Destiny Undone: The Complete Series Box Set

by Heartley, Amanda

  “Well, of course, Charlotte,” she said. “This is a time when families come together. It’ll be a challenge, but we’ll make it work! I’m looking forward to this.”

  I got up and gave my sis a hug and gave Fallon one, too. His body seemed to stiffen, and he blushed, but I think he appreciated my show of affection.

  “Well,” Dad said, “shall we adjourn to living room and enjoy some coffee, or would you all prefer to stay and break out more bubbly?” The consensus was to move to the living room—though the beverage preferences were evenly split.

  “Before we get into that, I just wanted to show Gabe around the house,” I said. “He’s never gotten to see our place yet.”

  “Ah, yes,” Yassir smiled. “I, too, would enjoy taking a tour. Such a lovely place!”

  Charlotte wrapped her arm around Yassir’s and guided him toward the living room. “Of course, Yassir. We’ll take a tour a bit later, if you don’t mind. We don’t want the party to break up, after all.”

  “Ah, yes,” Yassir nodded. “We have many things to discuss!” Doug took Charlotte’s other arm and the three of them talked and laughed as they walked away.

  “Come on, Gabe,” I said, gently yanking his arm. “It’ll be fun.”

  I couldn’t resist making Mills’ suite of rooms the first stop. I held my finger to my lips and we quietly entered her sitting room area. A soft light from a table lamp lit the room, but there was no sign of the baby.

  “In here,” I whispered, and turned the doorknob of Mills’ bedroom. Gabe seemed hesitant to enter, so I held his wrist and guided him in. The lamp provided ample light to see little Douglas Yassir lying on his stomach in the crib. “Isn’t he beautiful?”

  Gabe didn’t answer, but he looked down at the baby boy and I could see the affection that he felt. We both stood over him, silent and slightly awed. All I could think was, ‘Oh, I wish he were mine!’

  “He is kinda cute, I suppose,” Gabe conceded and in the dim light, I couldn’t be sure, but I thought I saw a glean of moisture in Gabe’s eyes which widened when I reached down and slid my hands gently under Dougie’s sides.

  I swayed with the baby in my arms and then offered him to Gabe. He resisted for a moment, but then took him in his arms. At first, he awkwardly held the baby with his arms straight out as he were carrying an explosive device ready to explode, but then he brought Dougie up to his chest and relaxed. I felt my eyes tear up when Gabe’s cheek nuzzled the baby’s soft, warm head.

  He looked so natural holding him. Being an only child, maybe Gabe didn’t have many opportunities to interact with other babies. Maybe he’d need a little more practice to warm up to the idea of having one of his own.

  He tried to pass him back to me, but I just nodded my head at the crib. Gabe gingerly laid the baby boy back on his side and covered him up with his tiny blanket. We crept out of the room and closed the door.

  “And I’m down here,” I said, taking his hand and skipping down the hall. “Would you like to see where I sleep when I’m not sleeping with you?” Gabe smiled and we entered.

  He looked attentive as I pointed out obvious, boring things in my sitting room. “Here’s the desk and my laptop where I sit for hours watching porn… I mean, studying. And that’s my walk-in closet. Would you like to see all the sexy outfits I have?”

  “Only if you plan on modeling some of them for me,” he grinned. Gabe’s hands wrapped around my waist and he pulled me into his chest. We kissed long and passionately and it felt like we were teenagers again, unable to keep our hands off each other now that we were out of our parents’ view. Gabe squeezed my ass and inched up my skirt. I was getting so hot just being with him, I finally had to step away.

  “What would you like to see next?” I teased. “The bathroom? The bedroom?”

  “Yes, that,” he growled, trying to ensnare me again. I pivoted away and opened the bedroom door. I flipped on the light, but Gabe immediately flipped it off and hugged me again. He moved his cock across my backside and his hands brushed over my breasts. We staggered toward the bed and fell onto it then Gabe straddled me and kissed and licked my neck.

  “Don’t you think we should join the others?” I asked, trying to keep the shiver out of my voice. Gabe’s hand moved up between my thighs and his fingers rubbed me through my panties.

  “Fuck ‘em,” he rasped with a grin. I gave him a playful slap with one hand while my other reached down and found his cock. There it was… a big, beautiful dick—hard as steel—just for me! I squeezed and worked it, but didn’t attempt to release it. I didn’t want to be gone too long and I sure as hell didn’t want to make it too obvious that we’d been up to something.

  Gabe skillfully worked my panties down over my thighs and his body slid down lower. As much as I’d have liked him to lick my pussy, I wanted to keep this teenage lust fantasy going.

  “Finger fuck me,” I hissed. “Stick your fingers in my wet pussy. See how hot I am.”

  I no sooner got the words out than Gabe’s fingers entered me, sliding in with no resistance. Oh, it felt good! His tongue intertwined with mine, as his fingers slipped in and out of me. Somehow, he was able to put pressure on my clit as well, and his hand was soon covered with my juices.

  “I wanna taste you” he growled in my ear. “Let me taste your sweet pussy.” I responded by pulling his face into mine as I ground my hips against his hand. I was close. Real close.

  “Faster, Gabe, faster!” Gabe’s fingers worked that heavenly spot inside me and he picked up the pace. I kept grinding against him, his palm was in contact with every nerve ending, anywhere near and around my clit. Lights flashed behind my eyes and I was in heaven. Surreal. He was so good at this. I bit on my wrist as I came, trying to contain the urge to scream out loud. Gabe sped up his hand movements, letting me grind on his hand like a full-blown sex toy, until I finally collapsed on the bed.

  Fortunately, my skirt was pulled up above my waist so it didn’t get soaked. The same couldn’t be said about the bedspread, though. I probably didn’t look very lady-like as I hitched up my skirt and ran into the bathroom. I needed to clean up now!

  “You’re so bad,” I whispered out loud from behind the door as I tidied up. “You better be glad that I didn’t have to change, or everyone would….” Just then, I heard my smart phone pinging in the next room. At least, I thought it was my phone, but maybe Gabe’s had the same ping.

  I opened the door and heard two pings, bouncing back and forth like a sonic table tennis match. Gabe was pulling his own from his pants pocket, which couldn’t have been easy, given his condition. Mine was glowing on the night stand.

  “It’s Aven,” I announced. I’d been curious why she hadn’t been invited to dinner. “I should take this.”

  Gabe stared down at his phone. “It’s work,” he said, and held it up to his ear. Each of us had a brief conversation with the parties on the other end of both calls. It was difficult to hear Aven. Gabe’s voice kept creeping in and I found myself listening to him and then her.

  Finally, I said to Aven, “I’ll be right over.”

  “I’ll be right over,” Gabe said, and hung up. “That was Chuck, our security guy. He caught one of the vandals that’s been spray painting our building.”

  “That was Aven. Her boyfriend, Dominic, dumped her and she’s a mess. She doesn’t feel like coming over, but she needs to talk to someone.”

  “I totally understand,” Gabe said. “I guess we’d better go and say our goodbyes… unless you’d like to finish what we started?”

  “I’d love to, honey,” I said, patting his shoulder. “I promise next time… I’ll let you finish... maybe…” I teased, and then caught myself before I giggled too hard.

  Poor guy.

  Chapter Seven — Gabe

  A Destiny Beach police car was parked alongside Chuck’s vehicle as I pulled up to the Sea Lab entrance. Thank God there were no flashing lights—the city police were well-schooled in discretion.

  Black spray pa
int was streaked across one of the walls, though the symbols they’d sprayed were indecipherable. I could understand it if the vandals were making a statement—for instance, ‘Sea Lab sucks!’—but these gang signs… it must have been another kind of statement, a territorial thing. Christ, did we even have youth gangs in Destiny Beach? I doubted it.

  As I entered, I saw Chuck and two officers standing over a young man sitting at Chuck’s duty station. One officer wrote on a clipboard while the other placed two aerosol cans in a large plastic bag. Chuck spotted me approaching and turned to greet me.

  “Caught the little bastard red-handed,” Chuck boasted loudly enough for the others to hear. “I’ve been staking out the area ever since the last incident. When I saw those two little shits skateboarding up to the entrance, I had a feeling they were the culprits. The police were here within minutes, but the other one got away.”

  “You’ve been doing this on your own time?” I asked. And I thought Chuck’s main motivation in law enforcement had been the doughnuts. “I’m impressed, Chuck. Good job.”

  I approached the suspect to get a better look. He wore a dark hoodie and baggy, black jeans. He was a baby-faced boy and looked to be about sixteen or seventeen.

  “So how many times have you done this?” one of the officers asked.

  The young man’s mouth curled in a sneer. “I told you, I ain’t saying nothin’ till I get a lawyer.”

  Either the kid had watched too many Law and Order episodes, or this wasn’t his first run-in with the law. His driver’s license lay on the counter and I looked at the name—Justin Church. I looked back at the suspect and recognized a resemblance to someone I knew. Maybe it was the sneer.

  “Are you any relation to Jonathan Church?” I asked.

  The teen just rolled his eyes and ignored my question but the officer tapped the license and pointed at the address.

  “He’s local, and I’ve had enough dealings with Jonathan Church to think that you’re probably right.”

  The other officer told Justin to stand up and turn around then he was handcuffed and led toward the entrance.

  “We’ll contact his parents after we’ve processed him,” the officer explained. “He’ll be released into their custody. I’m sure his father will contact you soon to work out some sort of ‘arrangement.’ That’s the way it usually works around here.”

  I shook my head as we walked out of the building toward the patrol car. “Not this time. These vandals have already caused a lot of distress to the animals and they’re responsible for us having to pay higher insurance premiums, installing an upgraded security system and lots of man-hours cleaning up their mess, not to mention our security guard’s efforts. I don’t think Mr. Church will be getting a free pass this time around.”

  The officer tipped his hat as he climbed into the driver’s seat. “No problem, that’s your call, sir. We’ll have a copy of the report available for you by midday tomorrow. You’ll probably need that for you insurance adjustor.”

  “I know the drill, but thanks. Thanks for all your help, officers.” As their black-and-white turned around, the parking lot lights illuminated Justin’ face. His expression was defiant as he stared ahead, making no eye contact with me.

  “He’s right about that,” Chuck said. “These pampered punks with their rich daddies are always getting away with murder around here.”

  I guess it didn’t occur to Chuck that I could’ve been classified as one of those ‘pampered punks,’ but I let it go. I understood that Chuck had a horse in this race. He’d put a lot of effort into this, and if these vandals were to walk away scot-free, why would he ever bother to try again?

  Soon after I got home, Pepper called and I sprawled on the sofa and told her she could sleep easier tonight—hopefully, the Destiny Beach crime wave had finally come to an end—then I told her the name of the perpetrator.

  “Justin Church?” she gasped. “Little Justin? Oh, my God! He was like a little brother to me.”

  “It must be something in the Church gene pool,” I mused. “Or maybe it’s the parents. I wonder if they get it from their father, but I’ll soon find out. The cops told me that I’d be hearing from him.”

  “And the other kid ran off?”

  “Yeah, so Justin will either bite the bullet and take the rap for both of them, or give up his buddy. I didn’t get the impression that he’d developed a code of honor yet. How about you? What’s going on with Aven?”

  “Well, it turned out that Mills did invite her over for dinner tonight, but Aven was such a mess that she didn’t want to rain on Fallon’s parade. I swear, she ate a whole box of chocolate cupcakes and drank half a bottle of wine while I was there. God, I hope she doesn’t freak out again because of that jackass!”

  “So what happened, exactly?” I asked her, more out of politeness than genuine interest and if the information was relayed in confidence, I’d be perfectly fine with that.

  “Basically, he used her,” Pepper replied. “He and his baby’s mama split up, and Aven thought she had a shot at a long-term relationship. But they’ve gotten back together again and now Aven’s out in the cold. I think she’s more broken up about the bond she felt with his son than Dominic.”

  “Well, I hope she gets over it, for her sake,” I offered. “And if you need to spend time with her, I understand.”

  A long pause followed and I suddenly regretted saying that. I hoped she wasn’t thinking that I was shooing her away.

  “So what did you think of Mills and Fallon’s announcement tonight?” she asked. The way she asked the question made me feel as if my reply would be subject to analysis, so I answered cautiously.

  “I think it’s great. Every child should have a name.”

  “Not that announcement, silly!” Pepper reprimanded. “The other one.”

  “Oh that. I’m very happy for them. They seem good together and Fallon’s father looked relieved, too. And with a baby, they probably felt some pressure to make it legal, for the baby’s sake.”

  “True,” she conceded, “but maybe they were anxious to start their lives together, too. You know, that living apart in two separate households drill gets kind of old pretty fast.”

  “You’re still talking about Fallon and Mills?”

  “Us, too,” Pepper said softly. “When we got engaged, I know we weren’t in a big hurry to set a wedding date or anything, but I’m just wondering how you feel about it now.”

  “I understand that,” I said. “Well, I’m open to discussing it—for our sakes, as well as other ‘interested parties’,” I chuckled. “I was aware of the elephant in the room after Mills shared her date and it was like… everyone’s eyes turned toward us.”

  “I know!” she laughed. “Do you really mean that? Can we talk about it?”

  “Of course,” I answered. “Not now, though. That’s definitely something we should do face-to-face.”

  “I know you, Gabe. You just want to lure me over to your place so I can finish what you started.” Pepper’s tone had a sexy, teasing quality that triggered an immediate reaction in my groin.

  “With your persuasive skills, I’m sure you could talk me into just about anything.” There was another long pause. Was it Sexy Phone Time? My hand rubbed my crotch and I felt my cock stirring as I thought about her doing likewise.

  “Are you touching yourself?” she asked.

  “As a matter of fact, I am,” I admitted.

  “Me, too.”

  “Why don’t you come over?” I suggested. “Then you can touch me and I can touch you. That would be so much more fun.”

  “You know I’d really like to,” Pepper said, “but Charlotte, Evangeline and Mills all have their laptops out checking out bridal sites and I’d hate to miss out on the bonding any more than I already have. And Yassir is still here. He and Dad have been hanging out in his study all night. I wonder if they’re scheming, too.” She paused, trying to imagine their conversation. “Nah, they’re more likely talking about the stock mar
ket or golf.”

  “Okay,” I said. “If I should decide to rub one out, you know who I’ll be thinking of. I’ll dedicate my orgasm to you.”

  “Like a toast!” she giggled. “How sweet. Personally, I’ve had enough manual stimulation for one night. Thank you for that, by the way.”

  “No problem,” I replied. “Always glad to lend a helping hand.”

  We said goodnight and I lay there a while longer, idly stroking myself. My erection was primed for release, but as my thoughts turned toward more serious matters, the promise in my pants soon faded.

  I loved Pepper, and imagining being with her made my blood rush and my heart soar, but those giddy feelings hit a wall every time I thought of marriage. Why is that?

  Eventually, I realized that the whole concept of marriage—of committing to someone forever—was what scared me, but I knew it shouldn’t. I wanted to focus on the positive aspects of having Pepper in my life even though the thought of eternity with one person was a heavy burden to carry. But if things ever changed between us, I supposed there were legal remedies to reclaim the freedom a part of me still wanted. Who knows? One of us could die, right?

  I surprised myself that I’d even thought about these scenarios and I felt a sharp pang of regret that I’d even imagined a death or divorce. I knew darn well that either of them would be absolutely heartbreaking, and that’s when I realized just how much I loved Pepper and how much she meant to me. Imagining the sense of loss I’d feel without her made it clear just how much I needed her to be a part of my life. So the toast to Pepper was not to be, but that was okay. The warm feelings of love that carried me off to sleep were way better than that.

  Saturday arrived—the big day—and the turnout was massive, far beyond anything I’d ever imagined. Pepper, Doug and Charlotte were there, along with other distinguished visitors and our board members and we’d arranged seating for them on a small stage the crew had set up in the center of the atrium.

  My parents were there, too. They’d had to postpone a flight to Macedonia, where they’d volunteered to help medical teams with the masses of Syrian immigrants in a refugee camp. That was important work, and I was humbled by their efforts to be there for me. I guessed we we’re never too old to appreciate the love of our parents.