Chocolate Contest, Excerpt #2

My Everything.

Ben leaned back on the bed and searched his memory files. He possessed an eidetic memory. He remembered things in pictures. There was a trick he’d used since he was a kid. Whenever he couldn’t place something, he went into his head as though entering a file cabinet. He began to thumb through past files of women he’d encountered, female clients, co-workers, foreign agents, former lovers, even co-eds he’d dated back in college.

He looked down at her tapering back with its enticing arch, her slender waist and her lovely, rounded, barely covered behind and suddenly something clicked. With his mind’s eye, he saw her shapely bottom clothed in a yellow bikini with a pattern of multicolored flowers. She stood before him, her golden skin bathed in sunlight, facing slightly away, looking very much the same as she did right now. Except then she was topless and her long golden brown locks spilled down her back and across one breast. He could only see the rounded curve, and he very clearly remembered holding his breath, wanting her to turn so he could see her nipples. He knew they’d be pink.

As if she could hear his thoughts, she did, and they were. A tender, sweet pink like the gentle pink of apple blossoms in the spring. Perfect. She caught him looking at her, and she smiled self-consciously, trying hard not to cover herself, trying to appear as nonchalant as her friends.

He and Tom were sunning in the topless section at Barton Springs, enjoying the view. They had a month off before they were due to report for advanced training and they decided to spend it in Austin with Ben’s family. Barton Springs was the first place Tom wanted to go. He’d panted over the topless area on the grassy hillside since his first visit as a freshman in high school. Gazing at the girl, Ben couldn’t disagree. From his perspective, the view was beautiful. She was a gem. Tom, of course, didn’t spare her a second glance. He was eying her well-endowed friends as they jiggled their way across the grass.

Ben turned his attention back to the girl. In the sunlight, her thick hair gave off glittering gold highlights. It tumbled to the middle of her back in a riot of curls. He found his fingers itching at the thought of touching those long gold-brown strands. She slipped a section behind her left ear and waved to her friends. Her arms were long and slender and nicely muscled, her hands slim, fingers long and tapered. She had the hands of a piano player, and he felt himself grow even harder as he imagined those long fingers playing him. He pulled his folded towel over his lap. From behind his right shoulder, Ben heard Tom snort.

“Go get in the water,” Tom commented with a laugh. “That should cool you off.”

Barton Springs was a year-round sixty-three degrees. Ben deliberately ignored his friend. He returned to his study of the girl. He found immense pleasure in simply looking and fantasizing. She stood less than ten feet from him, turned toward him now as her friends joined her. Her friends were openly enjoying Tom’s obvious approval. At this distance, Ben could see that the girl’s eyes were the color of her hair, golden brown. Her pupils were large and dilated despite the bright sunlight. Her eyes tilted up at the corners, and her cheekbones were prominent and slanted. That and the very slight red undertone to her skin left him with the impression that somewhere in her background was Native American blood. Her nose was straight. He thought it was exceptional. He wasn’t one of those guys who liked a nose that turned up at the tip. Her mouth was wide, generous and open, her lips a lovely natural rose color, her teeth straight and white. She had a very slight overbite and a delicately determined line to her chin and jaw.

Her breasts were small and perfectly shaped. Round, high and perky, exactly the way Ben thought a woman’s breasts should be. He wanted to take her nipples into his mouth and taste them. She would be sweet. And from the shy aura she projected, he knew she was a virgin. He could also tell that she was an athlete, probably a runner. The muscles of her legs were long and lean, her buttocks nicely round, her hips slender and she had that appealing line running down between the muscles of her abdomen. There wasn’t an ounce of superfluous fat on her. But neither was she one of those starved-looking, obsessive exercisers. She was smooth like a mocha milkshake. Even the café au lait spot on her upper thigh reminded him of chocolate. It had a memorable shape. It was shaped like Africa.

Her name was Gracia, but she went by Grace. Grace Rafael. Memories flooded back of the month they’d spent together, starting with a swim that first afternoon in the cold, clear water. Her nipples puckered beautifully the instant she got in. He nearly came at the sight despite the frigid water. She was eighteen, and she’d just graduated from high school. Ben was twenty-four. Grace told him she’d moved to Austin from Omaha, Nebraska to attend The University of Texas. She planned to major in nursing. She said she could have gone to The University of Nebraska at Omaha but her friends talked her into moving to Austin with them. She said she liked it so far, but she mentioned there was a world of difference between Omaha and Austin. Ben had been to Omaha. He’d done some training at Offutt Air Force Base. She was right about that. He tried to imagine a topless swimming hole in Omaha, and he said something about it. Grace laughed. Her tinkling laugh made him feel like it was Christmas in June.

***Question number two: What is Grace’s given name?

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(I know the excerpt is long, sorry, but it’s one of my favorite scenes from the book.)

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