by Kate Gilead
“Good!” I can hardly believe any woman would be so stupid as to throw away her future with a man like Jack.
My heart aches for him.
And I feel a pang of guilt due to the a rather selfish sense of thankfulness, because, now…he’s mine.
What a weird feeling.
“Yeah, but, by then, I couldn’t back out of the deal on this house. Not without losing my deposit. So, I rattled around in here by myself for the last three years. Almost put it up for sale, but being so busy, I just never got around to it.”
Secretly, I’m glad he never lived here with her. Or any other woman.
“Well, it’s beautiful…” I’m about to add, that maybe one day we’ll fill it with our children.
But something makes me stop myself. He hasn’t proposed, and we’ve never talked about having kids.
I’m not going to jump the gun and say anything that he might feel is pressure about the future.
It might be old-fashioned but in my gut, I always felt like moving the relationship to the next level is the man’s prerogative. His duty, really, to search his heart and be sure, really sure, that he’s doing the right thing.
Finding out about how this Bonnie woman broke his heart and disappointed him makes me all the more determined to give him the time he needs.
Besides, I know he loves me. I know he’s committed enough, for now. He’s already said we’ll be living here, along with my brother when he’s done with school.
Still…I can’t help but be a bit disappointed when he doesn’t pick up on my meaning and run with it.
But I push that away and get busy cooking supper.
* * *
Later that night, in his big queen-sized bed, I’m fast asleep when a light touch on my face wakes me up.
“Mmm?” I turn over. Blinking sleepily in the dim light, my eye adjust quickly to see Jack, propped up on his elbow, smiling down at me so sweetly, it makes my heart ache a bit..
“Whoops,” he whispers. “Sorry to wake you. I was watching you sleep and couldn’t resist touching your skin…just here.”
As he says it, he runs his finger along the edge of my jaw.
“It’s so soft.” Very gently, he turns my face and runs his lips along my skin there.
Goosebumps.
His lips make their way with little kisses, all the way to my earlobe, where his breath tickles my ear, then they follow the curve of my jaw again, before kissing their way lower, along my neck….ahhhh…and now, my collarbone.
A big hand runs along the skin of my belly up to my breast, where it stops to squeeze, massage, and then pluck at that nipple.
My heart’s beating faster now…then, that hand travels back down my curves to my hip, where it urges me to turn over on my side, facing away from him.
He throws the light bedclothes off of us and lifts my leg, putting his meaty thigh underneath it.
“Mmmm,” I murmur, lifting the leg higher when I feel his hot, throbbing erection push against my naked pussy.
Patiently, he kisses along the back of my neck and my shoulders, his free hand moving to my nipple to roll and pull it, knowing as he does how that helps the juices flow.
I lick my fingers and reach down to play with myself, wetting my nub to help things along.
When he pushes the tip of his cock against my entrance, I grab it, position it and push myself against it, creating a lovely friction.
He grunts with pleasure, and the animal sound of it by itself makes my pussy throb, loosen and open.
Slowly, I push myself onto him, loving the low growl that emerges from his chest as I do.
“Mmmm, yeah, honey. I love fucking that pussy,” he whispers, putting a hand on my hip.
Using his strength, he begins to rock us both back and forth until I’m completely impaled and gasping with pleasure.
“Play with yourself,” he whispers urgently, “help me make you come.”
Wetting my fingers again, I happily comply. With his huge cock stretching me out, I circle my clit with a wet finger until it’s a hard, tight little ball.
By then, he’s buried deeply inside, moving slowly, the way we both like.
Soon the fire rises though, as it always does, and he turns until he’s in a kneeling position, with one of my legs underneath him while he holds the other one up and out of the way.
Putting my wet fingers back on my clit, I watch him watch me play with myself.
His eyes fixed on the place where we’re joined, his thrusting soon becomes more urgent.
And the more urgent his need for release becomes, the hotter it is for me.
“Oh, fuck yeah, rub that beautiful clit baby,” he encourages me. “Mmmm…,” his lips curl against his teeth as his orgasm approaches.
Those sexy, wet, slapping noises begin as my hand moves faster and faster. He rears up on his knees, bends forward, and, supporting himself with a hand on either side of me, fucks me hard and fast, so fast I can’t keep my hand in place but ohhh….ohhhh I’m coming now….I’m coming…”Jack, I’m coming…I’m coming…!”
“Hhhnnnnhhh yeah,” he coaxes, his arm muscles bulging with effort, his cock ramming me, hitting that good place deep inside, mounting my pleasure.
“Oh God,” I pant. “Oohhh yeah…”
Thighs quivering, toes curling, my pussy explodes in those exquisite contractions, squeezing and sucking on his rock-hard cock as he hilts it deep within me.
“Fuck yeah, come for me baby….uuurrrgghhhhh!”
He slams it home, muscles straining, cock pulsing, both of us transported, both of us connected in ecstasy as my pussy strokes him with its own spasms of pleasure, drawing blast after blast of his hot seed into its depths.
Chapter Ten
Molly
Another two weeks pass before we hear any word from Jack’s friend George.
The call comes at night, when we’re almost asleep in the loft bed in the cabin.
Jack looks at his phone, hits the receiver icon and sits up in bed.
“George? Hi, how’s it going?”
Pause.
“They did?”
Pause.
“They are?” He looks at me, wide eyed, still listening.
“Right, right. Isn’t that something? So, what happens next?”
Pause.
“Damn. They can make her do that?”
Pause. And this pause drags on and on.
And on.
Geez! The suspense is killing me!
“Okay, that’s…yeah. Yes, I will.” Pause. “I…you’re welcome. I didn’t do much. I just happened to be there. Good luck with it! Alright, you too George. Bye.”
He ends the call, puts the phone down, then he lays back down, closes his eyes and lays still.
“Jack! You goofball, tell me what he said!” I give his butt a playful smack through the sheets.
“Ow! Hey watch it, young lady. Don’t make me come over there.” He rolls over, grabs me and pulls me to him.
I snuggle into his arms.
“George said they identified Pick-Axe Dave first thing that Monday after receiving the video. They showed it to some rangers and one of them recognized him. He’s worked for Claude for years doing various things, mostly low-level criminal stuff.”
“Oh…shit. I have to tell my mother!”
“Wait a second. They sent two rangers and two Ontario Provincial Police officers into the bush a couple days after that, and…”
“That fast?”
“Yep. They’ve been gunning for Claude for a while apparently. George said all three men were still there. Two were asleep in a tent and the other was sleeping in the truck. All their equipment and their surface samples, everything was still there.”
“That’s awesome!”
“Hang on, it gets better. So, the other two are local men who both worked for the Ministry as surveyors at one time. Both were fired for, get this…poaching on crown land!”
“Geez. I guess it’s true what they say. Crimin
als are stupid. How does a guy like Claude have so much money, yet he hires idiots to do his dirty work?”
“Money can’t buy brains? I mean, anyway, are you going to be able to get a smart person to do your dirty work?” He smiles down at me.
“I guess not.”
Rubbing my arm absently, he continues: “So they questioned them all separately and got three separate stories. They blamed each other, claimed innocence, said they got lost, lied their faces off. George said the investigating officers got quite a kick out of them.” He snorts. “But, when the cops threatened to throw every charge they could think of at them, everything from littering to poaching again…”
“Don’t tell me they were poaching on Claude’s property?”
“No, but…hah!…they had some ground deer meat with them, so the cops used that to threaten them with. They can’t prove where it came from, so that would look really bad, given their records. Anyway, after that they all sung like birds. And they’ll all testify in exchange for leniency. George said the Crown Attorney is preparing the case, deciding what they can charge Claude with under the Environmental Protection Act.”
“Oh my God, my poor mother. Married to a jailbird!”
“Sweetie…it’s not too likely he’ll end up in jail. No matter how much he deserves it. With all his money, he’ll fight tooth and nail to avoid jail. And probably succeed.”
“So he gets away scot free?”
“Heh heh…no. That’s the good part. The Ministry has the power to confiscate all of those hectares of sensitive land. He’ll never break ground for a mine, or take a single board-foot of timber out of there. And they can hurt him in other ways if he keeps fucking up. Freeze his bank accounts and such. George said that, since Claude has amply demonstrated his intent to circumvent the law, including prior rulings against him, they won’t even need a conviction for that.”
“And can he get that land back?”
“No. But he can spend an awful lot of money trying. And that’s how, eventually, they’ll cut off his power. Everyone knows Claude hates to lose. George thinks that he’ll flush a lot of his wealth down the toilet, chasing his diamond dreams.”
“I’m glad…I guess. But it still feels like a hollow victory. My mother will be devastated. Unless…Claude never tells her. If even he can keep such a thing a secret.”
Kissing my head, he says, “No honey. George said there’s a good chance she’ll be receiving a subpoena sooner or later.”
“But I thought spouses could refuse to testify against each other in court?”
“Me too. Not any more, however. In cases like this, she can be compelled to testify. And it sounds like the Crown is going to keep all those options open. One way or another, she’ll find out and have to make a choice. The best thing we can do at that point is support whatever that is.”
We both lay silently for a few minutes, thinking our private thoughts.
“Jack?”
“Mmmm?”
“Do you think there are any diamonds down there?”
Silence.
Then: “Nah. And I’m not sure there’s even enough gold to mine. Prospect, maybe, but that’s a lot smaller scale and isn’t gonna produce the kind of money Claude’s after. Most people who follow these things know all this. The odds are really low and that’s no secret.”
“If that’s true, then I wonder, why doesn’t Claude know? He’s smart enough to make himself a millionaire many times over. He must have done the research, or paid someone else to. I mean, he must be aware of the odds.”
“Well…it’s just greed, I guess. Gold fever, diamond lust….” His sleepy voice trails off, then he turns over and settles for sleep. “Keep hoping for the best. You never know. Maybe he’ll snap out of it and realize that the only real treasure is love.”
Turning over, I wiggle my butt until it’s comfortably resting against Jack’s, then I settle myself for sleep too, letting his words comfort me.
The only real treasure is love.
* * *
September’s end.
The crew packed up and pulled out last week, leaving the skeleton crew who first arrived behind.
Just as it was their job to open everything up and get it all ready, it’s their job now to pack it up and close it down for the winter.
Norm went home first. With no machines to look after, his work for the year is done.
Sven, Travis and me finished cleaning and packing up the kitchen and mess hall this morning. They left right afterwards, leaving me standing on the porch waving good-bye.
Jack and Calvin finished putting the plywood boards back up on all the windows, making everything snug and tight against the coming winter.
We said our good-byes to Calvin right after that, with promises to meet up around the New Year to have a few drinks.
My bags are packed and loaded in the car.
Jack is in the cabin behind me, having drained the water from the water heater and the pipes so they don’t freeze and burst over the winter.
He’s almost done. Soon, we’ll drive to our house on Lake Gibson in our separate vehicles, park my car there and then…something very good to look forward to.
Something very good, after the sorrow and pain of the week just passed.
Together, Jack and I are driving down to the Toronto Airport to pick up my brother when his flight arrives from Switzerland, in about six hours’ time.
Right now, I’m standing on the deck of the cabin, looking out over the magnificent multi-colored beauty of the boreal forest as it stretches out before me. This far north, the trees are already beginning to turn, foretelling an early, and hard, winter ahead.
Even feeling as torn and bittersweet as I am right now, there’s something comforting in knowing that the forest goes on and on for thousands of miles, all of it teeming with life.
Every kind of animal, known and unknown, cunningly evolved and adapted by Nature to survive and flourish in the harsh environment here.
Playing out their private dramas and contributing to the great flow of Creation.
Life in the bush.
And, there’s people out there somewhere, too. Still far less numerous than animals, but they’re out there.
Handfuls, here and there, some eking out an existence in solitary homesteads in the bush, some, gathered in little hamlets, many more still in the more populous towns and cities, dotted here and there in the Great White North.
Hardy people, playing out their own dramas; their hopes and fears, their triumphs and sorrows…all of them, in some way, for good or ill, making their own contributions.
It’s been hard out here. But it’s been beautiful too.
Sighing heavily, my thoughts turn to my mother, who called last week, very angry and upset with me.
Claude told her about his new legal troubles himself, but through the grapevine somehow, he found out about me and Jack, and that it was Jack who blew the whistle.
Just as I feared, Mom was very upset with me. Hurt, also, that I didn’t tell her about Jack myself, embarrassed that her husband had to tell her that I was living in sin with Jack at our place of employment for all the world to see.
The worst thing is, she said Claude claimed that he had been framed by the government, with Jack as an accomplice.
It was awful.
She said Claude planned to sue Jack once Claude cleared his good name; that people are just jealous of her husband because he’s rich, because he made something of his life.
Sick at heart, I could hardly say anything in my defense. I didn’t even have the desire to defend myself. Didn’t have the heart to even argue with her.
My spirit simply sank lower and lower as I listened to her.
Worst of all, she’s absolutely destroyed that her own daughter could stab her in the heart like this. That her daughter is so stubborn and ungrateful and unable to appreciate how much her husband had been willing to sacrifice for his step-children, children whom he didn’t father but nonetheless, treated
us better than our own father did.
What could I say to that? Nothing.
Not a damn thing.
In fact, the best thing about that conversation was that it ended after that.
After that phone call, Jack held me all night as I cried in his arms. Promising me that it will all come out in the wash, promising that she will see the truth, that she’s a good woman, that she’ll never stop loving me and will come around when the time is right.
Tears well up in my eyes again as look out over the forest.
I’ll certainly never work for any of Claude’s friends again, or get any favors. And now, because of all this, and no doubt, his association with me, Jack’s employment with Cooper Timber Company has been terminated on orders from the owner himself.
Jack, for his part, could not care less. He even seems relieved. He says that since meeting me, he’s ready for a change, and thinks now might be the right time to start his own forestry business. He has plenty of savings, plus a decent inheritance from his father that’s never been touched, and there’s always been lots of money in lumber. Especially for someone with his experience and reputation.
He’s not worried and I know he’ll take care of us.
But the way things went down, and the uncertainty around my mother, still gnaws at me.
Yet…
Even leaving this place on such a sad note, it still holds a special place in my heart. And I’ll never see it again.
I grew to love it here, and Mom and Claude notwithstanding, I have no real regrets.
How could I?
This is where I met the love of my live. This is where I found out just how much courage I have, how hard I can work, and what’s worth working for.
I check my phone for the latest flight information. Mikey’s flight is on time so far. He’s been two hours in the air now, and my heart swings from sadness to bittersweet joy that my baby brother is winging his way home to me.
“You ready, babe?” Jack closes the cabin door behind him, looks at me carefully, and now the sadness in my face is reflected in his.
He pulls me to him, kisses the top of my head, and we stand rocking in each other’s arms for a moment.