He thrust his hips into her as she did, and she felt her sense of arousal grow deeper, cutting her to the core. She moved her hands to his crotch and began sliding her hand up and down against the bulge that she found there. He took control of her kisses, moving his tongue against hers roughly, evading her bites.
His hand went to her stomach, and he laid his hand flat against her toned abs. She felt his fingers moved around her waist, circling her side and moving around her back. His hands were warm, strong, and when he held her like that she didn’t want him to let go.
He began touching the waistband of her pants, and sliding his fingers beneath it. Then he ran his fingers over her mound, cupping it and then dragging his fingers over it so that she could feel his every move. She felt excitement mount inside of her, as she arched up towards him, begging him to touch her more.
She felt him unbuttoning the fasteners at the waist of her pants. He pulled them down, removing her underwear as well. Hadley felt herself ache with desire as she felt his firm member, and she began fumbling with his button and zippers as well.
At last she was able to drag his pants and boxers down, away from his waist, and she felt a shiver of anticipation run through her as his member sprang out from its confines. He stopped kissing her just long enough to slide a condom over his long, hard dick. She could feel that she was wet with anticipation, and when he grabbed her hands and pinned them back behind her it didn’t frighten her. It only made her want him more.
She felt his fingers inside of her, playing against her lower lips. His fingers moved against her clit, rubbing her there and making her ready for him. She closed her eyes and strained against his hands, making him hold her down.
He held her wrists down and at the same time entered her, moving fully into her and out in quick, powerful thrusts. Hadley saw bursts of light in her mind’s eye as he fucked her, forcefully. She wouldn’t have wanted to move if she could; it felt amazing to be held captive by his penetration.
******
Jack held her down and fucked her. He watched her breasts move up and down every time he thrust into her. The silky top did nothing to hide the shape of her curves, and he could even see the lining of her bra beneath the thin, cream colored material. He felt her hips arch up to meet his motions and dipped into the bed to accept his impact, so that they were moving in synchronicity.
Her long legs wrapped around his back, and he could feel her squeezing his shaft as he penetrated her. He removed one hand from her wrist, and moved it down towards her wet pussy. He let his fingers play against her clit until they were wet with her excitement. He moved her hand to her top.
He reached below the top, and beneath her bra. He found her rigid, erect nipple and rolled it between his wet thumb and forefinger. He squeezed it, using enough pressure so that he knew it would hurt.
He watched her face contort with pleasure, her glistening lips parted and a crease formed between her perfectly sculpted brows. He thrust deeper until she was crying out with ecstasy. He felt himself climaxing, reaching the brink, spasming as he came inside of her.
*****
Hadley lay back on the bed, feeling as if fireworks were going off inside of her. Waves of pleasure rolled over her as her orgasm unfolded. Her body tensed against Jack’s, and then released. Tensed, and released, as the sensations passed over her, leaving her helpless, only able to react to them. As they passed, she felt a sense of calm. The water trickled over the wall, and all of her thoughts seemed to stop. Jack pulled out of her, and she rolled to her side so that she could see him. He did not look at her.
They did not speak for several moments, and then Jack stood and pulled his pants up around his waist. He turned as he tightened his belt, and tucked his shirt into his pants. He reached for his jacket, which lay on the floor. Hadley stood as well. She pulled her pants up slowly, trying to think of what she could say to make sense of the energy between them. Jack sat heavily on the couch, and let his head fall into his hands. He raked his fingers through his hair, looking down at the floor instead of at her as he spoke. “I need time. I need time to think about this.”
“Okay, Jack,” she said, stepping towards him with the impulse to give him a kiss. He did not look up at her, and she hesitated, and stepped backwards again, away from him. “I’m sorry,” she whispered again, as she turned and left the room.
Chapter 10
Two weeks later, Hadley sat across from her banker. “Another ten thousand?” she asked incredulously. The banker motioned to the screen that sat between them. She wished he wouldn’t hide behind the computer, but he always sat so that half of his face was obscured by the monitor. It seemed that when she moved, he did as well. It was beyond frustrating, as if she was playing hide and seek with a child. She scooted to the right, and he shifted left at the same time, once again positioning the computer in her line of sight. She sighed.
The scrawny banker cleared his throat and pushed his glasses up on his nose. “Yes, you can see here that you have an interest charge plus penalties on your late payments. The deposit you’ve just made will help, but, ma’am, that will only put the foreclosure off one more month.”
“To the end of October,” Hadley said. She squinted at the screen as she read over the numbers yet again. She had been great with her finances, when the money was rolling in. But in the years after Schuanne’s death, she had stopped opening her bills. A sense of overwhelm had come upon her fast, and had not been quick to depart. She felt it now as she looked at the bills she had racked up with her negligence.
“I’m going to have to move,” she said softly, more to herself than to the banker. “There’s no way I can pay this down.”
“What was that, ma'am?” the banker asked.
“Nothing,” said Hadley, standing to leave. “Thank you for your help. I think I understand the situation clearly.”
“We’ll be in touch soon, Ms. Wilder,” the banker said, and to Hadley’s ears it sounded more like a threat than a polite goodbye. “And don’t forget that next payment will be due at the end of September.”
“Right,” Hadley said, inching towards the door.
Later that evening, she lay curled on the couch with a light blanket over her knees. She was in a nightie and had all of the windows thrown open to let in the late August breeze. A glass of wine was set on the coffee table, along with her dinner: leftover stir fry from the night before.
The TV was on, but she was barely watching it. She was busy thinking about where in the world she was going to live, and how she was going to earn an income. All of her confidence for marketing seemed to be missing in action. She’d canceled the last client interview, though she knew that she desperately needed the work.
Her heart wasn’t in it.
An image on the television caught her eye. It was Jack, pressing a microphone away from his face as he made his way to a waiting car. She hadn’t seen or heard from Jack since he had told her that he needed time to think, and the sight of him shocked her into alert presence.
She reached for the remote, spilling her wine as she did so.
“Damn it,” she whispered, righting the glass and turning up the volume at the same time. She jogged to the kitchen and grabbed a dishrag as she listened to the reporter.
“It’s been six hours since our sources identified the woman from the local New York magazine’s recent photo shoot of Jack Pittman .” Hadley’s head snapped towards the TV, and she hurried back to her seat. The dishrag lay unused by her side as she watched the news, dumbfounded. The reporter continued. “Our sources say that Jane is Jack Pittman ’s child, who has been assumed dead since a tragic kidnapping in 1997. This is the first that the kidnapping has been linked to Jack Pittman , and we have reporters on the ground with him now.”
The image of Jack grew larger. A woman reporter was thrusting the microphone towards his face and speaking as she struggled to keep pace with him. “Mr. Pittman , can you tell us about your daughter? We learned recently that you were the father o
f an infant who was kidnapped by Ray Montague and Clint Jarvis, two California convicts who have received life sentences for the death of three known victims. Can you comment on this?”
“No comment,” Jack growled, ducking his head so that his face was hidden behind his hat,”
“Mr. Pittman , did you change your daughter’s identity in order to protect her from further kidnappings?”
Jack sped his pace, and the woman reporter was actually running now. “The records show that Jane Adams is your daughter. Was the woman in the car with you on August fifth in fact Jane Adams, your daughter who has been presumed dead for the past twenty years?”
The female reporter could not get a response from Jack, who was ushered into a waiting car that Hadley didn’t recognize by Roger, who she very much recognized, and actually slightly missed. She saw the short PA slam the door closed, flash a bird to the cameras, and jog around towards the driver’s seat of the car. There was a whole pack of reporters surging against the woman that had been questioning Jack. Hadley could imagine what a nightmare the whole scene was for Jack.
The news reporter summed up by saying that Jack was ‘remaining secretive’ about his past, and turned it over the news anchor.
Hadley watched in shock as the anchor began dusting off the artifacts that had been uncovered in the weeks since the ‘anonymous beauty’ had been spotted in Jack’s car and recognized as a continuous companion by the public.
The trail included hospital records, court transcripts, police records, and blurry photos from around the globe. The anchor displayed a picture of Jane Adams’ mother: a blonde woman crying and holding up the image of her missing daughter. The infant was precious, with a pink headband wrapped around a head of thick, dark hair, and a wide, goofy grin on her face.
Next came a death certificate, and a trail of faked identities. The anchor turned it over to a panel of experts standing by. The first to speak was a criminal lawyer, who explained that the men responsible for the kidnapping of Jane Adams had been proven guilty beyond a shadow of a doubt. What was never proven was where the girl went.
A second man on the panel chimed in and identified himself as a psychologist. The psychologist went on to say that Jane Adam’s mother and Jack had never married, but that Jane was undoubtedly a daughter who they shared. He speculated that Jack had paid to have the child’s identity changed after the scare.
“Kidnapping is a huge threat for a billionaire who chooses to have a family, and it never goes away. Those he loves will always be in danger because of his money, and that fact is unavoidable.”
The cameras zoomed in on the psychologist’s face as he spoke, catching all of the thoughtfulness in his expression. He tipped his head, in deep thought as the audience waited for him to go on, and help them make sense out of the chaos.
When he spoke again, the news channel showed a photo of Jane and Jack off to the side. Jack was looking at her lovingly. “The best thing he could have done for her was to hide the fact that he was her father, and change her identity. People already knew how involved he was with the mother. I don’t think he’s to blame here -- he’s actually the hero of the story and most likely the reason she’s alive and well today.”
The photo on the side of the screen changed, and showed the blonde woman again, Jane’s mother. This time she was pushing a shopping cart, looking angrily at the cameras. “We’ll never really know what happened between Jack and Jane’s mother. Both refuse to talk to the press, and we really can’t blame them. Going through a traumatic incident like that is often hard on a relationship, but we don’t know for sure what happened to truly end this relationship.”
I do, thought Hadley.
She remembered the way Jack explained that some people didn’t like his wealth. He could imagine young Jack, talented and wealthy, with killer business instincts, falling for the young California blonde. They had a child together, and the child was stolen for ransom money.
His wealth had put the woman’s daughter at risk. No wonder she cut ties with Jack. No wonder she didn't’ want the lifestyle. She almost lost her child because of it.
No wonder he guards his privacy so tightly.
Hadley put her hands over her mouth as she realized what she had done.
It was my photos, she thought. The pictures of Jane got out to the public because of me. This is my fault.
The clip ended, and Hadley sat, staring as commercials danced before her eyes. There’s so much I don’t know about Jack, she thought. I thought I understood wealth, but I had no idea. I didn’t even know that he had a daughter.
She imagined what it would be like to have people try to take Cassy for a ransom payment. She would want to kill them! And the responsibility of affecting someone else’s life in that way would be unbearable.
I thought having wealth must be amazing, and easy. But maybe it’s not. Seeing Jack had brought up all of her lingering, confused emotions about him, and as she got ready for bed she thought of him, wishing she could call him up and ask how he was doing. Instead, she fell asleep to thoughts about Jack, the money she owed to the bank, and pre-apartment searching stress.
*****
“Have you signed on with any new clients lately?” Cassy asked. Hadley shook her head, and concentrated on sorting through the dozens of dresses on the rack before her.
“What are you going to do?” Cassy asked. “I mean, you can’t have a business with clients.”
“I know, baby. I have an interview tomorrow. It’s taken me a few weeks just to get my mind back in the game.”
“After what happened with Jack Pittman ?”
“It’s taken a lot out of me,” said Hadley. “It really made me question where I am in life, and what I’m doing. Also how I treat myself.”
“He shouldn’t have dumped you,” Cassy said. “I mean, if he knew better he’d have treated you like a queen.”
“Thanks, baby. I kind of messed it up on my end too.” She had not given Cassy the details of the camera fiasco, and she didn’t want to now.
“No one’s perfect,” Cassy said, not pressing for more information. “And that was the first time you’ve dated in a long time. But you’ve changed a lot in the past month. I mean, look at you! You’re here with me shopping for dresses. You never would have done this before. You were always so busy. Now you have time for some fun in your life.”
“I’ve learned a lot,” said Hadley, the words ringing true in her ears. Jack had taught her how to love the woman who she was. She felt more of her femininity since her encounters with him. She only wished that it had ended better between them. She gave up on the rack that she’d been searching through, and moved on to the next one.
“You’re finding your wild side,” Cassy said with a laugh. “You’re acting more like my mom. Isn’t that odd? But it’s true. I think it’s because without her around, you get to be the fun one and the smart one; both at once. Business will get better once you let loose a little bit and show people more of your personality.”
Hadley nodded. “I have changed, haven’t I?” she agreed.
“How about this one, Aunt H?” Cassy held up a matching skirt and top in pink. The material was dotted with sequins, and Hadley didn’t like how flashy it looked. But she pretended to, for her niece’s sake.
“Maybe,” she said kindly, taking the dress into her arms along with others Cassy had picked out. “Honey, you should look at their white slips. You’ll need something that is knee length, with spaghettis straps you know.”
“Oh, you’re right!” Cassy said.
Hadley pointed over the racks of dresses, towards the section filled with undergarments, and Cassy headed that way.
Hadley was glad to have some time alone. The wedding was in three weeks, and she didn’t know what she was going to wear, or who she was going to invite. Most likely, she’d attend solo, and that was just fine with her. She wanted to wear the right outfit. Cassy had been raised without a father. Without Schuanne there, Hadley was going to have
to step up as the guardian of the bride. She wanted to represent her young niece well.
She felt drawn to a rack near the back of the store. The dresses on it were on sale. Maybe Cassy’s right, she thought, browsing through a rack of flowing, casual dresses. I need to lighten up. I need to bring another element to my business. I need to find my wild side, if it’s just going to be me running the show. I have to find the right balance.
A beautiful, lime green dress fell into her hands as she thought this, and she had to laugh at the synchronicity. She tilted her head up to the ceiling, and said a prayer to Schuanne. “I like this one too,” she whispered.
Picking up heels to go along with it was a splurge, but she’d grown accustomed to the sexy way the heels that Jack had dressed her in made her feel. I can take that energy, that sexual, powerful energy, she thought, and use it for myself. For my own growth. My own success.
This thought was satisfying, and she purchased the dress proudly, with an air of hope. Next they went to the printers to pick up the seating cards and several additional invitations for last minute guests.
As she and Cassy walked down the sidewalk with their new purchases, Hadley realized that they were very close to Union Square, and her favorite spice shop, ‘Spice It Up’. She pulled Cassy down the side street where the shop resided, explaining that they were the only shop in New York where she could find the right gravy for her meat pies. “They make it themselves, and bottle it right there as you’re watching,” Hadley said with excitement. She led her niece to the small shop, which had a very unassuming entrance. Cassy’s phone rang as she reached the door.
“It’s my hubby-to-be,” Cassy said with a big grin. “Mind if I wait for you out here?”
“Not at all, honey,” Hadley said. She entered the store, hoping that she wasn’t too late to collect that day’s gravy.
As she headed down an aisle towards the deli in the back, she brushed shoulders with a man in a thick sweatshirt, with the hood up. She felt a tingle run down her arm at the contact, and looked up with astonishment. There in front of her stood Jack Pittman . He pulled the hood down, off of his head, and to Hadley’s surprise he smiled at her.
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