by Jenna Payne
He came up with his hands raised in a sign of surrender. I felt McBride relax slightly behind me.
That was when I kicked my leg backward as hard as I could forcing my heel to connect with McBride’s groin.
He cried out in pain as he released me and his gun clattered to the pavement. Hastily, I ran forward and grabbed it awkwardly, my hands still tied at the wrists.
All the same, my fingers were just barely able to reach the trigger. I pointed the gun shakily at McBride.
For a moment, I thought it was over. That he would stay where he was until the police arrived.
Then, I saw his face change from a grimace of pain to a malicious and angry glower.
He lunged towards me and without thinking I pulled twice on the trigger. I heard a thud as McBride slumped to the ground.
When I lowered my shaking hands, I moved forward towards his still body.
I saw two bullet holes in his chest. One just at his heart.
His eyes seemed to be wide with surprise though I knew that he could no longer see, could no longer breath.
He was dead.
*****
The police arrived at the scene only two minutes after I shot McBride. Of course, I along with Mike and his buddies had to go down to the police office and give a statement.
We sat there for nearly two hours. Me with a blanket around my shoulders and Mike sitting beside me on the bench while he waited for Zach, Tom and Greg’s interviews to finish.
We didn’t talk when we were at the police station. We didn’t talk when Mike walked me home to the apartment building either. Though, I noticed just as we reached the door, Mike held it open for me, then took my hand in his as we walked up the stairs.
I smiled. But still, not a word was spoken until we were safely inside with the door firmly locked.
“So, what did they say?” he asked me referring to the statement I’d had to give the police.
.
“They said it looks like a pretty clear-cut case of self-defense,” I answered, “still, I’m not supposed to leave the city for the next couple of days.”
“Mom and Fred won’t like that,” Mike said.
Mike had called them as soon as we’d arrived at the police station. When I went in for my interview. Dad, apparently, was trying to insist that I come home immediately. And, while I didn’t want to admit it to anyone, that didn’t sound like a bad idea to me either.
“Yeah,” I said, “well, I’ve still got finals.”
“I can’t believe you still want to go through with your school stuff after all this,” Mike said, “I’m sure if you just explained to them what happened, they’d let you postpone it or something.”
I shook my head.
“I’ve worked too hard to let some asshole take this away from me,” I answered. “I need to finish.”
“If you say so,” Mike answered.
I stood by my table and Mike remained just inside the front door. I looked down at the chair next to me every once in awhile, wondering if I should sit down in it. I didn’t in the end.
Instead, I stayed stupidly standing just as Mike did. Wondering if this was as good a time as any to talk about what I’d wanted to discuss with Mike all day.
Despite everything that had happened, I had a feeling that, if we didn’t get it all out now, we never would. So, steeling myself I moved from the table towards him.
“So,” I began hesitantly, “weren’t we going to have a chat about what happened last night?”
I didn’t get the chance to finish because, the next thing I knew Mike had crossed the room in two strides. I barely had time to register his hands firmly on my waist before he was kissing me.
His tongue insistently explored my mouth as he moved me across the room and finally. pushed me up against the wall just beside my bed. I reached around his neck and clung to his shoulders for dear life. I feared if I didn’t, I would lose my balance.
His mouth left my lips only to move to my neck, biting and sucking at it in a way that made me gasp. His hands slipped quickly all down and along my body.
It would have been easy, so very easy not to talk anymore. To give into this incredible pleasure, even without knowing what it meant.
But, I knew I couldn’t do that.
With a sigh I forced words out of my mouth.
“Mike, we...oh god…” his hand had moved between my legs and I had to try and close them to get out the next words, “we really need to talk”
Slowly, he pulled his hand out from the space between my thighs, moved his lips from my neck and looked me in the eyes.
There was something there I had never seen in Mike before. It was a sort of desperate vulnerability. Almost as if he was terrified of something. I told myself that was silly. After all, the terror had passed.
All the same, here he was, looking at me thoroughly fearful.
“I almost lost you,” he said finally, “I...I almost couldn’t protect you and I…”
“You didn’t lose me,” I said gently, moving my hands to cup the side of his face, “I’m right here.”
“Sabrina,” he began, that terrified look still present in his eyes, “Sabrina, I love you.”
My heart skipped a beat. I could almost feel my breathing slow. I blinked twice, unable to believe what I had just heard.
“I love you,” Mike said again more quickly, “I’ve known that for a while now. I tried not to. I told myself it wouldn’t work but now I...I don’t think I can help it. It’s not something I can-”
This time, it was me who interrupted him with a kiss. It was soft, gentle and quick.
“I love you too,” I said beaming at him as I pulled away.
I was rewarded with another desperate searing kiss. His hand returned to the place where it had stopped before.
Soon, he had pulled my underwear down to my knees and was touching me desperately. Touching me as if I was the only thing standing between him and a long, slow, painful death.
I leaned my head back and emitted another moan as he kneaded my breasts through my shirt.
It was not long before he had ripped that off of me as well. My skirt came next. As soon as that hit the floor, he grabbed me from behind and picked me fully so that I had to wrap my legs around his waist.
He threw me onto the bed. As my head hit the plush pillows, he quickly began to remove his own clothing. I moved up to help him.
“No,” he said quietly but firmly, “stay right where you are. I just want to look at you while I do this. I just want to remember how incredibly lucky I am to be in love with such a beautiful woman.”
I smiled and did exactly as he asked. I did exactly as he asked the rest of the night too.
My little apartment was soon filled with moans and gasps from me and gently but commanding orders from him.
Phrases like “say my name,” “touch yourself” and “come for me, Sabrina” were what pushed me over the edge more than anything else he did.
Finally, with a last shout, we both fell back onto my too cold mattress. Utterly spent.
We were quiet for several moments before he spoke up.
“Does this mean you’ll wait for me while I’m off with my unit?” he asked.
“What do you think?” I asked with a sly smile.
“Okay then,” he answered, “that only leaves one question.”
“What’s that?” I asked.
He lifted his arm and put it around my shoulders, I moved close to him on the bench and snuggled into his side.
“What are we going to tell our parents?” he asked.
“I’m sure we’ll think of something,” I answered.
And that was that. That was how I managed, somehow, to fall in love with my stepbrother. And, no matter what anyone else says, no matter how weird anyone thinks it is, I couldn’t be happier.
The End
Bonus Story 9 of 40
Wrong in the Right Way
Michelle sat in the morning meeting wondering if she cou
ld train herself to sleep with her eyes open. The balding, monotone man from accounting was informing the team that their last magazine did not sell as well as originally anticipated. Their magazine covered a wide range of topics from politics to new trends in the fashion world. Michelle wasn’t surprised that last month’s issue didn’t sell well though; it was dedicated to ways that individuals could make the environment safer. It was boring, dull and filled with hard facts. It had not been her idea; not that she personally had anything against making the environment safer. But the sad fact was that readers didn’t get excited by long articles about how people were killing the environment, let alone want to spend money on a magazine issue dedicated to it.
“Michelle, what’s your take on this?”
A woman’s stern British accent broke through her thoughts causing her to wake from her zone. Michelle stared blankly at the current editor-in-chief, Nicki.
“I think we were rushing, we had a deadline to meet and well we dropped the ball, it won’t happen again,” Michelle responded recovering from her stupor.
“I would hope,” Nicki responded as she swung back around to face the accountant.
Michelle let out the breath that was accumulating within her lungs. She was basically gunning for Nicki’s position and it was like walking on needles. The tension was very apparent at this point considering Nicki knew of Michelle’s intention. The last couple months Nicki had been trying to find all sorts of things to blame on Michelle and her team. Michelle was under review by the owner of the magazine, too. But she was handling everything Nicki threw at her with class. She just had to stay on her toes for a while and not get herself into any unnecessary drama.
A vibration suddenly erupted from Michelle’s pocket, causing her to jump slightly. She fished her phone out quickly to avoid attention and silenced it. It was a text message from her best friend Rachel, who also worked at the magazine but in the IT department.
‘Save me from these idiots.’
Michelle stifled a laugh and looked around to make sure she wasn’t being watched before she replied.
‘I need the saving; listening to Bob from accounting is diminishing my will to live.’
Within a minute Rachel had replied.
‘HAHAHA you’re right, you do need saving more than me! Anyway I’m excited for San Diego next weekend!’
Michelle bit her lip nervously as she read the last line of Rachel’s text. Next weekend was a big deal for her because of one singular reason, Jackson Blake.
Jackson was a billionaire who was gaining attention because of his brash methods of taking over the corporate world. He was featured in their magazine in their top 10 sexy billionaire bachelors article, as well as other articles including being among the top 100 influential people in the world. However, Michelle knew him before he was Jackson the business tycoon. The two had grown up together. He was her stepbrother.
When Michelle was young, her mother Holly had gone on vacation to Las Vegas and come back a week later married to a widower named Steve. Steve had a son named Jackson, who was just a couple of years older than Michelle. Steve, like Michelle’s mother, was free spirited and believed in that love at first sight bit, even if it was in a smoke filled Las Vegas casino bar. Even at a young age Michelle saw the absurdity in what her mother did and of course didn’t approve. However, watching the two fall deeper and deeper in love with one another with each passing year changed her mind. This is why it tore her soul into two when Steve died of cancer after 20 years of loving marriage to Holly. Jackson was of course devastated, and Michelle spent a lot of time with him then, comforting him and helping with the arrangements. Holly was an emotional mess and frankly still was not over his passing.
Michelle sighed and leaned back in her chair as she momentarily tuned back in to reality just to find that Bob was still going on with numbers and projections. She went back to her text conversation with Rachel and replied, ‘yeah I’m excited too!’
The situation between Michelle and Jackson was that they had been incredibly close despite the difference in their personalities. Jackson was the street smart, fun loving, funny, adventurous, handsome kid who couldn’t be tamed. Michelle was the book smart, quiet, wallflower who didn’t quite know how to deal with people and would have just rather curled up with a book. The two had a close bond and Jackson was always there to protect her but also test her limits, which she supposed was good and bad considering her personality.
After Jackson’s father had passed, they saw less and less of each other, going onto different paths, Jackson bulldozing his way into the business world while Michelle worked behind the scenes in the publishing industry. Michelle sort of chuckled to herself at the realization that they hadn’t changed much over the years. In any case, they kept in touch through the occasional phone calls, emails, and text messages.
Michelle would have been lying if she said she didn’t miss him. She wished to see him again, but they were so far apart these days. So it was a complete surprise to her when one day a birthday invitation and two plane tickets to San Diego arrived at her home. Jackson expressed in the invitation how he missed her. He said he wanted her to be there to celebrate his birthday weekend. He also added she was welcome to invite her own guest; without a second thought, she called Rachel to ask if she wanted to attend.
“Michelle are you paying attention?”
Michelle looked around, momentarily forgetting where she was in the midst of her deep thoughts. She was faced with a very irritated Nicki who could see Michelle had mentally checked out of the meeting.
“Yes, yes of course,” Michelle lied anyway before proceeding to pretend she was writing down notes. If this meeting didn’t end soon she may just have to do some bodily harm to Bob.
*****
“I’ll be seeing you soon, are you excited?”
Jackson’s deep, smooth voice spoke to Michelle through the telephone line. Michelle lay down on her couch with her phone in her hand and a large smile on her face as she spoke with her stepbrother.
“Of course,” she responded shyly.
“Good. Chelle, you’re going to have the best time I promise. Are you bringing anyone?”
“Yes, my friend Rachel from work,” Michelle replied as she stood up to walk to her room. The flight to San Diego was tomorrow and she had yet to pack.
“Great, call me when you land, I’m going to come pick you guys up,” Jackson said, sounding like he was moving around some papers.
“Ok, sounds good,” Michelle said. “Hey Jackson?”
“Yes Chelle?”
Michelle bit her lip. She wanted to say what was in her heart but found something was holding her back.
“Nothing, I’m excited to see you and I’ll talk to you later.”
“Chelle?”
“Yes Jackson?”
“I missed you, see you soon, bye.”
Michelle looked at the phone and realized her cheeks had been burning due to what he had said. She shook her head and removed herself from the cloud she was on.
“Get it together Michelle,” she told herself as she went back to her room to get started on the difficult task of packing before preparing for bed.
*******
In the quiet early morning of the day of the trip, an incessant knock echoed through Michelle’s apartment. Michelle groaned, pulling the covers over her bed as she prayed for whoever it was to go away. Just as the noise of the knocking quietened down, her phone took its place in disturbing the peace.
Michelle let out yet another groan as she searched for her phone and through one eye peeked who was calling her at this hour.
“Shit!”
Michelle saw that Rachel was calling and saw the time; it was already 6 in the morning. Their flight left at 9 and she was not at all ready. Michelle scrambled out of bed as she answered the call.
“Michelle I can’t believe you’re still sleeping, you must not want to go!”
“I do, I’m coming to let you in now!”
&
nbsp; Michelle ran down the short flight of stairs to let Rachel in before quickly doing a turnaround back up the stairs to go get ready. This was the day she was going to see Jackson and everything in her being was nervous about it
“You are unbelievable Michelle,” Rachel said as she dragged her suitcase into Michelle’s place, but stayed by the door. There was no time to sit and get cozy; they still had to make their way to the airport soon.
After hurriedly getting ready, brushing her teeth and throwing her hair back in a messy bun, they left for the airport. Michelle made sure to pack Jackson’s present safely in her luggage before flying down the stairs in a simple grey dress and black heels, and her travel suitcase.
“Finally,” Rachel said with a sigh as she glanced at her watch.
“Sorry, I spent all night trying to figure out what to bring,” Michelle said with a sigh as they left the house to meet their taxi ride to the airport.
“Sounds like someone is looking to get lucky,” Rachel said with a smirk as they got into the cab which promptly took off.
One long flight later the two women had reached sunny San Diego. They stepped out of the crowded airport to greet the warm sun and cool breeze. A smile tugged at the corner of Michelle’s lips as she let the sun warm her skin. This was going to be an amazing weekend.
“So where is he, can we go back inside and wait?”
Michelle looked over at Rachel who was digging in her purse; she eventually pulled out a tube of sun screen and began lathering herself with it. Michelle shook her head; she had forgotten the beautifully pale Rachel was not a fan of long exposure to the sun.
“A little sun isn’t going to kill you,” Michelle said under her breath as she pulled out her phone to call Jackson.
In a matter of minutes a shiny black car pulled up in front of the two women. Upon seeing the car, Michelle hung up and clutched the phone in her hand nervously. She stared at the black car with tinted windows with the feeling that it was Jackson who was inside.
The door swung open suddenly from the passenger side and a long, bare, feminine leg in blood red heels stepped out of the vehicle. They belonged to a tall, brunette, model type woman in a skin tight black dress.
