“So, clutching a suitcase and a book bag, I went to live at Elgin’s house and begin college.”

“It must have been rough.”

“A masterpiece of understatement, Mr. Harm,” Marty responded acidly. “Oh not the academics. I thrived on the challenge and the opportunity to expand my horizons. But the social milieu was hellish.

“There I was, thirteen years old, showing up so-called men twice my age in every academic area but totally isolated. Friendless and totally alone in an alien environment. Add to that the fact that my budding sexuality hardly fitted the norm and you have the makings of a nightmare. I should no doubt have killed myself if it hadn’t been for Elgin.”

“Oh Marty, really…”

“No, it’s true. Younger than I, she didn’t care about my IQ or my sexual problems. She was warm and funny and loving and absolutely accepting of me. We listened to music and talked about the kinds of things children talk about and I did her algebra homework so she wouldn’t flunk out of eighth grade.”

“I graduated at fifteen, took my first Masters at seventeen, my Doctorate at nineteen. All those years I lived with Elgin and her mother. In the summers, she and I came back here.”

“At twenty-one,” Harm continued when Marty paused, “after receiving his second Doctorate, M. Van Scoyk founded Pine Box Computers utilizing a chip of his own design. The third generation of that chip is the foundation of most PC’s running today. Rarely photographed and said to be an eccentric recluse, Van Scoyk spent most of his time behind the scenes. At thirty, he sold the company, retaining a healthy chunk of stock and disappeared.”

“Business bored me. Even computer research became confining in the face of a universe to be understood. So I took the money and ran. Here in Spirit Cove, I’m still Fred and Rebecca’s only son, Marty. Made some money but still runs his father’s mercantile. Even give you credit in the winter if things get a little thin. They talk about me and laugh behind my back, but they’re family so I forgive their trespasses as they forgive mine.”

He glanced at Elgin and back to Harm. “Sometimes there’s no security like home.”

Ernesto arrived with their breakfast and the conversation drifted to other matters.

“So how long does it take to get across the lake?” Harm asked.

“About an hour, give or take,” Marty told him, spooning caviar onto a thin slice of toast. “If I’m in a hurry, I have Paul run her wide open. On a day like today, when I have guests whose company I wish to enjoy, I have him take it easy. Don’t want any queasy tummies now do we?”

“I wouldn’t know,” Harm responded casually, “Navy myself. Carrier duty in the Pacific. Two typhoons in one cruise. You know what a wave looks like breaking over the bow of a ship eight stories high?”

“Large, I would imagine.”

After breakfast, they went back out on deck, enjoying the beauty of the lake, a second cup of coffee that even Harm had to grudgingly admit was excellent, and small talk. Well, mostly Van Scoyk talked, Elgin giggled and he sat quietly, watching the hotels and casinos rising out of the thick pine forests grow larger on the opposite shore.

“Well,” Marty announced finally, “we’ll be docking in about ten minutes. I assume, Elgin my dear, that you’ll want to adjourn to the powder room before we land.”

“You know me too well, Marty. I’ll be right back.”

“So Harm,” Marty began, turning those pale eyes on him again, his voice serious, “I don’t want to sound like a meddling old Auntie but Elgin is very special to me in ways you couldn’t possibly understand, even if I were so inclined as to explain them to you, which I am not. If this…this thing is merely a summer dalliance, a passing trifle on her part, so be it. She’s a grown woman and certainly entitled to take up with whomever she desires. I have only to look at her to see how happy she is. But should this turn out to be more serious to her than to you, I wouldn’t like it. I wouldn’t like it at all.”

“Which means?”

“Just this. I’ve checked you out very thoroughly. You’re educated, successful in your chosen profession of keyhole peeping and comfortably well off. You seem to be a man of reputable character, not given to excesses of wine, women or song. Nevertheless, hurt Elgin, no matter how slightly or even inadvertently, and you will have to deal with me. I know you think me a foolish, silly little fag but make no mistake. I am very rich and very powerful. My feelings for her run deep. Rest assured Mr. Harm, I would make a formidable enemy.”

God but he was gorgeous. Just looking at him sleeping made her horny. Broad shoulders and smooth back, flat ass, long legs pulled up slightly. The calm, reassuring rhythm of his breathing.

The days had flown by on a magic carpet of sun, water, pine scent and the best sex of her life. Mornings began with lazy passion, punctuated with giggles, sighs, moans and shrieks. Long afternoons sunning nude on the deck, a newly installed motion activated brass bell alerted them to approaching visitors. Warm nights on a blanket by the water, covered with nothing but stars and the watchful Moon Goddess.

July Fourth.

As a child, it had both excited and saddened her. Spirit Cove, decked out in its most festive, most patriotic red, white and blue, the daylong festivities in the park. Hot dogs and sack races and Sousa marches filling the air. Fireworks lit the sky, reflected like fountains of multi-colored falling stars in the still, black water.

But in her child’s mind it had also signaled the halfway point, the beginning of the end of summer. Like a roller coaster creeping expectantly toward the first rise and then rocketing down the other side to Labor Day.

Labor Day.

Pack up her summer fantasies and return to the real world. Work. Duty. Obligation.

No strings she’d told him; whatever there was for however long it lasted. Swept up in the desire and need of the moment, she hadn’t considered anything beyond the prospect of his cock in her yearning, aching pussy.

But that had been before she’d loved him. Before he’d touched her heart as well as her clit. He’d wrapped himself around her body and slipped into her soul as easily as he slipped into her pussy.

She wanted to tell him how she felt. Whisper it to him in their most intimate moments. Say the words as they sat on the deck watching the sunset. Run through the world screaming it at the top of her lungs. Paint it on the clouds so that everyone would know.

Something stopped her though, the words sticking in her throat like a cork in a bottle of wine.

He hadn’t told her he loved her. For all she knew, this might be nothing more than a summer fling, a pleasant way to combine business with pleasure. When he unloaded her gear in front of her condo back in town, would he simply drive away and never look back? Perhaps his plans did not include her at all.

A knot formed in her chest and she put out her fingertips to touch him. She needed to reassure herself he was still really there.

What if she told him? Just said the words out loud?

“I love you Campbell Alexander Harm. I can’t tell you exactly when or exactly how it happened. All I know is that it did.”

Perhaps he’d smile, take her in his arms and say the words her soul thirsted for: “I love you too, Elgin Collier.”

Or he might gape at her, shock, uncertainty, and fear replacing his smile. Warmth and closeness giving way to distance and chill.

“I’m…I’m sorry, Elgin,” he’d stammer helplessly. “I don’t know what to say. I never meant to hurt you…I thought we both agreed. No strings…”

His words ripped into her gut, the pain so strong, so real, she had to squeeze her eyes shut tightly to keep the tears from coming.

Elgin felt him stir, turning his body and reaching out to pull her to him.