Caleb

That kiss was the defining moment when I realized that I was still very much in love with Rae. Regardless of the past, and how my own parents’ marriage ruined my outlook on the happily-ever-after aspect. No two people could be more entwined than us at this very point in time. We spent the rest of the morning walking the streets of Denver enjoying each other’s company, I kept checking with Samson to make sure Braden was fine just so I could put Rae’s mind at ease. After sightseeing, I had one more stop to make before we headed home.

“Can you bear to be in my company a little while longer?”

“Depends on what it all entails,” Rae said and put the helmet on.

“You will like it, I promise.”

“We’ll see.”

I revved the engine and set off, I liked how Rae’s arms felt around me when she clung to me and I was tempted to speed up a bit, but then the thought did cross my mind that she might squeeze the air from my lungs and we’ll end up in the nearest ditch.

A few minutes later I pulled into the parking lot of the Botanical Gardens and again helped Rae off the bike. This time we left the helmets on the bike and made our way through the large gates. It was late noon and the sun had already started to set, there were only a few other couples around, so I picked one of the benches near the willow trees and water pond that looked like a deck of lilies. With the sun already disappearing, so did the star white flowers, but the fragrance still hung heavily in the air.

“This place is breath taking,” Rae said as she sat down on the bench.

“It really is, I don’t think it gets nearly enough credit, the locals don’t always appreciate the beauty of this place.”

“Wasn’t this where one of those corpse flowers bloomed recently?” she asked curiously.

I was impressed, very few people were aware of the sudden anomaly that hit the US by storm after multiple corpse flowers bloomed around the same time, “Yeah it’s in one of the pavilions, but it’s not blooming anymore. I was on tour when it happened otherwise I would have been here to watch it bloom.”

“I would have loved to see it, better luck next time,” she said smiling.

“I’ll make sure you see the next bloom.”

She was sitting up with her back straight and her hands planted on her knees. From her casual demeanour earlier, she almost came across as nervous now.

“Are you okay?”

“Of course I am, why do you ask?”

“You just seem, I don’t know, tense.”

“I just, I’ve never been away from Braden this long, and its already starting to get dark.”

I moved closer to her and wrapped my arm around her shoulders, then took her hand in mine and pressed my lips against her finger tips, “Braden is fine, I’ve been checking with Samson every hour.”

She sighed, “I know, I’m being silly.”

At that opportune moment, the entire place lit up in a display of beautiful colours that transformed the gardens into something more like a magical fairy garden, and that was all it took to draw Rae’s attention.

“Oh my god, this is absolutely breath taking,” she stood up and turned around, “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

I smiled and came to stand next to her near the pond, “They do this every evening, it’s like a tradition, it’s even more beautiful in winter, and then it’s more like Whoville at Christmas.”

Rae suddenly giggled and I couldn’t help but laugh, “You remember when we watched the Grinch? That movie was sooo funny, I want Braden to watch it this Christmas.”

I chuckled, “We will have to make sure he watches Horton Hears a Who first, he’s going to need to know where the Who’s come from.”

Yep, I just said ‘we’, and by the way Rae’s mouth fell open and her eyes met mine, I knew that she read between the lines, and suddenly there it was, that sexual tension I have been trying to ignore since the kiss at Mickey’s, but now here in this magical place the lights and all the colours served as the fireworks one can expect when you look at a beautiful woman and realize she’s feeling exactly the same.

I stepped in, and so did she; my heart thumped with hope at her approach. I wrapped my arms around her waist and she gripped the front of my shirt and our lips met midway. Her breath mixed with mine and filled my lungs and I let out an audible groan, how I wish we were completely alone. I slid my hands down and pulled her more firmly against me, wanting not to scare her, but show her exactly what she did to me. Instead of pulling away she leaned harder against me. As she slid one hand up and around my neck her other hand found the hem of my shirt and slipped under it. The moment her cool fingers touched my skin, I knew I was damned.

“Rae…” I whispered as I pulled away from the kiss, cupping her face, “Baby if we don’t stop now, the trees and the flowers are going to have a lot more to talk about than bees.”

She tucked her teeth into her bottom lip and smiled mischievously up at me, then slid her hand further under my shirt until she cupped my left peck, “Then I suggest you take me home right this minute, or we’ll put nature to shame.”

I gritted my teeth as I felt her hand slide from my chest to my stomach to stop just above my jeans, she had the art of seduction down to perfection and anything she did from this moment on would put me at risk of breaking the law and being locked up for indecent exposure. Determined I took her hand and lead her back out of the gardens to the motorbike.

“Get on, before I go insane,” I said and she laughed.

“Yes sir!”