"Almost. I just need to check the suitcase and make sure I have everything."
"What time do you leave on Sunday?"
"The flight leaves at noon, but we'll probably get to the airport at ten. What are you and Dad doing this weekend?"
"We might go see a movie. They say it might snow tonight, but I think it'll just be a dusting. Anyway, I don't want to take up your time. I know you need to pack. I just wanted to tell you to have a great trip."
"You're not calling tomorrow?"
"You'll be busy getting ready for the trip. I thought I'd just call tonight. When you're over there, be safe and keep your eye out for pick-pocketers."
I laugh. "Okay, Mom."
"I know you two will have a wonderful time. Oh, tell Pearce that Henry has something new to teach him when you two are back here for Christmas."
I smile at Pearce, who just walked by me. "What's Dad making him do now?"
She laughs. "He'll find out when he gets here. I love you, honey. Tell Pearce hi and that we love him."
"I will. Love you, Mom."
She hangs up and I put the phone down. I feel Pearce behind me, his arms around my waist. "Was that your mother?"
"Yes. She wanted to tell us to have a good trip." I turn to face him. "And she said to tell you hi and that they love you."
He smiles. "That was very nice of her to say."
He doesn't believe it. He thinks his own parents don't love him, so he can't imagine how mine could. It doesn't make sense to him.
"They do love you, Pearce. They're not just saying that."
He leans down and kisses me. The type of kiss that always leads to the bedroom.
"Pearce, I need to finish packing," I whisper as his lips trail down the side of my neck.
"You can finish tomorrow." His hands slide up my bare thighs and heat instantly fills my core. I took a shower earlier and threw on a t-shirt and panties and nothing else. Those panties are now on the floor and his hand is between my thighs, doing things that weaken my legs to the point that they can barely support me. I hold onto him, clasping the back of his neck as he kisses me.
"Bedroom," I whisper between kisses.
"Why not right here?" he whispers back.
"I don't want to do it in the kitchen."
"Let me finish what I started. Then we'll go."
"But…" My voice trails off as his hand continues its movements until he sends me over the edge, ripples of pleasure coursing through my body. They're still going when he lifts me up and takes me to the bedroom and lays me down on the bed. He shoves his jeans and boxers down, which was all he was wearing.
He lies over me and I gasp as he enters the already sensitive area, filling me completely.
"Pearce," I breathe out.
His mouth covers mine and he kisses me. Slow, sensual kisses that match the way he moves in and out of me, each powerful thrust intensifying the sensations building deep within my core. I crave the release as I feel it getting closer. He breaks from the kiss, both of us breathing hard as his movements get faster. And then I feel the tension finally let go, spiraling out of control, hitting every part of me and leaving my body reeling with the warm pleasurable aftereffects.
Pearce follows shortly after, then remains inside me, propped up on his forearms so all his weight isn't on me.
He's still out of breath as he kisses me. He looks into my eyes. "I love you."
"I love you too." I smile. "And I love what you do to me."
"Then I will do it again to you later tonight. And even more when we're in Italy."
"Mmm." I close my eyes, imagining it. "That sounds so good."
"Italy? Or the sex?"
I laugh. "Both. Although if the sex is like it was just now, then the sex."
"You liked that, huh?"
"I loved it. It was even better than normal."
"I didn't do anything differently."
"I guess it just gets better each time."
He rolls onto his back, taking me with him. "Let's just stay here all night."
"I need to finish packing for the trip."
"You're done. You don't need many clothes. I want you naked in bed the whole time." His hand goes behind my head and he brings my lips down to his and resumes those slow, sexy kisses.
He's right. I can finish packing tomorrow. I'd much rather be doing this.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
27
PEARCE
Rachel and I slept in today. We were tired from having to get up so early for our flight back from Indiana yesterday. We spent Thanksgiving there. Beth made an excellent Thanksgiving dinner, even better than last year. And Henry and I had more father-son bonding time, watching football and playing darts at the local bar. My father would be furious if he knew I'd spent almost a week doing things with my father-in-law, which is ridiculous given that my father wants nothing to do with me.
I haven't spoken to my parents since the wedding. Rachel and I say hello to them when we see them at parties, but they pretend they don't know us. It's completely childish. If anything, they're the ones embarrassing our family when other people witness them snubbing us at parties.
People are finally starting to accept Rachel and me as a couple, but my parents refuse to, which makes them look bad. They need to move past this and stop acting like spoiled children who didn't get their way. I think my father is the one driving this behavior. Last October, I saw my mother at the symphony and she gave me a slight smile when she knew my father wasn't looking, so I think she's getting tired of this family feud. And I know she's upset that I didn't spend Thanksgiving with them and will not be there for Christmas.
Aside from my parents, the other parts of my life are going well. My job is interesting and challenging, yet it doesn't consume my life. My evenings and weekends are free to spend with Rachel. I love our house and where we live. I have a great relationship with my in-laws. I have a great marriage. And I'm starting to feel better about the idea of being a father. I have to, because Rachel and I are now actively trying to have a baby. We've been trying for months. Nothing's happened yet, but the trying has definitely been enjoyable. We have sex all the time, sometimes several times a day.
Of course not everything in my life is good. I'm still a member of Dunamis. We've been having one meeting a month, but they've all been during the day so it's been easy to hide them from Rachel. The meetings have mostly been about our strategy for the next election. That's our focus right now, so my past three assignments have all been related to forging documents and covering up the bad behaviors of men we plan to get elected into office. I told Jack I was surprised I haven't been given a kill assignment for a while, but he said hardly anyone has. Everyone has been careful in their assignments so that innocents won't accidentally see or hear something they shouldn't. I hope it continues. That side of my life is much more tolerable when I'm not forced to harm people.
The other not-so-good part of my life is that I still have to participate in the high-society social scene. It's an obligation as both a member of Dunamis and as a Kensington, but it's not something I want to do. I used to go along with it without really thinking about it, but now I find it difficult. The formality. The fake smiles. Pretending to be interested in endless conversations with people you despise. I dread being around those people. Even though I'm just as wealthy as them, if not wealthier, I don't feel like I'm one of them anymore. I live such a different lifestyle now than I did a year ago that I'm starting to feel out of place at these events. Now I know how Rachel feels, having to go as an outsider. But she's much more comfortable with it now. She's come to know a lot of the women, so when we're at a party she has people to talk to other than just Martha, although she'd prefer to talk to Martha. Rachel and I are now good friends with Jack and Martha and we go out with them all the time. Even though they're much older than us, they've become our closest friends.
Overall, the past few months have been good. Almost normal. Like I'm living a regular life. I'm relieved
and thrilled that things have gone so well, but I'm also worried about what lies ahead. I know bad things are coming. My life has been way too easy since the wedding last March. There's zero chance things will continue this way. I'm not trying to be negative. I'm simply being realistic.
I know I'll have to return to Kensington Chemical at some point. It could be in a few months or it could be years from now. I also get the feeling that my father is planning something. Some kind of revenge to get back at me. He's not someone who forgives and forgets.
As for Dunamis, I know I'm due for a bad assignment. I know a kill assignment will eventually come my way but I'm trying not to think about it. Then there's my punishment. Not knowing what it is, or when it will happen, causes me a great deal of stress. I try to hide it from Rachel, and just having her in my life helps take away some of that stress, but it's still there and it will never go away. Even when my punishment is over, I'll still have the stress of not being able to tell Rachel the truth about that side of my life. I'll always be burdened by that.
I hate lying to her. I don't want her knowing about that side of myself, but I also don't like that she doesn't. Because she'll never really know me until she knows that side is there. Jack keeps telling me that side isn't the real me. That it wouldn't be there if I wasn't a member of Dunamis. But I don't know if that's true. Maybe I really do have this dark side that would be there even if Dunamis didn't exist. Maybe I get that from my father.
"Pearce, do you want anything else?" Rachel takes my plate from the table. We just finished lunch.
"No, I'm done." I get up and clear the rest of the dishes and bring them to the sink where she's standing.
"We have ice cream if you want some for dessert."
I stand behind her and pull her into my chest. "I was thinking of a different kind of dessert."
"Again?" She turns her head so I can kiss her. "After last night, I thought you might be worn out."
"Not at all." I press up against her so she can feel what she does to me.
She smiles. "The dishes can wait. Let's go to the bedroom." She pushes me back, then races off to the bedroom.
I laugh. "I guess you're in a hurry."
The phone rings as I'm walking out of the kitchen.
"Let the answering machine get it," I hear her yell from the bedroom.
"I have to get it," I yell back. "It might be the travel agent calling about a change to our flight."
"Okay, but hurry up."
I smile. My wife loves sex as much as I do. God, I love her.
I pick up the phone. "Hello, this is Pearce."
"Mr. Kensington?" It's a man's voice but I don't recognize it.
"Yes, that's me."
"I have some bad news. This is the county sheriff's office in…" His words continue but I don't want to hear them. They're horrible, awful, devastating words. And they just keep coming.
"By the time the ambulance arrived it was too late," he says.
I collapse back against the kitchen wall, closing my eyes, rubbing my forehead, and trying to breathe.
This can't be happening. It can't be true.
"Pearce?" I hear Rachel's voice from the bedroom. "Who is it?"
Oh, God, I have to tell Rachel. I have to be the one to tell her this. How do I tell her this?
"I'll be right there," I yell back, covering the phone so the sheriff won't hear.
"I'm very sorry," he says. "I would've called Rachel myself, but I thought it would be better coming from you. We've never met, but Henry used to tell me all about you. He said you were the son he never had, but always wanted."
Tears flood my eyes and a few skim down my face.
"So you'll tell Rachel?" he asks.
"Yes." I'm so distraught I can barely get the word out.
"Tell her right away. Once the town finds out, she'll be getting a lot of calls and I want you to be the one to tell her."
"I will."
"Thank you. And again, please tell her I'm very sorry. They were good people. Taken far too soon." He pauses. "Call me if you need anything. Goodbye, Mr. Kensington."
I stand there with the phone in my hand, completely stunned. This is the first time I've ever lost people I truly cared about. Or loved. And I loved Beth and Henry. I really did. They were like parents to me. The type of parents I wish I'd had when I was growing up.
And now they're gone. I've never felt this kind of loss. It's deep. Gut-wrenching. Agonizing. And it's going to be a million times worse for Rachel.
I hear Rachel again. "Pearce, are you coming?"
"I'll be there in a second," I call back, trying to hide the emotion in my voice. I need to be strong for her. When I tell her this, she's going to break down, and she'll need me to be strong to help her get through it, not just now, but in the months ahead. Because she's going to be grieving for months over this. Maybe even longer.
I slowly walk to the bedroom. Rachel's lying in bed with the sheet covering her.
"I'm all ready for you," she says, a sexy smile on her face.
I look at her, not knowing what to say. How do you say something like this? What words do you use?
"Pearce." Her smile goes away and she sits up. "What's wrong?"
"There was an accident." Those weren't the words I meant to say. But I'm too shocked to think straight. I keep thinking this isn't real. There must be a mistake. But then I hear the sheriff's words in my head. Slick roads…ditch…truck flipped.
"What do you mean?" Rachel asks. "What accident?"
I remind myself to be strong. To pull myself together. I need to tell her. She needs to know.
I sit down next to her on the bed. "There was an accident. The roads were slick and…" I tell her the story, which is that it snowed last night in Rachel's hometown, and although it was just an inch of snow, it was enough to make the roads slick. This morning, Beth and Henry left to go to the grocery store but they never made it there. Instead they ended up in a ditch, their truck flipped upside down. It happened on a road that didn't get much traffic, and by the time they were found, it was too late. They were gone. The sheriff couldn't say for sure, but he assumed the truck hit a slick spot on the road, causing the accident. He said it was surprising because Henry was such a cautious driver and had driven in numerous snow and ice storms over the years and never had an accident. It raised suspicion in my mind when he said it, but then my grief overtook me and mind returned to the fact that they were gone.
"No, no, no." Rachel keeps saying the word, desperate for this not to be true. I hold her in my arms as she sobs uncontrollably. Then she shoves me back and runs to the bathroom.
"Rachel." I follow her in there and find her heaving into the toilet. I hold her hair back, then help her stand up and go to the sink. She rinses her mouth out, her whole body shaking, then she collapses in my arms and we sink down to the floor.
I hold her, rubbing her back. "I'm so sorry. I'm so very sorry."
She continues to sob, and my own tears return as I watch my wife suffer in agony over the news. Beth and Henry were the only family she had left. First she lost her sister, and now her parents are gone.
Rachel's face is against my chest and my tears drip down on her cheek. I was trying to be strong for her, trying to hide my tears, but she feels them and looks up at me.
She looks surprised that I'm crying, probably because she's never seen me do it. She reaches up and wipes the wetness from my cheek.
"I loved them too, Rachel."
She nods, her lip quivering, and then she breaks down again, sobbing as she clings to me.
The trip is canceled. Christmas is canceled. Our world has come to a screeching halt as we grieve this massive loss.
I knew bad things were coming. I just didn't know they would be this bad.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
August 22
PEARCE
"Come on, sweetheart," I say as I stand next to her. "Just a little longer."
She squeezes my hand. "I can't do this anymore.
"
"You can do it. You're doing great. You're almost there."
I've been saying these same phrases over and over again for sixteen hours now. That's how long Rachel has been in labor. I knew labor could take a while but I hope it's not much longer. If it is, the doctor might do a C-section and Rachel doesn't want that. I don't either. That's major surgery and I'm already worried enough about a regular delivery and whatever complications could occur.
Rachel and I found out she was pregnant last January. The weeks leading up to that were spent dealing with the aftermath of the news we'd received late November. After we learned of Rachel's parents dying, we canceled our trip to Italy and flew to Indiana. We spent a couple weeks there, getting the funeral arranged, then dealing with the farm and the house and all their possessions.
The whole town pitched in to help. People assisted us with the funeral arrangements. They brought us food. They helped Rachel go through her parents' things and took care of boxing things up. Rachel's friends stopped by every day, missing work so they could check on her, offering to stay with her if she wanted to talk or just needed company. And everyone in town came to the funeral. They had a meal ready afterward at the church, where people gathered and gave their condolences and support to Rachel.
I was in awe the entire two weeks as I watched this going on. I honestly didn't believe human beings were capable of being as kind and generous as the people in that town. When I used to hear that saying, 'he'd give you the shirt off his back' I thought it was a joke. Nobody would really do that. But the people in that tiny Indiana town would. They'd do anything to help their fellow neighbor.
Rachel inherited the farm and the house, but we decided not to sell it. It's the house she grew up in and she wasn't ready to let it go. So we found someone who wanted to rent it; a man from the next town over. He's in his thirties and married with two young children. He grew up farming with his father, so he'll be farming the land as well as living in the house. Rachel was happy that we found someone who would keep the farm going. We met the family and they seemed like good, hard-working people who would take excellent care of the house and the land.
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