by Claire Adams
“Blake?” I whispered, as I looked around the room. “What on earth is all this?”
“Happy Valentine’s Day, Teach,” he smiled, as he pulled me to him and kissed me softly.
“How on earth did you do this?” I asked, confused about how he’d managed to get the house decorated without me knowing.
“I have my ways,” he grinned, before kissing me again.
“No, I’m serious,” I said, stepping back as I looked around. “How did you do this?”
“I called KO and asked for help,” he shrugged. “She had some of her friends come in and decorate after you left to come pick me up.”
“Ah ha, you have helpers,” I smiled, as the mystery was solved.
“I bought the flowers and wrapped the gift,” he said a little defensively. “They just hung the lights. Notice there is no fire in this setup.”
“What?” I said, before realizing he was teasing. I lightly slapped his arm as I laughed, “You’re mean.”
“Well, I figured you, fire, and holidays are never a good mix,” he grinned, as he pulled me to the couch and sat down. I joined him as he handed me the shiny box.
“This is beautiful,” I said, turning it over and admiring his handiwork. “You did a nice job, but you really didn’t have to.”
“I know I didn’t,” he leaned over and whispered, before kissing my cheek. “But I wanted to.”
I carefully unwrapped the package, and inside found a beautiful cashmere scarf and matching gloves in a gorgeous shade of cornflower blue. I wound the scarf around my neck and pulled on the gloves, marveling at the softness.
“Oh Blake, these are beautiful,” I sighed, as I reached out and stroked his cheek with a cashmere-covered hand.
“Mmmm, soft. Just like you,” he said, as he leaned in and closed his eyes. “I thought the color matched your eyes perfectly.”
“You’re so sweet,” I said, replacing my glove with my lips.
“How sweet?” he asked, as he opened his eyes and turned to face me. He raised one hand and gently trailed the tips of his fingers down my cheek.
“Very sweet,” I sighed, as I leaned into his caress, and then sighed as he took my face in his hands and bent down to kiss me. A wave of pure desire swept through my body as I felt his lips on mine, and I quickly pulled off the gloves and tossed them on the table.
“Emily…” Blake whispered into my lips. “I need you.”
“Yes,” I whispered back, as I opened my eyes and looked into his. “I need you, too.”
He quickly stood up and scooped me up into his arms in one swift motion. When I opened my mouth to protest, he silenced me with another long kiss as he walked toward the bedroom, where he gently sat me down on the bed and knelt between my legs as he began to remove my clothes.
He slowly pulled my sweater over my head, stopping for a moment to lean forward and run his lips across the tops of my breasts, making me shiver. Tossing my sweater aside, he reached around and unhooked my bra with one hand.
“You’re quite an expert at that, Mr. Gaston,” I smiled.
“Beginner’s luck,” he grinned. I chuckled softly as I shook my head and reached out to unbutton his shirt. Blake shook his head and said, “Nope, it’s my turn now.”
He stood up and lifted me so that he could shift me onto the bed and lower me onto the pillows. Again, he kissed me as he slowly ran one hand down the length of my torso and back up to lazily circle one already-hard nipple. The teasing was agonizingly exquisite, and I sighed as I gave in and let him take his time.
Blake bent forward and kissed his way along my jawline before running his tongue down the side of my neck. I could feel the line of fire he’d created crackling down between my legs as he covered one of my nipples with his mouth and began alternating between flicking it with his tongue and sucking it with his lips. A soft moan escaped my lips as he bathed the hardened nub with his tongue before moving to the other one.
“Oh God, Blake….” I moaned, as he moved back and forth between them, licking and sucking until the pleasure was almost more than I could bear.
I felt his hand moving down my stomach until he could unbutton and unzip my jeans. He sat up long enough to peel the denim fabric off my body, and then he sat looking down at me for a long time.
“What are you doing?” I asked, as he gently stroked my thighs, but made no move to go any higher.
“I’m drinking you in,” he said, sweeping down my body with a glance. “You’re so beautiful, and I want to fix this moment in my memory.”
“Blake…” I moaned, as he slipped his hand between my thighs and spread them. With his thumb, he traced a path on the thin fabric of my panties from top to bottom until they were soaked with my wetness. I writhed under his caresses, pushing my hips up against his hand, but he pulled back before I could find any relief in his large, solid hand.
“Mmmm, yes,” he murmured, as he leaned forward and kissed me again. This time, he slid his tongue along my lips until I parted them and let my tongue find his. Without leaving the kiss, he pulled his hand from between my legs and quickly shed his own clothing. Before I knew it, he had looped his thumbs in the side of my panties and pulled them down around my ankles as he buried his face between my legs.
“Mmmm, you’re so wet,” he murmured, as he reached up and spread my thighs so that he could have full access to what lay between them. The moment I felt his tongue on my skin, I began to moan, bucking my hips up to meet his expert tongue. He parted my lips and glided his tongue up and down between the velvety folds as he used two fingers to tease my now-dripping opening.
“Blake!” I cried, as he slipped his fingers inside me, but stayed too shallow to offer me any hope of release.
“Good girl,” he said, lifting his head to look up at me. “Lay back and enjoy it. You taste amazing.”
“Oh God,” I moaned, as he returned to his task, licking and teasing until I thought I was going to lose my mind. I could feel his fingers stroking my inner walls as he licked and licked and licked. I cried out, “Blake, please!”
A moment later he was beside me, kissing my lips and running one hand through my hair as he rolled a condom on with the other.
“Mmm hmmm,” I moaned, as I lifted my hips, urging him to give me what I wanted. He positioned himself above me, never taking his lips from mine as he spread my legs and rubbed the tip of his rigid shaft between my nether lips, coating it in my wetness.
He pushed a few inches inside of me and then held still. I could feel him hard and thick, and I wanted to thrust my hips up and force him all the way inside me, but he shook his head and continued his slow thrust, stopping after another inch.
“Blake, oh God, what are you doing?” I cried. “I need you! All of you!”
“I need you, too, Emily,” he murmured. “I just want to take my time with you. I want you to feel good.”
“I do, I do, I do,” I panted. “I’d feel better if you were all the way inside me!”
And with one quick thrust, he was.
I cried out as I felt him filling me up. Nothing had ever felt this good before. He began slowly moving his hips, first in small circles, and then up and down, pulling halfway out before pushing all the way back in. I could feel every inch of him moving inside me, stroking my G-spot as he maintained a steady pace.
Out. Wait. In. Out. Wait. In.
“Blake! Blake!” I cried, as I ground my hips against his pelvis, feeling the pressure bringing me closer and closer to orgasm.
And in an instant, I felt the wave move through me. Starting slow and deep inside and spreading out until it consumed my whole body. A loud moan escaped my lips as I arched my back and let go. Blake maintained his pace until I gripped his upper arms and moaned insistently, “Now! Now! Take me! Hard!”
He braced himself and began thrusting hard and fast. I could feel him going deep, and it pushed me over the edge again. I cried out as he moved faster and faster. The pounding of his hips meeting mine made me grip his shaft as
he chased his own release.
He groaned loudly as he let go and followed me to the other side. I could feel him throbbing and jerking as he came. He held me tight as his hips continued thrusting forward almost of their own volition. I wrapped my arms around him and held him against my naked chest as we both lay panting as we tried to catch our breath.
It was a long time before he raised his head, but when he did, he cupped my face with one hand and kissed me tenderly.
“You’re amazing, Teach,” he grinned.
“You’re not so bad yourself,” I sighed, with a weary smile. “You feel so good.”
“Likewise,” he murmured, as he thrust his hips forward again and made me moan.
We lay tangled up in each other for a long time. Not talking, just touching and kissing and enjoying the way it felt to have all the time in the world. Blake pulled the blankets up over us, saying, “I have to get home and check on Nina, but it’s still early, isn’t it?”
“Mmmm, dunno,” I murmured, as I snuggled up in his arms and rested my cheek against his chest. “Maybe just a little while longer?”
“If I have my way, it’ll be a lot longer,” he whispered, as he kissed the top of my head and ran his hand down the length of my body.
I closed my eyes and tried to let go of the fear that something bad would happen — like it had every other time that things were going well in my life.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Blake
Reluctant to leave the warmth of Emily’s body and bed, I called a cab and headed home just after midnight. On the ride, I thought about all the ways in which Emily’s sudden appearance in my life had made it so much better. She’d helped Nina find a way to improve her grades, she’d formed a close relationship with my parents, and she’d become the person I wanted to see first thing in the morning and last thing at night.
It was the first time in a long time that I felt optimistic about my personal life and about Nina, but the prospect of asking Remy to let Nina live with me weighed heavy on my mind. I had thought about it from all angles and had come to the conclusion that no matter how I approached the issue, Remy was going to be pissed. The best shot I had at it was basing it on Nina’s improved school performance. I was just going to have to cross my fingers and dive in.
When the cab pulled into the driveway, I saw that all the lights were off. I shrugged it off, thinking Nina had gone to bed and forgotten to flip on the porch light. I entered the house as quietly as I possibly could, and tiptoed down the hall to Nina’s room. I put my ear to the door, and when I couldn’t hear anything, I cracked the door and peeked into her room.
Nina’s bed was empty.
Thinking she might have fallen asleep on the couch while watching a movie, I walked back out to the living room to check. She wasn’t there.
“Nina?” I called, in the empty front room. “Where are you? Nina?”
When I got no response, I marched over to the back door and flung it open yelling into the yard, “Nina Marie Gaston! Where are you?”
No one replied.
“Jesus H. Christ, where the hell are you?” I muttered, as I went back into the house and searched every room, yelling Nina’s name as I checked bathrooms and closets.
When it became clear that Nina was nowhere in the house, I picked up my phone and called her, but was sent straight to voice mail. I sent a text that simply said, “WHERE ARE YOU?” before I called Emily. She didn’t answer, so I left a message and then sat down at the kitchen table to try and make a list of all the friends Nina might be with and all the places they might have gone.
I methodically called each girl on the list of friends and was only mildly surprised to find them still up on a school night. Not one of them would admit to having seen or heard from Nina, and since I couldn’t see their faces, I had no idea if they were telling the truth or simply covering for my errant daughter.
With every call, I became more worried. I began wondering if Nina had been taken rather than run away. I quickly dismissed the idea since there was no evidence of a struggle. After the last girl claimed she knew nothing about Nina’s disappearance, I called Emily and was transferred to voice mail.
“Em, Nina’s missing,” I said. “I’ve called all her friends, and now I’m going to go out and check out the places where the kids hang out. If you can think of anything I might have missed, will you call me?”
I waited a few seconds, wondering if I should say something else, and then hung up. I thought about driving over to Emily’s and waking her up, but I knew she had to be at school early and I didn’t want to keep her out all night chasing a daughter I should have kept an eye on.
“Goddamn it, Nina!” I shouted at the empty house. “Your mother is going to have a shit fit about this, and will definitely blame me!”
I thought about calling Remy, but the prospect of having to deal with her rage over the phone was more than I could handle at the moment. I was holding out hope that I’d find Nina hanging out with friends somewhere in town, and I didn’t want Remy to punish her — or me — for Nina being an irresponsible teenager.
I grabbed some bottled water, a couple of granola bars, and pulled my coat back on before heading out to the truck. I quickly mapped out a route that would take me past all of the places where teenagers had a tendency to hang out in Waltham, then backed out of the driveway.
At the first stop, a convenience store on the edge of the city, the kids in the parking lot said they hadn’t seen Nina since school let out earlier in the day. I asked them if they knew where she might have gone, and they shrugged as they suggested around the back of the Waltham Mall or maybe the arcade. I suspected that they knew more than they were telling me, but I had no proof, so I let it go and headed toward the center of the city.
The Mall parking lot was deserted, and at the arcade, none of the kids hanging around playing 80’s video games had any suggestions for other possible hangout spots. I left the arcade and sat in the cab of the truck, wracking my brain for any clue that Nina might have dropped.
All I knew was that when Emily and I had left for the game, Nina was in her room. I tried Emily again, but only got her voice mail. This time I didn’t leave a message. It was well past 2 in the morning, and I was officially worried.
I sighed as I put the car in drive and headed for the Waltham Police Department to file a report and see if I could get some help locating my daughter.
Remy was going to kill me.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Emily
Way before the alarm went off the next morning, I woke up with a ginger paw resting on my cheek and a pair of green eyes staring at me.
“Well, good morning, Mr. Zinn,” I yawned, as I reached out to pat Howard’s head. He blinked twice, then turned and hopped down off the bed and sat on the floor, staring up at me. I took a quick peek at the clock and saw that it was 4 in the morning. I looked down at Howard and sighed, “Breakfast, already?”
Howard mewed once, then turned and swished his tail as he stalked toward the kitchen. I slid out from under the warmth of my comforter and slipped into the fuzzy robe laying on the foot of my bed. It was entirely too early to be up, but I knew that it was unlikely that I’d be able to go back to sleep even if I stayed in bed. I consoled myself with the fact that I could probably get all of the History class’ papers graded before I had to leave for school.
In the kitchen, I started the coffee before I dished up Howard’s breakfast, and when I went to pick up his food bowl, I yelled, “Howard! What the hell?”
Draped across the bowl was the headless body of a mouse. Howard looked at me, then looked away as he began furiously grooming his head with one paw. The mouse was fairly small, but it had obviously met a rather gruesome end. I wasn’t sure what creeped me out more, the headless mouse or the fact that I knew that where there was one, there was likely to be others.
“Way to follow directions, buddy,” I grimaced. I lifted the small gray corpse by its tail and walked to the b
ack door. “But seriously, Howard, this is not a good way to wake up. Next time leave it by the back door, okay?”
I shuddered as I flung the decapitated mouse into the garbage pail just outside the back door, and quickly returned to the warmth of the kitchen. Howard had hopped up onto the counter and watched intently as I scooped out his breakfast kibble and mixed it with half a can of wet food.
“I’m surprised you’re still hungry,” I said, as I set the bowl down in front of him and watched as he dived in. I poured myself a mug of coffee and took it into the living room, where I sat on the couch, flipped open the file of History papers I’d left on the coffee table, and picked up where I’d left off.
I’d worked my way through half of them by the time my alarm went off, and when I went to shut it off, I remembered that I hadn’t checked my phone. I pulled it off the charger and looked at the screen. There was an Amber Alert with Nina’s name on it and three calls from Blake, but only one message. I listened to it, and before it was half over, I was dialing Blake’s number.
“Hello?” Blake answered groggily.
“Blake, it’s Emily,” I said breathlessly. “What the hell’s going on? Did you find Nina?”
“Oh, Em, hey,” he said, as he tried to get his bearings. “No, I drove around for a couple of hours, but I couldn’t find her anywhere.”
“I’m assuming the police issued the Amber Alert,” I said.
“Yeah, they said it’s unlikely she’s been kidnapped, but the alert would mean that people would be actively looking for her,” he said.
“I’m so sorry I didn’t answer my phone,” I said. “I should have left it on.”
“How were you supposed to know that Nina would run away?” he sighed.
“Do you really think she ran away?” I asked.
“You saw how pissed she was at me last night before we left,” he replied. “She can be a hothead when she’s mad.”
