The Lovesick Cure Read online

  He rolled over to his side and then gathered her up in his arms, planting a kiss on her temple.

  “God, I am so sorry, Jesse,” he said. He pulled her up on her side and ran a hand from her waist to her thigh. “It’s been a while for me. I didn’t have the control I should have. I’ll make it up to you.”

  “No problem,” she answered. “Please don’t worry about it.”

  He chuckled lightly. “I bet you’re thinking, ‘what a lousy deal, we’re going to have this affair that’s all about sex and the man’s in such a rush, I don’t even get to come.’”

  “I wasn’t thinking anything like that.” Jesse could hear the touchiness in her tone. She sounded more like the middle school teacher that she was, than the sexy seductress she’d tried to pretend to be. “Orgasm isn’t the be-all and end-all of sex anyway.”

  She knew her tone came out harsher than she’d intended.

  Piney propped himself up on one elbow and looked down at her curiously.

  “As a medical professional, you should know that,” she said. She could hear the snooty arrogance in her own voice, but somehow she couldn’t stop herself. “Statistically, fifty to sixty percent of women are unable to achieve vaginal orgasm.”

  “Really? You’ve looked it up?”

  He seemed genuinely amused. Somehow that made her more annoyed.

  “Don’t tell me you haven’t come across this in your practice,” she said.

  It was a direct challenge. Piney shrugged and shook his head.

  “I haven’t,” he admitted. “We’re a very small community and I am, I guess, the most eligible bachelor in town. Maybe my patients don’t feel comfortable enough to mention it. But I don’t believe I’ve ever heard a woman say that not having orgasms was a-okay with her.”

  “Well, of course it’s not ‘a-okay,’” she hedged. “But it’s the way things are sometimes.”

  Jesse was regretting it all. She was revealing way too much. For a foolish moment she’d fantasized her image as seductive siren, but she proved herself again to be more stiff-spined spinster.

  “Not everybody is as highly sexed as everyone else,” she said.

  He continued to stare down at her thoughtfully.

  “Stop looking at me like that!”

  Immediately he scooted up into a sitting position. Jesse did as well, pulling the sheet up to cover her nakedness.

  “So,” he said slowly, as if attempting to understand. “Not having an orgasm is something that happens.”

  She gave a curt nod.

  “It happens occasionally or it happens a lot?”

  “It happens…sometimes.”

  “One out of ten? Two out of five? What are we talking about here?” His voice was calm, nonjudgmental.

  Jesse pulled the sheet up to her neck. “It’s gotten worse as I’ve gotten older,” she said.

  “How old are you, fifty?”

  “I’m twenty-nine!”

  “Well, at twenty-nine, age is not going to affect your sexuality,” he said. “So what did Mr. Ex-Fiancé have to say about this?”

  “I explained it to him and he didn’t make a big deal about it,” she answered and then continued her tone slightly angrier. “Unlike you, he didn’t treat me like a freak about it, he didn’t make a big deal about it. It was a non-issue.”

  “I’m sorry,” he said, more quietly. “I’m not trying to make you feel like a freak, I’m trying to understand.”

  Jesse swallowed hard and nodded.

  “So how often did it happen with him?”

  “It never happened.”

  “It never happened?” he repeated. “So you always came with him?”

  She didn’t get a chance to answer. Piney was looking at her when his eyes bulged as the meaning sunk in. “It never happened with him? You were going to marry some guy who couldn’t give you an orgasm?”

  “People don’t ‘give orgasms,’ they’re muscle spasms, that’s all.” She knew she sounded defensive, but that was how she felt. “It’s no big deal!”

  “It is to me.” He sounded almost angry. “You are a normal, healthy woman. You deserve to have a normal, healthy sex life that includes all the ‘muscle spasms’ God ever intended for you.”

  He grabbed the sheet that covered her and flung it away.

  “What are you doing?”

  “I’m starting over. My choice this time,” he said. “You’re going to come so hard it’ll shake the windows. It’s going to happen if I have to die trying. And don’t you be bringing any fakey stuff. I’m a medical professional, I know the difference.”

  21

  The sun had already set over the mountain, with only the pink clouds in the western sky left in the day. Piney hummed as he puttered around the kitchen. He felt sated. He felt relaxed. He felt energized. He felt exhausted. He couldn’t quite keep the smirk from his face. He felt pretty impressed with himself.

  He hummed a little louder as he sliced some leftover roast beef in a skillet and heated it up with ketchup, mustard and chili powder. It was his own recipe and probably not something everybody would appreciate. But it was a quick fix and he was starving. He knew Jesse would be, too.

  As the concoction simmered on the fire, he went in to wake her up. The dim light that shone from the bathroom door only partially illuminated her on the bed, a beautiful naked female body, covered only by a thin sheet. Her hair was wild, hiding her face completely. And the musky scent of sex filled the air. Piney was tempted to climb back in beside her. Not for more of the same, he wasn’t sure he had enough stamina left to rise to such an occasion. He wanted to be close to her, to hold her.

  He rationalized that feeling biochemically as an oxytocin reaction. It had been known for a long time that this so-called bonding hormone had myriad effects on women. It urged them to attachment with their children. It instigated labor in childbirth and letdown in breastfeeding. Eventually, researchers discovered that it also flooded the brain during intercourse, connecting the female to the male. But the male to female oxytocin bond was a surprise to many, especially those who were uncertain whether men could be naturally monogamous or if they simply stayed with a partner for convenience. Oxytocin levels varied in all humans, with males typically producing less than females. But Piney was certain that the men in his family were like oxytocin junkies. Once they bonded, they couldn’t give it up.

  He had warned Tree of that very thing.

  Piney, of course, believed that understanding his feelings to be a chemical reaction would mean he’d have no problem differentiating them from finer feelings.

  “Jesse. Jesse, sweetheart, you need to wake up.”

  An indecipherable moan escaped her.

  “I’m fixing something to eat,” he said. “I bet you’re hungry.”

  The sound she made in answer was a bit closer to actual speech.

  He pushed the hair out of her face and placed a chaste kiss on her lips.

  “You look so, so sexy,” he told her. “I like that. But it does make me wonder how, if my son walks in the door, I’ll be able to convince him that you’re just a neighbor stopping by for a cup of sugar.”

  Her eyes popped open immediately.

  “Don’t panic,” he said. “It’s Saturday night, I think you’ve got plenty of time. But I do worry that they might show up here.”

  Her brown eyes narrowed slightly and she made a leisurely umm sound as she stretched. The sheet fell away revealing her naked breasts. The fact that she made no move to cover herself made him smile.

  “Meet you in the kitchen,” he told her.

  As he fixed dinner, he heard her washing up in the bathroom. He was humming again. By the time she made it to the table, she looked completely like her usual self. Her clothes were tidy, her makeup in order and her wild hair pulled back neatly into a ponytail. She looked exactly like the woman he’d known a day earlier, but their past few hours of intimacy made everything different.

  He grinned at her.

  Jesse blush
ed and then deliberately raised her chin, choosing not to allow self-consciousness to discomfit her.

  Piney’s humming drifted into actual song, low almost under his breath as he piled the meat onto the sandwiches and brought them to the table. He turned back to fetch flatware.

  “What are you singing?” Her tone was almost accusatory.

  Smiling even more broadly, Piney broke into full-throated vocals.

  “She’ll be coming ’round the mountain when she comes! She’ll be coming ’round the mountain when she comes! She’ll be coming ’round the mountain, she’ll be coming ’round the mountain, she’ll be coming ’round the mountain when she comes!”

  Jesse let out a shriek of dismay and picked up the fork he’d given her to toss in his direction. It clattered harmlessly across the floor. Piney immediately changed his tune.

  “There she is, Miss Multi-Orgasmia. There she is, my ideal.”

  “Shut up!” she demanded. She was blushing and grinning. He thought she was beautiful. “You’re feeling pretty proud of yourself, I guess.”

  “Yes, ma’am, I am,” Piney agreed. He brought her another fork and then squatted down by her chair, just to be near her. “And I’m proud of you, too. Enough time wasted as Miss Congeniality. Promise me that if you ever hook up with some idiot who ‘isn’t bothered’ by an incomplete response, you’ll run for the hills.”

  His words were said jokingly, but he was serious. The thought that she had fully intended to tie herself to some numbskull who couldn’t be bothered beyond his own satisfaction—that made Piney crazy. All Jesse’s lusty sensuality would have gone to waste on a man who could never appreciate her in that way. It was criminal. Piney would have enjoyed tracking the guy down and punching his lights out. Then again, her former fiancé had done him a big favor. Years of pent-up passion poured into his lap…literally and figuratively.

  He leaned forward and planted a kiss on the end of her nose.

  “Promise?”

  “I promise,” she told him. “I’ll run for the hills.”

  “And in these particular hills,” he added, “you’ll always be welcome.”

  She smiled and kissed him back.

  They ate across the table from each other. Talking about nothing. Occasionally losing the thread of the conversation. Breaking into giggles and grins and suggestive repartee.

  “I’ve got to get you home before I lose all my sanity and give in to the urge to imprison you here as a sex slave for my evil desires.”

  Jesse sighed heavily. “That does sound tempting, but I’m pretty sure that Aunt Will would miss me.”

  “She probably would,” Piney agreed. “And how could I explain to my son why I’ve got a woman locked up in my bedroom?”

  He loved her laugh. He loved her kiss. He loved making love to her.

  As he drove the truck up the long approach to Onery Cabin, they plotted the details of their new affair.

  “Tomorrow I don’t work at all,” Piney told her. “So I am totally available. But it will be tougher to manage time alone during the week.”

  “Maybe we’ll have to limit ourselves to meeting on weekends,” Jesse said.

  “Oh, I hope not. Surely we can find a chance for a midweek quickie.”

  “No quickies for me, mister,” Jesse responded, tartly teasing. “My sex advisor tells me it’s not good to rush. It’s worth my while to take my time.”

  Piney tutted, feigning disappointment. “You can lead a woman to orgasm…but then she wants to have them every time.”

  They were both laughing as he turned the corner on the uphill switchback. He saw a movement at the corner of his eye and stomped on the brake before he even knew what it was. Fortunately, the bad trail kept the safe speed for the truck very slow. He came to a complete stop ten feet in front of the person sitting in the middle of the drive in front of them.

  “Oh, my God! It’s Aunt Will!”

  The scare-faced old hound that she kept around the cabin ran protectively out in front of the old woman and began howling.

  Jesse was out of the truck before Piney could get it into Neutral and set the parking brake.

  “Hush, Lilly June!” Jesse ordered and the dog complied.

  Piney hurried toward the old woman. Jesse was already kneeling at her side. Aunt Will’s hair was loose and hanging down her back, glinting silver in the truck’s headlights. She was wearing a bulky sweater, but had come outside without her coat. Piney dragged his own from his shoulders and wrapped it around her sparse body.

  “What’s happened?” Jesse asked her. “What are you doing out here?”

  “I…I snuck out.”

  “What?”

  “I snuck out of the house to meet Granby.”

  Her words seemed to make perfect sense to her. Jesse obviously found them puzzling and glanced over at him as if for explanation. “Who’s Granby?”

  Piney shook his head. He didn’t have any idea.

  “Granby’s my fella,” Aunt Will said. She smiled broadly and her eyes narrowed in a dreamy recollection.

  “Your what?” Jesse was shocked. “Aunt Will, you have a boyfriend?”

  Aunt Will’s smile faded. “I did once. I was thinking he was waiting for me up at the Sweetwood Meadow. That’s where I was headed. I got this far before I remembered that he’s been dead a long time. A real long time.”

  She looked up at Piney, with an expression that was grief-stricken.

  “He couldn’t be up there waiting for me, could he?”

  “No, I don’t think so,” Piney answered.

  The dog tried to nose its way between them and up close to Aunt Will, whimpering. Even the old hound knew that something was very wrong.

  “Let’s get you home where you’re safe and it’s warm,” Piney said.

  Aunt Will didn’t offer an argument. He helped her to her feet and was tempted to pick her up and carry her to the truck. But he knew he’d be better able to assess any deterioration of her condition if he allowed her to move on her own.

  She was a bit shakier than when he’d seen her on Wednesday, but that could be accounted for by the exhaustion and reduction of body temperature. She made it to the passenger door where he helped her inside.

  Piney tried to get the dog into the bed of the truck, but Lilly June didn’t want anything to do with it. He suspected the hound had never been in a vehicle and wasn’t about to start tonight. After letting down the tailgate and offering encouragements to jump in, Piney finally picked the dog up and put her inside. Lilly June circled the space like a caged animal and then leaped to freedom.

  Exasperated, Piney shook his head. He needed to get Aunt Will home. The dog would have to walk.

  Between them on the seat and with the heater blowing on her, she was toasty warm in no time. She began trying to explain herself.

  “I used to sneak out and meet Granby,” she admitted. “Family always had their eye on us in public. But I could sneak out and meet him and we could be together.” Aunt Will took a deep breath before she continued. “I was sitting there by the fire and then I thought he was waiting and I was late and I had to get to him. It was like a dream, I guess. Except that I was awake.”

  Jesse was silent. Piney knew that she must be very scared. Aunt Will probably was, too.

  The drive up the mountain seemed to take forever. At least, he thought, the dog wouldn’t have any trouble keeping up. Finally the cabin came into sight.

  Aunt Will had left the front door wide open. The electric light overhead had discouraged the entrance of wild critters, except for the buzzing moths that danced around it. As they entered the cabin, Piney was grateful to see that it was no worse for having been temporarily abandoned. The fire had mostly gone out, with a few ashes spilled in the hearth. He poked it a couple of times and added another log, but his attention was on Aunt Will.

  Together with Jesse, they got her into her nightgown and tucked up into bed in a very short time.

  “I didn’t think I’d be losing my mind,”
she said to Piney.

  He gave a quick glance toward Jesse. It was going to be hard to keep Aunt Will’s condition private from her niece. Especially so if the old woman was going to bring it up in front of her.

  “You’re not losing your mind,” Piney answered. “Remember, we talked about the likelihood of this. Intermittent fog and confusion. It’s part of it.”

  She nodded before sighing heavily. “I guess I thought I’d recognize it for what it was, not believe it, act on it.”

  Piney had no words of comfort on that. “Maybe it’s time that we have to tell Jesse,” he said. “We can still keep it quiet from other people, but I think she has to know.”

  The woman’s brow furrowed in concern, and she shook her head slightly. “DuJess, you’d best go out and take care of that old cow. She’s a-bawling something terrible.”

  He glanced over at Jesse. She was frightened and she didn’t like being kept out of the loop.

  There was nothing Piney could do about it. Sharing information was Aunt Will’s choice. Reluctantly he nodded at her.

  “You take care of the cow. I’ll take care of Aunt Will,” he said.

  Jesse didn’t look happy about it, but she finally nodded and left the room.

  “You’re going to have to tell her, Aunt Will,” Piney said.

  The old woman sighed. “I don’t want folks making a fuss. I know I’ve got to die, I hoped not to make a spectacle of the event.”

  He patted her arm, reassuringly he hoped. “This end game is not going to be something you can do on your own,” he told her. “And Jesse is your next of kin.”

  Aunt Will’s eyes widened in shock. “Who told you that!” she demanded.

  Piney was surprised at her reaction. “Uh…you listed her on your medical records,” he said. “Is it a mistake?”

  The muscles in the old woman’s face relaxed. “No, no, of course not. For a moment I was thinking you’d been listening to gossip. But of course you haven’t, you wouldn’t.”