Steamy Dorm

by Kristine Robinson

  Meathead #1 screams and drops his rifle. He stumbles back and steps on Meathead #2’s foot. Meathead #2’s finger tightens around his trigger and the gun erupts into the ceiling. Sheet rock dust flutters down on our heads. They both trip over each other, and since neither can see anything, they tumble into the bathtub.

  Michelle charges forward. She gives them one last shove that sends them down into the bathtub in a hopeless muddle. She grabs me and Cory. “Run!”

  We don’t need any further encouragement. We hit the stairs and fly through the broken front door, out into the fresh air we never thought we’d see again. Michelle burst into fresh enthusiasm and waves us toward the Civic. “Come on!”

  She pops open the driver’s door. The keys dangle from the ignition. We’re free! The sound of an engine and wheels on gravel make all three of us turn around, and Cory’s shoulders slum. “Oh, no!”

  A gold Lexus purrs to a stop next to the Civic, and who do you think steps out of the driver’s seat? Mr. Fancy Pants, Nicholas Bastion himself, Cory’s father. He surveys our little group with his nasty twisted grin. He tosses his car keys into the air and catches them. “Well, well, well. Look who we have here. There’s Cory, and Aimee Springfield, and....I don’t know you.”

  Michelle growls under her breath. “I’ll deal with this scumbag.”

  Before she can move, though, he sticks his hand into his suit jacket pocket and pulls out a pistol. It looks familiar. It’s the same gun he used to try to kill Cory. “Stay where you are. None of you is going anywhere.”

  None of us has to turn around to know those feet running across the porch are the two meatheads coming out. They’ve wiped the foam off their faces, and now they’ll be more than happy to exact Mr. Fancy Pants’ revenge on us.

  Cory stands immobile and passive. He’s already given up. “How did you find us?”

  “That was easy,” his father replies. “After you ran away, I found Aimee’s concert tickets in the garden. It didn’t take me more than a few phone calls to figure out where they came from. When I found out she hadn’t come into work at the bank, I put two and two together. She was outside the house when I shot at you, so she must have seen it happen. After that, I used my contacts at the bank to track her credit card spending. You people really ran me a wild goose chase, but none of you is all that smart. I was bound to catch up with you sooner or later.”

  “What are you going to do with us now?”

  “Do you with you?” he exclaims. “Why, kill you, of course. I can’t let you blab all over the Western US about my activities, can I? You only made it easier for me by bringing yourselves out here where I can dispose of the bodies without anybody finding you.”

  I can’t hold back anymore. “You rotten lout! You’ll pay for this. You would kill your own son to cream a few stolen bucks off your innocent account holders?”

  He snarls back at me. “My son? That? No, that’s not my son.”

  “He’s not?”

  Mr. Fancy Pants sneers at Cory. “You’re not my son. Your bleeding heart mother adopted you. She wanted to do her good deed for the day by taking in a poor homeless orphan and raising it as her own. I never wanted to have anything to do with you, but I couldn’t exactly tell her that. Now the world will finally be rid of you, and she’ll never know what happened to you.”

  Cory stares at the man he thought was his father. A cloud passes over his face and clears. The terrible burden of turning this man over to the authorities lifts off his shoulders. This man is a stranger, an evil stranger. Cory owes him nothing. He can turn him in with a clear conscience.

  We don’t have time to think about that right now, though. Meathead #1 jabs Michelle in the back with his rifle. “March!”

  Chapter 6

  Cory, Michelle and I crowd into the cellar. Nicholas tells his two meatheads to keep watch at the top of the stairs while he finishes us off. So much for another nice idea. I try to catch Michelle’s eye, but she’s not looking at me or anyone else. She’s looking around the basement at the shelves behind us. Glass jars of pickles and preserves line the shelves in rows, but I don’t see any guns. We’re done for, and no mistake.

  Mr. Fancy Pants comes back and waves his gun at us. “Well, let’s get this over with. I have a business meeting in Chicago.” He grabs Cory by the hair and jerks his head back. “That was stupid, running off that way. Now three people will die instead of just you.” He digs the memory stick out of Cory’s pants pocket. “I’ll take that.”

  He hurls Cory to the floor at my feet. I try to help him up. “Hey! You don’t have to do that!”

  Nicholas spits on the floor in front of me. “Did you really think you could stop me? I had the jump on you from the very first day. You’re nothing but a cheap gold-digger, just like all the others I’ve had.”

  Cory tries to break out of my arms to attack. “You rotten…..”

  Nicholas aims his pistol at the boy. “Keep still, or I’ll put a bullet in you.”

  Michelle isn’t paying any attention to this. She’s staring off into space.

  “Now turn around, all of you,” Nicholas orders, “and don’t try any funny stuff.”

  What can we do but obey? I hate to think what’s coming next when all of a sudden, Michelle starts shaking and convulsing all over. Foam bubbles out of her mouth, and her hands twist into claws. Her eyes roll back in her head. I’ve never seen her like this. She starts shrieking in a high pitched voice, “I need a fix! I need a fix! Aargh!”

  Nicholas draws back in horror. “What’s wrong with her?”

  “She’s a junkie,” Cory tells him. “She’s going through withdrawals.”

  Nicholas makes a disgusted face and spins Michelle around by the shoulder. He shoves her forward hard against the counter. Her hands shoot out and close around something on the shelf.

  In a flash, she flings him off and whirls around on him with a glass jar in her hand. She wrenches the lid off and hurls the jar at Nicholas. Chili peppers and red liquid fly out. The liquid splashes Nicholas in the face. His gun falls to the floor and he claps his hands over his eyes. “My eyes! My eyes! They’re on fire! I’m blind!”

  Michelle doesn’t waste an instant. She tackles him and punches him until he lies still. She never has a chance to catch her breath. His cries attract the meatheads from the top of the stairs, and they run down to the basement with their guns drawn.

  Michelle snatches up Nicholas’s pistol. She doesn’t hesitate, but fires at the first man through the door. He pitches down the stairs, never to move again. Michelle fires again at the second man, but misses. He freezes. His friend and Nicholas lie unconscious on the floor and Michelle takes aim to fire again. He throws down his rifle and runs off. A minute later, we hear his footsteps crossing the porch and the Civic screeching away down the highway.

  Michelle aims her gun up the stairs, but it’s all over. Nothing moves. She lets her arm fall and catches her breath. Cory rushes forward and plucks his memory stick from Nicholas’s hand.

  “See if you can find something to tie these men up,” I tell him. “I’m going upstairs to call the police.”

  An hour later, the police drive off with Nicholas handcuffed in the back of their car. A plain-clothes detective leads Cory away. “You’ll come down to the station to give your statement, but if that stick shows what you say it does, this case won’t take long. You three did all our hard work for us.”

  Cory smiles at me and Michelle. “Thank you both, for everything.”

  Michelle and I take turns hugging him. “It was our pleasure. You’ll be safe now with your mom, and from now on, stay out of other people’s computers.”

  He gets into the car and waves to us before the detective drives him away.

  The crime scene investigators tape off the house, and all the other police personnel drive away. Michelle and I stand on the front lawn and watch. There’s nothing more we can do.

  I study Michelle from the side. She’s fidgeting again. “Are you okay?” />
  She nods. “The cravings disappeared in all the excitement, but now that it’s over, they’re coming back.”

  I take her hand. Her hand shakes in mine, and a cold sweat seeps between my fingers. “Let’s go back to the motel for the night, and then we better find you a rehab facility. You’ve held out these last few days, and that’s better than anyone could expect. We don’t want to push you too far.”

  She clings to my hand. “You won’t leave me to go through the rehab alone, will you? You’ll stick around, won’t you?”

  I hug her around the shoulders. “I’m not going anywhere. You’ll have to try a lot harder than this to get rid of me. We’ve got a lot of work to do to plan going back to school and the rest of our lives together.”

  She rests her head on my shoulder. “Good.”

  Back at the hotel, we curl up in bed and she rests in my arms. I protect her tender heart from the ravages of drugs and monsters and evil bankers. She surrounds me with clouds of love. We talk about the future, where we want to live and study and work. We let our dreams grow as large and grandiose as we dare. Nothing can stop us, as long as we’re together.

  Then we kiss, and our lips say more than our voices ever could. Our tongues mingle in shared pleasure. Her kiss sparks a deep uprising passion that could topple my whole life. I never knew anyone could experience such passion for another person, but it goes beyond that.

  Michelle brings out my passion for all living, for facing the future and seizing my destiny. I couldn’t have found that without her. When I look into her eyes, I see the same passion for life and destiny reflected in her eyes. I bring it out in her, and that passion excites me more even than her skin and hands and body.

  I can’t wait to see what will happen next. Dreaming about our future together gives me visions of riding her bucking torrents of passion to our mutual delight.

  She peels off my clothes, one piece at a time and lays me bare for her to see. Her hands warm my skin, and I pant through parted lips. She kisses every inch of my bare body, stopping to linger at delicate openings and dripping fonts. She sucks my excited flesh and leaves me gasping for more.

  Then her body enfolds me, and we merge into endless coils of flesh and bone, eternal windings in and out through labyrinthine passages of orgasmic rapture. Nothing could be sweeter than the droplets dangling from her petals and the steam of her delirious climax.

  At the moment of completion, my vision blurs and behold the years ahead, filled with potential and happiness, togetherness and challenge. I hold her tighter, and we ride into that bright dawn together on burning waves of ecstasy.

  The End.

  Taken

  ~ Bonus Story ~

  A Thriller & Suspense Lesbian Romance

  Elena

  My life had never been easy, no thanks to my family. Now I had a new family at the home who I cared about, some more than others. When a dangerous threat encroaches on our life, I couldn’t stop my old gypsy ways taking control. Why did I only realize, after they took her, how much she meant to me? They would pay if anything happened to her. I couldn’t live without the sight of her strawberry blond hair blowing in the breeze and those emerald green eyes. I never expected to find happiness, let alone true love.

  Marion

  I had just ended a relationship with a guy, but was ready for new things. I never thought my social work would lead me to lose my heart. A tall, sexy co-worker made me feel welcome and I found myself developing feelings for her. No one treated me like she did and I wanted, more than anything, to kiss her full, deep red lips. She trusted me enough to show me her soft side and I witnessed how tough she was on the outside, but would she be able to save me from the vicious gang my father was involved with?

  * * *

  Chapter 1

  “Have you got all the consent forms, Marion?” I asked.

  “Yes, yes,” she replied.

  She hurried over to her desk and gathered the stack of papers together. It was great to take the boys on a trip out of the home, but it was a nightmare to plan. Thank heavens Marion had joined us three months earlier.

  ‘You’re so organized, Marion!” I said, “I couldn’t have done this without you!”

  I leaped aside as one of the new boys flashed through the office on a skateboard.

  “That’s a demerit, Davie!” I shouted after him, “Come on, you know that!”

  The group home was not an easy place to work, but I couldn’t picture myself working anywhere else. I had begun there permanently that year, when I wasn’t busy with my Ph.D. but had helped out for three years before that, during my holidays. Now I even had an official title: assistant counselor! It felt good to put my studies into practice. I felt like I was really making a difference. Most times. Nothing was predictable at the home, though.

  Three boys sauntered into the office, dressed in board shorts and t-shirts.

  “The gators going to bite your ass!” one of them said.

  He pushed Gabe. Gabe’s eyes darted from the older boy next to him to me. He was small for a fifteen-year-old. I pointed at my belly.

  “I’m sure the gator would prefer something with a bit more meat!” I joked.

  The older boy had a round stomach. Gabe laughed.

  “Yeah, fat-ass!” he said, “We’ll chuck you in first and the gator will be full!”

  The chubby boy turned and headed back down the passage, towards the dorm rooms.

  “Whatever!” he said.

  I was glad neither boy turned the incident into a race thing. We had 17 Caucasian and 14 African American boys staying at the home. It didn’t take much for trouble to start. I had felt the tension rising in general over the previous two days. It usually happened once or twice a month. Hopefully getting them all out on the river, in the fresh air, would help.

  “Can you give me a hand, Elena?” Marion asked.

  I turned and moved into her section of the open-plan office. The only tidy corner. She was much shorter than me, petite, had long strawberry blond hair and green eyes. Everyone in Tallahassee always asked me where I was from. I seemed to scare off the men at least, which was a bonus really, perhaps because I was 5 foot 7 and definitely not petite, like Marion.

  I loved her eyes. I had complimented both her and Gabe, on their emerald green eyes. They were both unable to take a compliment. And I loved to tease Marion about it.

  “You look lovely in those board shorts today, by the way,” I said.

  I gathered the forms together and checked them against the list of boys’ names.

  “Wha- err- thanks.”

  I could see her cheeks turning a pink hue and felt a warmth inside my chest.

  “Elena, I went on the canoe trip last year. Do I have to go this time?” a male voice asked.

  One of the boys, who’d been at the home the longest, had stepped into the open-plan area.

  “Come on, Montrell,” I said, “You know we’re a team here.”

  He sighed. I knew he couldn’t swim and was probably scared.

  “Besides,” I added, “the newbies would probably feel safer with their big brother around!”

  He smiled and I smiled inside.

  “I suppose,” he replied and walked off.

  ***

  Gabe held up the tail end of the canoe, as I led us slowly down the path on the river bank.

  “Does your lifejacket fit all right?” I asked him.

  He dropped his end of the canoe into the water and tugged on his jacket.

  “Yeah!”

  The others were collecting paddles from a metal stand.

  “Anyone not have a lifejacket?” Marion shouted to the group.

  “No!” some of them replied.

  I looked around, to double check.

  “Okay, let’s get on the water!” the instructor called.

  Gabe and I hung back.

  Luckily this outing was not for the seniors and we only had 15 boys to manage. But that was still more than enough! The boys began lowering
their canoes into the still river water and carefully climbing into them.

  “There’s a gator!” Davie shouted.

  He pointed to something protruding out of the river, downstream. Everybody’s heads swiveled.

  “Okay, okay,” the instructor replied, “we spoke about the gators.”

  I lived on a houseboat and had seen gators in the water twice. This one was a little closer, though.

  Gabe looked up at me. I nodded.

  “It’ll be fine!” I said. “We just leave them be.”

  I moved to the back of our canoe. “Hop in!”

  We waited for the other canoes to move into the center of the river and joined them at the back. Tall green trees grew on the banks of the river. Reeds dominated sections of the water. A fish jumped out next to Gabe and I and I inhaled suddenly. Gabe turned towards me.

  “Just a fish!” he joked.

  The bright yellow and red canoes began to paddle up the wide river, towards the area where it narrowed, on the bend up ahead.

  “Johnny, that’s not what paddles are for!” I shouted.

  He was using his paddle to splash the two boys in the canoe next to them. Four of the canoes passed the bend in the river, but then the fifth wobbled dangerously as the boy in the back sunk his paddle too deep in the water. The boat rocked to the left and then the right. Suddenly the boy in the back of the boat toppled into the water!

  “Jared!” his partner shouted.

  He extended his hand to his friend to help him back in. I paddled quickly to get closer. Marion had already spotted the incident and was turning back, along with the instructor.

  “Hurry up, Jared!”