by Mia Caldwell
Through the kitchen doors, Julio’s Aunt Sophia lumbered out. She was tall, like Senora Torres, but twice her girth. Senora Torres said something in Spanish to her sister-in-law and then they both laughed.
A moment later, she gave Lissa a meaningful link, then ran one index finger over the other, cackling gaily as she made the universal gesture, of naughty, naughty.
Lissa felt her face go flush with embarrassment.
“They go for naughty, naughty time?” she asked in her broken English than cackled at her own joke.
“Come on, Lissa,” Julio said, chuckling darkly. She started to follow him, wordlessly. He wouldn’t seriously be taking her somewhere to have his way with her, would he? Not while people were downstairs thinking that’s what he had in mind. Her nipples hardened at the thought.
“Where are we going?”
“To my room.”
# # #
When he unlocked his door, and motioned Lissa inside, she didn’t have time to admire the view of the city from his window, or the warm masculine touches of his interior space, because his hands were all over her, expertly pulling off her clothes.
“What are you doing?” Lissa said, trying to stop him.
“What I’ve been thinking about non-stop, getting you naked, so I can ravish you.”
She gasped as his choice of words, but a part of her held back.
“No, no,” she said.
He reared back, confusion on his face.
“What do you mean?”
“You can’t, we can’t do—this. I mean, not until you tell me what the hell has been going on?”
He shook his head, a smirk twitching at his mouth, and moved close to her, close enough that she could feel his heat, his desire for her.
She started to say something, but he pressed his index finger against his lips.
“We’ll talk after you’ve come, not before.”
Lissa gasped at his words, her body responding to him.
They kissed and while she tried to resist him at first, soon she was as eager as he was for contact.
“The door?”
“It’s locked, don’t worry.”
He moved her backwards towards the bed, bending her knees as she plopped onto the bed. She lifted her arms and he pulled off her blouse, then pushed her gently backwards so he could remove her pants.
“I haven’t stopped thinking about your tight, sweet, pussy,” he said as he pulled down her underwear and tossed it onto the floor.
She lay on the bed, panting, the bra still holding her breasts, the lace being strained by her expanding pebbling nipples. She threw her head back and groaned as he spread her legs, going down on her, the way she liked.
It didn’t take long, for his tongue and fingers to send her over the edge. She had to bite the lips hard to stop from crying out in pleasure as her back arched and she pushed her pelvis up, into him.
He climbed on top of her, his belt buckle digging into her skin. He kissed her hard and as he ground his erection against her through his pants. She squeezed her hands between them, groping for the clasp of his pants, trying to free his cock of its bounds. “I need you inside me, please…” she begged.
Julio pushed off her, trailing fire down her neck, to her collar bone, before sucking on one breast through the lace of her bra. She reached for his pants again, but he pulled away, getting off the bed.
Lissa lifted her head as her heart raced and she watched him pull off his tshirt and step out of his pants. He stood there before her, naked, incredibly perfect, all muscles and angles, and dark thick hair on his chest trailing down to his incredible cock, erect and proud in his stroking hand.
“Is this what you want?” he asked, his voice like gravel.
“Yes, please.”
“What do you want me to do with it, say it. Tell me.”
“I want you to fuck me. Fuck me. Please. Julio, Fuck me, now.”
Lissa’s eyes burned with need for him and he climbed back on to the bed. She spread her legs and he crawled on his knees between them. She thought he’d fall forward and enter her in the missionary way, but instead, he lifted her legs, until they rested against his chest. He reached down and pulled her up by the hips and entered her in a way he’d never entered her before. Then he leaned forward, almost pressing her knees into her chest and he began to fuck her. The angle was incredible, and he was able to go in deep then come out and go in deeper the next time. A new part of her inner sanctum was activated and she felt the spiral of pleasure begin to unwind deep inside her. As he came, her body exploded in time with his release.
“Fuck,” he said, when it was over. He plopped down beside her, panting.
Twenty minutes later, they’d taken a shower together, speaking only in kisses and touches.
Back in the room, after Lissa and Julio had fully dressed, Julio’s cell phone rang, and his face showed a moment of alarm when he spotted the caller I.D. He grabbed it and answered. “Can I call you right back?”
“Who’s that? Something about the job?”
“Lissa, why don’t you see yourself out, I’ll see you at dinner. I need to take this.”
Feeling dismissed, Lissa walked back to her room. She fixed her makeup and hair, and went back downstairs, returning to baby duty.
As she walked, she made up her mind.
This had gone far enough.
To her relief Joan had arrived, and had already relieved the two cooks of their baby watching tasks. Her three sons weren’t much trouble. They were fast asleep in their cribs.
“You look like you got some,” Joan said as she sat next to her on the couch.
“Joan, I want to go back home, as soon as possible. Can you go book us our flights? I’ll stay here.”
“Home? Why? I thought you had work to do here, for a month or something?”
“We’ve been here long enough. I don’t need to be here to help with the job, I have to get back home. Please, just do it. As soon as possible, tomorrow if you can swing it. I’ll gladly pay first class.”
“Okay, whatever, you say…”
Joan seemed crushed at the news, but also seemed to grasp Lissa’s pain. Joan was a good sister.
Dinner that night was a boisterous affair. Twenty Torres family members, the three babies and Julio’s friend Fernando all spoke loudly and happily as first one course and then another was served by Sophia and Senora Torres.
Joan was quiet and so was Lissa as they ate.
“Are you two okay?” Senora Torres asked.
“We’re fine.”
Lissa noticed that Joan was avoiding the eye-contact of Fernando. Lissa wondered if they’d had a falling out, or if she just couldn’t tell him that they would be leaving first thing the next day.
She’d not spoken to Julio in any meaningful way since the phone call, and to her mind, he’d been distant, avoiding her.
After the desert was served, Julio stood up and praised the cooks for the best meal ever.
“Unfortunately, I need to go, I have an appointment in Milan at ten. Fernando’s taking me to the airport.”
“I’ll see you soon,” he said to Lissa, then he gave each of his babies a kiss and left the room.
Lissa couldn’t decide if she was relieved or upset that he’d left so quickly. She was worried that if he came to her room in the night, she wouldn’t be able to take his family away in the morning. But, now it would be easier to go.
She decided not to say anything to anyone until the last minute.
Joan was in a sad mood as she helped Lissa secretly pack.
“Does Julio know you’re going?”
“No.”
“Don’t you think he deserves to know?”
“He doesn’t tell me what he’s doing and I thought we were partners.”
“Yeah, I see what you mean.”
“Besides, I’m the parent with full rights, he’s just the biological father, I’m just his booty call. And I’m tired of being here. I want to go home.”
“I understand.”
“So, you had the room last night, so it’s your turn to sleep on the cot again,” Lissa reminded her sister.
“Actually, I was wondering if you could cover me one more time. I kind of have a date tonight.”
“Fernando?”
“Yeah, since we’re leaving, I was hoping…”
“Go, ahead, but promise me you won’t say anything. I don’t want Julio to know that we’re leaving until we’re already gone.”
“I promise.”
That night, Lissa slept fitfully, and so did the babies. It was if they knew that life as they’d begun to know it would change very soon.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Joan roused Lissa out of a deep dream.
“You better get up. The taxi will be here in thirty minutes.”
Lissa hurried upstairs to shower and dress in her travel clothes, and noted that everything except the babies was packed and ready to go. And once again, there was no sign that the guest bed had been slept in. Lissa assumed that Joan had spent the night with Fernando again.
When she came downstairs, the babies were starting to fuss.
“Help me,” Joan said, a little distractedly as she pointed to the diaper bag and to a red faced, Hunter.
“Come here,” Lissa cooed as she lifted Hunter onto the makeshift changing table and got to work.
The other two babies were already in their carriers.
“Did you already feed them?” Lissa asked.
“Fed and burped and changed.”
“What about Hunter?”
“Still needs a feeding. Let me get the bottle.”
While, Joan went to the kitchen to make the last bottle, Lissa carried Hunter on her hip and bounced him up and down lightly as she walked around the room. “We’re going to go on a big airplane in a little while, remember the last time?”
Her son just looked at her, like he knew she was putting a spin on things. Like he knew she was taking him away from his papa.
She swallowed her guilt as Joan came in with the bottle.
The doorbell rang.
“That will be the taxi.”
Lissa put Hunter into his car seat and gave him the bottle. He was old enough now to hold it himself and he forgot about accusing her of anything as he focused on breakfast.
Senora Torres came downstairs wrapped in a worn floral bathrobe. Her hair was a wild mess and her eyes were filled with alarm.
“What’s this?”
“I’m sorry, Mrs. Torres, I – there’s a family emergency. I’m sorry, I didn’t tell you last night, but we’re going back to America.”
“An emergency, I’m so sorry, what is it? Is there anything I can do?”
“I’m afraid there isn’t, just tell Julio, I’m sorry we didn’t get a chance to say goodbye.”
“You mean he doesn’t know?”
“Not, yet.” Lissa said. “Everything happened so fast, there wasn’t time.”
“I see,” she said.
Aunt Sophia joined her sister-in-law and they all helped Joan and Lissa, as the two women and three babies were loaded into the cabbie’s passenger van, then wouldn’t close the door and let them leave until each baby was given a last kiss.
“An emergency at home? Is that the best you could come up with?” Joan asked as the cab finally drove away.
“Yeah, that was the best I could come up with.”
The babies were silent and sleeping, until the cab arrived at the airport and they had to switch from car seats to the double stroller and the single stroller. They checked the car seats and the rest of the bags and an airport attendant was called to help shuttle them to their gate.
The flight wasn’t going to leave for another two hours, but Lissa had known that if she waited around at the Torres house, she might not have the nerve to get away – plus someone would surely alert Julio. She thought about Julio, who she was certain had been alerted the moment they drove away. She wondered how he would react to the news that his baby mama had skipped town with his babies. She wondered if he was secretly relieved.
She wondered how long it would be before he paid his boys a visit.
After they made it through security and settled in for the long wait at their gate, Joan got up to buy them each coffees. Lissa did her best to keep the boys from crying. They were starting to get fussy. She didn’t blame them, they’d been stuck first in a car seat and now in a stroller. These babies were starting to crawl and they needed to move their little muscles.
But, the floor was too dirty and people were moving around so fast, talking on cell phones, paying no heed to where they were going. Someone could drop a suitcase on one of her boys, or smash one of the precious fingers or toes as they wheeled over a curious finger. No, they would just have to deal with being trapped in their stroller. Safety first.
“Ms. Edwards?”
Lissa looked up, from the diaper bag she’d been rummaging through and turned around to see an official looking man staring at her as she held Hunter’s pacifier in one hand, and Marco’s drool rag in the other.
“Yes?”
“Are these your children, ma’am?”
Lissa couldn’t understand why this person was asking. Sure, Hunter had started to cry in the last few minutes, which was the reason she’d dug out his pacifier. But that was not reason to send security.
“Yes, of course, these are my children, is there some kind of problem?”
“I’m afraid there is, ma’am, I need you to bring your children and come with me.”
Lissa blinked. Notwithstanding the logistics of pushing two full baby strollers, carrying the world’s most over-stuffed diaper bag and her purse, she was missing her sister.
“I don’t understand.”
“Ma’am,” he said. A stern looking woman dressed in the similar uniform appeared and picked up the diaper bag. Then she got behind the stroller, holding two of her sons and started to wheel them away.
“Wait a minute, what are you doing?”
“Ma’am you need to come with us,” the man said again.
Marco and Ryland who were in the double stroller, sensed their mother’s alarm. They started to ball, loud and enthusiastically. Lissa hurriedly grabbed her purse and the other stroller with Hunter in it and pushed it quickly to catch up to her other babies. As she ran, she swung her head around widely, screaming out, “Joan, Joan!”
Joan appeared, her hand filled with two cups of coffee, which she dropped at the sight of her sister’s family being whisked away. “Hey, where are you taking them?” She yelled.
“Are you traveling with this woman?” asked the man.
“I’m her sister, what the hell is going on?”
“You can come with us as well then,” he said. And without another word, he led the caravan of screaming babies and the two Edwards women to an unmarked door.
Inside the door, there was a small ten by ten-foot room. It had a window to the tarmac, and metal benches along the wall. There was nothing else.
“Stay here,” said the man.
Then he got out and before Joan or Lissa could say a thing, or get an explanation, they heard the door lock.
“What the actual fuck?” Joan asked, as the two women tried desperately to comfort the screaming babies.
“I don’t know.”
After ten minutes, Joan needed to pee. She went to the door and tried it for the umpteenth time. It was still locked.
“Hey, someone out there, I need to use a bathroom,” she yelled as she pounded on the wall.
It made the babies start to cry again, but Lissa didn’t care, because she also needed release. Besides, she had a plane to catch and they were being held without explanation, this couldn’t be legal.
When the door latch moved, Joan shouted out in relief.
“It’s about fucking time!”
They stood back, expecting some rent-a-cop to open the door, but to Lissa’s shock, Julio came in, his face red with anger.
“
Julio, what are you doing here?”
“What am I doing here? What the hell are you doing here, taking my family away without even telling me?”
“You have no right to talk to me like that. You haven’t told me anything about what’s going on? With work? With our project. It’s like I don’t even work for you anymore.”
“I don’t care about the job. Don’t you understand? How can you leave me like this?”
The babies were screaming again, joining their parents.
“Uh, guys,” Joan said, as she stood in the doorway. “I don’t care what you have to talk about, but I’ve got to pee.”
“Huh,” they both said noticing her as if for the first time.
The door was opened, and Lissa and Julio became aware of their children and the people in the lounge staring at them with irritated glances. One screaming baby was annoying enough, but three, that was too much in anyone’s book.
Setting their argument aside for the moment, Julio and Lissa began to soothe the boys. Pulling them out of their strollers, Lissa handed Julio first, Marco, and then Ryland, and let them bounce them on his knee. The boys soon stopped crying, while Lissa took Hunter out of his stroller and carried him around the room.
“I’m sorry baby, mommy and daddy didn’t mean to fight,”
“Lissa,” Julio said as she plopped into the seat next to him, when Hunter finally settled down.
“What?” she snapped, still furious at him for whatever strings he needed to pull to treat her and her sister like common criminals.
“You can’t go,” he said, trying to sound reasonable.
“I can and I will,” she fired back.
“But, why, I thought… I thought… I thought things were going well between us.”
“Well, I’m glad you were enjoying your little booty call, but I have a life to get back to and a family to raise.”
“Lissa.”
“What?”
“You’re not some booty call. You, you’re more than that.”
“Yeah, I get it, I’m the booty call that happens to be the mother to your three sons.”
Julio raked his hand though his hair, and managed not to drop Marco who was trying to squirm out of his grasp. Ryland, who had been doing his best to put drool on his shirt, was now reaching up, trying to grab at his chin. Lissa saw that his stubble on the usually immaculate face, and realized that Julio must have been in a hurry, because it was clear that he hadn’t shaved. That thought softened her anger, for a moment, but she didn’t let on. Instead, she asked with suspicion.