“Sorry, doll face,” I shrugged. “Looks like we’re staying here for a bit.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Annabelle
I tried to make the best out of a bad situation. What else could I do? There was no way Phoenix or I would have ever left those children to fend for themselves. I just hoped their parents saw it that way, too. I wasn’t sure how I would have reacted to finding strangers hunkered down with Nathan when he was younger.
Over the course of the afternoon, I learned that the little girl was named Charlie and she was five and a half years old. Her little brother was Austin and he was six months old.
Charlie cried for quite a while when she saw the state of their house, but she finally calmed down when I assured her that we wouldn’t leave her and Austin alone. It took some time, but she eventually warmed up to Phoenix, too.
We spent the afternoon and well into the evening playing outside. Phoenix even brought some food out of the storm shelter and made a picnic for us. I tended to the baby, who was surprisingly calm and content, especially given the fact that he was being cared for by strangers.
When the sun started to set, we went into the storm shelter to get settled down for the night. It was much larger than I expected, about the size of a shipping container. It had all the necessary items to keep us comfortable for far longer than three days. There was even a small bathroom!
“Annabelle,” Charlie asked as she tugged on my shirt, “will you tuck me in after I brush my teeth?”
I smiled down at her. “Of course I will. Do you need help brushing your teeth?”
She shook her head. “No, ma’am, I’m a big girl.”
Once Charlie was tucked in and Austin was down for the night, I hoped, I took a seat on the small sofa beside Phoenix. “You’re awfully quiet.”
“Just wondering how this is going to play out. Don’t you think their parents should have been here by now?” he asked.
Yes, I did think that, if they were able. “They might be hurt or maybe the roads are blocked or maybe they got stranded like we did,” I suggested.
He gave me a pointed look. “Both of them? Likely not. Besides, wouldn’t you fight tooth and nail to get back to your kids?”
I slowly nodded my head. “Yes, I would, but we don’t know what happened and we don’t have any way of knowing. Don’t forget, they probably assume the kids are with their babysitter. There’s no use in getting worked up over speculation.”
I stood and extended my hand. “Come on, let’s try to get some sleep.”
***
Something startled me from my sleep. When I sat up and rubbed the sleep from my eyes, Phoenix was already on his feet heading toward the door. I heard the door rattle and a frantic male voice shout, “Charlie! It’s Daddy!! Open the door, honey!”
I sighed with relief. At least one parent was alive and well. It had taken me a long time to fall asleep because I couldn’t stop worrying about the children’s parents.
Phoenix slowly opened the door. The man on the other side morphed from frantic to furious in a nanosecond. “Who the fuck are you and where are my children?”
Phoenix held his hands up and took a few steps back. “Just calm down, man. Your kids are right through there and they’re fine.”
The man stormed down the stairs and marched right past Phoenix and I. He was visibly relieved at the sight of his sleeping children, but he was no less furious. He whirled around. “Again, who the fuck are you?”
Phoenix remained calm, or he appeared to remain calm on the outside. I knew him though, and judging by his stance and the tick in his jaw, he was ready for an attack. “My name is Phoenix Black and this is Annabelle Burnett,” he gestured to me. “We were stranded after the storm and your place was the first home we came upon. We were just looking for a way to call for help when we found the children in the storm shelter.”
The man fumed. “So you just invited yourself in here, WITH MY KIDS?”
Charlie’s soft voice filled the room, “Daddy? Why are you yelling at my friends?”
“They’re not your friends, Charlie.”
Charlie walked closer to her father. “Yes, they are, Daddy. They helped me and Austin. If they weren’t here, we would’ve been all alone. I didn’t let them in right away. I talked to them through the door first. Ms. Annabelle is a mommy and Mommy always told me to go to another mommy if I needed help. So that’s what I did.” She crossed her arms and leveled him with a look that dared him to say her actions were wrong. Before he could speak, she continued, “Mr. Phoenix even stayed outside and waited for me to bring Austin out. Then, he went to get the talkie radio. I was scared of him at first, but that was silly. He’s a really nice man, Daddy. He’s tried to call for help a lot of times, but they just keep telling him they’ll get here when they can since no one is hurt.”
The man blinked several times before scooping his daughter into his arms. He turned to face us. “That true?”
Phoenix nodded. “Yes. I tried several times to get someone to either come out here or try to get in touch with either one of their parents. I didn’t have any luck with that. The responders told us to stay with the children until help arrived. We wouldn’t have left them alone in the first place, but you might want to speak to the appropriate officials about advising random strangers to watch after someone else’s kids.”
The man sighed. “Thank you for looking after them. I apologize for my initial reaction.”
“No apologies necessary. You had every right to react that way to finding strangers hunkered down with your children. You’ve got a very smart little girl right there,” Phoenix said and grinned at Charlie.
The man smiled. “Don’t I know it. Oh, forgive me, it’s been quite a day.” He extended his hand to Phoenix. “I’m Curtis Smith.”
After shaking hands with Phoenix, Curtis turned to me and did the same. “I would say it’s a pleasure to meet you, but under the circumstances…”
“I completely understand,” I said. “If I may, is your wife okay? Charlie said she was out running errands when the tornado hit.”
He put Charlie down and instructed her to go back to bed. “She’s in the hospital. The building she was in collapsed and she was trapped in the rubble. She’ll be okay though. Other than a mild concussion, it’s mainly just bumps and bruises, but she’s three months pregnant, so they wanted to keep her overnight to monitor the baby.”
I fidgeted with my hands before asking, “Charlie mentioned the babysitter, Judy, went back to the house after getting them to the shelter. Any word on her?”
Curtis grimaced. “She was found about a quarter mile from here. She’s alive, but unconscious and in critical condition. As soon as I heard she was brought in with no sign of the children, I got here as fast as I could.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” I said softly.
After a brief pause, Curtis clapped his hands. “Well, is there something I can do to help you two? You said you were stranded after the storm?”
Phoenix filled him in on our tornado experience. “I just need to find somewhere to rent something I can haul my bike back home with.”
“You’re not going to have any luck around here, but I can drive you a few towns over to get something.”
“Thanks, man. I’d greatly appreciate that,” Phoenix replied.
“We can head out now if Annabelle doesn’t mind staying with the kids.”
“I’d be happy to,” I told them. I wasn’t sure of the time, but I figured the kids would sleep for a while longer.
Four hours later, Phoenix and Curtis returned, Phoenix driving a rented box truck. Curtis helped him get the bike loaded into the truck and we said our goodbyes. Charlie was quite upset about our departure, but I promised to call in a day or two to check in with her and her family. We offered to stay and help Curtis, but he said there would be nothing to do for several days. With a final hug goodbye, Phoenix and I climbed into the truck and continued on our journey back to Croftridge.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Phoenix
“You okay?” I asked. Annabelle had been quiet since we left Curtis, Charlie, and Austin.
“Yes, I’m fine,” she replied, quickly. A little too quickly I thought.
“Don’t lie to me, doll face. I’ll pull this truck over if I have to,” I warned.
She rolled her eyes. “I was just thinking about our children,” she paused, “and how much I missed of their lives,” she finished on a sob.
I eased the truck off the highway and pulled her into my arms. Rubbing her back, I soothed, “I know it’s hard, but you can’t dwell on that part of it. I know how you feel, doll face, I truly do, but you have to let that part go. We can’t change the past, no matter how much we wish we could.”
She balled up her fists and beat them against my chest. “I hate him! I hate him! I wish he wasn’t dead so I could kill him myself! He took so much from me! From us!”
I held her close and rocked her back and forth. “He can’t take anything else away from us. That I can promise you.”
She leaned away from me and wiped her eyes. “I’m sorry. This past week has wreaked havoc on my emotions.”
“It’s okay, doll face. Don’t ever hide your feelings from me.” I leaned forward and kissed her lips. I intended to give her a chaste kiss, a quick hug, and get back on the road. Instead, Annabelle pulled me closer, thrust her tongue into my mouth, and climbed into my lap. The next thing I knew, she had her lower half stripped bare and my jeans open.
“I need you, Phoenix,” she breathed. Then, she held my cock in one hand, raised herself up, and slid down, all the while staring into my eyes. She rode the hell out of me in that box truck on the side of the road, using my body to work out her frustrations. Moaning and groaning, her hips rising and falling, she didn’t stop until we were both coming at the same time.
Leaning forward, I pressed my forehead against hers. “Feel better?”
She licked her lips and whispered, “Yes.”
I grinned. “Good. You start feeling down again, you just let me know, yeah?” I winked.
***
I decided to stop in St. Louis for the night. I probably could have made it back to Croftridge without stopping, but having Annabelle all to myself for one more night sounded too good to pass up.
Once again, I chose one of the nicer hotels, though this time I hadn’t been able to plan for any surprises ahead of time. Once we were settled in our room, Annabelle suggested we order room service instead of going out for dinner. That sounded like a great plan to me. As much as I didn’t want to admit it, I was fucking exhausted.
After dinner, Annabelle informed me that she was going to take a bath. I figured I could use the time to call and check in with Ember and Coal, as well as touch base with Badger. I was just about to hit Ember’s name when I heard, “Phoenix? Can you come here for a second?”
I strolled into the bathroom to find a large garden tub in the corner of the bathroom with a smiling Annabelle submerged up to her neck in bubbles. When her eyes landed on mine, she stood and let the bubbles slide down her glorious body.
“Care to join me, biker boy?” she asked while crooking her finger at me.
I grinned. “Fuck yes,” I growled. I quickly shed my clothes and prowled toward my sudsy goddess. When I reached the tub, I stepped in, yanked her soapy body against mine, and devoured her mouth.
Groaning against her lips, I slid my hands down to cup her luscious tits. I lightly rubbed my thumbs over her nipples while she moaned and squirmed in my arms.
She broke the kiss and before I could register what she was doing, she was on her knees, sucking the head of my cock into her hot little mouth. “Annabelle,” I hissed, clenching both fists in her hair.
She wrapped her fist around the base of my cock and continued sliding her mouth up and down my shaft at a slow pace. “Fuck, Annabelle, you’re going to have to stop. Your mouth feels too fucking good.”
She didn’t stop. She kept going and increased her pace. When I heard and felt her moan, my eyes flew open and I looked down to see my fantasy from a few days before coming true right before my very eyes. Annabelle was on her knees in the tub, going to town on my cock while one of her hands was steadily moving between her legs. And the motherfucking bubbles were blocking my view.
“Don’t you dare fucking come,” I growled. She blinked up at me and grinned, never once breaking her rhythm.
“Fuck, baby, I’m going to come,” I groaned and tried to pull her head away from me. She’d swallowed my seed many times when we were teenagers, but I didn’t know how she felt about it as an adult. She clamped her lips around me, sucked harder, and that was it. I exploded, shooting strand after strand down her throat.
She licked me clean and looked up at me, grinning like the Cheshire cat. With a speed she wasn’t prepared for, I hoisted her up, planted her ass on the corner edge of the tub, and dropped to my knees. “My turn,” I growled and shoved my face between her legs.
With her pinned in the corner, she had to put her legs over my shoulders and use one hand to brace herself against the wall. The other hand had a fistful of my hair. I licked, flicked, nibbled, and sucked her as she writhed against me. When she started to beg, I shoved two fingers into her and crooked them forward as I roughly pumped them in and out of her until she was coming all over my face with my name on her lips.
By the time she found her release, I was hard as fucking steel again. I sat back in the tub and pulled her into my lap, lifting her enough to position myself at her entrance. We both groaned when she slid down my cock, inch by agonizing inch.
“Phoenix,” she breathed.
I grabbed her ass with both hands and grunted, “Fucking bounce, baby.”
And bounce she did. Water was sloshing everywhere and I was probably leaving finger shaped bruises on her ass cheeks, but I didn’t give a fuck. My dick was getting the ride of its life while my face was buried between the best set of tits I’d ever seen.
“Oh, shit. Fuck, Phoenix. I’m going to come again.”
“Let me have it, baby. Fucking come all over me.”
She slammed her hips down on me two more times before I felt the walls of her pussy rippling with her orgasm. Clasping her hips, I moved her up and down half a dozen more times before I followed her over the edge.
She kissed me softly and moved to nuzzle against my neck. “You okay, doll face?”
“Mmm-hmm,” she replied, sounding sleepy and content.
“Come on, baby, let’s get cleaned up and get some sleep. We’ll be home tomorrow.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Annabelle
My nerves were frazzled. The closer we got to Croftridge, the faster my heart beat. I could feel cold beads of sweat forming on my forehead and down my spine. By the time we rolled into Croftridge, I was a sweaty, hyperventilating mess a few heartbeats short of a full-blown panic attack.
“Calm down, Annabelle. Everything’s going to be just fine, I promise,” Phoenix said, startling me and causing me to jump about six inches off my seat.
Easy for him to say. He’d already done the meet and greet with our long lost children and he got to do it without a week’s worth of anticipation. Chewing off the last sliver of the only fingernail I had left, I asked, “Where are we going?”
“I’m taking you to my house first. It’s Pop’s and Gram’s house. I thought you might want to freshen up and then we’ll figure things out from there. I can have the kids come over to my house, we can go to Ember’s house, or we can all meet up at the clubhouse, whichever you prefer.”
I didn’t want to meet them at the clubhouse because I knew we would have a large audience there and I most certainly did not want that. I thought I recalled Phoenix saying Ember lived on the farm property and I had no interest in going back to that hellhole, not yet anyway. That only left us with one option. “I guess it would be best if they came to your house.”
He reached over and gave my leg a gentle squeeze. “Okay, doll face, if that’s what you want, that’s what we’ll do.”
He pulled into the driveway of the old plantation style home I remembered so well. It looked just the same as it did the last time I saw it. The house was huge and screamed of money, but it was also warm and inviting.
Phoenix came around and opened my door for me, extending his hand to help me climb out of the truck. He cupped my cheeks and kissed the tip of my nose, then held my hand as he led me to the front door.
Before he turned the knob, the front door flew open and there stood two people with faces I hadn’t seen in 13 years but instantly recognized, Ember and Coal. No one moved. No one said a word, for a very long time. We all just stared at one another.
Finally, Phoenix broke the silence. He cleared his throat and said, “Ember, Coal, this is your mother, Annabelle.”
My eyes flicked from Phoenix to my grown children. I didn’t have time to process anything else before both of them slammed into my body, wrapping their arms around my shoulders and my waist. “Mom,” they both cried at the same time.
That was when the dam burst. I sunk to the floor with both of them, sobbing and gasping for air. “I’m so sorry,” I said between my broken cries. “I’m so sorry! I didn’t know. I never would have—”
“It’s okay, Mom,” Ember said.
Coal nodded. “We know what happened. It’s not anyone’s fault but Octavius’s.”
I searched both of their faces. “You really believe that?”
“Yes,” and “Of course we do,” they replied at the same time.
“How about we go inside, yeah?” Phoenix suggested.
The kids got to their feet and Phoenix helped me to mine. We all moved into the house to continue our reunion. I took a seat on the couch, Phoenix settling down right beside me. He put his arm around my shoulder and gave it a squeeze. “So, kids, want to tell me why you were in my house when I got back?”
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