by Terry Towers
The was a long pause before he replied.
Kyle: That’s my girl. We’ll talk about it when I get home. For now, delete all messages.
Rebecca: Okay. We’re going to be staying at the Holiday Inn.
And that was the end of the conversation.
* TT *
“I’m really exhausted, but I don’t think I could sleep if I wanted to,” Vanessa said, plunking herself down onto the double bed next to mine.
“It was a rough ordeal.” And I’d be able to sleep like a baby, that is if Vanessa would just hush so I could.
“It makes no sense, not really.”
“Crazy people don’t make sense,” I said. Vanessa seemed to have forgotten a lot of what had happened the day before. She was in shock. I hoped it remained that way. Things seemed to be going down as I’d hoped. The detective told me personally they were going to do a little more investigation, but from what it appeared, the shooting was being pinned on Cain. Of course, it helped I told them he’d admitted it to me.
“I guess…”
“You’ve taken the courses I have. You know the psychology behind it.”
She finished brushing her damp hair and set the brush on the night side table. “Yeah, I suppose you’re right.”
I gave her a reassuring smile. “I know I’m right.”
Lying back on the bed, she didn’t bother getting under the blankets. She just closed her eyes. Despite saying she didn’t think she could fall asleep, she was out within five minutes.
My phone buzzed, and I pulled it out of my back jeans pocked. It was Kyle.
Kyle: Flight just landed. Where are you?
Rebecca: Vanessa and I are sharing a room.
Kyle: Where?
I typed the address and room number.
Kyle: I’ll be there in about an hour.
Rebecca: How did it go?
Kyle: It’s going to be okay. I love you, Rebecca.
Staring at the screen, my finger hovered over the buttons on my phone as a wide smile spread across my lips. It was the first time I’d seen it in written form before.
Kyle: Still there?
Rebecca: I love you too.
Kyle: See you soon.
* TT *
Kyle
What a fucking long couple of days. I let out of sigh of relief as the cab pulled into the parking lot of the Holiday Inn. Going through customs at the airport had proven to be a challenge. No doubt I looked like death run over with a dump truck. I’d taken a quick shower and changed my clothing before leaving the manor. As I left, several of my mother’s guards were entering. They walked past me as if I didn’t exist.
Clean-up in aisle 1.
I hadn’t seen her shoot my father, but I’d heard the gun go off. Three shots. I didn’t feel a thing, aside from relief. I was moving on.
Paying the cabbie, I hopped out and grabbed my carry-on suitcase from the trunk. It was past midnight, and the only person on the desk was a young man who was lucky to be eighteen, complete with a severe case of acne across his cheeks and bridge of his nose.
“Hi, I’m looking for a room for the night,” I said as approached him.
The man-kid was so busy playing with his smart phone, he didn’t even bother to look up at me. He passed a clipboard across the counter saying, “fill this out please.” He pressed a few more buttons on his phone as I began to fill out the application and then after a moment, switched over to his computer. “A double bed good for you?”
“It’s fine.”
Once the form was filled out, I passed it back to him along with my credit card. Once complete, I made my way to the assigned room, which as luck would have it was just a few doors down the hallway from Rebecca and Vanessa. God, I was excited to see Rebecca again. It seemed a hell of a lot longer than a couple of days. I generally craved excitement, but at this current moment, with my body bruised and sore, all I craved was the feel of her naked body cuddled next to mine. A few days, fuck perhaps a week or two, would be just what the doctor ordered. Not literally, of course.
Dumping my carry-on in the room assigned to me, I made my way to the room number Rebecca had texted me, verifying before I knocked.
I gave three gentle knocks and waited. There was the faint patter of someone coming to the door and then it was thrown open, revealing a very tired looking, yet enthusiastic Rebecca. My gaze dipped to the glint of silver in her hand, a gun. Good girl, she wasn’t opening the door unarmed.
“Kyle!” She threw herself into my arms, and I groaned out load as the impact of her body caused a tidal wave of pain through me. “Of shit, I’m so sorry!” She pulled back from me quickly, but I held onto her arms and pulled her back into my embrace, just taking care not to hold her too tightly.
“It’s good to see you.”
“You too,” she murmured against my neck, placing a string of butterfly kisses from my collarbone to my jaw and then across until her lips captured mine.
Damn, she tasted so good, so fresh, like peppermint. And her perfume, while lightly applied, drifted to my nose, an enticing floral, yet fruity scent. My hands slipped down her back which was covered in a t-shirt sans the bra and to her bottom covered only in a pair of lace panties. Cupping her ass cheeks in my hands, I pulled her pelvis tight against my dick. Even though every inch of me ached, I couldn’t help but need her body next to mine.
“What happened when I left?” I asked.
“Lots.” She looked back over her shoulder at Vanessa who was sleeping in the room.
“I’ve got a room next door.”
“I’m going to tell Vanessa. She’s pretty worked up. If she wakes up and I’m gone, she’ll think I’ve been kidnapped again. She knows you’re coming, but still.”
I could imagine.
She disappeared into the room, woke Vanessa, who didn’t seem to be overly concerned she was leaving, though exhaustion was more of a factor I suspected, and then came back to me.
“She’s fine?” I only halfway cared, my main concern had been and still was Rebecca.
“She’s too tired to care.” Rebecca gave me a rueful smile and closed the door behind her as she stepped out into the hallway.
“So what happened with Cain?”
Rebecca shrugged as if we were just shooting the shit. “He showed up. I waited for an opportunity and took it.”
“A little more information would be helpful.”
“Vanessa freaked out, distracting him, and I took the chance and stabbed the bastard in the throat. It worked out nicely because the shooting got pinned on him. It’s a closed case.”
“Just like that.” I swiped the card key into the door of my room, and a soft beep sounded as the red light turned green. Grabbing the handle, I twisted it and pushed the door open, allowing Rebecca to enter before me.
“They had no leads. He attempted to abduct us. He was armed. It all fit, so they ran with it. I embellished a bit.”
Cocking a brow up at her, I waited for her to continue.
“I told them he admitted it to me. Vanessa was so hysterical she could neither confirm or deny. They took my word on it.” She grinned. “So your turn, what in the hell happened to you?”
“My father decided I wasn’t being straight with him.”
“Which you weren’t.”
“Which I wasn’t.” I grinned and agreed. “So, I was sent downstairs to be taught a lesson.”
“Is that why you’re hurting?”
“He taught me pretty good.” Pulling my t-shirt up and over my head, I displayed my array of bruises.
She cringed. “God, I don’t want to see the other guy.” She pulled off her clothing as she walked over to the bed.
“Yeah, it didn’t end well for him.”
Once naked, every beautiful and stunning inch of her displayed to me, she slipped onto the bed ad began swaying her knees back and forth. “So what happened then? Do you go back? What about your father?”
I finished stripping off my clothing, the removal of ever
y piece was painful, but despite the pain, I managed to have a full-fledged hard on by the time I shed the last article of clothing. “It’s been a long flight and a long couple of days. How about I fill you in on the details tomorrow?”
“So, you’re too tired and in too much pain to…” She cocked her head to the side, eyeing me as she slowly parted her knees, displaying herself to me.
Desire raged through me, my dick throbbing in my pants. There wasn’t a damn thing that could keep me from plunging into her. “There’s not a damned thing in this world that could stop me from wanting to make love to you. Not now and not ever.”
She chewed at her lower lip. “That so?”
I flopped onto the bed next to her, spread eagle, and then turned my head to look over at her and grinned through the aches. “Just be gentle with me.”
“We’ll see,” she replied, sitting up and then crawling onto me, being careful not to put any weight onto my body. “Forever is a long time.”
“And I want to be spending every second of it with you.” And I meant it. For the first time in my life, I found someone who I knew could challenge me in the ways I needed, and I was never going to let her go.
Epilogue
4 months later
Rebecca
“Oh hey, look what came in.” I announced, opening the door of Kyle’s – correction – our apartment and walking in, waving a letter at him.
“What’s that, love?” Kyle looked up from the text book he was reading. We were studying for final exams. After he came back from London and took a week to recover, Kyle went back to classes. He was intent on a fresh start in life, and for now, getting his degree was the priority. For now. Kyle seemed to gain and lose interest in things quickly. The only thing he didn’t seem to waver on was me.
“It’s a letter from Emily.” Closing the door, I tore open the envelope as I walked over to the sofa and plunked myself down next to him. Pulling out the contents, I smiled as a picture fell out. It was of a newborn baby. Grabbing the photo and flipping it over, I found a date – two weeks ago – and the name Joshua. There was a second photo. It was of the three of them. Emily and Tanner were smiling, Emily holding the baby close to her heart. I felt a prang of jealousy, which was strange because having babies and getting married was never on my radar before. Would I ever have something like this? I stared at the family picture a little longer, until Kyle’s voice pulled me from my thoughts.
“What’s that?”
“Their baby, Joshua.” I looked up at him and gave him a soft smile. “Really cute.”
He nodded. I wasn’t sure if he was just humoring me or not, and I really didn’t care either way. I thought the baby was cute. With the picture was a letter, several handwritten pages.
“So, do you think we’ll ever have one?” The question was out of my mouth before I knew what I was saying.
Kyle’s smile faded a bit. “Are you even sure that’s a good idea? I - ”
Boy, do I ever love seeing him squirm. I grinned. “A cute little baby girl or boy. After we’re married, of course.”
Kyle squirmed a little more beside me, raking a hand through his hair. “Married? I didn’t even realize that you wanted to… I mean…”
This was getting better and better. “You wouldn’t want to marry me? Or have a family? Why are we even together then?”
Taking a deep breath in, Kyle slowly released it, and his expression grew serious. “Okay, I’ll be straight with you.”
My shit-eating grin faded a little bit. Shit, he was going to get real right now. I’d only been messing with him. “Kyle, I - ”
“Just let me finish. I think the future is something we need to discuss.”
“But -”
“Rebecca.” His icy blue eyes pierced into mine. “I have a plan.”
“Okay,” I cocked a brow at him, but I didn’t say anything else.
“We’ve been living together for almost 4 months now, and I’m never bored with you like I would be with any other woman. In fact, I’ve never felt so alive as I do when I’m with you.”
“Uh-huh.”
“My mother seems to be living up to her word. She’s letting past grievances go, and it appears we’re all in the clear, so I think we can move on and think of the future.”
Okay, now it was my turn to squirm. “What are you talking about?”
He put the text book on the coffee table and walked over to the fake fireplace. Popping out the front glass, he reached into the back and pulled out a little velvet ring case. “I was thinking about doing this at a later date, I’ll be honest. But why postpone what is going to happen anyhow?”
“I – umm…” I didn’t think I’d ever been rendered speechless before now…
“So.” He opened the ring case to display an enormous diamond. My mouth fell open.
“Are you?”
“I’m not too certain about the whole baby thing right now. Let’s face facts, we’re not exactly normal, and we’d have a pretty good chance of raising….” He shrugged. “Well, there’s lots of options to consider. But the one thing I am certain of is I want and need you in my life.”
My eyes widened in surprise as he dropped to one knee.
“To get right to it, you know as well as I do there’s no one else in this world who could compliment you like I do, or understand the way or think and feel, or appreciate who you are even the deep, dark parts of you. I’ve known a lot of people and have never found someone as unique and special as you, and I never want to let you go.”
My eyes looked down at the ring. “And so…”
“Rebecca, will you marry me?”
I closed my eyes and gave my head a shake. Was I dreaming? When I opened my eyes, he was still there, looking up at me expectantly. “Are you serious?” As the question came out of my mouth, I cringed. What a silly question considering he was kneeling before me with a ring case in hand, an insanely large rock in the ring case.
Kyle laughed. “Of course, I’m serious. Kind of an elaborate joke if I wasn’t.”
“Wow.” My pulse began to race as I stared down at him. I’d been through so much with the man before me in the past five or so months. It seemed so surreal that the man who took me to a hot dog cart on our first date, kidnapped me, and shot me would now be proposing. What kind of insane girl would even be considering his proposal after all that? However, what I did know was I was feeling something I’d never felt with anyone else, love, and I couldn’t imagine my life without Kyle in it.
There was only one possible answer to his proposal, and the word slipped from my lips without me even having to think about it. “Yes! Oh fuck, yes!”
Taking the ring from the box, he tossed the case onto the coffee table behind him and took my left hand, slipping the ring onto my finger. “I think for the first time in my life, I’m completely speechless.”
“You’ve said all you needed to say. Our previous lives are behind us, and now, we can focus on the future.”
I nodded. He was right. The past was the past, and while it helped to shape who we were today, it didn’t dictate our future. We’d found each other in a world of darkness and discovered an emotion neither one of us even thought we were capable of feeling until now – love.
The End
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Faith
By
Terry Towers
Chapter 1
Tanner
She didn’t fit in with the loud crowd of college kids getting wasted and fucking in the shadows of the nightclub. Her clothing was too conservative – “churchlike,” if you know what I mean – with the hem of her flowing black skirt reaching slightly past her knees and her pink blouse not showing a smidge of cleavage, although you couldn’t miss her nice p
lump tits. She also didn’t look near twenty-one, closer to eighteen if you were to have me wager a guess. How she’d even managed to get in was a complete mystery to me, but I wasn’t going to question a good thing; I had my target for the night.
I’d been following her blonde friend for the past few days, but now that I’d laid eyes on the shy, awkward, reserved girl with the chestnut-brown hair, I had to have her. It wasn’t like me to change my plan on the fly. Everything I did in my life was well thought out, calculated and precise, and to go after a non-researched mark was unheard of for me.
But again, and I can’t stress this enough, I had to have her. She was like a lighthouse calling to me through the fog.
It took over an hour for her to be separated from the flock of young women she’d come with, but as the night wore on many of the women began to pair off – some leaving. I’d almost have believed she’d been ditched had it not been for the blonde occasionally walking – no, staggering – up to her and speaking to her for a moment before returning to the dance floor. Their intoxication levels also increased; however, the brunette who had caught my attention still nursed the first drink she’d gotten, some neon-blue concoction. Could this have been her first time drinking? As insane as it was for me to think it given the apparent looseness of her friends, I’d almost be willing to wager yes on that.
“Hey, cutie…”
The feel of a hand on my biceps pulled my attention from my mark to the source of the hand. I turned to face the person touching me, leaning an elbow on the bar as I turned. The girl was petite, with big doe-like blue eyes and large blonde ringlets cascading down her back. There was an immediate stirring in my jeans as I lazily took in every inch of her, not giving a fuck if I made her uncomfortable or not. She blushed and giggled, biting at her lower lip.
It’s funny how a blatant stare from a good-looking man is greeted with blushes and giggles from women, while stares from an aloof, less fortunate, unfit-looking one gain revulsion. But the thing was, if she was going to approach me with her tits hanging out of her top and with a skirt so short that if she bent I’d be able to see her snatch, then I’d be damned if I wasn’t going to get an eyeful.
