by Rena Marks
“I’ve been waiting for this since I brought you home with me, freezing and shivering in the cold. When I pressed your cold, naked skin to mine under that blanket and felt your hard little nipples poking into my chest.”
Both of his thumbs reach out to caress my nipples which are suddenly as hard as that day nearly a year ago. His touch is familiar now and I arch my back. “Nick, please.”
“What do you need, sweetness?”
“Lick them. Suck them.”
He pops a nipple into his mouth and it’s instant heat and wetness. He laves the tip a bit with his tongue before sucking.
“You’re so beautiful,” he says, moving to the other side to suck its twin.
I squirm under him, because my pussy feels like it’s on fire.
“We’re finally going to do this?”
“Fuck, I forgot the condoms we bought earlier.” He looks puzzled. “I don’t remember them being unpacked with the groceries.”
“I’ve hidden them.”
“What?”
“First time, we don’t need them,” I announce.
“Jesus, baby. It isn’t enough that I agreed to send you to high school well-fucked every goddamn day? You want to show up with a swollen belly, too?”
“How would you feel about that?” I ask, my eyes wide with curiosity.
“I’d love my son in you, Rachel.” His voice is so deep it sounds like he needs to clear his throat. “But you’re so young. There are things you may want to do. College. Life.”
“My age means more energy for little ones,” I assure him, taking his lips in mine. “There’s always life later.” He groans into my mouth when I capture his tongue.
I continue to kiss him, not deep, not yet, and his mouth follows mine, so I say softly against his lips, “Do you know how I want my first time? Skin on skin. My pussy clenching around your cock.”
“Stop.” His voice is harsh and hard, but he’s begging. “Get a condom, Rachel. I’m breaking so many rules as it is.”
I don’t move. “You ever been in someone without one?”
He shakes his head, then groans hoarsely as I slide the tip of his cock through the folds of my bare pussy.
“You want to be the first to come inside me?”
His every muscle stiffens. “Rachel—”
In response, I lick my way up his neck and say huskily into his ear, “What I’m suggesting isn’t even really that reckless. It’s one time. Chances are I won’t get pregnant. But we’ll know how it feels to have nothing between us.”
A shudder wracks his big body and I rock my hips, rubbing my wet pussy up and down the length of his shaft. His shaft is shiny and slick now.
Groaning, he lets his head fall forward, his hands squeezing the arms of the chair in a white-knuckled grip. “We shouldn’t.”
“No, we shouldn’t. Except this once. And you’d be my first.”
“The only,” he says roughly.
“The only,” I agree, and I know I got him. But I don’t care. Because now my need is so strong I can’t think of anything but him inside me.
“Yes?” I whisper against his lips, poised over him with the head of his cock tucked against my entrance. “This one time?”
“Yes,” he groans and I bear down, but he’s so thick and it’s not easy, until his hands grip my hips and push me down harder, not stopping until he’s seated completely inside me.
“There’s no pain,” I grit. “It just feels so very good.” Dizzy with pleasure, I bury my fingers in his hair and bring my mouth to his, but I don’t kiss him. Not yet.
He gives a tortured laugh. “It feels so fucking good.”
Yes, it does. Rising over him, I fasten my mouth to his and begin a slow ride, his hands guiding me by gripping my hips. It’s slow and wondrous, but quickly builds into something hot and needy and delicious, and when the orgasm rocks through me, it’s as slow and deep as the slide of his cock.
But he doesn’t speed up after I’ve finished. If anything, he seems to be holding back.
Because it’s the one time inside me like this. He’s going to drag it out.
He rolls me over, still connecting us, but now he’s able to thrust into me. There’s a sexy little grind he does after his thrust that rubs his pubic bone against my clit, and it’s rhythmic and sexy. My need spikes and suddenly I’m reaching for something deep and delicious again.
And when he finally comes, we’re both exhausted and sweating, his head dropping forward between my breasts, his arms wrapped around me. Hot cum floods my body, and he drops his hand down to press against my clit. I explode, clenching around his throbbing cock.
I link my arms around his shoulders, holding him close as our breathing slowly steadies.
Chapter Ten
The truck is cold when I insert the key into the ignition. The engine hums while it warms as I get the ice scraper out to brush the fallen snow off the windshield and headlights.
It’s been a year—exactly—since I moved in with Nick. It was this exact time last year when the freak snowstorm hit and I ran from my parents house. The day Nick rescued me.
It was a big deal for me to come to school today, one year later. Especially by myself.
I squeeze into the truck to call Nick. He answers on the first ring.
“Everything okay? Do you want me to come get you?”
“No, I’m good.” I can’t help but smile. He taught me to drive and he trusts me with his big black baby, but he’ll still drop everything to drive down and get me home safely. In Colorado you never know when the snow will fly. “I’ll be home in a few. I’m going to drive very slowly.”
“I knew I should have taken you to school today.”
“I might have had a nice warm truck to crawl into in that case,” I laugh, my breath visible in the cold. “But I’m fine. The weather will clear up soon and then I’ll be done with school.”
“Are you sure you still want to go to CU?”
No. But I want to take business classes to focus on helping him with his business. I just can’t decide with so many choices. Marketing. Accounting. Web design. On the other hand, I don’t want to be away from him.
Molly is homesick, both for us and for the exciting, budding relationship between her and Jeff. I can’t tell if she’s staying because she wants me to come and get my schooling out of the way. It’s something we need to seriously discuss the next time she’s home. Especially because—I’m so very pregnant. I haven’t had a period in over three months. I’m not showing at all, though. My stomach is flat as a pancake, though my breasts are a little rounder. I need to pick up a pregnancy test to make sure and that’ll help me decide if I continue with college or if I wait.
“I’m not sure,” I admit. “I feel like I should get it out of the way, especially with Molly already there.”
“Baby, there’s no need. I have more than enough money to hire people to help with what you’ll do. I want you to make the best decision for you. Besides, I’m wondering if Molly is only sticking it out at CU for the same reasons. She thinks you’ll be coming—or she wonders if it’s driving Jeff crazy.” He laughs a bit under his breath.
“Is it?”
“Hell, yes. I’ve never seen him this way. He doesn’t admit to his feelings, of course. But he’s so twisted up, it’s pathetic.”
“It would be so much easier if he faced it.”
“And if you faced yours. You don’t really want to go to school, do you? And I’ve been trying to make it easy on you—be supportive. Hoping against all hope that I’ll get you knocked up and the decision will be taken out of your hands.”
“Knocked up?”
The car is spitting out warmer air now, and for a second I think a guilty flush rolls over my skin before it dawns on me that the heat has kicked in.
“I know you’re young. I know that we need to talk about this more. But I can’t stop fantasizing about you round with my baby.”
“Nick…”
“I know.” I can
almost sense him running his fingers through his thick hair. “It makes more sense to wait until you finish school. This summer we’ll get married. Then we can talk about babies and school—like normal couples would. But, love, what has ever been normal about us? I have enough money to support us and anyone else who comes along for the rest of our lives, we’re—”
“Nick, I’m pregnant,” I blurt out.
There’s dead silence on his end of the phone. Finally he speaks. “Are you sure?”
“Nope. But I haven’t gotten my period in three months. And I’m so much hornier.”
“How can you tell?”
We both burst out laughing because he’s right.
“You boobs are fuller,” he acknowledges. “I thought maybe you were just filling out a little more.”
“I was going to stop off on the drugstore on the way home so I could surprise you.”
“You’ve just made me the happiest man alive, baby. You don’t even need to stop off for the test. Just come home so I can get you naked and wet and we can take the test another day.”
I laugh at him. I know it’ll drive us both crazy until we’re sure, so I’m going to stop at the store anyway.
“I’ll be home in a few. I love you.”
“I love you.” There’s a rich warmth in his voice that wipes out all the cold.
At the next major turn from the school is a road that houses several small businesses, a coffee shop, our grocery store. I stop off at the grocery, parking the truck and slipping my scarf around my neck. I rush inside, grab a pregnancy test, and head back out as fast as I can. I’m peering inside the bag at the test, where I’ve tossed my cell phone, and for the first time ignoring my surroundings. But as soon as I click the door open, a rush of darkness overcomes me when someone drops a black bag over my head. I’m grabbed from behind and forced into a trunk of a car when I hear the voice.
“May God save your soul, daughter.”
Chapter Eleven
I’m freezing in the trunk, even though I have a coat and scarf on. It’s not a short ride, wherever my mother and stepfather are taking me. In my head, I run over all the things the therapist taught me. I’m not a quivering child, I remind myself. I’m a grown woman and I have a child to protect. Even without the test, I’m aware there’s someone nestled in the warmth of my body. The embodiment of the love between me and Nick.
How long will it take Nick to come looking for me? I’d told him I was on my way. When I don’t return home within fifteen minutes, he’s sure to call my cell. When I don’t answer, he’ll worry. He’ll drive down to the school and find the truck gone. He’ll assume I had an accident. Or perhaps he’ll wonder if I stopped off for the test. He’ll drive to the grocery and see the truck in the lot and me missing.
At that point, he’ll call the sheriff. It won’t be long now, I assure myself.
It isn’t. The car rolls to a bumpy stop. It seems like it takes forever before the trunk opens and the light—even with the lack of sun because of the cloud cover—is harsh and stings my eyes. They begin to water and burn.
“Get out, whore of Satan,” my stepfather says, then leans down to grip my upper arm, hauling me up.
I scramble out of the trunk and sway a bit as the world swirls around me. Between the two of them, they usher me inside a decrepit rental house.
The inside of the house looks even worse and I can tell they haven’t lived here long. It’s filthy, the windows covered in grime.
“This is kidnapping. You can’t steal someone off the streets. You’re breaking the law.” I’m proud of how mature my voice sounds, how I’m not a quivering mess.
“Breaking the law? For taking our own daughter?” My mother sneers, a no-nonsense attitude in her voice.
“I’m an adult.” I frown at her. Surely she remembers I turned eighteen during the summer months.
“You think eighteen is an adult? Just because your body is mature enough to house the devil doesn’t mean your mind is.”
Furious, she throws a bag at me, and the pregnancy test tumbles out, but that’s not what I’m eyeing. I’m wondering how to get the phone.
“Teresa,” my stepfather says, kicking the phone out of the way. “She’s obviously not sure. That’s why she purchased the test. Take her into the restroom to take the test. We’ll deal with the rest once we know the results.”
My mother nods as if this sage advice makes sense to her. As if they are perfectly reasonable in snatching me off the streets after signing custody away. Not that custody matters, as I am now an adult.
In the bathroom, she stands watch as I hike down my pants and sit on the toilet. She unwraps the test, her hands shaking with fury, and hands me the stick to pee on. My humiliation complete, I manage to pee on the damn thing while she watches. We head back out to the living area, my mother carrying the stick.
My stepfather raises an eyebrow. She shakes her head. “Ten minutes,” she says. “We can see at around three minutes, but it takes ten for the most accurate results.”
“What’s it to you if I am?” I ask. I’m curious. Do they think they’ll make me give it up for adoption?
My mother crosses herself. “That…abomination was created in sin. The baby is a representation of your own Sodom and Gomorrah. If you are with child, he’ll be given to an appropriate couple who have begged the Lord for one of their own. You will continue your studies on serving your parents, preparing for our later years. Eventually you’ll be allowed to marry to an appropriate, God-fearing man of our choosing. He’ll be your gateway into the everlasting.”
Nick will never stand for this, I remind myself. Not ever. He’ll come for me long before our child is born. I’m calmer with the knowledge.
“Nick will never agree to give up his baby.”
My mother’s face changes. “Nick? He swore to protect you and he…touched you?”
“Well, it takes two to tango.” I can’t help but smile a little at the memories of all the times he touched me.
My mother hisses. She looks at my stepfather. “It’s worse than I thought. I knew we shouldn’t have agreed to allow her to stay.”
“It’s okay,” he soothes. “God wanted it at that time. If Nick hadn’t stopped sending the payments, it would never have come down to this.”
“What payments?”
“Why, for your services, of course. We deserved compensation for not having our daughter there to prepare meals and our home when we’re so busy with the church.”
Holy shit. They sold me? Calling it compensation for losing their maid? I guess Nick paid for my services all right, though he got a different kind. I’m tempted to laugh, but then my mother looks down at the pee stick and her face whitens. Her eyes fill with tears and they run down her cheeks like a river.
“Jerry! Oh, Jerry. It’s true. The devil has her soul.” She rushes to his side, where he comforts her awkwardly, trying to stand away from the contaminated test as if it’s alive with pee germs.
“Nine months, we’ll hide her away until her shame has been absolved. The baby will find a home with deserving parents elsewhere.”
And then the knock comes at the door, followed by a voice on a megaphone.
“Mr. and Mrs. Selene, please send Rachel out unharmed.”
My parents run to the front window, my mother screeching. “How did they find us?”
“I don’t know, Theresa,” he says.
But I know. It doesn’t matter that he kicked the cell phone away. As soon as Nick realized I was missing, he tracked it.
The back door crashes open and my mother shrieks.
Sheriff Jeff holds his hands up in the air. “Relax, folks. We want this to be as peaceful as possible, but this is another police jurisdiction and those guys out there are jumpy. Please open the front door and walk out with your hands up. Rachel, you okay, hon?”
I nod. He stands in front of me, ushering my parents toward the front door. As soon as it opens, I can hear the sounds of police radios squawking. They’
re pounced upon as soon as they head outside. I can hear an officer reading them their rights.
And then Jeff leads me out onto the front porch, where Nick is. He gathers me up into his arms, pressing kisses all over my face.
“Are you all right? Did they hurt you? God, baby, talk to me.”
“They made me take a test,” I say proudly. “It’s positive!”
I barely hear what my stepdad is yelling as Nick smothers me in kisses. “Arrest him! He took her innocence! They just verified it in front of everyone.” His voice shuts up as they slam the car door. Then Jeff is talking to the uniformed officers and they load up in their cars.
I’m taken down to the station to make a formal statement before we can head home, where Molly waits. Rach! Rach, are you okay?” She grabs me the second we walk in the door.
“I’m okay,” I try to explain.
“She’s pregnant,” Nick says from behind me. “We’ll be right back.”
He picks me up and carries me toward the bedroom, leaving Molly with Jeff.
* * * * *
Molly and Jeff are gathered at the dining room table when Nick and I burst out, starved for food after all our exercise. From our angle, we can only see Jeff as he peers around the corner.
“Rachel?” Molly calls out. “A word with you, please.”
Something about this scene sounds eerily familiar. As I turn the corner, a gasp takes me by surprise. Molly has a thread of cotton through one side of her hair, mimicking the gray streak of my mom’s. Molly’s got on a cardigan sweater and a string of pearls.
She sits with a book in front of her, and Jeff is at her side, looking down to avoid bursting out with laughter.
“Yes?” I play along, taking the seat opposite her.
She leans in. “I think Nick would make a fine husband.”
Epilogue
Nick
Four years later:
I finish wiping off the kitchen counter, hang the dishrag over the faucet, and turn off the light. Just two steps away, the TV is blaring with the latest cartoon superhero.
