by Emma Rose
“I need a ticket on the 5:30 bus to Grafton, Maryland,” Cami gasped, dropping a wadded handful of cash on the counter.
“I’m sorry, ma’am. That bus is full.”
“What? NO! It can’t be full! This is Charleston, West Virginia. How the hell many people ride the bus from here?”
“Ma’am. The bus picks up people along its eastern route,” the cashier explained, entirely too rationally. “There’s a bus leaving at 11:30 p.m. if you want a ticket on that.”
“What time does it get to Grafton?”
“It’s a little over an eight hour trip so…um…around 7:30 a.m. Monday.”
“That’s not good enough,” Cami snarled at the girl. “I have to get home, get a shower, do something with my hair, dress, take the Metro to work and be there by 9:00 a.m.! Do you think I’m some kind of superwoman?”
Silence thicker than the West Virginia fog floated through the bus station. The cashier stared at her blankly waiting to see if Cami was going to explode, implode or just vanish into thin air like a hallucination.
“I’m sorry, I’m…” Cami started digging around her Walgreens bag for her Tracfone. “I lost my composure somewhere over Denver.”
“Was there a blue light special at K-mart or what?” A familiar voice rang out through the station. Cami’s head shot up from her bag when she heard it. There, by the terminal lockers stood the most wonderful thing Cami had seen in her life—Maralee Snow.
Cami ran to her friend, leaving the cash on the counter, and hugged her tightly. The tears she had been fighting from sunny Cal all the way home poured out on Maralee.
“I know, sweetie, I know,” the little priestess consoled. “Let’s get your stuff and go home. Let’s just go home.”
Maralee smiled at the confused clerk, took the wads of cash and made a quick investigation of what Cami dropped on the counter.
“Twelve dollars and thirty-two cents? That’s all you have left? Geez, you’re bad with money.”
“I am so tired,” Cami gasped, still crying.
“I was watching your train online, it said it was running late so I thought you might miss your bus and decided to come get you. Good thing I did. I’d hate for someone to find you and put you in a Goodwill bin by mistake.” Maralee tried to inject some humor back into Cami’s world. Cami didn’t seem to have the strength to laugh, but did manage to show her the finger.
“That’s my buddy!” Mar said. “Let’s go.”
Maralee refused to be seen in a restaurant with Cami in her current state, but managed to find a good drive-through. Once fed and cared for, Cami drifted off to sleep as her friend drove her back to safety, sanity and home.
“We’ll be coming round the mountain when we come,” Maralee sang off key as they drove through lower Grafton. Cami shook her head and smiled to see the street lights illuminating sites she knew so well.
“What time is it? What day is it?”
“It’s Monday, Cam. A few minutes after one on the morning. If you still had your phone, I’d be expecting you to wake me up about now.”
Cami smirked and stared out the window into the darkness. She saw the lights outlining the cemetery at the base of the mountain. If the sun were out they could look over and see the headstones of two of the four Snow daughters. Maralee’s sisters were lost only one year apart. One killed by a jealous boyfriend, the other an overdose. Beside their tombs, which Maralee placed flowers on every weekend, lay her father. Both Maralee and Cami hoped he was doing anything but resting in peace.
“Take me to Eddie’s,” Cami said resolutely.
“Oh…nooooo,” Maralee shook her head and gripped the steering wheel even harder. “No, we will not be going there tonight. Home to bed. That’s where you are going.”
“Take me there. Besides, I need to get my car.”
“Nope. It’s at your house. I saw it in the driveway when I went by to water your roses this morning.”
“How did he…oh wait…my purse. The keys,” Cami hung her head, ashamed of the whole situation. “He has my keys. He could have been in my house all weekend.”
“In your house, in my house and in your office,” Maralee added not realizing how unhelpful that information actually was at that point.
“Take me there or I’ll just get in my car and go by myself,” Cami threatened. The tiredness from her ordeal disappeared and a new angry power source seemed to take over. Maralee shrugged and drove them up the hill to Eddie’s mansion. Maralee could see some lights in the windows but the main gate was closed.
“Thank the goddess! Let’s go,” Maralee started to pull the car around when Cami jumped out of the slow moving vehicle and banged on the intercom.
“Fucking bastard! I know you are in there, you coward! Open this damn gate!”
“Just a moment, please,” a voice clearly not Eddie’s but somewhat recognizable said. A few minutes passed as the two women watched some more lights come on. Then they heard the metal clang of the gate opening.
Mar drove the car up to the main house and ran to keep up with Cami who was already banging on the door by the time her friend caught up. They heard the latch pop as the large door began to open. Cami nearly took a swing, but fortunately was able to stop her hand when she saw the person in front of her was not Eddie, but Harold Jennings. Harold’s mouth fell open when he saw Cami, the consummate professional, standing there in man’s t-shirt, green sweats and blue sandals with greasy hair and death in her eyes.
“Miss…Miss Hill,” Harold said as he stepped out of the way. He turned to Maralee who was just shaking her head no. “And Miss…”
“Snow,” Maralee nodded, embarrassed and a little scared.
“Where is he?” Cami snarled at Harold. The thought she would have to interact with him professionally at some point in the future wouldn’t cross her mind for another thirty-six hours.
“In his study. I just woke him up and he’s waiting for you there,” Harold said and pointed the way. Cami stomped in the room, threw the door open and started shouting before she even saw him.
“I trusted you!” she boomed across the book filled room.
“I trusted YOU!” Eddie shouted back. The blast stunned Cami into silence for a moment, allowing Eddie the upper hand. “I trusted you to get me the right formula. I trusted you to tell me when you found out I had the wrong formula. I trusted you to keep our arrangement a secret!”
Maralee and Harold sat down side-by-side in the foyer as the argument continued, each party taking turns screaming accusations.
“Are you the butler?” Maralee asked as she looked around the large estate. She lived pretty high up the mountain, but not this high. Harold laughed.
“I wish. I’d love to live here. I’m Mr. Dunning’s vice president of administration. My partner Steve owns nightclubs in the city and Sunday night is inventory. So, I come over and watch movies in Mr. Dunning’s private theater until he picks me up.”
“You fucking pig! You left me there to humiliate me. I had to take money from strangers, rely on luck and pity and look like a damn fool. Do you know how that feels?” Cami’s voice rang through the hallway in the foyer. Maralee bit her bottom lip and stared at the floor. Harold did the same.
“Of course I do,” Eddie charged back. “I know how it feels to stand there in a room full of businessmen with egg all over your face when you read a document that says you submitted a fake, previously rejected formula for cherry cough syrup and said it was a cure for the common cold!”
Cami stopped for a moment and caught her breath. Finally her brain had time to catch up with her mouth. He was right. She did humiliate him. But not on purpose, they way he did her.
“You cost me a lot of money, worry and time to make your point,” she said, her tone tense but lower. She looked down on his desk to see her purse, phone and keys all in a row.
“Apparently I caused more than you to worry. Ty Ty sends his love and kisses.”
“You looked at my phone?”
; “Are you kidding? I couldn’t help it. The damn thing went off every hour. Tyler called you four times and left like ten text messages. He hopes you feel better, by the way. For some reason Richie Rich thinks you had the flu this weekend.” Eddie laughed.
Cami reached down, picked up crystal bowl holding candy and threw it at the wall as close to Eddie’s head as she could get without hitting him. The impact and shattering of glass could be heard throughout the mansion. Harold jumped up to go into the study but Maralee put her hand on his arm.
“She’s okay. If she were hurt, I would feel it,” she said, trusting in her lifelong belief that if ever Cami were hurt, her friend would feel it in her heart.
“I was worried about him,” Harold admitted and sat back down.
“That is enough!” Eddie growled as he walked toward her purposefully. “You acted like a spoiled child and you got spanked. You can make this whole thing about more than that—but the bottom line is, no one gets a free ride from betrayal.”
Cami began stepping backwards, the power of his influence and presence of his body near hers causing all her cylinders to fire at once. He stepped closer and gave her a lecherous grin.
“One thing I will say,” Eddie licked his lips salaciously. “You really are a brick house.”
Cami threw herself forward, hitting him in the shoulders with her hands over and over—pummeling him with her anger and frustration. Reaching out and grabbing her hand, Eddie flipped her around to face the desk and bent her over. His hand on her shoulder blades, he pushed her all the way down. Kicking her legs wider, he reached between then and began rubbing her mound.
Holding her, he yanked down her cheap Walgreens sweats to reveal the black panties she had worn under her dress. Yanking those down as well, he rubbed and squeezed her cheeks, his hips pushing against her. He leaned over her, the heat and weight of her body enclosing her like a quilt. Breathing heavily, he flicked her ear with his tongue and whispered savagely.
“You just need to tell the truth. Do you want this? Yes or no?”
Cami tried to push up against his hand then paused. She knew if she said “no” he would let her up, return her things and allow her to go. His hand pushed her back down again, the other still grasping at her, pinching and holding. She willingly put her head down on the desk.
“Yes,” she said clearly. It wasn’t a whisper, it wasn’t a cry. It was a declarative statement—as clear as the sound of a lock snapping in place.
Immediately his hand went to his zipper, releasing his cock and lining it up with her channel. He entered roughly moving in short bursts through her body, grabbing her hips and pounding her against the desk. The unmistakable sound of their sex travelled out of the study and floated down the hall to the two still waiting outside the door.
“Well, I guess they made up?” Harold asked Maralee quietly. “First they’re fighting and then…”
“As above, so below,” she said solemnly.
Eddie groaned and grunted like a savage beast tearing into her flesh over and over. Cami pulled her hips up, opened her legs farther and did everything she could to get him deeper inside her. The passion of anger, revenge and need built to a fever pitch quickly. He slapped at her bottom as he rode her, pounding her into the desk again and again. Cami surrendered to his motion, laying there and taking it inside, loving the way he filled her insides. One last grunt and he pushed her head down into the desk, plunged deep inside and exploded in her pussy. She was already releasing underneath him—her body jerking and bouncing off the desk underneath him. She emitted a long, heavy sigh and let her body go limp across the desk.
He paused for a moment before pulling out. Then he moved away, shoved a Kleenex box toward her for clean up and sat down on the other side of the desk. He gathered her phone, keys and purse and wordlessly handed them to her. Cami pulled up her baggy sweats, grabbed her things, turned and left.
Maralee and Harold stood up as Cami entered, but she walked past both them and headed straight out the door. Maralee followed after her, leaving a smiling Eddie and bewildered Harold in their wake.
Eddie handed Harold a set of freshly cut keys, replicas from every key on Cami’s ring.
“If I know single women, one of these keys belongs to Miss Snow. Use it, and any other resource you have. I want to know everything there is to know about her.”
“Why?” Harold asked as he looked out the window at Maralee and Cami exiting the grounds.
“Because when trapped across the country with nothing and no one, Camellia didn’t call Tyler and she didn’t call me.” Eddie pointed to the car clearing the gate. “She called her.”
Chapter Four
“What on earth is this?” Cami asked, looking at the highball Tyler placed on the nightstand.
“It’s a Madras,” he explained, taking a sip and offering it to her. “It’s a morning brunch kind of cocktail. Good for folks who don’t like Tequila Sunrises.”
“But I like Tequila Sunrises,” she said, squinting to see the glass.
“You’re out of grenadine.”
“Oh. Well, let’s give this baby a try,” she said, tipping the glass and taking a hefty gulp. “Hey, that’s not half bad. See, it pays to give new things a try.”
Tyler hovered over her, his arms on either side. Leaning down, he took her breast in his mouth and let his tongue roll slowly over her nipple. Her head rocked back as she enjoyed the sensation. This was the first night Tyler spent at her house, and so far it had been a complete success. He rubbed his penis across the top of her mound, seducing her to raising her hips to meet him.
“How’s about trying an old thing?” he said, his voice dropping lower into a guttural chuckle.
“This is not old,” she replied, reaching down and grasping his cock, rubbing the shaft as it grew in her hand. She raised her knees high enough to guide him into her wet and waiting opening. “It’s a classic.”
She wrapped her legs around him and brought him into her body. He moved with her, starting slow and easing inside her, filling and caressing her channel as his hips pumped slowly, giving her the feeling of riding along the sea on a raft. Tyler’s soft hands felt like silk as he ran them down her sides and back up to her bosom, so soft and comforting. The only word for them really was luxurious.
So different from Eddie’s rough touch, she thought and almost said out loud. She clamped her jaw shut so it sounded like a moan of encouragement instead. She promised herself she would stop fixating on Eddie, their hardcore adventures, and the way he fulfilled her nastiest fantasies and most abject needs. She willed herself back on the raft; back to Tyler’s steady, even rhythm as he bathed her is kisses and attention.
His hips began to move faster and she began snapping her body toward him to meet him and increase the maddening friction driving them both closer to climax. His breath grew ragged, coming out in short bursts. She felt her pussy clenching around him, letting Tyler lift her higher and higher.
“I want you,” he whispered through his panting breath. “I want you, I want you.”
“You have me,” she gasped as her body began to pulse and jerk around his cock. He joined her, sighing with pure contentment as his seed filled her. They spent the next few moments in silence, breathing together, holding each other as the waves of pleasure washed over them both. Cami pushed any ideas of Eddie into a drawer of her mind and locked it. “You have me.”
They spent the rest of the morning in bed with Tyler nibbling crackers and cheese, talking about Dyes Industries and how the cure will set their fortune in stone, and Cami snuggling up to him enjoying the soft comfort of his love. Any time her mind would attempt to travel to her trip to San Francisco, her fury at Eddie for leaving her there, or the hot, hard explanation he gave her as she bent over his desk, she simply held Tyler closer and vowed never to stray again.
Farther up the mountain, a different kind of vow was being made at Lightfeathers.
“Hear me, Diana, goddess of the moon, queen of the hunt. Shine
your light upon me as a vessel of your wisdom and power in this world,” Maralee chanted ceremoniously, raising her hands high above her head and keeping them open so the gifts of the goddess could be placed inside them. She always believed when she opened her eyes and looked directly at the people she was advising they would see the light of the goddess in her and their mouths would drop in amazement. Harold managed to suppress a smile.
“I so appreciate you taking Saturday morning time to give me this reading, Miss Snow.” Harold Jennings offered seriously as he handed her the teacup he just finished.
“It’s nothing,” Maralee answered. “I usually open up the spa for the Saturday afternoon ‘Goddess and Me’ support group for people who suffer from chronic shyness so I just came in a bit early. Let’s take a look at those leaves.”
“I was worried you might feel uncomfortable, considering the night we met.”
“The night we…” Maralee looked up from the cup for a second; the memory hit her right between the eyes. “Oh, yes. I remember. You were at Eddie Dunning’s the night Cami and he…well…um…the night of their disagreement, or agreement, or whatever that was.”
“Yes,” Harold laughed. He thought Eddie’s abandonment of Cami in San Francisco was the cruelest thing he had seen his boss do (so far) in his employment, but he did always chuckle when he thought of Maralee and him sitting in the foyer exchanging small talk while listening to Cami and Eddie fight then fuck as the night and the confrontation went on.
“All’s well that ends well, I guess.” Maralee said, trying to distance herself from anything to do with Cami’s infatuation with Eddie Dunning. “Give me a few moments.”
Harold looked around the tea room at the books, chalices, odds and ends for spells, and several glass jars full of tea leaves. Scanning the room more carefully he noticed what was absent: pictures. There weren’t many personal items at all, but as with all the other rooms he saw when she gave him a tour of the spa, there were no pictures or personal mementos of any kind. He could see why she was successful, though. More like a pixie than a priestess, the small woman was inviting, kind, and charismatic. Harold truly regretted what he would be doing with the rest of his day.
