Ephemeral Perfection

Home : Stories by Catw00man : Ephemeral Perfection

Summary: He loves the rain.

AUTHOR: Catw00man
EMAIL: catw00man@cryptoffic.com
RATING: PG-13
CHARACTER: Kevin Harvick/Dale Earnhardt Jr, Kevin POV
PROMPT: Taming the Muse #84 (#59 for me) - Suspension of Disbelief
COMPLETED: February 25, 2008
WORD COUNT: 1,676
DISCLAIMER: I own NOTHING and am affiliated with NO ONE mentioned here. Not the drivers, not the teams, no one. This is all fiction and fun. In other words...NOT REAL, NOT REAL, NOT REAL. ;-)
DEDICATION: This is to Zippit and our sweet muses. It’s about time they smiled this much.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I wrote this after NASCAR went insane and lead us on half the night with a rain delay. I was all ready for midnight racing when they called it and once they did Kevin just wouldn’t shut up about it. I adore this muse. He should be happy more often! More with these boys can be found here.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

California Speedway Rain Delay - February 24, 2008

Its nights like this I’m completely convinced NASCAR has lost its collective mind, but for once, I can’t seem to care.  Not when I get to do something I’ve only ever dreamed of.

Dale and I know we live in a secret word.  It’s been that way from the beginning and dear God have we been through hell for it.  We’ve been through a lot this week, but for the first time in my life I can say I’m truly and completely happy.  I don’t know why everything has always been a war between us, why we couldn’t give in and just love each other, but we couldn’t and a few days ago it finally all came to a head. 

I can still feel the aches and pains of our latest--and probably last--battle.  I’ve spent my life putting up walls, hiding my true self in so many ways I can’t even count, but finally, finally he’s knocked down every one.  He’s stripped away all the layers I’d wrapped around myself and shown me what real, honest, true love feels like.  All this time and we finally give into each with no reservations, no holding back, no fears or doubts…and then we get this.

It’s a little stupid, really.  We should be inside with everyone else.  God knows we have a long day tomorrow with back to back races.  But this…all of this…is just too much to resist.  Who knew I‘d ever get the chance to walk up and down pit road holding Dale Junior’s hand without a care in the world?

We’re safe in the garage.  Always have been.  That’s an unwritten rule about the racing “fraternity” we live in.  You don’t talk about other guys’ personal business.  It’s a tight knit traveling community and on occasion I know we’ve been criticized about it, but honestly, what happens at the track stays at the track.  Some wives and girlfriends are a part of it, and some aren’t.  Those are the ones who try to give us a bad name.  But it doesn’t matter.  We don’t break confidences and that’s why, all bundled up in our hoodies, Dale and I can walk up and down pit road as if it were the most normal thing in the world.

I wish it could last a little longer.  The track is pretty dry but they’ve already brought the jet driers off the track and are calling it a night so we really should go in soon.  I just…don’t want to.  Thinking about the night, doing things we never dreamed we could…it’s been amazing.  Who knew on a race day we could actually snuggle on top of his pit box or kiss sitting on the wall?  Sure we got a few looks from pit crews, but they know better than to spill their guts if they want to keep a job.  It’s been a dream, a complete surreal reality and I don’t want to let it go.

“Wanna sit on the wall again or…?”

Smile as his words trail off and I know he wants to make this last just a little longer too.  Nod and squeeze his hand, “Yeah, yeah I’m still a little wired and….”  I don’t even have to finish the sentence because the look in his eyes tells me he already knows.

Walk with him to the wall, hands swinging slightly between us, and sit down oblivious to the world around us. The reporters are long gone and the fans are too far away to see under our hats and hoods.  Not to mention, who would believe Dale Jr. and Kevin Harvick would be wandering around pit road this time of night?  We should be locked away, safe in our coaches ‘til morning.  Except we’re not….

“You have any idea how long I’ve wanted to do this?” One look into his eyes sends shivers down my spine the likes I’ve never known but with him.  Lean into his touch as he caresses the side of my face, fingers slipping under my hood as his thumb traces the scar on my chin.

“Not half as long as me,” I tell him and close the distance between us to softly kiss his lips.  He leans even closer and his hand slides along my jaw and behind my neck as he pulls me closer and deepens the kiss.  God, I love him so much.  I wish we could do this all the damn time.  Part my lips to his warm tongue and caress it with my own, everything seeming so much sweeter under the light of the moon in full view of the stands.  This is the way it should be.  This is the way it always, always should be.

Slide my hand along his side and scoot even closer to him as I savor the taste of his kiss and the feel of his hand.  It’s cold out here, and wet, but there’s not one part of me that feels the chill.  All I feel is his love all around me and the heat of his kiss, warming me through and through the way it always has.

It used to always be about lust and want and need, about how fast we could get naked and pound the hell out of the other.  I still can’t resist him and I doubt I ever will, but somewhere along the way we finally realized that there’s so much more than how many rounds you can go in one night.  There’s this.  There’s true intimacy that can only be shared with a look or a touch or a kiss as perfect as this.  We don’t get enough of this, but I can promise you one thing, from now on we’re going to get a lot more.

We finally break the kiss, but still don’t pull back, and I can feel his breath on my lips.  Tilt my head into his hand and slowly open my eyes to meet the most beautiful blue eyes overflowing with unspoken emotion.  And he doesn’t have to say a word.  His look says it all, along with the tender way he traces my bottom lip with his thumb.  No one’s ever been so loving with me and I can’t believe it took us so long to find this, but I’ll never let it go.

“I really do love you, ya know,” he tells me with that sweet southern drawl that’s driven me out of my mind more times than I can count.  But this isn’t about dirty talk or seduction.  This is about finally letting him close in a way I never have before.  I swear now that I know what I’ve been missing I’ll never be such an idiot again.

“Yeah,” I murmur softly, “I do.  I really, really do.”  Lean closer to kiss him again and without words I try to show him just how much I love him too.  He’s been my world for so damn long, years in fact, and I’m only now able to really and truly express it.  Oh I’ve said the words and we’ve taken physical to a whole new world of meaning.  But we didn’t have this, and this means more to me than anything else.

Slide my hand along his scruffy cheek and down the column of his neck, my fingers lingering over the pale scar I know by heart.  I never used to do that, just like he never used to touch me the way he does now.  Maybe it was just too intimate, I don’t really know.  But now I can’t imagine it any other way.

“I love you too, Dale,” I whisper soft against his lips as the over head track lights go out.  We’ve been here awhile and I can’t even hear the crews mingling around anymore.  We really should go back inside and I think I’m finally ready.  We may lose our stolen slice of heaven, but it doesn’t matter.  I’ll remember this every time we look at each other over a sea of multicolored cars.  I’ll cherish this moment at every track we go to for the rest of our lives because this, this is really who we are and I’ll never let that go again.

“You ready?” He asks me softly and I turn my head to kiss his palm as he slowly slides his hand away. 

“Yeah, I think so.”  Stand with him and this time he wraps his arm around my waist as I do the same to him.  Lean against each other as we weave an indirect path down pitroad and there’s no wiping the smile from my lips tonight.  It’s been a weekend of insanity from all the rain but I don’t think either of us have really cared, not when it meant more time spent lazing in each other’s arms.  There have been weekends we’ve worn ourselves out screwing all over the tracks, anywhere and everywhere we could think of, but none of them have been like this.  None of it has ever made me feel so cherished and loved above all else.  Now all I want to do is crawl into bed and into his arms until NASCAR calls us to climb into our cars again.

And we will.  And we’ll move on and put on the act as if this never happened at all.  But it did and it was a dream come to life that I’ll never forget.  I’ll never walk down another pitroad where I don’t remember the feel of his body next to mine and for that maybe I should say a prayer in thanks.  We’ve been blessed with a rare gift and I swear I’ll never forget it.

These authors spend lots of time to write these stories. If you took the time to read this PLEASE take the time to give them some feedback. Happy writers write more ;-)

Catw00man - catw00man@cryptoffic.com