Insta Lovers: A Collection of Steamy Novellas

by J. L. Beck

  We are much speedier going down the hill than we were stumbling up the hill in the dark. Reed is walking in front of me and I am surprised by his quick pace. He is nowhere close to being healed and I only had some Tylenol at the cabin to give him, but he hasn’t complained once. As we walk down the trail my eyes are fixated on Reed.

  I have always enjoyed sex with boyfriends as well as the occasional random one-night-stand, but I have never been so mindlessly attracted to someone. Reed is a constant distraction for me. Just one look at him is enough to make me want to jump his bones. Even now, I can’t take my eyes off his muscular back. The long sleeve sweater I gave him is stretching across his broad shoulders. I can see some sweat droplets forming on his neck and I have the urge to kiss him, taste him, run my hand through his thick dark hair.

  A shot of adrenaline jolts me out of my daydream when my foot gets stuck on a root and I start flying through the air. I stretch my arms out trying desperately to grab onto something. To my relief, I am able to grasp a low hanging branch to keep myself from falling down the hill.

  “You Ok?” Reed asks with genuine concern.

  “Yeah, I’m good. Totally, super good!” I tell him and give him two thumbs us. Totally super good? What the fuck is wrong with me? Act normal!

  “I checked the news before I left, our pictures are all over it. We need to make a pit stop before we can head into town. My brother, Brandon has a storage unit where he stores all his crap when he is gone. Plus his truck is parked there and I have the keys.”

  Reed nods. “Where is your brother anyway?”

  “He works on an oil tanker in the Pacific Ocean. He stays there for nine months out of the year and then comes home for the remaining three.” He hates being away and I hate him being gone for so long but he insisted on doing this for a few years until we pay off my student loans and he has enough money to start up his own business.

  “Is he going to come after me when he finds out what I got his little sister into?” He says this with a humorous tone but I am sure he is also actually wondering if he needs to add a name to his list of enemies.

  “Nah, he knows that I can take care of myself.” Brandon and Jason always watched out for me, but no more than I would watch out for them, as they would for each other. I have never been the helpless little sister that needed protecting.

  We make it down the hill in record time, we are in the car and driving off before the sun has made its way entirely up in the sky. As expected, we don’t see any other cars on the road. I guess living in this small mountain town in North Carolina has its perks when it comes to running from the police. These endless backwoods roads between the small towns scattered throughout the county are rarely used. We make it to the storage unit without a hitch.

  First, I trade cars, parking mine all the way on the corner where it is hidden from the road. Before I lock up my car, I grab the emergency cash I hid under the seat. It is only two hundred dollars but to be fair I had planned on a ‘losing-my-wallet’ and ‘needing-money-for-gas-and-food’ kind of emergency and not the ‘running-away-from-the-cops’ kind of emergency.

  I drive Brandon’s truck over to his unit. I have to open a few boxes and bins before I find what I am looking for. I take out two laptops that have all kinds of nifty encryption programs loaded onto them, an extra hard drive and some other random little gadgets that might become useful in the near future. I find a duffle bag to put everything in. Then I find a box with Brandon’s clothes and dig around for two of his five million baseball caps. It doesn’t take me long to find some. I hand one to Reed and put the other one on myself, tugging my hair into it instead of letting it hang down my shoulders.

  When we get back into the truck and start heading closer into town I begin getting nervous. Cars are passing us more frequently now, and when one drives behind us for a few minutes I almost have a heart attack. My heart only slowing down slightly after the car finally takes a turn. Reed must notice my jitteriness because he lays his large warm hand on my thigh and says, “You know you can still back out.”

  I know he is trying to calm me with his gesture, but his hand on my thigh is doing something else to me. It still helped in some ways though. Instead of me wanting to turn around I now want to get to the hotel, as fast as possible so he can put his hands all over me.

  “No, I am going to help you. We are going to fix this.” I assure him and to my disappointment his hand leaves my leg, leaving a burning handprint on my skin.

  When we get to the hotel I go in by myself to book the room. To my relief, the teenage boy at the reception doesn’t give me a second glance and didn’t even seem to be interested in why I asked for a specific room. Still, I feel as if a brick has been lifted off my chest when we are finally in the room. Somehow being behind a locked door gives me the illusion of security. Like we are completely safe in here and even if a cop across the street had spotted us they couldn’t get in here because the door is looked.

  Before I can dwell on this irrational thought, I walk into the bathroom and turn on the shower. I quickly undress and step under the hot stream. I wash my hair and body thoroughly, then I use the razor I got at the front desk. Feeling infinitely more human I wrap myself up in the thin bathroom towel and step out of the bathroom.

  While Reed takes a shower, I get dressed and take a seat at the window where I have a perfect view of the police station’s front door as well as the parking lot. I see a heavy-set woman in uniform exit the building and an older gray-haired man with glasses enter, but I haven’t seen anyone matching Whiteside’s description. Now that I am sitting I can feel fatigue taking me over. I didn’t sleep any last night and the coffee is wearing off. I lean my head against the window frame to keep it from bobbing. I am only partially aware of being carried to the bed and covered up with the scratchy outdated hotel comforter before I drift off all the way.

  29

  I wake up in an unfamiliar room with a bad feeling in my stomach. I sit up in bed and find Reed lounging on a chair in front of the window, still looking outside. I let out a big yawn and try to rub the residual sleepiness out of my eyes.

  “Still no sight of him?” I ask while walking over to the window.

  “Nope, maybe he is on night shift, or it’s his off day,” Reed suggests.

  “Yeah, maybe.” Shocked I look at the time. It's already past four in the afternoon. I slept all day. “Why don’t you let me sit here for a bit and you can take a nap.” I offer. Reed gets up, but instead of heading for the bed he grabs two water bottles and some snacks out of the backpack we brought from the cabin. He pulls the second chair next to the one I am sitting on now and hands me my late breakfast.

  “Thanks.” I eagerly rip open the beef jerky package and start chewing the flavorful meat. I didn’t realize how hungry I was until my fingers touch the bottom of the package and I realize that it's already empty.

  “Still hungry?” Reed asks looking into my frowning face. I briefly look away from the road to meet his green eyes that shine like emeralds in the sunlight.

  “Maybe there is something else you want?” He says in a provocative tone and that is all it takes. I am hungry alright, but now for something else. Suddenly, the mood in the room shifts and I know Reed feels it too. Without saying a word, he gets up from his chair and drops on his knees in front of me. “What are you doing?” I try to protest but he is already undoing the button on my jeans. “I need to watch the road.”

  “Then watch it. I wasn’t going to blindfold you or anything, not today.”

  Not today? The silent promise to blindfold me another day makes my pulse jump and my insides clench. He is undoing my zipper, his fingers grazing my skin as he pulls it down. I am still looking over his head at the empty road but I don’t know how long I can concentrate on my task. He wiggles my jeans down and I lift my butt up to let him. I only realize that he took off my panties as well when I feel the cool air on my ass. When my pants are all the way off he pulls my legs apart and settles between them
. He runs his hand up and down the outsides of my thighs while he starts kissing the inside. I clutch the sides of my chair hoping it will help me to control myself but soon as his mouth finds my clit, my hands find his hair and I rake my fingernails softly over his scalp. He groans and the sound vibrates to my core. I close my eyes and my head falls back in enjoyment. A sharp slap on my upper thigh makes my eyes snap back open. It didn’t hurt, it just surprised me.

  “Eyes on the road.” Reed orders. I obey with a shutter, his order only turning me on more. It takes everything in me to keep my eyes open as he keeps sucking and licking in between my folds. At some point, he lays one of my legs on his shoulder to get better access. When I finally go over the edge the orgasm is so intense that my toes curl and my vision goes blurry. His tongue strokes me softly until my clit stop pulsating and I’m left drained and mindless. I can’t make my limbs work, so I just sit there as Reed gets up with a grin and casually sits back down next to me like nothing happened.

  After a few minutes, I seem to regain control of my body and I am about to get on my knees and return the favor but Reed blurts out, “That’s him,” before I have a chance.

  I jump up and pull on my clothes but my eyes never leave the car pulling into the police station’s parking lot. Officer Greg Whiteside steps out of the car, my eyes instantly find the laptop he is holding in his hand. Now that we know where he is, all we have to do is wait for the right time. That time came sooner than expected when Whiteside walked back out only a few minutes later, again still carrying his computer just as we had hoped.

  “It’s go-time.” I declare, feeling like I am in some kind of eighties cop movie and we are out the door.

  We follow him through the town, always leaving a car or two in between us to hopefully avoid alarming him. I feel oddly calm like I am playing a video game instead of tailing a police officer. We circle the block twice when he stops at a coffee shop. Unfortunately, he parks his car right in front of the entrance, which is nothing but a large wall of windows. There is no way we can snatch his laptop out of his car undetected like this. Next, he heads west, away from the main street and into the industrial side of town. It becomes harder to follow him without being obvious now that he is in an area with fewer cars on the road. I lose visual on him for a moment and start getting aggravated cursing under my breath.

  “Don’t worry, I know where he is heading,” Reed says with a sigh.

  “Where?”

  “Tranquil Transport, the moving company I use to work for. We should turn back, wait at the hotel.”

  “No, this might be our chance. If he goes inside to talk to someone we can get to his car.”

  I can tell that Reed is reluctant about this so I try to ease his mind. “Don’t worry, this will work.”

  Whiteside parks his car on the road and walks inside the building. There are windows, but those are covered with advertisement decals and there is no one else outside. Our chances are good.

  We park a few cars behind the police cruiser and get out. We both walk bent over letting the other parked cars hide us. When we reach the cruiser, I try to open the passenger door with my shaking hand. It is locked. Damn, most people leave their cars unlocked in these backwoods towns where the crime rates are relatively low and people still have trust in each other. I grab a large rock from the side of the road, ready to smash in the window but Reed grabs a wire hanger out of his jacket and starts working it down the car's window.

  “I brought this from the hotel, just in case.” He explains and a second later the lock opens with a click. He cracks the door open and I stick my arm in to grab the laptop from the passenger seat. We hastily walk back to the truck but before we can reach it we hear voices approaching.

  “Hey! Hey, stop!” A male voice yells from the other side of the road. I freeze for a second and glance back at Reed who also halts.

  “Go, Evie! I’ll keep them busy. You need to get out of here.” He waves me away.

  “No!” I shake my head frantically. “Come with me.” I plea with him but he only shakes his head.

  “Please Evie, go.” Reed is starting to back up away from me and when he reached the end of the car he is using as cover he straightens up so the guys who are heading for us can see him.

  The voices are closing in on us and I clutch onto the laptop as tight as I can.

  “Well, well, if it isn’t Reed Wallace the traitor. Missed us so much you had to come for a visit?” A voice coaxes giving me chills.

  I’m pushing my body against the car so tightly, I wish that I could somehow melt into it making me invisible. Reed steps forward and lunges himself at the person the voice is coming from. I can hear men shouting and struggling and I use that distraction to sprint to the truck. My legs are moving faster than I thought was possible and by the time the men struggling with Reed notice me I am already in the truck. I throw the laptop in the floorboard and grab the key from the cup holder. My hands are shaking uncontrollably and I can barely get the stupid key in the ignition. My heart is racing and I can hardly get air to my lungs. More people are coming out of the storefront now and two large guys are heading straight for me. Finally, the key slides in and I turn it immediately. The engine roars and I put the gear into drive. The tires squeal as I floor the gas and speed past the two men struggling with Reed. On the other side of the road, I see someone pulling out something shiny from the inside of his jacket and point it at my window.

  I feel the glass shatter around me before I hear it. I have no idea if I was shot because my body had gone completely numb by the gut-wrenching fear petrifying me. My hands grip the steering wheel so tightly my knuckles are white. I hear two more shots but they are distant now that I am speeding down the road. When I am at the end I whip the steering wheel around so suddenly and without slowing down that I drift around the corner. My body is being pushed against the door by the force of the turn since I didn’t have the time to buckle. They shot at me! Oh my god, they shot at me. I turn the review mirror towards me so I can see if I have been shot. I can hardly recognize the pale ghostly looking girl staring back at me. No blood though. I don’t think I have been hit.

  I keep driving like a mad woman for three more blocks before I am sure that no one is following me. They probably don’t care if I get away. They might not realize that I have Whiteside’s computer and even if they do they don’t know that I can recover deleted files. For all they know, I am nothing more than a nurse who was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

  I drive around aimlessly trying to figure out where to go now. I don’t think that Reed would tell them about the cabin or the hotel but I just can’t be sure. Oh god, Reed, they got Reed! Horrible images of all the things they could be doing to him right now play like a movie in my brain. I shouldn’t have left him, I should go back, but then what can I do? I can’t fight a hand full of guys with guns by myself. No, the best thing I can do for Reed right now is getting the files and call someone. A lawyer maybe or the district attorney’s office. There is no way they have everybody on their payroll.

  I decide on hiding in plain sight and head to the small historic library on the outside of town. I park the truck a block away behind an arcade and walk the rest. I am trying to carry the bag more like a backpack when I walk into the library trying to look like I belong here. I pass the front desk and give the lady with glasses who couldn’t look any more like a librarian a huge smile. She returns the gesture and then goes back to organizing books.

  I sigh in relief and find a large cushioned seat in the corner of the computer area. I flip open Whiteside’s computer, and start to work on it, sifting through the files and unlocking every encryption that is on there. I find the folder I was looking for and start the file recovery process. It doesn’t take long before file after file starts popping up inside the folder. Files and subfolders with dates and names on it. Police reports and bank transactions. Everything I need to clear Reeds name is sitting right here on my lap but I can’t enjoy the victory because I do
n’t even know if he is still alive to enjoy it with me. The thought of him dead fills me with so much dread that I feel like bursting out in tears. Unlike the average girl, I usually don’t cry. I have always been like this so the feeling of needing to cry is almost foreign to me.

  While I am reading the files, which are still popping up sporadically something catches my attention. There is a row of folders all with seemingly random names but two of them stand out to me like a thorn. I can’t believe my eyes. I put my head closer to the screen making sure that I am reading this right. I am startled when an email notification pops up on the screen with a loud Bing. The email was sent to Officer Whiteside but the subject reads in bold letters HELLO EVIE.

  The air around me suddenly feels cooler. I hesitantly click open and start reading the email. There is only one sentence.

  DO YOU WANT TO COME TO US OR DO YOU WANT US TO FIND OUT WHERE YOU ARE?

  I look on down and realize there is an attachment. I open it and immediately bile rises up in my throat. It’s a picture of Reed strung up shirtless in some dark room. The cuts I patched up are torn back open and his lip and his cheek are bleeding.

  I hit reply. In the subject line, I write two words. FUCK YOU!

  In my email, I also write only one sentence. I KNOW WHO YOU ARE.

  I attach the two folders I just found plus the folder with the evidence that clears Reed and hit send.

  Before they can respond, I track the IP address where the email was sent from and pull it up on a map. I send a screenshot of that map to them with the subject line. I KNOW WHERE YOU ARE. In the body of the email, I write. HAVE REED WALK OUT OF THE BUILDING IN 20 MINUTES. YOU WILL LET US LEAVE AND NOT FOLLOW US. IN RETURN I WON'T RELEASE THE INFORMATION I HAVE ON YOU. IF ANYTHING HAPPENS TO REED OR ME, EVERYTHING WILL BE RELEASED AUTOMATICALLY.