by Jill Sanders
She shook her head. “No, don’t slow down. Don’t stop. Not now. Not when I’m so close.” She squeezed her thighs, holding him tighter to her.
At that moment, he would have given her anything. Done anything to make her beg him some more.
His hips sped up, and his mind whirled, as he watched her tongue dart out and lick her bottom lip. His eyes lowered to her exposed nipple and he watched it pucker for his view.
Groaning, he tossed his head back and shouted her name as he felt her inner muscles tighten around him.
An hour later, he sat in his kitchen at his bar and tried to get the image of Marina with her dress hiked up out of his mind. They had hastily eaten the Thai food she’d brought. She’d left right before the work crew had returned from their lunch.
He had just gotten his mind clear and was working on approving some orders for the restaurant when his phone rang.
Smiling, he answered and stepped out on his balcony.
“Can’t stay away from me very long, huh?” He smiled.
“Stay away from the bitch or she’ll burn.” The voice was low and garbled and put him instantly on alert.
“What have you done with Marina?” he asked, rushing back into the house and picking up his home phone.
“Stay away from her!” The scream was so loud, he had to pull the phone away from his ear as he dialed 911 with the other phone.
“Where—?” he started to say, but he heard a click and the line went dead.
Marina left Trent’s apartment feeling like she was floating down the street. She was sure that everyone she passed could guess that she had just had mind-blowing, countertop sex with the man of her dreams. But she didn’t care.
Her plan had worked. She’d never gone over to a man’s place and seduced him before. She had dressed for the purpose of stopping by his place. The garters had been a last-minute add that she was now thankful for.
On the way there, she had almost backed out several times. She’d stopped in a small Thai restaurant and it had taken all her willpower to finally leave with a to-go order and the courage to follow through.
When she finally got to her apartment, she was shocked to find a dozen cops standing outside the doorway. Police cars were blocking the road and there was a yellow rope blocking off the stairs. There must have been thirty people standing outside the barriers, watching what was going on.
Fear instantly jumped into her mind. “What’s going on?” she asked someone standing next to her as she tried to push her way farther forward.
“A woman was kidnapped,” the man said, keeping his eyes on the building.
Her mind flashed to an image of Julie. “Oh, no.” She pushed harder. “Please, let me through. I live here,” she said just as the crowd parted.
“Marina!” someone shouted. She turned and saw Julie running towards her. Instantly, she relaxed, knowing her friend was okay.
“You’re okay?” she asked her as her friend hugged her tightly.
“Me? What about you?” Julie asked.
“I’m fine.” She frowned at her friend. “Who was kidnapped?” She looked around the building.
“You, apparently,” Julie said, motioning towards a rather large police officer. “This is Marina Jenkins and apparently she doesn’t know that she’s been kidnapped,” Julie said, laughing.
“What?” Marina turned on her friend. Then her mind sharpened. “Tommy!” She started rushing towards the school, only to have an officer stop her.
“We’ve sent a female officer to go get your son. She’s on her way back here with him now.” He took her arm and steered her towards the front doors. “If you don’t mind, we’d like to straighten out a few things.
Just then, there was a loud squeal as Trent’s car pulled up behind the barriers.
“Marina!” he shouted as he ran towards her. He rushed through the barrier, almost knocking down a skinny cop in his path. He didn’t stop until she was in his arms. He said her name over and over again in her hair.
Fifteen minutes later, she sat in her small living room with Trent, Julie, and two of New York’s finest investigators. Tommy was in his room, completely content to have gotten out of school for the rest of the day and extra excited that he had actually gotten to ride in a real police car. The female officer had even run the sirens and lights for him.
She and her partner were sticking around and playing with him in his room while Marina went over a few things with the investigator.
The first question had thrown her for a loop.
“Miss Jenkins, do you know the whereabouts of your cell phone?”
“It’s in my purse,” she said, reaching down to empty her handbag. But when she dumped the contents out, her phone was not there. “Well, it was.”
“When was the last time you used your phone?”
“She called me from it around noon,” Julie said, reaching over and taking her friend’s hand.
“Yes, it was ten till and I was checking to make sure Julie was going to get Tommy today. We swap days now.” She smiled over at her friend.
“Where were you when you called her?” the thin officer asked. He had a large pad of paper on his lap and had written everything they’d been saying.
“I was on Fifteenth Avenue walking towards Jimmy’s Take-out Thai place. I stopped off to get some lunch.”
He nodded. “Good place, great food. Did you have your phone when you left Jimmy’s?”
She thought about it. “I think so, but I’m not sure. I might have set it on the counter to pay.”
The officer wrote down a few more notes. “Where did you go after leaving Jimmy’s?”
She looked over at Trent. “To Trent’s place.”
The man wrote down some more notes and glanced at her. “How long where you there?”
She looked at Trent.
“A little under an hour. We had lunch together,” he answered.
She felt her face heat, remembering what they had been doing.
The officer got Trent’s address and asked, “Where did you go after leaving his place?”
“I walked straight home.”
He nodded and jotted down some more notes.
“Do you know of anyone who would want to scare you like this?”
She thought about it and something came to mind. “I... I received a note from Mrs. Hughes when I was in Boston.”
“What?” Trent's hand tightened on hers.
“What kind of note?” The officer asked.
She looked over at Trent and could see his eyes growing hot. “It said to stay away from her husband.” She looked at the officer and quickly explained everything.
By the time she was done, Trent was standing at the window looking out. She could tell he was upset, but knew that he now had the full story.
The police assured her that they would look into everything and get back to her. She doubted it thought. As soon as she had started talking about the US Senator's wife, they had both looked at each other and the one taking the notes, had actually flipped his notebook closed.
It was almost an hour later later when everyone finally left her apartment. Everyone except Trent. She was happy when she overheard him telling the officers and Julie that he was staying the night.
Chapter Twelve
Trent stood in Marina’s living room and looked out at the dark sky. He’d quickly driven back to his place and had grabbed an overnight bag while Julie had stayed with Marina.
On his way back to her place, he had called Ethan and asked him to renew his efforts to find out who was messing with him. He filled him in on what had happened.
“Have you thought that it might be someone from her past and not yours we should be looking for?” Ethan asked.
“Her past?” Trent hadn’t thought of that angle.
“I’ll look into it. But in the meantime, what would you say to some extra protection?”
“I didn’t know you were on the East Coast.”
Ethan chuckled. “No
pe, still in the great Northwest. I was thinking more along the lines of sending you a very large Jamaican.”
After hanging up with Ethan, Trent couldn’t stop thinking that maybe he’d been going at it all wrong. Maybe the person who had broken into his place was someone from her past instead of his. Did she have an ex that was stalking her? Maybe a crazed fan? He’d been able to track her down with some help; maybe someone else had done the same.
There were so many possibilities that by the time he had arrived back at her place, his head felt dull.
“You look tired,” she said, walking up behind him and wrapping her arms around his waist.
“Busy day.” He turned and placed a kiss on her forehead. “You really had me scared.”
She nodded and lay her head on his shoulder. “I can only imagine.”
“Tomorrow’s Friday. Let’s take Tommy out of school and spend the day together.”
She pulled back, her eyes going narrow. “Why?”
“Isn’t it enough to know that I want to spend the day with you and a seven-year-old?”
“I’m almost eight,” Tommy said from the doorway. “Can we go to the zoo?”
Trent laughed. “Sure, I haven’t been to the zoo in…”—he thought for a moment—“too long.”
“Yippee, can we Mari? Please?” Tommy rushed across the room and joined the hug.
“Sure.” She laughed as the three of them almost fell over. “The zoo sounds wonderful.”
“Woohoo!” Tommy jumped away and started to climb on the couch.
“Oh, no, you don’t.” Marina rushed over and picked him up. “Last time you jumped up and down on my couch, you almost broke the springs.” She tickled him and he fell on the cushions in a fit of giggles.
“Can we have mac and cheese for dinner?” He sobered up after she stopped her tickle attacks.
“I was thinking turkey and green beans.” Tommy made a funny face and proceeded to beg for his dish instead.
Trent stood along the glass windows and watched the motherly display of Marina trying to argue with an almost eight-year-old.
In the end, they had homemade macaroni and cheese with green beans on the side. After Tommy was bathed, a process that Trent had lent a helping hand with, and the kid was tucked into his bed in his Batman pajamas, Trent and Marina settled down in the living room and watched television.
Halfway through the news, he felt Marina drift off. He watched the rest of the news then carried her into her room and lay next to her. His mind refused to shut down, so he listened to her breathe until he finally drifted off.
Something woke him a few hours later, and he lay there and listened, wondering what it had been. Then he heard the kid crying and gently moved Marina aside to walk into the next room.
When he walked into Tommy’s room, the boy was sitting up in his bed. Turning on the low light, Trent walked over to him.
“Hey, what’s all this?” He sat next to him.
“I had a bad dream.” The boy pulled the covers over his lap. “I peed my bed,” he said, looking down as his shoulders slumped.
“Well, that can happen,” Trent said, putting his finger under the boy’s chin until he looked up at him. “Don’t worry about it. I’m sure Marina has some clean sheets around here.”
“I’m not a baby,” Tommy said, his small lower lip quivering.
“Of course, you aren’t. You’re almost eight. That’s practically a man.”
Tommy’s eyes got bigger. “It is?”
“Well, sure.” Trent hoisted the kid off the wet sheets. “I remember when I was eight. That’s the age when a lot of things change for boys. I remember getting picked for my first baseball team. I was no longer on the t-ball team. That was for kids.” He stood the boy up and started to peel off the wet pajamas. “I was old enough to walk to the bus stop at my corner all by myself. Of course, my mom always watched from the front steps.” He smiled as the little boy nodded.
“Mari lets me walk to the corner by myself now.”
He nodded and then continued. “I also had a couple things going on with my body.” He sobered. “Every time I had a nightmare, I had to go to the bathroom.”
“You did?” Tommy asked as he pulled on a clean nightshirt.
Trent nodded. “Do you know how I solved it?”
Tommy shook his head as he stepped into some new night shorts.
“I forced myself to go to the bathroom each night before I hopped into bed.”
“Did it work?”
He nodded and smiled and then started to pull off the soiled sheets. Tommy rushed over and helped.
“My mom bought me a special night-light.” Trent nodded towards the baseball night-light that was right by the kid’s closet. “Kind of like that one. It helped make all my nightmares go away.”
“Mari bought that one for me last week after she found out I liked baseball.”
Tommy rushed over and pulled out some clean sheets from his bottom drawer. “Here, these ones are my backup sheets.” He set them on the bed. “You can put those in my hamper.” He pointed to a large hamper just inside his closet door.
When Trent had the bed remade, he pulled the blankets up around Tommy and sat next to him. “You okay now?”
Tommy nodded. “Thanks, Trent. Night.” He turned over and snuggled down in his clean sheets.
When Trent stood to go, he noticed Marina standing in the dark doorway, smiling at him.
He put his finger over his lips, took her hand, and walked with her back to her room.
“You were great with him,” she said, walking into his arms and placing a soft kiss on his lips.
He shrugged his shoulders. “He’s a good kid.”
“You’re a good man,” she said back, placing another kiss on his lips as she pulled him back onto the bed.
He woke the next morning with an almost-eight-year-old bouncing on his chest.
“Come on, get up,” he heard. When he cracked open his eyes, Tommy leaned closer to his face. Both of his small hands rested on either side of his scratchy face. The softness of them was his undoing.
“Why should I get up?” he asked, smiling into the dark eyes.
“’Cause we’re going to the zoo. Mari has already made breakfast and you just have to get up.” The boy started tugging on him, trying to push him along faster.
Trent chuckled. “I’m going to need a lot more convincing. What’s your aunt cooking for breakfast?”
“Banana pancakes.” He smiled. “My favorite.”
Trent sat up quickly, almost dislodging the kid in the process. “Mine too.” He grabbed Tommy and tucked him upside down under his arm and walked quickly into the kitchen area. Marina was standing at the stove, a spotless white apron on. Her hair was tied back in a high ponytail, making her look younger and very fresh. He walked over to her, Tommy still tucked under his arm, and placed a kiss on her lips. “This kid here says you have homemade banana pancakes somewhere in here.”
Tommy’s laughter was priceless as Trent turned him right side up and sat him in his chair. He sat next to him at the table and waited for Marina to bring in a large plate of pancakes.
After three full helpings of some of the best pancakes he’s had since his mother used to cook for him, he showered and got dressed quickly.
As they walked to the zoo, Tommy held his and Marina’s hands. He talked nonstop about what kind of animals they were going to see and how the bald eagle was his favorite animal.
“Because it’s our freedom,” he explained, making Trent proud of the kid. “Course, I like the monkeys, too.” He looked up at him with a smile. “They always make me laugh.”
“Me, too,” Trent agreed.
“I like the giraffes the best,” Marina said, swinging Tommy’s hand slightly. “They are so majestic.”
When they got there, there was a large group of kids all wearing the same brightly colored shirts.
“School day visits,” Marina explained. “But, most of them follow the tour guid
es.” She nodded towards some staff members who were trying, along with the help of a few teachers, to get all the kids heading in the right direction.
“We can either follow them or head this way.” She nodded towards the left.
He smiled. “Let’s set our own path today. Tommy, where to first?” he asked, kneeling down while the boy opened the zoo map he’d handed him.
“Well…” Tommy’s face squashed up a little as he looked at the map. “We are here.” He pointed to the entrance. “They are heading to the monkeys.” He pointed to the large group. “We can go here, to the polar bears first.”
“Sounds like a plan. Lead the way, little man.” He stood up and held onto Tommy and Marina’s hands as they walked.
For the next two hours, Tommy led them around the zoo, sometimes even in circles, but he and Marina didn’t mind. When it was lunchtime, they sat at a cart vendor and had hot dogs and sodas followed by ice cream cones. An hour after lunch, they noticed that Tommy was slowing down, so Trent picked him up and carried him on his shoulders until they made it back to the apartment.
That evening, they rented one of Tommy’s favorite movies. As the Lego characters ran around on the screen, Trent couldn’t stop thinking about how everything just felt right.
He knew he had to come clean with Marina about who he was, but he didn’t want anything to spoil the perfect time they were having. So he kept his mouth shut and packed the weekend days with as much fun as he could come up with. The nights, he spent making love to Marina or lying in bed holding her as his mind yelled at him to tell her the truth.
By Sunday afternoon, he had come up with a few dozen questions he needed to ask her before heading back to work on Monday afternoon. After Tommy was tucked in his bed, excited to go back to school the next day to tell all the kids about his weekend, he pulled Marina into the living room and sat down next to her on the couch.
“I know we’ve avoided talking about some things this weekend,” he said, running his hand over hers. She nodded her head. “Can you think of anyone who would want to hurt you or Tommy?”
