by Amelia Shea
“Hey, wait, what’s wrong?” His tone was filled with concern.
“Nothing. You should go. I’m sorry for bothering you. Bye.”
“Babe, you’re not bothering me, it’s just a bad time right now. What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” She was feeling so ridiculous.
“Sadie, talk to me.” His quiet tone now sounded irritated.
Sadie shouldn’t have called. He was working and she was bothering him. And now she was annoying him. She just wanted to hear his voice. Sadie just wanted to tell him. Tell him what she’d been feeling since she woke up without him next to her.
“Sadie, what the fuck?” His angry tone streamed through the phone.
“I miss you,” she quietly blurted out.
He sighed. “I miss you too. I should be home tomorrow morning. I expect you in my bed, Sadie.”
She smiled like an idiot. He missed her, too. He expected her to be waiting in his bed. The thought of him had her heart racing. This man was going to end her when he left.
“Okay. Bye, Stone.” She smiled.
“Later, babe.”
* * * *
The movie marathon consisted of a chick flick comedy and a romance. Roxanne brought over pizza and wine. Sadie had never been much of a drinker but the wine was really good. Bogs came by a little later with tacos and proceeded to rip apart the chick flick. Roxanne and Bogs began fighting about the movie at one point. Roxanne stormed into the kitchen flicking Bogs’ ear as she passed. Those two made her laugh. Their sibling banter was like watching four year olds. It was great. She was envious.
Sadie watched Bogs as he played with his phone when Roxanne headed to the bathroom. He was handsome. His light brown hair was spiked up in the front and shaved in the back. His eyes were a warm hazel color and seemed to always be laughing. His dimples gave him an innocent boyish look. He wasn’t quite as tall as Stone but he was at least six feet, lean body, and through his short-sleeved shirt she could see muscular arms.
Roxanne’s phone rang on the table. Bogs looked over at the screen and grabbed the phone.
“What’s up, old man?” he teased. He immediately busted out laughing. Sadie smiled at him. His laugh was infectious.
“Yeah, well, you could try.” He laughed again.
“Just hanging with Roxanne and Sadie. Pop, these chicks have the worst taste in movies. I feel myself growing a pair of tits as we speak.” He shook his head.
Roxanne walked into the room and looked over at Bogs. When she realized it was her phone he was talking on, she grabbed it from his ear. She appeared mad until she glanced down at the screen and her face softened.
“Hi, Daddy!”
She snorted. “Yeah, killing him with chick flicks. He wasn’t invited, it was supposed to be girls only!”
Bogs threw popcorn at her as she stuck her tongue out at him. Sadie giggled. He looked over at her and threw popcorn at her as he walked past.
“Yeah, it was great! It was a perfect day of pampering. Sadie and I had a blast. You should see the new boots I got. They are fabulous.” She babbled then listened to her dad’s response.
“Yeah, she’s great!” She looked over and smiled. Sadie returned her smile and watched with envy as she talked with her dad. Sadie never knew her dad. Her mom claimed he didn’t want kids and refused to help with her as a child. She called him a deadbeat loser. Sadie always wondered if he even knew she existed. She continued to watch Roxanne, happy that she had what Sadie always wanted.
“Long brown hair with golden streaks. Really pretty big brown eyes, Mom would have called them honest eyes. Gorgeous smile and kick ass personality. Beautiful, Daddy, she’s beautiful and of course, Stone is absolutely crazed over her.” She stared appreciatively at Sadie with a smile and a chuckle.
Sadie blushed when she realized Roxanne just described her. She didn’t think of herself as beautiful but that’s how she described her. Honest eyes. Sadie liked that. Stone is crazy about her? She liked that even more. Bogs walked back in and sat beside Sadie on the couch.
“She has a hot body, Pops, smoking hot!” Bogs shouted out. Sadie blushed again and elbowed him in his side. He just snickered, enjoying her embarrassment.
Roxanne rolled her eyes and threw popcorn at him. “Daddy, make Bogs leave.”
She seemed amused at something her dad said. Sadie could hear the love in her voice. During their day together, she talked a lot about her dad. He was loving but stern and treated all of them as if they were his biological children. They weren’t allowed to refer to themselves as not “real” children. As her dad would say, they were real and they were theirs. He sounded perfect. The exact type of dad Sadie would have chosen for herself.
“All right, Daddy, I’ll tell him when he gets back. I can’t wait to see you. I miss you!” She grinned
“Bye, Pops,” Bogs yelled from the seat next to her.
“Bye, Daddy.” Roxanne sweetly ended.
Roxanne and Bogs left around midnight. Roxanne pulled her into a tight hug.
“Thanks, girl! I thought my day was going to be a bust not having my girls here to celebrate with me. But you made it one of my best ones yet.” Sadie’s heart warmed with her words.
“Thanks for inviting me. I had so much fun. I don’t know if I’ve ever laughed that much in one day.” She hugged her back, gave her a tight squeeze.
Sadie had never been an affectionate person. She was never a hugger. Hugs, even the rare ones from her mom, made her feel uncomfortable. But there was something so genuine about Roxanne. She meant everything she said to her, Sadie felt it.
Bogs grabbed Sadie in a side hug while they walked to the door.
“I can’t believe I spent all night with a hot chick and didn’t get any. Fuck, I must be losing my touch,” he teased.
Sadie laughed. They walked out the door and she locked it behind them. Sadie cleaned up the mess from the food and washed the glasses before going to bed. Sadie walked down the hallway to Stone’s room when she heard a beeping sound. It was coming from the closed door.
Sadie stood in front of the door and debated on whether she should go in. She didn’t want to snoop around, Stone deserved his privacy. If he wanted her to see that room he would have showed it to her or at least left the door open. That space is private. She shouldn’t go inside.
She stared at the door again as the beeping continued to go off. She spoke to Stone earlier so she knew it wasn’t his phone. If not a phone, what was the beeping? She considered calling Bogs but she didn’t. Instead, she opened the door.
Sadie poked her head in, the room was drowning in complete darkness. There was a blinking light to the right of the room. She turned on the light and looked around. It had a large bed with two nightstands. Instead of a dresser like Stone’s room there was a large desk. The beep went off again; it came from the closed laptop.
There were moments in life when there is a fork in the road. There are two choices. Go with a gut feeling or risk it and choose the other. Sadie had always believed you were choosing right from wrong. Sadie would go with her gut, she played it safe. The computer beeped again. Her gut was telling her to turn around and walk out. It was the right thing to do, the right choice. Just walk out, close the door and go to bed.
As she walked over to the desk the old saying rang in her head, “Curiosity killed the cat”.
Sadie flipped open the computer and the screen lit up. She stared at the words on the screen. It was a document. In the top left corner, a name in bold print caught her eye, Cavanaugh. The same name T said. This was the job. She knew she should have closed it and walked away. This was Stone’s business. It was private. He told her himself, he couldn’t discuss business. Walk away, Sadie, walk away.
With a deep breath, she scrolled down the screen. There were directions to a town called Quigley, Nebraska. It looked like a dozen maps of the town and surrounding areas. She scrolled further down and saw what looked like a blueprint of a house. It showed the entire set up of the hous
e including the placement of the furniture. It looked very elaborate. The next page included what appeared like court documents and a mugshot of Bryant Cavanaugh. Sadie leaned in closer to the picture. He looked to be about fifty with graying hair and a worn wrinkled face. His eyes were what caught hers. He looked almost sinister in his picture. This must be the guy they were apprehending tonight.
There were several more pages of court documents and an arrest sheet. She stopped to read one. Bryant Cavanaugh was arrested for the rape and murder of a fourteen-year-old girl in Indiana. Oh my God. Sadie scrolled down again and saw newspaper articles, dozens of them from his arrest and court trial. There was a photo of the victim. She was a beautiful brown-haired girl. She was smiling in what looked like a picture taken at the beach. Macey Donavan. Sadie read the article below it. She was walking home from a friend’s house and was abducted. There was a massive search for her that lasted three days before her body was discovered in the brush two miles away from her lake home. The article said she had been raped and tortured during her two days in captivity.
Sadie didn’t even try to wipe her tears away. She let them fall as she continued reading the article. Bryant Cavanaugh, a local man, was arrested for her murder. The trial lasted seven weeks. All the evidence pointed to Cavanaugh as the killer but a witness, Barry Shaw, testified that Cavanaugh had been at his restaurant at the time of Macey’s disappearance. He had receipts as proof, along with his testimony. The trial ended in a not guilty verdict. The community was stunned and outraged. The defense portrayed a framed theory. The prosecution had proved their case but the witness had the jury stumped. Barry Shaw was a reputable citizen, a business owner, and a family man. There was no reason the jury shouldn’t believe him. One juror was quoted, “Innocent until proven guilty, the prosecution just didn’t prove it.”
This article was dated two years ago. The next article stated Cavanaugh relocated after the trial and by all accounts had no further arrests. Sadie scrolled up to his arrest documents but the only one was his murder charge. He should have another arrest in which he skipped out on his bond. There was no record of his bond. Before she could look further into other documents, a small message screen popped up.
E: You back already?
Sadie jumped back from the desk. She looked around the room and started to panic. This message was not meant for her. E must be Ethan. He thought Stone was back on the computer. Shit! Another message popped up.
E: ?
Oh God! What should she do? She couldn’t respond, she wasn’t even supposed to be in here. Sadie completely invaded Stone’s personal business and now she had been caught. Another message appeared.
B: line compromised
Suddenly the screen went black and all the flickering lights on the computer stopped. The computer had been shut down. Her heart was racing. She stepped back from the desk and ran to the door, turned off the light and closed it. She ran to Stone’s bedroom and closed the door behind her. She crawled onto the bed and sat in the pitch black. Would they know it was her? Maybe they would think it was a hacker. Her hands twisted in the sheets, she should have never gone into that room.
Her panic heightened when she heard the front door open.
Bogs called out. “Sadie?” His voice was calm.
Oh shit!
Sadie jumped under the covers and lay down with her back to the door. She pulled the covers up to her neck and closed her eyes. Her body was shaking, her eyes were squeezed tight. She could hear footsteps coming down the hallway. The footsteps were slow and methodical and getting closer. Her panic elevated. She felt like she was in the middle of a scary movie. Her heart was beating so hard, she swore she could hear it. Sadie knew Bogs but she didn’t really know Bogs. That thought scared the hell out of her.
He stopped outside her door. A faint knock sounded before the door opened. She tried to level her breathing. She was so still, not one move. He didn’t say anything but he didn’t leave.
Sadie thought relaxing thoughts to calm her pounding heart. A hot bath with soft music and rain falling on leaves through an open window, embraced in Stone’s arms while she slept. Her eyes relaxed and she was no longer squeezing them shut. She was relaxed and content, soft even breaths. Her heart was still beating fast but her breath was controlled. Her mind began to recite a silent chant to keep her calm—“wrapped in Stone’s arms while I sleep, wrapped in Stone’s arms while I sleep.”
Moments later the door closed and footsteps descended to the living room area. Sadie remained still with her eyes closed. She heard the front door open and close. He was gone.
Sadie spent the rest of the night wondering if Stone would know that she went into his office. She should have gone with her gut feeling. Eventually, all her panic and fear wore her down and she fell asleep.
Chapter 14
She was having the most amazing dream. Stone was in bed with her. She was lying on her side with his body pressed beside her. His hands were dipped into her pajama pants and he was rubbing her outside of her panties. Oh God, it felt so good. Her panties moistened. Her hair was pulled away from her neck and he drew kisses down her neck to her shoulder. His teeth grazed her skin and her body broke out in chills. Her nipples beaded and strained against her tank top. Sadie leaned into him and his erection poked against her backside. He was naked and hard, and it was all for her. She wanted to kiss his lips but she didn’t want to turn because everything he was doing to her felt too good. His hand gripped her pajama bottoms and dragged them down along with her panties. She wiggled out of them. She didn’t want anything between them.
His hand was back to rubbing her and she pressed her ass against his hard dick. His breath tickled her neck. This dream was so real. She could smell his scent of woodsy pine and musk. He dipped his finger inside her and she moaned aloud. Sadie moved to the rhythm of his hand. It was so good. “Stone.”
“Right here, babe,” he whispered in her ear.
She turned her head and slowly opened her eyes. He was there, it wasn’t a dream. Stone was home. Through her hooded eyes she saw him. His gorgeous face leaned in and captured her lips in a hot passionate kiss all the while fingering her pussy slowly.
“You’re home.” Sadie groaned. “I missed you.”
He smiled as he removed his finger. He lowered his hand to her leg and pulled it over his thigh. The crown of his cock probed her core before he entered her slowly. She leaned into him. Sadie wanted more and he was teasing her. His fingers slid up her thigh past her stomach and stopped under her shirt just below her breast. His fingers lightly caressed her skin as he glided in and out of her. Sadie moved her hips against his. It was a slow and erotic dance. She tried to move her hips faster. She wanted him to fuck her hard. But he wouldn’t relent. He was driving in and out very slow.
“I dreamed of fucking you slow, so slow, baby. Loving you with my cock. You feel that, Sadie?” His strokes became even slower.
She couldn’t answer. She gasped for air. Sadie was so wet and hot for him she was losing her breath. He teased her breasts with his feather light touch, circling her nipples. The only sound in the room was their breathing. They were perfect at this moment.
“Stone, please, I want it harder.”
He groaned and pumped deeper into her, still slow but harder. The headboard knocked against the wall as Sadie screamed out, “Stone, please, I’m begging you, please!”
His loud roar was approval of her begging. He slammed into her as his fingers pinched her nipples and twisted them. She gasped. She’d never felt erotic pain. Sadie loved it. He pinched again. Her head thrashed back and she moaned from pleasure.
He flipped her onto her belly. He was still in her and riding her hard. Sadie could feel him sit up as he straddled her while fucking her. He squeezed her ass with both hands.
“Oh God, yeah!”
The friction of this position had his cock slamming against her g-spot and her clit rubbing against the bed. Sadie was so ready to come. The pleasure built up and she f
elt her orgasm surface.
“Fuck yeah, you like that, baby?”
It was a rhetorical question. But she moaned anyway to let him know she definitely liked it. Sadie was so close to her climax. His hand landed on her ass with a burning sting. She hissed! He had just spanked her. She wiggled her ass as he rubbed the spot.
“Fuck, Sadie, I just felt you get wetter.”
Sadie moaned as his other hand came down on her other ass cheek. Oh my God! He drove into her hard. He grabbed a fistful of her hair and pulled back slightly as he landed a final blow on her ass. Sadie screamed his name though her orgasm. Sadie rested her face on the pillow as he hammered into her again and again and again until he exploded inside her.
He licked a line up her spine to her neck, biting her lobe when he reached her ear.
“That was a hell of a ‘welcome home,’ sweet girl.”
He slowly pulled out and she turned to watch him. He got rid of the condom and tossed it into the trash by the closet. He grabbed a T-shirt and wiped himself. His body was amazing, huge muscles, defined abs, and a solid chest. He must work out every day. She hoped he liked her body as much as she liked his.
He climbed back into bed and pulled her on top of him.
“I am so beat right now.” He yawned.
“Did you just get in?” Sadie asked.
“Yeah, drove all fucking night. It sucked.”
“Maybe I should go, let you sleep? I have to check on my place anyway. Make sure nobody has robbed me of my valuables.” She snorted.
He chuckled through another yawn. “Stay with me, just until I fall asleep. I want to drift off with you in my arms.”
“Okay,” she whispered, hiding a small smile.
A minute later he was out. She lay with him for fifteen more minutes. She didn’t want to leave; Sadie loved the feel of him around her. She’d stay just a few more minutes.
* * * *
Sadie got to her place about forty minutes later. Her few more minutes lasted about thirty. Sadie left a note for Stone by his bed. She told him to call her when he got up. Sadie was hoping they could do something later, maybe talk. She was falling hard and fast for a man that she hardly even knew. It sounded crazy but it was true.