There was a bike path that ran along one the side of the park nearest to the town, and it was usually its busiest attraction. Ben walked over to it quickly, listening as intently as he could for footsteps, or anything coming from behind him.
He could hear some, and they were growing louder and closer by the second. Ben let his body tense up, and right before his pursuer closed in on him he whirled around, hands clenched in fists.
“Whoa whoa whoa!” Danny lifted his arms and stepped back. “Easy there, slugger.”
“Danny…” Ben sighed, and glanced over his friend’s shoulder. “Is the van still there? Did you see anyone?”
“What van?” his friend asked. “Dude, what are you talking about?”
“The… black van.” Ben brought a hand to his face, feeling a little ridiculous. “Never mind, it’s nothing.”
“Man, you should be in bed right now, resting,” said Danny. “I heard about what happened in first period. You don’t look so hot.”
Ben forced a smile and started walking down the bike path with Danny.
“Yeah, maybe you’re right,” he said. “It’s been a really long day.”
CHAPTER 10
The two of them walked back into town together. Danny insisted on getting Ben home to rest, and he didn’t object, his mind too clouded by thoughts of Emma to formulate any real objections.
“You’ve had me worried lately, man,” said Danny. “Between today’s fainting episode and the way you’ve been throwing yourself all in with the new girl, I’m not sure what to expect.”
“Yeah, well, neither am I,” said Ben. He and Danny slowed to a stop in front of his house. Rachel’s car wasn’t in the driveway, which didn’t surprise Ben.
She usually doesn’t get off work until late in the evening.
“Promise me that you’re going to stay in bed for the rest of the day,” said Danny. He had a surprisingly stern look on his face that Ben couldn’t help but smile at.
“You got it,” he replied. “To be honest, I feel like I could use the extra sleep. I’ll see you tomorrow, Danny.”
“See you later, man.” Danny clapped a hand on Ben’s shoulder and then turned and walked away.
Ben slowly headed up the front steps and in through the door. The house was quiet and dark, and the air inside was cool. He kicked off his shoes and walked over to the couch in the living room, collapsing down onto it to rest just as he had promised he would.
Am I safe here, right now? Am I safe anywhere, anymore?
A sound came from the kitchen as if to punctuate his point. Ben sat up in surprise. He turned towards where it had come from, expecting to see Emma, or at the very least a threatening figure. There was nothing there, and after a minute his heart slowed back to its resting rate.
Ben willed his eyes shut and tried to get some actual sleep. It felt impossible, with too many thoughts fighting for his mind’s attention for him to be able to relax. After a while, without realizing it, he drifted off.
“Ben? Are you home?” The sound of the door opening and Rachel’s voice coming through it reached Ben at the same time. He sat up on the couch and rubbed his eyes, feeling the strangely unique sort of confusion that comes with napping during daylight hours.
“Yeah, I’m right here, Rach,” said Ben. “Just… taking a nap.”
She shut the door behind her and shuffled into the kitchen with grocery bags in her arms, her high heels clacking against the floor with every step.
“Is everything okay?” she asked. “You sound totally worn out.”
She’s always been so perceptive, almost like some kind of mind reader.
Ben sighed. There was no point in beating around the bush, not with her.
“I had… an incident at school today,” he said. “During first period.”
“What? Why didn’t they call me?” asked Rachel.
“It wasn’t a big deal,” he said. “I just, uh, fainted during class.”
Rachel hurried into the living room, a worried expression on her face that hurt Ben a little to see.
“Oh my god!” She sat down next to him on the couch and set a hand on his leg. “Ben, are you okay?”
“I’m fine.” Ben gave her the most reassuring look that his tired face would allow. “Really, I’m fine. It was just a one time thing, and I woke up after a minute.”
Rachel didn’t look convinced. She slowly rubbed her hand across his leg and leaned in closer. Her touch was soft against him, and Ben couldn’t help but stare at her, dressed in her professional work clothes, but as gorgeous as ever.
Does she even realize the effect she has on me?
“Tell me what happened,” said Rachel. “Were you tired, or did you hit your head, or…?”
“I… remembered something.” Ben shook his head. It was hard for him to think back to it, almost painful. It felt like he was forcing himself to look directly into the sun, risking pain and potential injury to see something that was just beyond his eyes’ focus.
“Ben, you can tell me.” Rachel was even closer to him now, and Ben’s heart was beating furiously. He didn’t know whether it was from the memory or from her.
Instead of answering her with words, Ben reached down and slowly pulled his t-shirt up and over his head. Rachel watched him with a curious, but understanding look on her face.
“My scars,” said Ben. “These scars… I know where I got them from, now.”
He turned around on the couch so that Rachel could see his back. Some of the first memories that Ben had formed after the accident involved the scars, involved him seeing the crisscrossed, painful looking lines, long since healed, but still frightening to behold.
“Ben,” whispered Rachel. “They… could have been from the fall, that day in the storm, or from your early childhood.”
Ben shook his head. That was what the doctors had said, but they had been as clueless as he was about them, with no memory of how they’d come to be. He’d been that way for so long, and now he knew the truth.
“They didn’t,” said Ben. “I was a prisoner, or a hostage, before. I tried to escape, and they took a whip to my back.”
“Are you sure?” asked Rachel. “How can that be? Are you sure that you’re remembering correctly.”
She began to run her hands across his back, touching and tracing his scars with a mixture of love, empathy, and sadness. The scars had been hot and throbbing all day since he’d remembered, but as Rachel moved her hands across them, they began to cool as if her touch could somehow heal.
“I’m sure,” said Ben. “I talked to Emma about it.”
Rachel’s hand tensed up. She leaned in closer to Ben and set one of her hands on his shoulder. He could feel her breath against his neck, hot and humid, and her big soft breasts pushed against his back.
“And what did she say?” Rachel’s voice was quiet and wavered with an emotion that Ben couldn’t identify.
“She told me…” Ben thought back to the conversation they’d had. “Well, it was vague, but she confirmed what I guess I already knew. We were both kidnaped from our parents and held for ransom. We… I guess we were close. And I tried to escape at least once and got these in return.”
Rachel gave his shoulder a soft squeeze.
“You can’t trust her, Ben,” she said. “She isn’t telling you everything, I just know it! You can’t trust her. Only trust what you remember on your own.”
The pictures and the guns… I can’t tell Rachel about those.
“You’re probably right,” said Ben. “I just hope I do eventually start to remember on my own.”
Ben felt Rachel’s arms wrap around him as she pulled him into a soft reverse hug. Her body was so warm, warmer than it should have been. A strange emotion began to well up in his heart, and he felt it spread down into his lower half, exciting him and sparking illicit thoughts.
“Rachel…” Ben turned around in her grasp. Her gorgeous eyes were full of a forbidden desire of their own, and even though it made Ben fe
el strange and weird to acknowledge it, he understood it perfectly, and felt the same way.
“Ben,” she whispered softly. “I’m here for you.”
The two of them slowly came together, their lips meeting in what began as an innocent kiss, and quickly evolved into something much, much more. Ben let one of his hands wander up to the older woman’s big breasts, feeling the softness.
One of Rachel’s hands began to move in the same way, sliding up Ben’s thigh and onto his crotch. His mouth dropped open as he felt her begin to massage his quickly hardening cock.
She’s been almost a mother to me for years. What in the world are we doing?
“It’s okay, Ben,” whispered Rachel, again seeming to read his mind. “We don’t have to shy away from the way we feel. You’re 18, now.”
Ben slowly nodded, wondering if he was being honest with himself or if he was just overcome by his own hormones. Rachel leaned forward and kissed him again, stroking his member through his pants as she did.
“Oh god, Rachel,” whispered Ben. He felt her tongue push into his mouth and was instantly pulled into a new reality, one full of crazy, forbidden possibility.
Has she felt this way the entire time? Have I?
Ben began unbuttoning her blouse, his finger moving with clumsy, inexperienced eagerness in his rush to bring her breasts into view. Rachel just smiled at him, the same smile that he’d seen her give when she’d peer at him hunched over his desk, working on homework.
“Here,” she whispered. “Let me help.”
Watching her take her blouse off felt erotic, almost like receiving a lap dance from a passionate stripper. Ben blushed as his eyes locked onto her cleavage as it came into view. Rachel was an impeccably beautiful woman, he’d noticed it so many times in the past, and always wondered why it was that she chose to remain single.
Maybe, just maybe, it was because of me.
Rachel slipped off her blouse and moved back against Ben. The two of them began to make out in earnest, lips and tongues moving together and slowly developing a shared rhythm. Ben was confused, but his cock pushed against Rachel stiffly, as though it had never been so confident and sure of anything before.
“Ben,” whispered Rachel. “I’m going to take your pants off…”
She spoke in the same caring, affectionate voice that Ben had become so familiar with over the past four years. Slowly, he nodded his head. It looked like part of Rachel was just as conflicted as he was, and the way she unzipped the fly of his jeans with delicate, shaking movements only served to confirm it.
“Rachel, I…” Ben trailed off, unsure of what he wanted to say.
I think we’re crossing a line? I think we should keep things as they are? I think… I love you?
Of course Ben loved her. The type of love he felt now was something else, a different breed. It could almost be better described as lust, but there was something else with it, something much more intense, emotional, and human.
Rachel slowly worked his boxers down and began to touch his hard cock with her soft, perfectly manicured fingernails. It felt amazing, and shivers of pleasure and erotic electricity coursed through Ben’s body.
She straddled him on the couch, sitting on his thighs so that his cock poked up right in front of her crotch. Her long, beautiful legs spilled out of the tight skirt she had on as it rode up to her thighs. Ben could see a smile on her face, along with a number of other conflicted emotions.
“I want to help you, going forward,” whispered Rachel. “Ben, I want to help you with whatever you need. I want to show you just how much I care.”
Ben inhaled sharply as Rachel began to slowly jerk off his cock, letting her warm, soft palm pull it up and down. She had on a set of bracelets that made light jingling noises with every movement, as though they were sounding the bells over what was happening.
“Rachel,” moaned Ben. “Oh god…”
Her technique was perfect. She was at the peak of her sexuality, a beautiful, older woman with experience and sensuality.
I never imagined, never even dared to imagine, that this could ever happen. Rachel…
Rachel began to push her hips forward, grinding herself against the underside of his cock even as she continued to stroke him off. It was an amazing feeling, and Ben’s mind began to run wild with even more ideas. They lived together, under the same roof. She was almost like a mother to him, and he was almost like her son.
But that wasn’t it. That wasn’t what made her hands feel incredible as they worked his cock, giving him more sexual pleasure than he had ever experienced before in the life he could remember. Rachel knew exactly what she was doing, and she was doing it for him out of love.
“It’s okay, Ben,” she whispered. “We’ve grown so close over the past few years. There is nothing wrong with two adults sharing their feelings with each other.”
Ben slowly nodded and then reached his hands up to her breasts. She was wearing a white lace bra and as much as he wanted to take it off her, part of him still felt timid and cautious. She was Rachel, the woman that had supported him all throughout high school, cooked and cleaned for him, chastised him when he misbehaved. She was Rachel, and she was giving him a soft, tender, loving hand job.
Slowly but surely, Rachel began to intensify her pace. Ben’s cock was dripping pre-cum onto her hand, but she treated it as though it was some kind of reward, rubbing it against the skin of his hard on and continuing to pump up and down.
Ben let his hands come to a rest on her waist. For a moment, he pulled her back and forth to match with the rhythm of her movements. It was easy for him to imagine that the two of them were doing more than they actually were, that his cock had struck gold underneath her dress and pushed into truly forbidden territory. The thought made his face feel hot, and Rachel smiled at him knowingly.
“Just relax, Ben,” she whispered. “I know you’re close.”
Her words felt as though they were an embodiment of the truth, making it a reality as she spoke. Ben felt his cock heating up in her hands, standing to full, achingly hard attention as she sped up her stroking. He reached up and grabbed her breasts, pushing his hips forward as he finally found his release.
“Rachel!” His cock blasted out its load, spraying it up into the air like a geyser long overdue for eruption. His seed rained down on his crotch and stomach, a bit of it dribbling onto Rachel’s hands as she milked the last few drops out of him.
Slowly, Rachel got up off the couch. She didn’t say anything as she walked into the bathroom, returning with a small hand towel that she used to clean the cum off Ben.
“You should get some rest,” said Rachel. “We can talk more about what happened in the morning.”
Ben wasn’t sure if she meant what he’d remembered, or what had just happened, or both. He nodded and then gingerly pulled himself to his feet, pulling his boxers and jeans back on.
“Thanks,” he said. “For being here for me.”
“Of course,” said Rachel. “I’ll make you a light dinner and leave it on your desk, in case you get hungry.”
Ben nodded and then walked down the hallway to his room. As he stepped through the door, his heart began to beat faster, and faster, until it was racing within his chest. Suddenly, he was no longer in Rachel’s house, or in Emerald Hills.
***
“I’ll leave some food for you, in case you get hungry.” The voice was soft, feminine, and caring. Ben could see metal bars, and a beautiful woman dressed in a long white gown on the other side of them.
“You will get used to it,” said the woman. “It’s not so bad here. Whether your father pays up or not, we will get our money’s worth. And you will learn to enjoy what we do.”
***
Ben’s breathing was heavy and ragged. He managed to take a couple of weak steps forward before fainting, landing on his familiar bed in a cold sweat.
What if I don’t want to remember?
CHAPTER 11
“You are weak. In order to surv
ive, you must be strong.”
Ben was being led forward by the hand. The hallway he was headed down was dark and damp, with humid air, as though there’d been recent flooding.
Where am I? What’s going on?
“Your father has not been as agreeable as I’d hoped,” said the woman. “As any of us had hoped.”
Her voice was soft, kind, and so incredibly familiar. The two of them walked underneath a single lightbulb hanging from a cord in the ceiling, and Ben could see her clearly. She was older, in her mid to late thirties, but still gorgeous, with an attractive face and voluptuous body.
Who is she, and why does it feel like I know her?
“This will be painful,” said the woman. “But you have to go through it, if you’re going to stay among us. Even as our ward, death is something that you must learn to master.”
Ben opened his mouth to ask her what it was, but no voice came out. He was too scared to talk, too scared to even realize and comprehend his own fear.
The two of them reached the end of the hallway, which spilled out into a large, circular room. At the center of it was a pit, with only the very edges, the shape of it, visible. The center contained an inescapable darkness, so intense and complete that Ben could only wonder at how deep it might be.
His heart began to race, and his hands clammed up. His body knew what was intended for him even before his conscious mind had made the connection.
“This is both your first test and your father’s first warning,” said the woman. Her words were terrifying, and yet still somehow strangely comforting.
Who is she, and why does she make me feel so…?
Before he had time to complete the thought, her hand was pushing on the center of his back. Ben tried to steady himself, but there was no railing around the pit. One of his feet tried to regain purchase in thin air and he tumbled forward.
“Noooooo!” His voice came back to him, but only for the moment of the fall. The ground at the bottom was dirt and sand but from the height that he’d dropped from it was enough to knock the wind out of him. Ben coughed and slowly pushed up to all fours, the hairs standing up on the back of his neck as he realized that he wasn’t alone.
Lost Memories (Forbidden Romance) Page 7
