Excerpt of For Love of Maggie by Fran Shaff

From Bliss to Reality

Setup: Roth's just given Kayla a ride home. She's invited him in for coffee, and, in a moment of closeness, she's told him how she became Maggie's adoptive mother. Roth, overcome with emotion upon hearing her touching story, ends up seizing the moment––and Kayla!

Roth cupped her cheeks with his hands. "You're an angel, Kayla."

Before she could insist she wasn't, his lips covered hers, and she was in heaven.

He slid his fingers into her hair and kneaded her scalp as he kissed her more completely than she'd ever been kissed.

Even though she felt his touch deep within her, Kayla needed more of him. She slid her hands over his firm chest around to his back and pressed him closer.

He sent his hands to her spine and crushed her against himself.

He ended the kiss and pressed his cheek to hers. The exquisite roughness of his beard against her silken skin touched her all the way to her toes. He breathed into her ear and nearly drove her mad with his words.

"Kayla, angel, sweet Kayla." His raspy voice and the passionate tone in his words nearly drove her mad with desire. As if he'd read her mind, his lips immediately found their way back to hers.

She began to loosen Roth's shirt from his waistband. She needed to touch his skin. But his belt was tightly cinched around his waist. She stopped her efforts and, instead, settled for feeling his warmth through his blue work shirt.

His lips left hers. He trailed kisses from her chin to her collar bone.

She threw her head back and gasped at the pleasure he caused deep inside her.

Suddenly, he took hold of her shoulders and stared down at her.

Kayla, caught in his sultry gaze of desire, couldn't speak.

He closed his eyes tightly for a moment then looked at her with the gentlest visage she'd ever seen. He cupped her cheek with his large hand. "Kayla, you're so beautiful."

In that, the most intense moment she had ever experienced in her life, Kayla wanted nothing else but Roth. She wanted his arms around her, his lips on her. She wanted his heart beating against hers and his scratchy cheek reddening her silky one. She wanted him to carry her in his arms to some secluded place blessed with glorious beauty where the two of them could learn everything about each other, body and soul. She wanted a union with him more unique than any human before them had ever known.

"Roth," she whispered, barely able to speak, "I..."

He touched his fingers to her lips. "Kayla, shh."

He kissed her again, and rapture became her new world, full of sun and bliss.

This haze of heaven, living and true on earth, lasted minute after minute until she thought she'd explode from the sheer joy filling her empty depths.

Abruptly and without any warning, something began to tear at the bliss. Shadows clouded the sun until a near total eclipse consumed their planet.

Kayla felt something tug at her skirt, trying to wrench her from the paradise she never wanted to leave.

The tug came several more times before she finally withdrew from her perfect world into the reality of her tangible existence.

"Maggie," Kayla said, looking at the child who'd insistently tugged on her skirt. She tore herself from Roth's arms and bent to touch her. "What are you doing out of bed. Did we wake you?"

Little Maggie rubbed her hand over her flannel pajama bottoms.

Thanks to years of experience, Kayla knew exactly what was wrong. "She's wet, Roth," she said glancing up at him. "I've got to take care of her." She picked her up and stood up straight. "I guess things got out of hand between us," she said, looking down. "It's been an emotional night."

He looked at Maggie in a peculiar way, stared a long time. He glanced at Kayla, his eyes filled with pain.

Kayla's heart broke. His feelings about Maggie hadn't changed a bit, she concluded.

Roth cleared his throat and rubbed a hand over his face. "It was my fault, Kayla. I couldn't help myself. The story you told me was remarkable; you're remarkable. I just had to take you in my arms. It was my fault."

She squared her jaw and lifted her chin. "Yes, maybe it was, but maybe it was my fault too. It seems we have a strange basal effect on each other. I guess we'll both have to keep our emotions in check. Neither one of us wants a relationship with the other. We'd both better keep that in mind."

"But, Kayla––"

"Good night, Roth." She left the kitchen before he could say another word. By the time she reached the bottom of the stairway in the hall on the other side of the dining room, she heard the back door close.

Clearly, Roth had once again taken her from heaven to the lowest regions of the netherworld. She was alone and empty with a wet child in her arms.

The happy, fulfilled life she had enjoyed for many years was now unbearably lonely.

From "For Love of Maggie" by Fran Shaff