Driftwood Cove Trilogy: Complete Series

by E. C. Towers

  She took in a sharp breath and sat up suddenly, racked with pain but still pulling the blanket up to cover herself. Derek loved her modesty. Even after having sex all night, she still felt like she had to cover herself up around him. As if her body weren’t tan, smooth and delicious. Derek laid back and hung his head over the edge of the bed to stretch.

  “Ah, your damn stomach again. Listen, when are you going to stop getting worried about this? You're just dropping off a backpack, like last time. In and out in ten seconds, sweetie. It's no big deal.”

  Linda looked at him as he laid there, cool as a cat, as he always was. Nothing ever ruffled him, which is likely why he was so good at what he did. She saw his tight abs contract as he sat up and faced her. Derek ran his fingers on the sheet she was holding against herself and pulled them down slowly. The first rays of morning light shone on her chest, showcasing her naked body, which Derek took it in, as determined wolf eyes his prey.

  He wanted her again.

  Derek cupped her left breast in his hand, placing her nipple between his thumb and forefinger. The roughness of his skin would be enough to make her wet. Derek looked damn near magical in the sunlight, his long, swimmer's body, taut abs, broad shoulders; she thought he was breathtaking. Worse, Derek knew he was attractive and didn't even pretend to possess modesty. He made a point to show it off to get what he wanted from women whenever he could.

  Linda wasn't surprised that he wanted to make love again with the sun lighting the room. He was visually stimulated by the sight of both of them, and the morning light offered a perfect view of their tangled bodies in the mirrored bedroom wall. Derek had mentioned that it was installed so she could model for him after one of her shopping trips, but she had caught him admiring his own form more often than enjoying the sight of her own.

  Derek maintained eye contact as he touched his lips to her nipple to tease it with the tip of his moist, warm tongue. She tightened her thighs together as she convulsed with pleasure. He barely grazed the tip, but it was enough to send electrical charges straight to her clit. Linda was wet almost immediately.

  “You know how much we're going to get for not even three minutes of our time, Linda? Hmm?” he whispered, nuzzling her breast and breathing her in.

  Derek kissed the swells of her cleavage, lingering on each breast and rolling his tongue around her areoles, making them hard as rocks.

  When Derek suddenly stopped, causing Linda to open her eyes, he was inches away from her face. She knew he was serious upon seeing the warmth leave his eyes to turn a dark, ominous shade. It was as if someone had dropped ink onto his retinas, and Derek was possessed of an entirely different persona.

  “$50,000. You drop off the backpack, and you make $50,000. Just you. That's just your half. So you can't be pulling this stomach cramp bullshit, do you hear me?”

  His jaw clenched as he tried to control his frustrations with her. She was a little too soft and fragile for this type of thing, but it was also exactly why she was the best kind of mule. She was a beautiful, unassuming, well-to-do college girl, who barely knew Spanish; no one would ever suspect that she was doing drug drop-offs like a young vato from East L.A.

  Linda met his gaze and nodded slowly. Yes, she would do it. She had no other choice.

  In an instant, Derek returned to his role of loving boyfriend. He kissed her lovingly, slowly, and easily broke down what defense she had left. Her self-control was no match for his soft, plush lips that seem to fit just perfectly between her’s.

  “Baby, if I didn't think it was safe, I wouldn't send you. You know that.” He kissed her delicate face again and again.

  As frustrating as she was, Derek had never been as in love with a woman as he was with Linda. She was his soulmate; he never doubted it for a minute. When he saw her walking on the street almost a year ago, the impression he felt was electric, and he knew he would claim her.

  Derek finally closed his eyes to continue kissing her, feeling his cock twitch with the anticipation of having her again. He felt her breasts press against his chest, and her light arms draped warmly around his tight shoulders. He lowered her back down to the bed before laying his naked body on top of hers.

  Linda looked at his unwavering face as he mounted her, feeling his thick cock on her thigh before he slipped it inside. Her pussy ached from the night’s play, and he slipped it in as gently as his patience would allow. Even after six months of dating, she wasn't quite used to taking him all in. Linda gasped and tried to relax as he urged himself into her. It always felt as if he were stretching her beyond what she thought was possible. Slowly sliding his girth in and out to wet himself, they became one, and he rhythmically thrust himself into her.

  The cavernous emptiness he left when he pulled out made her burn to be filled with him again and again. The need for his solid cock to be inside turned her into an animal, at once. She opened up to him, raised her hips and encouraged him to push into her faster and faster until it drove her into a blissful madness. His balls slapped against her anus as he filled her, and Linda ran her hands down to his muscular ass, squeezing it as she tried to pull him deeper inside of her. Soon, the pace of their lovemaking increased into an almost frantic fuck. Linda was momentarily lost in the moment, forgetting about everything and reveling in the powerful orgasms that overcame her body in waves, again and again.

  The sound of her wetness as Derek fucked her drove him over the edge. With one final thrust, he buried his himself deep inside her, feeling the build up of his orgasm before he mercilessly pulled out. He grabbed Linda by the hair to pull her face to his cock, which glistened with her wetness.

  "Open your mouth," he exhaled as if there could be no other conclusion to this ritual. She gasped to feel the heat of his juice shoot through her lips and onto her tongue. The power of this domination made her heart pound wildly while her hand stroked the burning clit between her fingers. The moment usually ended for him in this way, this act of feeding her, marking her as his property. The remaining spasms jerked his body angrily, and what was left of his intended aim shot wildly to baptize her face.

  In a way, she hated it: the raw, uncivilized manner of his brutish climax. Still, it always made her feel as if she were more loved than at any other moment of her life. Linda put two wet fingers inside of her and moaned as another orgasm finished and exhausted her. When her mind started to return to her, and the cooling semen tickled down her cheek, she finally reached for something to wipe it.

  The sex was always like this. It was more than enough to delude her into thinking that the remaining elements of their relationship were perfect.

  3

  La Iglesia

  An hour later, she found herself again at the gate of her fears. The excitement and satisfaction Linda had felt during their morning sex had fizzled away and been replaced with pure fear. She stood outside a church, feeling her whole body buzzing as if she was being electrocuted by her anxiety. Linda was ignoring her body, which gave her a physical warning; a weird tickling throughout her being, as if to scream, “Don't do this!!!”

  Determined to get it done and over with, Linda took a deep breath and entered the door. The church smelled of a stale wood finish, old books, and a faint floral perfume, probably left by the older ladies from this morning's congregation. The combination of smells made her stomach lurch. Linda forced her feet to move with each step, walking slowly down between the rows of wooden benches. She stopped and sat in the second row on the right side of the church, as she had been instructed. Thankfully, no one was sitting there. In fact, there were only two people in the church, on their knees in the front of the altar, deep in their prayers and the lighting of candles.

  Linda sat down in a pew close to the rear and placed the backpack in front of her, pushing it slightly into the aisle to allow for an easy switch. She lowered her head as if to pray, and immediately heard the church door creek and a quiet, shuffling of someone walking towards her.

  Normally, Linda never had the urge to study th
e other mule with much scrutiny. In fact, she avoided eye contact if all possible, as if seeing the person’s face would somehow botch the job. She felt another backpack plop in front of hers, and then footsteps again, as the person walked up to light a few candles, pretending to be just another worshiper. Everything was going according to plan, as usual. She would be fine and safe in Derek's car in a few minutes. Linda kept telling herself this as a sort of mantra to try and slow down the frantic beating of her heart.

  Linda remained seated with her head down, as if in prayer, and waited for the other mule to arrive at her pew. It seemed to be taking forever, and just as she opened her eyes to look for the person, she suddenly saw a hand grab her bag.

  A small hand.

  Linda popped her head up and looked into the eyes of a young boy, who was probably no older than eight years old, his face framed by bowl haircut and wearing a stained Super Mario Brothers shirt.

  As if being controlled by some unseen force, she grabbed his little wrist and forced him to drop the backpack. The boy looked at her in fear, not quite knowing what was going on. He was likely told only to retrieve the backpack and leave; not talk to some gringa in a floppy hat and blue sun dress.

  “What are you doing here?” she asked as if she was his mother who had caught him ditching school. The little boy tried to pull away from her, but Linda held fast to his wrist. “What are you doing here?”

  Linda whispered again, before realizing that the boy probably didn't speak English.

  “¿Dónde está tu mama?”

  God, she had hoped that was the right way to ask, "Where is your mother?” She wished she hadn't been so lackadaisical in her high school Spanish class. The little boy scowled, yanked his arm back and grabbed the backpack, moving briskly out of the church. It was at that time that Linda had woken up to what was happening. Is this what she had become? Some lovesick puppy that agreed to become someone's drug mule? She was supposed to be here to focus on school and volunteer work, but instead she had fulfilled the minimum school requirements and devoted the rest of her time to Derek. And now she was here, making dangerous decisions that could get her killed all for a guy. That little boy didn't know any better, but she did. She didn't like what she was becoming and felt a sudden surge of anger towards Derek and his complete lack of concern for her well-being. His carelessness with her heart waited until this very moment to weigh on her will.

  After a few minutes, Linda finally got up and walked out of the church back into the hot light. As she felt the heat and humidity hit her once again, she squinted and looked two streets down to the left, where Derek was supposed to be parked. Linda saw him sitting there with a quizzical look on his face. He leaned out of the window, putting his hands slightly up in the air, as if to ask, “Where have you been?” She saw that he was slightly irritated, glaring at her from behind his sunglasses. It was the first time Linda saw him without the fog-covered glasses she had worn over the past few months.

  This man was bad news. He is going to get you killed. It's time. You need to leave.

  NOW.

  Linda took off in the opposite direction from where Derek was, still clutching the backpack full of money. She heard the roar of Derek's Challenger come to life and the shriek of tires burning on the asphalt. Linda ran even faster, hugging the bag into her chest. There was no way she was going to outrun his car, moving to slip into an alley.

  Derek, in a fit of anger and rage, steered his car full-throttle into the alley she had run into and gassed his vehicle angrily to catch up with her. He didn't give any thought to he fact that his car might have been too wide to fit through the space until the squeal of metal biting against brick halted him to a stop. He struggled to get the door open, but it had been jammed shut by the wall. By the time he climbed out through the window, Linda was long gone.

  She ran towards the back of the building and used the alleys to get back onto the main street where she hailed a cab and told the driver to take her to the airport. It was the last time she had seen Derek.

  4

  A Compromise

  “If you want to go back to your boat, it's not going to happen,” he told her, bluntly.

  “If you don't think I can't kick your ass and get back on my boat, then you have another thing coming,” she responded through a steeled her jaw as old resentments and grudges got hold of her, feeling as fresh and new as they used to be.

  Derek smiled again, getting a kick of this new version of Linda. The girl he knew and loved would have never dared approach him with such ferocity.

  "You don't have to become violent, Linda. I'm just saying your boat has been moved to a secret location,” he grinned. “And you're going to need me to get it back again.”

  She flipped her head around to look to the end of the dock, almost a quarter mile behind her, and sighed at her stupidity. Of course, he had taken her boat; what was she thinking, trusting him?

  “Goddamn it, I don't even know why I came here!” she said, nudging him out of the way, storming off back to the dock.

  “Then why did you?” he yelled out, as he jogged behind her.

  He caught up to match her long strides.

  “You know why you did?” he whispered to her, as if to tell her a secret.

  She stopped walking and turned to face him.

  “Why? Why did I? Enlighten me.”

  She genuinely wanted to know what convoluted story Derek could have come up with in his head to make him think that her natural inclination was to run to him for help, when they hadn't seen each other in almost 20 years.

  “Because when the going gets rough, no matter how shitty it's been between us, you know I have your back. Always. You know that.”

  Linda looked down, not wanting to have to look him in the eye and admit to herself that he was right. She had gone back to Derek; despite everything, deep down, she still trusted him. And she had no doubts that Derek would go to the ends of the earth to help her through this situation.

  Knowing that her silence was the same as agreement, Derek put his arm around Linda and held her close.

  "Listen, come back. Let's sit down and start over, okay? I promise I won't be such a dick. I'm just hurt, you know? I mean, do you blame me? Look at you. Anybody would go crazy about losing you. Gotta cut me a break, okay?"

  He said all of this with a loving tone, smiling even wider with a mischievous twinkle in his eye.

  “God, you're still so full of shit," Linda answered with a faint grin, despite her anger.

  “Yeah, well, that's what you fell in love with.”

  Derek turned ahead of her without waiting for Linda to return, confident she would follow him back to the table, and she did. A wiser person could see he was beaming underneath his reserved manner as he pulled out her chair again, happy to lighten up the mood.

  “Listen,” he said, sitting back down to continue his abandoned cigarette, "you can have your boat any time," Derek reassured her, handing Linda a pass to a gate at the cargo shipyard where her yacht had been hidden amongst colossal carriers from around the world.

  “If you want your boat back, just go over there and show them this pass. I moved it only as a precaution, and your staff is receiving the full attention of my port smith. I knew you were in some trouble if you were calling me. I assumed if you were running away, then someone was bound to be looking for you. Your yacht would be the first thing they'd try to find. And from what you've told me, my assumptions were correct.”

  Linda took the pass from him, and for the first time since she got here, felt confident that finding Derek had been the right thing to do. He was already thinking ahead, and that's what she needed right now while she tried to figure out what she would do next.

  “If you didn't want to get caught, then why did you leave?”

  “What do you mean? Have you heard anything I've said?” she asked, defensively.

  “Yes, Linda, I heard you. But taking off immediately makes you look suspicious.”

  “Perhaps
, but having a corpse on my boat looks more than suspicious. When they find his body a day or two from now, they'll assume it had happened before I left. Connecting Tim to me will be a stretch.

  “You think they can’t tell the age of the bullet wound? There will be a connection, Linda. They'll find the connection somehow, especially if he's been stalking you, or if they break down your two friends that witnessed it.”

  “No, they wouldn't do that.”

  “Always so trusting,” Derek chuckled, shaking his head.

  “Always so cynical,” Linda replied.

  “Cynical? No, only being realistic, love.”

  She didn't bother to argue with him. It was pointless.

  “My suggestion for you is to hide out here for at least three months until everything dies down. Your boat is safe, moored behind the larger vessels in my shipping port. Your crew can live aboard while it’s there, or they can come into town and enjoy the city for as long as they like. I’m sure they’re already being compensated handsomely, so why wouldn’t they enjoy a bit of paid leisure time?” he smiled. “And you can stay with me.”

  “Oh no, no, no, no,” she shook her head, erratically. Linda was absolutely not staying with him, “That's not part of the plan. I'll find a place to stay on my own, thank you very much.”

  “And how are you going to pay for it? A credit card they can trace when they get wind that you were involved in that guy's disappearance? Or did you have the sense to bring back my backpack full of cash?”