Riding the Rift

Miriam let out a long, low, disappointed sigh. Her dark hair that normally fell in gentle waves half way down her back was pinned up in a messy bun. Her hazel eyes glittered in the soft candle light as she started at the ceiling.

‘Yet another failed attempt at self-gratification,’ she thought to herself.  She’d even gone to extra lengths this time! She’d stopped at one of the more discreet shops just off Market Square in Williamsburg, and had bought lily of the valley oil for a hot bath. Deep red candles that smelled faintly of blueberries, and the girl behind the counter swore contained a potent pheromone mix, on a whim she’d eve purchased a CD of Celtic woodwinds with subliminal ‘arousal notes’.  More New Age than she really went for, but desperate times called for desperate measures.  Her wedding was two nights away, and she always froze up when she tried to use Edward as a fantasy.  It was stupid, really stupid, she knew all the reasons she wanted him. His job as a well-paid investment banker provided all the safety and security she wanted, he could support her while she could be the stay at home mom she had wanted but never gotten. His manners were impeccable, and he knew more about a place setting with twenty utensils than back woods survival.  He was in short, nothing like her father.  Add in the fact her biological clock was ticking away like the Mayan calendar and he ended up being the one there to ask her out when she asked for a sign as to whether or not she would ever find a man. 

So what if thinking about his perfect body, (honed by hours in prestigious gyms and she suspected a few trips to very good plastic surgeons) left her cold?  He filled every requirement on her list.  But if she couldn’t light her own fire while thinking of him, how could the honeymoon be anything but disaster? She deiced to try and get some sleep, part of her hoping she’d have that dream again.

That dream of the man with copper hair streaked with dirt and mud, like the rest of his well-toned body, she wondered what kind of life gave a man a body like that.  Her last thought as she drifted off to sleep was wondering innocently what his arms would feel like around her. If it would move her more than the fondness she felt for Edward.