Winter in Mason Valley

by Eliza Bennetts

  26

  After hours of lovemaking, they lay in Dee’s bed, naked and warm despite the chill in the early morning air. The moon lit up her room in silvery patches and light shone into the space from the bathroom down the hall. Neither of them had bothered to get up and turn off the light.

  Dee stroked Travis’s stubble as he dozed. Her fingers traced the contour of his jaw and she considered that he was the best-looking guy she’d ever met. He wouldn’t look out of place on the cover of a magazine or a hot romance novel. But Dee was beginning to understand that her feelings for Travis extended beyond the physical. After last night’s efforts, she doubted anyone could blame her for assuming that was all that existed between them, but the truth was, no one had ever made her feel the way Travis did.

  This revelation was equal parts exciting and terrifying. Of course, Dee had no way of knowing if Travis felt the same way. It was clear he desired her, but beyond that, she didn’t know how he felt about her. Unless she asked him, and she was too wrapped up in post-sex bliss to entertain that idea. Plus, she had other things to worry about. Her career was about to be flushed down the toilet. She needed to go to the police at some stage today and had to contact her employer. She had to confess to both parties that something terrible had happened on her watch. Then she needed to figure out what to do next.

  She wondered if she should tell the other employees. What would Christian Olsen want her to do? The problem was so full-on, so complex, and there had been no textbook on a situation like this given to her at university. There was nothing she could look up online. She felt as if she were floating in an ocean all on her own.

  She looked at Travis lying beside her and wondered how much support she could expect from him. After all, his best mate was one of the culprits.

  Travis rolled to face her and opened his eyes.

  ‘What time is it?’ he croaked. He lifted his head from the pillow and patted down the bed, clearly searching for his phone.

  ‘Four,’ she said. ‘I think you left your phone in the bathroom. With your jeans.’

  He grinned and leaned in to kiss her. ‘I’ll need to go and pick up Annie soon,’ he said.

  ‘I’ll get her. It will be too early for her if you go.’

  ‘You sure?’

  She smiled at him. Hadn’t he already figured out that she would do anything for Annie? ‘Of course. The princess needs her sleep.’

  Travis sat up and turned to look at her. His hair was a rumpled, scruffy mess.

  ‘Like your hair like that,’ she teased.

  He smirked. ‘I’m going for the “just shagged” look today. Glad you like it.’ He yawned and ran his hand through the ragged mess. ‘Just realised I’m going to have to look Pete in the eye in about two hours. What the hell do I say?’

  Dee had no answer for him. The whole situation was a shitshow.

  ‘Christ, I just remembered I’m meant to be going to his place after dinner to help him put together the cot.’ Travis let out a long, frustrated groan.

  Dee’s stomach clenched and twisted. It was clear Travis wasn’t coping with the situation and neither was she. She made a silent vow to herself. She would bring this state of affairs to a conclusion by the end of the day, whatever that conclusion might be.

  ‘I think you have to go and help him,’ Dee said. ‘Even if we notify the police and the Olsen’s today, we may have to wait a while. And Travis, we can’t let on to these guys that we know. They could go to ground, they could leave town. We just don’t know what they’re going to do. I think the safest thing to do is to carry on like nothing’s happened.’

  Dee’s words didn’t seem to penetrate.

  ‘It’s still so unbelievable,’ Travis said, shaking his head. ‘Pete was always the good guy at school. He got the good marks and kept me out of trouble when we were teenagers. And he’s got Chloe. Chloe who loves him to death. What is she going to say?’

  Anger flared in his eyes. Dee had been wondering how long it would take for the anger to surface.

  ‘For Christ’s sake, they’ve got a baby on the way. What the hell is Pete thinking?’

  It wasn’t a question Dee could answer. She had never thought about doing anything illegal and hadn’t stolen so much as a pack of gum.

  ‘Money troubles?’ she asked.

  Travis shook his head. ‘He would’ve told me.’

  Dee’s heart ached for him. It all must be so difficult for him to come to terms with, but it didn’t change the facts.

  ‘By the end of today, I want know to notify the police,’ she said.

  Travis stared into the distance. Dee touched his arm.

  ‘I know we have to tell,’ he said, ‘but I need to speak to Pete first. I need to tell him that I know. I need to understand what on earth is going on with him and what’s driven him to do this.’

  ‘I get that,’ Dee said, ‘I really do. But you need to think this through. If Pete knows that we know, he will tell Vince. And if Vince knows …’

  She sucked in a breath. ‘I think Vince might be the mastermind of the whole operation. I found all these notes in his filing cabinet. Vince is full of shit. That’s my gut instinct.’

  ‘Hate to say I told you so. Now we know how he can afford to get about town in a bloody Jag. But Pete? Maybe Vince has forced Pete to do it? Maybe he has something on Pete.’

  ‘Like what?’

  ‘I have no idea,’ he said. ‘I just can’t believe that Pete would do this willingly. I have to talk to him, Dee.’

  ‘Okay. But if you’re going to talk to him, leave it as late as possible. Do it at his house tonight but be careful. It’s clear that we’ve already been duped by these guys. We don’t know what else they’re capable of.’

  ‘I know one thing for sure,’ Travis said, his face full of determination, ‘I know Pete would never hurt me. He would never hurt me or Annie, and especially not Chloe.’

  Dee gave him a grim smile. ‘That’s the thing, Trav. He already has.’

  Travis’s beautiful, strong shoulders slumped. ‘I know.’

  Dee moved her hand from his forearm to his bicep. Everything about him was so strong and solid, yet in that moment, he seemed so fragile. She wanted to make him feel better, even if it was only a temporary fix.

  She leaned in and touched her lips to his neck. He took a deep breath and rested his hand on her knee. She opened her mouth and curled her tongue over the soft, warm skin at his throat. He groaned and her blood pulsed between her legs.

  She trailed her hand from his bicep to his groin and, feeling his arousal, whispered a quiet, reverent request in his ear. ‘Let me make you feel good.’

  Her voice was ragged and pleading, and it had the desired effect. Travis wrapped one of his mighty hands around the back of her neck and pulled her to him, claiming her mouth with a hot kiss. She kissed him back, nibbling on his lower lip, and then pushed him down. Their eyes met, his navy in the moonlight, and his gaze wandered her face.

  ‘You’re beautiful,’ he croaked.

  She smiled and covered him with her body, pressing her centre against his leg.

  ‘Beautiful and wet,’ he noted.

  She kissed him some more, enjoying the taste of him an inch at a time. She ran her lips over the tattoos on his chest and, working lower, used her tongue and teeth to trace the muscles of his quads and his inner thigh. He bucked and hissed. His cock was rock hard and waiting. She’d never wanted to suck on anything so badly.

  She didn’t wait to consider the logistics, like how on earth she was going to fit him in her mouth, so she licked his length and when a pulse of desire shot through her, she wasted no time. Opening her mouth, she took as much of him in as she could manage. He made a noise and rolled his hips. She could tell he was desperate to slide himself against her tongue, but he restrained himself.

  ‘Sorry,’ he barked. ‘Fuck.’

  This only served to make Dee more eager, more willing to receive what he had to give, and she moved her lips further down
his length. His tip felt like it was tickling her tonsils. And then she moved. Dragging her lips along him, she used her tongue to explore his cock. Suction built as she moved, and she used the pads of her fingers to stroke the soft skin coating his balls. The noises he made spurred her on. She brought her hands to either side of his hips and, using her palms for support, sucked Travis harder and faster than she’d ever sucked a man before.

  She didn’t dare look up in case she lost her momentum, but his hands gripped her hair, and she sensed he was looking down at her. When he exploded beneath her, she felt a mighty sense of pride and excitement, and when she rose to look at him, he was staring at the ceiling as if he were working at rebuilding himself after she’d made him come undone.

  When he was he was back in the land of the living, he looked at her through glazed eyes and whispered, ‘Holy shit.’

  27

  Travis felt as though someone had picked him up, flown him to the moon and back, then dumped him on his bed.

  Dee had just given him the best blow job of his life and his orgasm had been epic. The experience was an ethereal, out-of-body type deal, though he’d been aware of enough to feel every damn thing her tongue and mouth had done to him.

  He looked at her now. She was sitting on her haunches, her hands on her hips and her sweet, plump breasts looking so good, so touchable. Her beautiful eyes were full of pride, though still flecked with traces of lingering lust.

  She’d left his head swimming with a combination of fulfilment and the need to do to her what she’d just so effectively done to him. He had other thoughts, too, rumbling around in his head. Thoughts that extended beyond the simple need to touch her and be with her. Like Christmas mornings with the four of them—him, Annie, his mother and Dee circling the tree. Annie would be jumping around like a crazy nut, and Dee would be wearing those ridiculous unicorn pyjamas. He thought about Dee being in his house, not just as a guest, but as part of the family. With them. With him.

  He swept those thoughts from his mind. This was no time to fantasise about her unicorn PJs. He had the object of his desires right here, in the bed with him—and she was naked. He had no intention of wasting the opportunity.

  She gave him a cheeky, teasing smile. A smile that seemed to say, come and get me. So he did. He pulled himself up, crawled along the mattress towards her, and in one swift movement, he pulled her to him and flipped her, inverting her position so her head was hovering above the mattress. She planted her elbows and wrapped her legs around his neck. In that instant, he was intoxicated by her scent and the feel of her soft skin under his palms. Her folds glistened, and he edged the tip of his tongue along them, making her moan softly. The noises she made intensified when he used the full width of his tongue to lick her, from her clit to the base of her entrance. Then he ravaged her with his mouth, paying special attention to her clitoris as this seemed to send her wild, and more than anything, he wanted to please her.

  As he licked her, flicked his tongue against her and drove it in and out of her centre, he was filled with an undeniable certainty. This was right. This was so right. When he considered how every other woman he’d been with before Dee—including Kim—made him feel, they didn’t compare. Dee was his. He’d known it when he first met her, he’d known it when he’d watched her take Dean apart at the pub, he’d known it when he’d watched her with his mother and his daughter, and he knew it now, when his tongue was an inch deep inside her. She was his. And he would happily be hers if she wanted him.

  With even greater vigour, he worked her over, using his lips, his tongue, his stubble and his nose. He palmed and squeezed her butt so hard she cried out, the sound instantaneously making his dick hard again. He smiled, flattened his tongue against her sensitive place and pressed. Taking one hand from her arse, he slid two fingers into her. He used his other hand to guide her, to move her against his tongue. The noises she made were so crazy, so telling of her desire. They filled his ears and made him so fucking happy. When she came, she screamed so loud he was sure she would wake the neighbours.

  ‘I’m shaking,’ she whispered, as the weight of her collapsed into his waiting arms.

  ‘Come here.’

  He gathered her to him as he guided them both back down on the bed. She snuggled against his chest and he took in the feeling of deep, abiding satisfaction.

  He kissed the crown of her head and inhaled the perfumed scent of her. His cock jerked, as he used nose and lips to caress her hair. She felt so good, resting against him.

  “Rest a little,” he said through a growl. “You’ll need your energy. I’m not done with you yet.”

  Dee pulled into Dianne Parker’s driveway. Spending time with Annie was just what she needed to bring her back down to earth. Her night at the factory and the time spent with Travis had left her in a dream-like state.

  Travis had made her cry out so many times the night before. He’d left her body slack and wasted, like she had nothing left to give to the world because she’d already given it all to him. She’d never had a man fill her needs or body as completely as Travis had. Even now, hours later, the thought of him plunging into her as his breath and lips hovered at her neck, sent a moan of desire from the base of her throat.

  She needed to get a grip, to focus on something else.

  Her desire to think of anything other than Travis had her catapulting from the car to get to Annie, who was bouncing up and down where she waited at the front door.

  Dianne had got her ready for school. Her hair was done, she was in her uniform and her bag was packed. All Dee would need to do is give her breakfast and hand her over to Mrs Potts. She desperately wanted to walk Annie to school herself, but she needed to be at work early, before Vince arrived. She needed to phone Christian Olsen and share the devastating news before business hours. She wanted to have a plan in place by the time Vince arrived at work and she needed Christian to help her do that.

  When Dee walked up to the front door, Dianne eyed her with suspicion. It wasn’t an unfriendly look, but one that said, what have you been up to?

  ‘You look as if you’ve been up all night,’ Dianne said.

  Dee didn’t know how to respond, so she opted for an ambiguous reply. ‘It was a long night,’ she said.

  ‘What happened?’ Dianne asked.

  Dee blushed and responded with a slight smile. ‘You don’t want to know.’

  Her response was equal parts mysterious and true. Dianne would not want to know what happened at the factory … or afterwards.

  ‘Do I have to go to school today?’ Annie asked. ‘Usually, when I stay at Grandma’s, I don’t have to go to school the next day.’

  Dee bent down and wrapped the little girl in a mighty hug. She smelled of bubble gum and strawberries. She always smelled of bubble gum and strawberries. That was one of the many things Dee loved about Annie.

  ‘Well,’ Dee said, straightening up, ‘you do need to go to school today. I’m sorry.’

  ‘And tomorrow,’ Dianne added. ‘When you wake up here, it’s usually a Saturday.’

  ‘Okay,’ Annie said.

  As she didn’t put up much of a fight, Dee suspected Annie had held little hope of getting the day off school, but she’d decided to try anyway.

  ‘Go hop in the car, okay?’ Dee said.

  ‘Bye Grandma,’ Annie sang as she hugged Dianne and then Toby, who was dancing at their feet. She skipped over to the car and slid into the passenger seat.

  Dee turned to Dianne. ‘How do you feel today?’

  ‘Better than some days, worse than others. I’m not used to being out this early.’

  ‘I bet,’ Dee responded.

  ‘Well, Annie makes getting up and going much easier. That girl is the joy in my life.’

  ‘That makes two of us,’ Dee mused.

  Dianne smiled a surreptitious smile. ‘That makes me happy,’ she said.

  Dee looked around at the blue stonework and the whitewashed, wooden fretwork. ‘Gosh, this place is so beautifu
l.’

  ‘It is,’ Dianne responded. ‘I do wonder what will happen to it once I go.’

  Dee felt a sudden twinge in her chest. ‘Dianne, nobody wants to think about that.’

  ‘Nobody wants to, but I think it’s about time they started. I want to know that my boys are okay and my girl is okay.’ She nodded in the direction of Dee’s car. ‘And that there’s a plan for this place.’ Dianne looked around at the bluestone beauty.

  ‘What do you want to happen to it?’ Dee asked her.

  ‘That’s easy,’ Dianne responded with a wide smile. ‘I want it to be filled with joy.’

  Dee felt the twinge in her chest dissolve. ‘What a wonderful thing to wish for.’

  ‘Oh, I know. But some people think joy is a much more far-fetched concept than it is. To me, joy is simple. It is family. It’s friends. It is love.’

  Dee’s eyes became moist at Dianne’s words.

  ‘Dianne, I wish there was something I could do to help. I wish … I wish I could take away your illness.’

  The older woman chuckled. ‘You can’t, my darling. But you are caring for my girl, and Travis too, I think. That’s what I need in my life right now. Someone who cares for my family as much as I do. And, Dee, I think you really do care for them … for both of them.’

  That surreptitious smile was back and Dee felt her cheeks grow warm under Dianne’s gaze. She felt the ghost of a smile float over her face as she climbed into the driver’s seat, and she wondered if the older woman caught it. She must have, because as Dee pulled out of the driveway with Annie at her side, Dianne winked at her.

  ‘You’re joking!’ said Jo. ‘What a pack of scumbags! Hang on, I’ll get Christian.’

  Dee heard rustling, and eventually, Christian—who had a much more measured and controlled personality than his lover—came on the line.