Sighing, she pushed all that from her mind and began to get ready to go out to dinner. Two hours later, Alice and she had placed their orders at the little restaurant they both loved to eat at when they got a chance. A few minutes of idle chit-chat and a glass of wine had Dana relaxing, but then her mother-in-law changed the subject.
The petite, black-haired woman sat back with a smirk on her face. “So…do you want to tell me who’s been calling and texting you, and has you smiling so much this week, or do I have to play twenty questions before I can make an educated guess?”
Dana’s jaw dropped and she froze. Had she been that obvious? How the hell was she going to tell her mother-in-law she had feelings for a man, who wasn’t her son, only a year and a half after Eric died.
“Oh, honey, don’t look so shocked. Earl and I knew that someday you might fall in love again and it doesn’t mean you loved Eric any less. Who is it?”
Taking a sip of wine, Dana hoped Alice wouldn’t be too surprised with her answer. “Well, honestly, it sort of came out of the blue. Neither one of us was expecting anything to happen and we’re taking it slowly because of the children…” She knew she was babbling, but when she glanced at the other woman’s face, all she saw was love and delight. “It’s Curt.”
Of all the things she expected from her mother-in-law, it hadn’t been her clapping with glee. “Oh, I was hoping you were going to say that.” She then reached across the table and took Dana’s hand. “I think Eric would give you and Curt his blessing, honey. And Earl and I certainly do. If any man was as honorable and kindhearted as my Eric, it would be Curt. Every time the two of them came to visit, he treated us as if we were family, and we felt the same way about him. And when they were leaving, Curt would always hug me and say, ‘Momma P.? I will lay down my life for your son. That’s how much he means to me. You raised a great man.’”
Her eyes filling with tears, Dana grabbed her napkin and dabbed at them. “Yeah, that sounds like him. But are you really sure it’s okay?”
“Aren’t you?”
Sighing, she tried to put into words what she was feeling. “Yes, I’m attracted to him, very much so, and he’s become my best friend over the past year…”
“But…” Alice made a ‘continue’ gesture with her hand.
“But I’m worried about the kids. How they are going to take it? Are they going to think I’m trying to replace their dad? What will other people think? Is it too soon? And, well…this is kind of embarrassing, but I know you and I can talk about this stuff. I’m scared to bring Curt into the bed I shared with Eric. You probably think I’m crazy—”
“Stop it, Dana.” The woman’s stern expression and tone had her snapping her mouth shut. “Okay, first things first. The children. Yes, in the beginning, they may think Curt is trying to replace their dad, but talk to the school psychologist—I’m sure she will be able to give you pointers on how to approach them with it. Next. What will other people think? Who the heck cares? Many years ago, a friend of mine passed away. Mary and her husband were a match made in heaven and he was devastated when she died suddenly from a stroke at the age of thirty-two. At a grief counseling group, six months later, he met a woman who made him smile again. Twelve months later they were married and still are after thirty-some-odd years. Only you know when it’s right, and to hell with everyone else.”
Dana smiled, her heart feeling lighter than it had since Curt had left on Monday. Afterward, she’d started having all these doubts again, but her mother-in-law was dispelling them in one conversation.
“Now, about that last issue. The bed. I’ll tell you what we’ll do. You know Eric had taken out a small insurance policy for us, in addition to the one you had. Earl and I have never touched that money—we were leaving it to you and the children. You and I are going furniture shopping tomorrow at that next-day-delivery place and we are getting you a new bedroom set.”
Her mouth couldn’t drop any further if it tried. “I-I can’t ask—”
Alice held up her hand. “Please. Let us do this for you and Curt. You’re the daughter I never had, Dana. It would mean a lot to me to see you happy once again.” When Dana just nodded because she was too choked up to respond, Alice grinned and patted her daughter-in-law’s hand before leaning back so their waitress could put their plates down. “Good. Now, let’s eat and have a wonderful evening.”
* * *
Curt hugged Eric’s mother then turned to shake Earl’s hand, but the slightly shorter guy pulled him into a man-hug. “We meant what we said, son. I hope it works out for you and Dana because you both deserve to be happy. We know you loved Eric and would never do anything that would harm his wife and children.”
He swallowed the lump in his throat. He’d known the couple had arrived earlier in the week to spend some time with Dana and the kids, but when he’d gotten there himself a few short hours ago, he hadn’t expected the greeting they’d given him. Somehow they had figured out Dana was interested in someone after all this time and they’d hoped it was him. The wedding they were going to was an hour away, so for the next two nights they were staying at the hotel where it was being held, and then heading straight to the airport on Sunday. “Thanks, Pop. It means a lot to me that you approve.”
“We were always as proud of you as we were of Eric. You’re a good man, son, and I couldn’t ask for a better one to look after my grandchildren. We’ll be coming back up the week after the fourth of July for another wedding, so we’ll see you then. Take care.”
Curt clapped the man on the shoulder. “You, too. Have a good time at the wedding and call when you arrive at the hotel, so we know you got there okay.”
“Will do.”
After Alice finished talking with Dana a few feet away, she turned and gave him one more hug and a kiss on the cheek. “Love you.”
“Same here, Momma P. Always.”
Dana and he waved as the couple drove away, then he put his arm around her shoulders. “Well, I didn’t expect that.”
She snorted. “Neither did I.” Taking his hand, she tugged him toward the front door of the house. “You won’t believe this either.”
His eyes narrowed in confusion, but he still followed her willingly. “What?”
“You’ll see.” He was surprised when she led him to her bedroom and was even further shocked when she opened the door. “Alice and Earl insisted on getting me a new bedroom set…” She turned and her gaze met his. “They knew I was going to have a hard time bringing you into the bed I shared with Eric, so…” She shrugged and gestured to the new, solid oak bed, night tables, dresser, and highboy. “They were delivered first thing this morning and I paid the delivery men to deliver the old set to this couple I know from church who just got married, but don’t have much money to decorate their place. I asked Father Jaffe to arrange it.”
Grinning, Curt placed his hands on her hips and pulled her to him. “How much time do we have before the kids get home?”
Dana chuckled as she ran her hands up his arms and locked them behind his neck. “About an hour. What did you have in mind, Elmer?”
“I figured we could get started on the case of condoms I brought with me.”
“Hmmm. Sounds good to me. Shall we break in the new bed?”
He backed her up to it, then tightened his hold on her hips, lifted and threw her onto the bed as she squealed. “You read my mind.”
Digging his wallet out of his pocket, he tossed it on the nightstand after removing one of the three condoms he’d stuck in there. Call him optimistic. He grabbed her ankles and dragged her toward him. First, he removed her sneakers and socks, then tugged on her jeans when she undid the snap and zipper. They didn’t have much time so he began to remove his own clothes with zeal, starting with his T-shirt. “Take the rest off, honey.”
He licked his lips when she shed her shirt and bra as he shucked his pants to his ankles, stepping out of them after toeing off his boots. Dropping to his knees, he tucked his hands under her thighs and b
rought her to the edge of the bed. Her skin was silky smooth as he kissed his way up to her wet and inviting pussy. “You have no idea how many times I got hard as a fucking rock thinking about how you tasted the other day. Reach down here and spread these lips wide for me, baby. I want you to hold yourself open for me.”
His nostrils flared when she didn’t hesitate and he breathed in her womanly scent. Damn, he really wished he could bottle that. Dipping his head, he ran his tongue up her pink slit, eliciting a moan from her. He sucked on one swollen lip and then the other before stiffening his tongue and impaling her with it.
“Oh, shit! Curt!”
“Finger your clit, sweetheart. Show me how you got yourself off while you were on the phone with me.” Monday night, long after the kids had gone to sleep, the two had gotten into a hot and heavy phone sex session. Curt couldn’t remember the last time he’d done that with a woman, but with Dana, he planned on making it a regular occurrence.
Replacing one of her hands holding her open with his own, he licked her again as her fingers made circular motions over the tiny bundle of nerves above her pussy. He slid two fingers into her soaked sex and fucked her in time with the pace she set on her little clit. When she sped up, he sped up…when she slowed, he slowed. He grinned when she realized what he was doing and she picked up the pace again. Sliding his other hand up her body, he took a nipple between his two fingers, pinching and pulling it.
Overcome by the combination of sensations, Dana gasped and bucked her hips. Her fingers worked her clit furiously as he plunged his fingers into her core over and over again. “Curt! Oh, God! Harder! Ah…ahhhhhhhhhhh, sssshhhhhhhit!”
His fingers and hand became drenched with her cum as she plummeted into an orgasmic abyss. He didn’t let up his assault on her pussy as she screamed for him. Replacing her fingers on her clit with his mouth, he prolonged her pleasure as long as possible. Her walls clenched and quivered around his fingers and he couldn’t wait to shove his throbbing cock in her. As she drifted back down, he grabbed the condom package from the nightstand and ripped open the package. He didn’t waste any time rolling the latex over his sensitive, hard flesh.
“Move back, sweetheart.” After she used her feet to propel herself into the middle of the bed, he crawled over her body and settled between her widespread legs. Lining himself up with her slit, he fought the urge to just thrust in with abandon. Being it had been such a long time since either of them had had sex, he eased into her, using short strokes to advance further and further until he was buried to the hilt. Closing his eyes over how snug she was, he held himself still until she adjusted to his length and girth. When she began to squirm beneath him, he lifted his hips, pulling part of the way out, then plunged back in. The drag of his cock against her walls was pure heaven and it took everything in him to wait until she began climbing the cliff to coital bliss again, taking him with her.
“Harder, please, harder!”
Who was he to deny her request? Fucking her hard and fast, he felt her walls begin to spasm again and when her orgasm overtook her, he roared his own release as she milked every drop of cum from him.
Spent and gasping for air, he remained deep inside her and felt the last of her tremors fade away. They were both covered in a sheen of sweat, but neither cared as he dropped his forehead to hers. It was only then he realized he hadn’t kissed her mouth yet. Tilting his head to the side so their noses were out of the way, he brushed his lips against hers. “I don’t know about you, but for me, that was well worth the wait.”
Wrapping her legs tighter around his waist, she clenched her pussy surrounding his softening cock. “Definitely worth the wait. But now I can’t wait to do it again.”
Lifting his head, he glanced at the bedside digital clock then smirked at her. “Well, we do have another half hour before the kids get home.”
Chapter 11
Sitting at the kitchen table, sketching a new bike design which had come to him, Curt’s head whipped around at the sound of one of the cabinets slamming shut. Scowling, Ryan opened the refrigerator and grabbed a deli bag of sliced turkey. He continued to open drawers and cabinets, retrieving what he needed to make an after-school sandwich, all the while creating an unnecessary racket.
Curt studied him for a few moments, before finally asking, “Something you want to talk about?”
The boy ignored him and slammed the fridge door shut again.
“Talk to me. Maybe I can help.”
“Maybe you’re the problem.”
Okayyyy. Not what he’d expected. “Why am I the problem?”
Ryan spun around and crossed his arms. “What are you doing here again? Mom said she told Ian the SEALs didn’t have to come all the time anymore.”
Curt was stunned at the venom in the boy’s voice and tried to figure out where it was coming from. Nodding, he stood and leaned against the kitchen table. “She did. At Connor’s party. Most SEAL families stop the visits when they’ve gotten through the worst, a year or two after a death. We all expected your mom had reached that point.”
“So what are you doing here? We don’t need you anymore.”
“Ryan!” Both of their heads turned at Dana’s shocked exclamation as she stood in the doorway to the hall. “Apologize to Curt this instant.”
“No!” he shouted. “I don’t want him here! The only reason he fucking comes is because he wants to have sex with you!”
The hurt and shock on Dana’s face were palpable. Curt stood to his full height and grabbed Ryan’s upper arm, his grip firm but not damaging. “That’s no way to speak to your mother. Apologize and then sit down, so we can talk about this.”
The boy ripped his arm from Curt’s grasp. “Don’t tell me what to do! You’re not my father! I saw you kissing the other day when I came back to get my math book! How could you do that? I hate you!”
Before either of them could stop him, Ryan ran to the back door, yanked it open, and fled in a flurry of anger and resentment. Dana started after him, but Curt stopped her, gently cupping her cheek. “Let me handle this. Let me talk to him, man to boy-on-the-verge-of-becoming-a-man.”
She bit her lip then nodded and wiped her tear-filled eyes. “Okay. I’ll clean this up and start getting dinner ready.”
After giving her a quick kiss, he headed to the backyard in search of Ryan, but found he was too late as he saw the boy disappear, riding his mountain bike on the trail leading into the woods. Deciding to let the kid cool off instead of chasing after him, Curt sat on the porch steps and stared at the bluff in the distance. “Eric, I could use a little help here. I love these kids like they were my own. I should have figured it would be hardest on Ryan, being the oldest and about to become a teenager. How do I convince him I’m not trying to replace you and I’ll always make sure they remember you?”
Aside from the sounds of birds singing and the rustling of leaves, his question was met with silence. Dragging his hand down his face, he pondered what to say to the boy when he returned.
Ninety minutes later, though, Ryan hadn’t returned and darkness was falling. The worry Dana felt was evident as she kept checking the clock on the microwave while she fed the other children at the kitchen table. He knew her thoughts were going back to the night Eric had gone missing and he couldn’t wait any longer for Ryan to return. Standing behind Taylor, Curt squeezed the boy’s shoulders. “Any idea where he would have gone?”
Taylor shrugged. “Probably the cave.”
Curt’s eyes narrowed as he glanced at Dana who didn’t seem to know what her son was talking about. “What cave?”
“There’s a cave we found while biking one day in the woods. Sometimes we go there to hunt for Indian arrowheads, but I don’t know if we can find it in the dark. We’ve never tried.”
Shit. He knew the boys had done a lot of exploring throughout the woods, but they never went there alone. Dana had always insisted they go in groups of three or more and stay with each other.
Justin piped up. “Mr. Olsen kn
ows where it is. We showed it to him one day.”
Grabbing his phone, Curt found Phil’s number and pressed ‘Send’. When the man answered, he told him, “I need you and your ATVs. Ryan and I had an argument and the boys think he went to some cave in the woods. That was over an hour and a half ago.”
“Come on over. I’ll pull the ATVs out of the barn and we’ll go get him.”
Hanging up the phone, Curt pulled Dana into an embrace and kissed her forehead when she briefly clung to him. “I’ll have him back in no time. Don’t worry.”
Jogging a few houses down to the Olsen’s, Curt found Phil all set to go with flashlights and his portable police radio, just in case. They mounted the ATVs and Phil took off into the woods with Curt on his tail. It took them a good ten minutes to reach the cave and with the moonlight hidden by some dark clouds, they had to rely on the ATVs’ headlamps and the flashlights. Searching the area, they found no sign of Ryan or his bike. From the looks of things, the boy hadn’t even been there as they couldn’t find any fresh tire tracks or footprints.
The two men slowly rode back along the trail they hoped he had taken, looking for evidence of which way he might have gone. As they came around a large boulder, the light from Curt’s headlamp flashed on something red about twenty feet off the trail and he hit the brakes. It was the reflector of a mountain bike. His heart pounding in his chest, he leaped over a downed tree and spotted Ryan lying among some shrubs and leaves. Dropping to his knees beside the boy, he was relieved to see him open his eyes even though they were filled with pain.
“Ry, what happened? Where are you hurt?”
“Uhhhh. My-my arm. A deer ran out in front of me and I lost control.”
While Phil contacted his dispatcher to send an ambulance to the closest access point, Curt ran the beam of his flashlight over Ryan’s arm and the rest of his body. Thankfully, despite his anger earlier, the kid had remembered to put on his helmet, which probably saved him from being hurt worse. As it was, it appeared his left forearm was broken.
Whiskey Tribute: A Trident Security Series Novella - Book 5.5 Page 8