The cabin was done in modern timber and glass, taking advantage of the natural beauty of the location. There were three levels to the house, each containing two bedrooms with bathrooms and open to the living area on the bottom floor. There were four armed men wearing camouflage carrying luggage and boxes in from a large truck. They were all polite as she passed, but afterward she saw several of them glance in her direction with appreciative looks.
Their bags were found in a suite on the lowest level. Cassie wrinkled her nose, her claustrophobia tingling again. This was a lot of house to be hidden in the bottom of, and that made her queasy. Perhaps they could switch with one of the muscles a couple of floors up? Sighing she began to unpack. Sean would say it was just where they slept, why make a fuss? She wished it were that simple. She envied his ability to make it work regardless of the hindrance, but then what a nightmare it would be if they both were as obsessive compulsive as she was.
Whoever built this house definitely had champagne tastes. Everything in the room was themed to the Pacific Northwest; lots of salmon fishing paintings and one that was a case filled with various hand-tied fly lures. The walls were paneled and the carpet was thick pile.
The bathroom almost made the dungeon-like accommodations all worthwhile. In the center of the room, on a small pedestal, was a giant claw footed bathtub. To the right was the shower, a modern marvel of stone and programmable shower heads. There were two separate sinks with new toiletries for them both. To top things off, the floor had hot water pipes under the tile and could be preheated with a timer on the wall.
The bed held a king size programmable mattress, and Egyptian cotton sheets. She estimated the thread counts at more than fifteen hundred. Across from the bed was a giant wall screen television above the stacked stone fireplace. The main wall was windows overlooking the valley below them. Studying the panes carefully Cassie decided they were bullet-proof; the glass was wavy and thick at the edges.
Cassie glanced at her watch. It read ten-thirty, West coast time. Exhausted, she found her pajamas and fell into bed, asleep before she knew it. Her next thought was of someone sliding into bed with her. In her dreams at that moment were her brothers, and when a man’s hands touched her arm, Cassie had a flashback.
****
In her dream, Cassie was running through the forests of the family property in the Blue Ridge Mountains of northern Georgia. Her brother Greg and his friend were chasing her, and she knew what the punishment would be if they caught her. Their voices rolled in her ears, taunting her as the afternoon became the dark of night and the paths disappeared.
Her fear of monsters roared in her head as the woods, normally a warm and comforting location she knew as well as her own skin, transformed into a cold and disturbing terror filled labyrinth. No matter what direction she ran, the voices arrived before her. Nowhere was safe from the demons of her traumatic past.
The hair on her arms and neck tingled with fear of the unknown as the nightmare extended its tentacles to suck her down, down into the never-ending madness. Already she felt the worms of her fear creeping up both arms and legs. She took a breath to scream, to protest against the madness when Sean laid his hand on her arm, rousing her from slumber.
Her eyes flew open, unfocused yet filled with fear and pain. Instinct took over and she slugged Sean in the jaw with all the force she could muster. He managed to grab her fist before she could hit him again. He pulled her hands down to her sides, whispering her name while she struggled through the lands between dreams and reality. Soon reason took over, and she lay still and compliant underneath him.
“Are you all right?” she whispered as the perceived and the imagined melded together into total reality. “I think I socked you good.”
He smiled into her tormented eyes. “You did, but I’ve been expecting it. With all this uproar and Greg’s involvement, I forgot about the danger of nightmares. I wasn’t on my guard when I lay down. What were you dreaming about?”
Cassie paused for a moment to visualize the nightmare. “I was running, running from Greg and then I was in the house of horrors.” For years, she had told Sean about the house which reoccurred in her dreams. A house where all her worst phobias and fears worked together to break Cassie into tiny fragile pieces. “And then you touched me and…”
“…and you hit me.” He finished the sentence for her. “It’s okay sweetheart. I’ve gotten immune to your sleep boxing.”
Sean relaxed his hold on her wrists. Pulling her to his side, Cassie burrowed herself to him, as if afraid for there to be any separation between them. She began to trace circles on his stomach with her fingers. Small goose bumps arose on his bare skin. Her leg stretched over his and her pelvis slid against his hip.
“Careful love, there’s a house full of men who’d get off on hearing us,” he murmured to the top of her head. “I’m a sucker for a long legged brunette. Plus, danger spikes my libido so lass, if it’s loving you’re asking for, what I’m prepared to give you might be more than you can handle.”
She pulled herself up to a sitting position, then sat on Sean’s belly, her nails raking on his chest. “I can handle you, and be quiet.”
With a groan, Sean pulled her shoulders down, kissing her with ferocity. His hands pulled the gown over her head, then grabbed her and threw her down under him on the bed. A low, rumbling moan pushed forth, like a cat purring in defense. His lips ran along the curve of her neck, up to the jaw then back down toward her heart. Small goose bumps broke out when the hair of her skin captured the faint breeze his heat was generating between them. Even her nipples stood erect, hungering for his touch.
“Sean,” Cassie breathed his name in a voice that crossed between a promise fulfilled and a desire unquenched. “You know what I want, you always know.”
He chuckled. “You want exactly what I need.”
Then Sean bit down on her left nipple, hard. The sudden pain brought tears to her eyes, but she didn’t flinch. The only thing betraying her surging lust were her hips. Those brazen hussies were attempting to grind themselves against Sean’s body in a most un-ladylike fashion. He stood up and removed his pajama pants. As Cassie tried to move away, he grabbed her ankles and held her tight.
“Where are you going?” He didn’t hold her too tight; she could kick away if she desired.
“Just getting comfortable. Aren’t you?”
He slid up the bed, never releasing her body. When he reached the pillows, Sean pulled her on top of him. She smiled down at his wolfish grin and wiggled her ass on his still hardening cock. He closed his eyes to keep from throwing her down and riding her like one of the horses she was so fond of.
Meanwhile Cassie bent down to begin caressing his body with her lips and hands. He moaned again at the millions of tiny nerves firing in rapid succession as she worked her way from his scar, all the way down to his cock. It was only superb command on his emotions that kept him lucid.
When at last he could stand the exquisite torment no longer, Cassie raised up and lowered herself onto him, grinning at him like she’d learned a new trick. Sean tried to hold on as long as possible, but his self-control wavered. This was the hardest task he’d mastered while helping Cassie with her fears and phobias. He always waited for her to make the first move. It gave her power, something long denied to her in the house of Devlyn. On the times when Sean was the aggressor, Cassie always managed to hold back, to keep a part of herself locked inside. The instinct was too deeply ingrained to fight against him.
Originally, he’d made no secret of his unhappiness with this necessity in their relationship, but in the greater scheme of things it was such a small thing and it gave her so much positive re-enforcement. In the end, as with so many things with Cassie, Sean just let the universe dictate their lives. So far it hadn’t been too bad but if they were going to attempt a full time marriage some things were going to have to change.
But all that had to wait, because at that moment Cassie had buried him deep inside, as she wiggled
slowly back and forth in no particular rhythm.
“Where did you disappear to just then?” she asked.
He shook his head and slid his hands up her thighs to settle at her hips. “I was thinking about you, us—that’s all. But I like your idea much better.”
She leaned down and kissed him, pulling his tongue into her mouth and biting it while Sean moaned in delight. Her hips moved in ever changing circles and he closed his eyes and let the sensations take over his actions.
His hands wandered up and down her sides, at last pulling her down to him. “Cassie, baby,” he moaned into her ear as he bit up and down her lobe. “Let me love you.”
Opening her blue eyes, she looked into his with a mixture of need and trust. “Sean, you know what that means to me. Am I ready to give everything to you? Tell me what to do, because I’m not sure I know anymore.”
“Sweetheart, you know I won’t do anything you feel uncomfortable with. That’s always been part of my promise to you.” Sean rubbed her back in small, lazy figures as she lay against his chest. “If you don’t like something, just say ‘stop’. I’ll never do anything that might hurt or upset you,”
He felt the tremor in her body but it wasn’t from fear. Her skin grew warmer until it burned against his. Without a word, she lifted her head and smiled at him, giving him the permission to take the lead.
Quickly, before she could change her mind, Sean twisted to pull her under him. His mouth traveled down her neck to her breasts, each receiving its own attention. While his lips were busy, his hands continued their wandering down her belly to the warmth of her inner core. His fingers found their target, and began teasing her clit while another finger slid gently inside. Sean raised his head to watch her face.
“What are you looking at?” Cassie asked as she twitched under his merciless attention.
“Waiting to watch you cum. I love to watch your face. When I was in Iraq I used to dream about your face, about the beauty and release you express. It’s amazing. There is nothing sexier, and nothing more beautiful than my wife.” Sean’s smile was bright.
She bucked hard, her entire body shuddering as the first wave of her orgasm hit. Sean changed position, setting his lips to her now throbbing nub. When his teeth nibbled gently, a tidal wave of nerve spasms burst into a full roar and her hips bucked as she shuddered through wave after wave. After what seemed like forever, the waves began to subside and her body lay still, quivering every so often but sated and fulfilled, for the moment.
Sean returned his attention to her slit, using his tongue to probe the silky folds of her inner most place. Cassie’s back arched and he laughed to himself as he propelled her into another micro-storm. His groin ached to be inside her again, but not until she begged him. In light of all that was going on in Cassie’s life, she needed to remember he wasn’t like their enemy.
After the roar subsided, Sean slid up the bed to lie beside her to hold her. A light sheen of sweat made her shiver in the moments when her body returned to center. Nestled into the crook of his arm, she sighed with deep contentment. Outside, the house was quiet all around them.
Cassie broke the companionable silence. “It’s your turn, love.”
Sean shook his head. “Don’t worry about me.”
She leaned up on one elbow and glared at him. “I like watching you too. Besides,” she wagged her eyebrows at him, “I like it.”
They both laughed, as giving blow jobs was Cassie’s least favorite form of sex. It put Sean in a position of power over her, which made bad things follow into late night dreams. Sean pulled her closer, kissing her with passion and love.
“Honey, you don’t have to do anything for me. I just want you to feel safe. We have the rest of our lives to make love.”
“Yeah, is that why your dick is still hard?” Cassie wrapped her hand around his throbbing shaft. Sean’s vision went white at the featherlike touch of her fingertips. He leaned his head against the pillows and groaned when she leaned down and slid her teeth down his cock. Her lips closed around him, as her tongue worked the small knot of nerves on the underside of the shaft.
It took everything Sean had to keep from losing it. She chuckled in her throat, giving a strange vibration to his shaft. He grabbed Cassie by the shoulders and tried to pull her away. Instead she bit down as he twitched and spurted deep into her throat. Cassie gagged as Sean sat up in a flash, grabbing her shoulders. Valiantly she smiled at him, kissing him as he adjusted to her newfound bravery.
Grabbing her chin, Sean looked her deep in those blue pools he knew so well. “Thank you,” he said, fervently. “That, love, was the best fucking blow job I’ve ever had.”
“Excellent, that’s exactly what I was trying for,” she smiled shyly, as if unsure how to take praise but certainly pleased with herself nonetheless. “You never have any reason to go anywhere else.”
He grew serious. “I never would do that to you my love. That’s not the kind of man I am.”
“I know, I just like hearing it every now and then.”
She snuggled into his arms, and he rested his head on hers. The faint scent of lavender reminded him of one summer they spent in the south of Spain, when he paid to have a custom blended perfume made just for her. A rare combination of lavender roses, sandalwood, and citrus, it reminded him of home. He still kept a vial in his ready bag.
He lay awake for a short time, listening to the sounds of the house settling down. There were SWAT team members stationed everywhere and nothing moved on the grounds or inside the mountain chalet that wasn’t seen by several eyes. Including those of several Wi-Fi cameras disguised as pine cones and mounted to the trees.
Several miles away Kwan Tsi turned from the video screen and picked up his phone. It was time.
Chapter Thirteen
Christmas, 8:30 a.m.—Outside Seattle
When Sean and Cassie emerged the next morning, Detective Traynor was waiting in the kitchen. It soon became apparent she had used her evening doing research on both Fergusons since their last meeting. Cassie poured them all large mugs of coffee as Traynor began her questioning.
“So, who are you really? Sean and Cassandra Ferguson, as the names show on the deed to that apartment. Or Robert and Laurie Harris who flew into Seattle from Tennessee yesterday morning and look suspiciously like the both of you? I’ve had very little sleep people, so let’s cut out all the bullshit and start with the truth.” Her face was taut and the eyes were filled with the frost of mistrust.
Sean took the lead. “Sean and Cassie are the right names but the last few weeks have been the wrong time to use them publicly, as was the flight from the East coast. So we borrowed one of our alias ids to put some space between us and those names. Apparently though we have a leak in our organization. Someone knew we were coming into town.”
Traynor nodded. “Tell me about the problems with Greg Devlyn.”
Sean took Cassie’s hand, looking for her approval. With a nod, she looked away as he began to speak. “Cassie is the youngest of her family. Greg is next oldest. All her brothers picked on their sister while they were children, but he is the one who continued the torment into their teen years and beyond. Torment that bordered on abuse more than once. Martin never stepped in, even though he knew about it. In fact, he shut down a police investigation when she was eighteen because he knew Greg was guilty.”
“How did you get involved with the family Mr. Ferguson? How did you meet your wife?”
“I met the eldest son, Kevin Devlyn about eight years ago, through mutual connections in the military. We worked on a project with the Pentagon together. During that project I attended a party in Florida with Kevin and met Cassandra there. We married shortly thereafter and have been together off and on ever since.”
The detective picked up on the terminology. “What do you mean off and on? You mentioned something last night about spending a lot of time apart. That seems a strange way to describe a marriage.”
Surprisingly, it was Cassie who responded.
“Both of us have unique careers Detective Traynor. Sean has his work with the government and I am working on the dissertation for my second PhD, this one in global systems. Each has required us to spend a good deal of time apart. It wasn’t by choice, but when you marry a person, you marry their work as well.”
“I had an interesting email from the Atlanta Police today about your crazy brother and some of his dealings. Sounds like a real prince of a guy.” Traynor narrowed her gaze onto Cassie, realizing she was the weaker link in the team. “They have a list of complaints on him several pages long, dating back to his juvenile days.”
Cassie stiffened. “If you mean Greg, then you’re right. He’s a real piece of work.”
“Who else would I mean?”
“My brother Matthew is a high functioning Autistic. You could have been speaking about him.”
“I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to offend. I didn’t know you had another brother.”
“I’m sure you did Detective Traynor, you have my file open in front of you. But I’m particularly sensitive to how people react to my brother’s uniqueness. You still phrased your question as an insult, especially since you know Kevin and he is nothing like Greg, nothing. Are you always so insulting when questioning the victims?” Cassie was in full defensive mode, and Sean used his hand on the shoulder to settle her down.
“Again, I’m so sorry Mrs. Ferguson. I only know in-depth information about Greg. He’s been arrested several times for assault. Not just against you but other women as well. However, since college he’s shown a distinct pattern—all these victims look like you.” She lay out pictures of five Asian-looking women, all with extreme damage to their faces. “Were you aware of that?” The sharp eyed detective noticed Cassie’s hands were shaking as she fingered the photos.
Welcome to the Family Page 15
