by Emma Vikes
A Knock From The Past
Emma Vikes
© Copyright 2019 - All rights reserved.
In no way is it legal to reproduce, duplicate, or transmit any part of this document in either electronic means or in printed format. Recording of this publication is strictly prohibited and any storage of this document is not allowed unless with written permission from the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
This book is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locations is purely coincidental. The characters are all productions of the author’s imagination. Please note that this work is intended only for adults over the age of 18.
Contents
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PROLOGUE
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 13
CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 15
EPILOGUE
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PROLOGUE
Arthur
Heartbreak was messy but grief was chaos and I’ve only fully understood it at this moment.
I could barely hear the preacher saying good things about Julian, I was deaf by the time that his family came forward to share their eulogy and sentiments about how good he was as a brother, an uncle, a son and a friend. And then suddenly, all eyes were turned on me, waiting for me to stand up and take the microphone from Julian’s brother to say what I had about the man inside the coffin.
But I had no words to say.
I have never had cold feet but I was experiencing it at that moment. All I wanted to do was run away but I was already in front of them, standing beside Julian’s coffin and all of them were waiting for me to say something, anything, but it was like I was suddenly incapable of saying anything, that I had suddenly forgotten the English language and what words meant.
In front of me, Benton was signaling me to speak. I gulped and then turned to the preacher and then turned to look at Julian behind me. He looked like he was sleeping and it felt so wrong to say things about him, to share how good he was when it seemed like he wasn’t even dead. But he was.
I took a deep breath and began the message I had planned to say last night. “A lot of you don’t know me, only close friends and family do, but my name is Arthur Waters, and Julian took me in when he found me about to take my life at the San Francisco bridge when I was sixteen.”
There was a collective murmur and hushed whispers from the crowd and I knew that my words had caught their attention. They never paid me attention but they were surprised that I was there. They knew me, after all, my face was plastered on social media platforms and magazines because I was the youngest rising business tycoon, coming after Julian’s reign.
What they didn’t know was that Julian had been my mentor.
“Julian took me in and made sure I didn’t try to kill myself. It took me a few days before I opened up to him the issues that I had and he helped me face them. He helped me with my emancipation and he helped me when I was developing the application that paved the way for my life now.” My breath hitched and I hiccupped a sob, and I tried to fight back the tears threatening to come out. I didn’t want to crumble in front of a crowd.
“Julian was behind the scenes, and none of you ever knew that because of personal reasons on both our sides. But right now, as of this moment, I want to let all of you know that I wouldn’t be the Art Waters you all have come to know if there hadn’t been a Julian Kessler urging me forward and guiding me; he made me take risks, and if he didn’t jump with me, I wouldn’t be where I am now. So thank you, Julian, for playing the part that you did in my life. I will never forget you.”
When I passed the microphone back to the preacher, I almost ran out of the church, but Benton stopped me and pulled me to him. He was holding onto my arm and I knew that he was doing so to support me and make sure I didn’t leave unannounced.
The rest of the service was a blur to me but by the time that we had to head back to Julian’s mansion for a few snacks, I didn’t have the strength to do so and told Benton that I had to stay behind. While the caretakers filled the hole with the dirt that they had dug, all I could do was stare and watch and allow my heart to grieve.
The last time I was with Julian, we were in Prague. He was already thin and slightly sick then. After that trip, we argued about getting him a nurse who could stay with him, because I had so many things to do and that making the trip back to his place was too tiring and too much of a hassle for me. I couldn’t take care of him on my own. I wished I had though, because it would’ve given me more time with Julian.
And now I couldn’t have any more time with him.
“Don’t be so sad, kid, he’s in a better place now.” I looked up to see the cemetery caretaker looking at me with kind eyes. “Death is a part of life, grief is a part of life. But neither of those two sums it up.”
“Then what does?”
He shrugged and smiled at me almost secretively. “Love. But you gotta find it first. Anyway, are you planning to stay here until we’re done?”
I looked at Julian’s grave. “Yes, I have a lot of things to think about and being with him always made me think clearly.”
The caretaker nodded and they continued working quietly in front of me, until the entire grave was covered in dirt and Julian was out of my view. The caretaker turned to face me with sympathy clear in his eyes and said, “We’re done now, kid. You can stay here with your dad if you still want to. I know how painful losing a parent can be.”
I didn’t have the heart to correct him because Julian, even in the short amount of time that I had spent with him, was more of a father to me than my own ever was. The caretaker patted me on the back and left and his partner trailed after him, but not before making eye contact with me. There was something familiar about him and I stood up, blocking him from moving forward.
“Do I know you?”
He looked at me with eerily familiar dark eyes and shook his head. His partner - the one who had comforted me - came to his side. “Tommy doesn’t speak, kid. Ain’t sure if he’s mute or something but haven’t heard him speak a single word since he was hired.”
I stared at him intensely, trying to figure out where I had seen him, but I couldn’t. He just stared at me and then he smiled. I almost pushed him harshly onto the ground, but his partner intervened. “Okay, I think Tommy needs to get his meds or something. Keep yourself safe, kid. Lots of drunk and weird people end up here. A rich kid like you might end up in trouble.”
Even after they had left, I couldn’t stop thinking about the other guy. There was a haunting familiarity about his features and he reminded me, strangely, of the people I had left behind. I turned to look at Julian’s grave, remembering the night that he had stopped me from jumping to my death on the San Francisco bridge.
“Don’t jump, kid,” he had said to me that night, “you have a long life ahead of you. Don’t waste it.”
“You don’t know anything about me,” I had responded harshly, the anger burning in my veins as I tried to loosen my grip. “Even if I don’t kill myself now, they’re still gonna kill me.”
“I’ll listen to your story,” Julian had told me with kindness and concern laced in his tone. “But you need to get down from there right now and come here, kid.”
“They’re still gonna kill me,” I had repeated, looking at the aged man behind me, “they’re gonna kill me.”
“I’ll protect you.”
For ten years, Julian had protected me. My identity, my past: he made sure that nothing had come out into the public until now. It was Julian who had made sure that my past didn’t come back to screw with me, but Julian was gone now. That guy…he looked like someone my family knew. But maybe that was just grief screwing with my head.
But I couldn’t shake off the sinking feeling that now Julian was dead, my past would be coming after me.
And I had a strange feeling it would be coming with vengeance.
CHAPTER 1
Arthur
I woke up with a start.
My body still trembled in fear, a remnant of the nightmare I’d just had. I willed myself to relax, repeatedly doing breathing exercises the way that my old therapist had taught me. It took my body a while until it stopped trembling and until my mind was back into calmer thoughts.
It was just a dream. I was in my apartment. I was safe.
I kept repeating those words in my head, until the fear dissipated from every part of my body. But I knew that despite the fact that I could manipulate my brain into calming down, I couldn’t demand my body to go back to sleep. I didn’t need to look at the alarm clock to read the harsh red numbers that indicated it was two hours after midnight. I always woke up at this hour and always for the same reason.
I had been having the same nightmare since Julian died two years ago. In the beginning, I was too shaken up that I couldn’t calm myself and I couldn’t forget every gory detail. I had to distract myself then. I frequented bars and found girls to screw with, until I couldn’t remember the reason why I woke up so early. But doing that meant that I became too tired during work, so I had to find myself an alternative.
With a sigh, I got out of bed and changed out of my sleeping clothes and then grabbed the book on my nightstand. It was a good thing I lived in an apartment located in such a busy street where there was a 24-hour coffee shop just around the block.
When I arrived at the café, I noticed that there was someone already there which was unusual. At this time, I was almost always the only customer in the café to the point that I had become friendly with the baristas. Kevin was the one manning the counter today and he began to whip me up my usual order while I casually glanced at the woman who had taken my usual spot.
“I was going to tell her that spot was already taken but decided against it, because you didn’t really have your name written on the seat,” Kevin told me and then slid to me my tall cup of hot Americano. “Looks like you aren’t the only insomniac tonight, Art.”
“How long has she been here?”
Kevin shrugged. “Probably thirty minutes. She’s also not much of a talker. All she told me was that she was adjusting to the time zone difference since she just arrived in America two days ago.”
“Where is she from?” I asked, glancing at the woman buried in her book. My eyes caught sight of her long, tan legs and I couldn’t stop myself from admiring them.
“Australia,” Kevin responded in a hushed voice. “We should probably stop talking about her when she’s in the same room as us.”
I chuckled and handed Kevin the money for the coffee and then took a seat near the woman who had taken my spot. I had not seen her around, so she must have been someone new because if I’d seen her before, I would’ve noticed her and already have flirted with her or something, because she was actually pretty damn attractive.
Her blue eyes were hidden behind thick, transparent-framed glasses. Her black hair was tied in a messy ponytail and her lips – fuck-her lips - looked so full and plump. The fact that she was chewing on her bottom lip, pushing it into her mouth and letting her teeth graze on it, made her look all the more alluring. When I’d rolled out of bed earlier, I didn’t expect that this would be what I would end up seeing at the café, but I wasn’t complaining.
My eyes traveled down her body, marveling at the petite frame and the long legs that her shorts showed off. She must’ve lived in the same unit as mine or the one across from it because of how casual her clothes were. But damn, those legs were inviting. I allowed my eyes to travel back to her pretty face to find her eyebrows scrunched together as she read through her book. There wasn’t usually any customer at that hour in the café but me, however today there was a gorgeous woman sitting in my usual spot.
It didn’t take me long until I stood up and carried my drink to where she sat.
“Mind if I join you?”
She looked up from her book but I couldn’t see any surprise in her blue eyes. “I was wondering when you would.”
I pulled the seat across from hers and sat down. “Were you expecting me to?”
She closed her book and tilted her head to get a better look at me. “With the intensity of your stare, it was either I tell you to mind your own business, or you get the courage to come up and talk to me. It’s a good thing the latter one happened.”
I smiled. “So, what brings you here at this time of the day?”
She took her own cup and opened the lid, the scent of the tea wafting over to where I sat. “Insomnia. Time zone difference. Adjusting. You probably have an idea of how hard it is to adjust your sleeping pattern when you come from a different place.”
“So, Australia, huh?” I said, sipping my own coffee. I was never good at small talk and I knew how bad I was sucking at it right now. I’d rather have her suck me instead.
She smiled coyly and then pulled her bottom lip back into her mouth before she said, “Why did you come over to my table?”
I reached out and then placed my hand just in front of her face, leveling it to where her mouth was. I extended my thumb and index finger so that I could pull her bottom lip out of her mouth, slowly, watching as her teeth grazed at it. “Because I wanted to do that. It was driving me insane. It made me think of what I could do to you -– punishments - and there are so many things that I want to do.”
Her eyebrows raised and I waited for her reaction. She could either slap me and tell me that I was an ass, or play the game with me. “I’m not a submissive.”
I pursed my lips and contained the playful smile forming on my face. I liked her answer and I liked the confidence she put in her words, like she wasn’t someone to be messed with and thought bad of. I didn’t comment on anything related to that topic and instead looked at the book she was reading. Surprisingly, it was one I had read before.
“Who said anything about BDSM?” I raised an eyebrow and then motioned to the book on the table between us. “I’ve read another book by the same author. I could lend it to you if you want?”
A lazy smirk made its way across her lips as she cocked her head to the side, staring at me with beautiful blue eyes. “Are you trying to seduce me?”
“It depends on your perspective.”
She chuckled and then stood up, slowly, and I couldn’t stop myself from staring at her long legs. “Well, I do love this author. Might as well check out the copy you have of him.”
I grinned and then finished my coffee quickly, before following her out of the café, but not before winking at Kevin and flashing him a winning smile. The conversation to my apartment was casual and not as filled with sexual innuendos as the last one. We were in the elevator, heading to the tenth floor.
“Did you purposely take the tenth floor just so you could do this to most girls?”
I turned to her and smirked. “I don’t usually bring girls to my apartment.”
“I should be flattered then,” was her only reply
. The elevator doors opened and we made our way to my unit. I opened the door and she followed me inside, closing the door behind her. I fetched the book that was just settled on the coffee table in the living room and when I came back to her, she was still by the door. I lifted the book up for her to see and she scoffed, shaking her head at me. “We both know you didn’t bring me here for the book.”
She took a step towards me, her strides slow and measured. She stopped right in front of me, and only one more step and our lips would crash against each other. But it was the playfulness in her blue eyes that made me pause, the mischievous glint that made me reconsider my intentions.
She placed a hand on my cheek that slowly lowered until it rested on my neck, her fingers curling against the nape of my neck. She leaned in closer, her lips brushing against mine, and she whispered into my ear: “The night is young, what do you say we enjoy it?”
That was all it took for me to snap. I grabbed the back of her head and crashed my lips against hers, backing her against my front door. She moaned into my lips, her nails dug into my back. I fiddled with her top and she pulled away long enough to take it off and for me to do the same thing with mine. Her hands subtly caressed my stomach; the ghost of a touch gave me goosebumps.
Before I could crash my lips against hers again, she knelt down in front of me and then pulled down my jeans. I was already hard and waiting for her. The sight of my erect cock didn’t seem to faze her and I could see her smirking. She looked up at me and winked. “Already ready for me, I see.”
I chuckled and then placed a hand on her cheek, guiding her face to swallow my hard dick. I closed my eyes in satisfaction as I relished the feeling of her hot mouth on my thick cock. She sucked on my balls too, eliciting a groan in response from me. But by the time that I was about to burst my release, she suddenly stopped and slowly stood up.
