shoulder turned him around. "Frank, honey, it's time to go. I'm getting a sunburn."

"OK, just one more," he replied and dunked Kelly once again, plastering her hair to her head.

Frank looked at his bride. For a woman in her late thirties, she had kept in fantastic shape and he was glad he was still in the water and didn't have to explain to his daughter why he was suddenly aroused by her mother. He handed Kelly to Caitlyn and turned back toward the sea, hoping that his erection would soon disappear so he could return to the beach.