Freedom_A Captivating and consuming contemporary romance

by J Grayland

  Making my way down the rest of the stairs, I slid onto a stool just in time to have a plate full of fluffy scrambled eggs, bacon and toast pushed in front of me, followed by a mug of steaming coffee. “Thank you,” I said looking at Casey but she avoided my eye contact as she served Lynda and Paxton, then herself. “So,” Paxton said, “What are your plans for the day Bro?”

  “I’m taking Casey out for the day,” I said looking over at her.

  “You are?” she asked with interest.

  “Yes but it’s a secret,” I said, placing a finger to my lips.

  “Hmmm sounds intriguing,” Lynda said looking at Casey.

  “It does” she agreed but still didn’t make any eye contact with me. and that was starting to bother me.

  After breakfast was done, Lynda and Paxton headed out for the drive home, and I helped Casey stack the dishes in the dishwasher. “So,” she started, “What do I need to wear on this secret outing you have planned?”

  “Just something comfortable.”I grinned.

  She nodded, then said “I’ll just go take a shower then,” wiping her hands on a towel, but before she walked away from me I grabbed her hand and pulled her against me. “What’s wrong?” With those beautiful blue eyes looking up at me I searched them for an answer.

  “Nothing’s wrong,” she said and looked down at my chest trying to avoid my eyes.

  “Hey” I placed a finger under her chin and tilted her face up and her eyes back to mine.

  “I’m just tired, I guess,” she said quietly.

  “Talk to me.” There was a pause and then she shook her head.

  “There’s nothing wrong really, I just got caught up thinking about an email I was reading last night, from the hospital where I work.”

  “And?” I pressed.

  “They were just enquiring about a timeline for returning to my position.”

  “And you told them?” I asked Silence again. “Doc, you have to give me something, I feel like this is a one-sided conversation here, “ I said, motioning between us with my hand.

  Shrugging she said, “and I told them that it wasn’t possible for me to give them an exact answer.” She said nonchalantly.

  “Ok, and I’m guessing by the little lines creasing your forehead, they weren’t too happy with that?”

  “Let’s just say they expected me to be back scrubbing in for surgery first thing Monday morning.”

  “What the hell? That’s two days away.” Releasing her from my arms and taking a step back from her, I rubbed a hand on the back of my neck in frustration.

  “It’s ok Nate, I told them that was impossible.” Feeling slightly relieved, I had to ask her, even though I had an idea of her answer.

  “So did they give you more time?”

  “Nope, so I told them they could shove their job where the sun doesn’t shine.” She said. Jerking my head up and looking at her, she was smiling.

  “Shit, Casey, I’m really sorry.”

  “Don’t be, it’s not your fault I can always find another job.” She shrugged one shoulder.

  “Damn it, and you look so heartbroken as well.”I grinned at her. Still smiling, she patted her hand on my chest as she walked past and up the stairs to take a shower.

  When she came back down dressed in shorts and a blue tank and her hair pulled into a ponytail, I picked up the knapsack I had packed, grabbed her hand and led her down to the garage. Pulling out onto the street she said: “So where are we going?”

  “I thought we would go to Washington Park and have a picnic.” Looking at me with a surprised look I asked her “What?”

  “Nathanial King does picnics?”

  “No, not usually, but I’m feeling guilty about you spending so much time being inside, so I thought you might enjoy being out in the sun.”

  “That sounds nice, thank you.”

  “Your welcome”.

  We spent hours strolling around looking at the flowers that were out in full bloom at the moment, then to the holocaust memorial. We walked along the pathways under the enormous trees there until we found a great place to sit. Pulling a blanket from my pack and placing it down on the grass, I motioned for her to sit and I joined her. Reaching back into the pack, I brought out two bottles of water, a box of crackers, and a container filled with an array of cheeses and another filled with strawberries.

  “Wow, domesticated too.” She laughed.

  “Ha! I picked these pre-made up at the deli yesterday.” Casey pulled the lids off the containers, took a cracker and a piece of cheese, and slid it into her mouth. Just watching the way her mouth opened and her lips engulfed the morsel of food with a moan, I instantly thought of something much better I’d like to see slip between those luscious lips of hers.

  By the time we got in that night it was late, so we grabbed a pizza on the way and sat eating it while watching a movie. The movie was inconsequential but watching her devour the pizza was not. All that lip-smacking and sucking up the cheesy strings of mozzarella was making me hard. When she had popped the last bit in her mouth, I grabbed her hand and pulled her into my lap and moved her around to straddle me, my hands grasping her ass. She smoothed a finger over my forehead moving a piece hair away from my eye. “Thank you for today, it was really nice,” she said, then placed a kiss where her finger had just been.

  “You’re welcome.” Moving my hands over the curve of her ass, I felt her thighs tighten as she wiggled and pressed into the bulge of my jeans.

  “Hmm, I didn’t realize eating pizza was that exciting.” She looked at me, her brow lifting and her mouth turning into a mischievous grin. Placing my palms on her face and pulling that sassy mouth down to mine, I growled, “Come here, I’ve wanted to taste this mouth all day”.

  When her lips connected with mine, warmth ran through every vein in my body. Deepening the kiss, she sucked my tongue into her mouth and moved, rubbing against me, that caused the bulge behind my zipper to swell more. Moving my hands up, I unbuttoned her shirt and pushed it off her shoulders and cupped her lace covered breasts in my hands. Her nipples grew hard as I ran my thumbs over them, pulling down the cups of her bra, exposing that beautiful lush skin of hers, I took a nipple into my mouth and sucked greedily at it. She dropped her head back and arched into my mouth. With one hand on the small of her back, I ran the other up the middle of her breasts, up the soft skin of her throat until my fingers ran along her bottom lip. She moaned, then took one of my fingers into that hot mouth and sucked. “Holy fuck Doc, I need to be inside you, now” I snarled. Both her hands moved down to the front of my jeans, where she unbuckled the belt, the button popped, the zipper opened and as I sprang free from the confinement of my pants her hand wrapped around my length and she slowly caressed it, then she ran her hand deeper down and cupped my balls with a moan. “You are so hard,” she whispered into my ear, then sucked on the lobe of it.

  “And if I don’t get inside you now I’m going to come in that pretty little hand of yours baby.” Moving to stand, she slipped her shorts and panties down her legs and stepped out of them. Breathing harder she asked “Condom?”.

  “I’ve got a clean bill of health honey and you’re on birth control, it’s your decision.” She looked up at the ceiling, then back to me, a pause, then she moved back onto my lap her legs straddling me. Reaching down between her legs and running my fingers through her hot wet folds, I groaned, holding my shaft and rubbing the swollen head at her entrance. “Lower yourself down baby, take as much as you can.” Slowly she began to lower her hips, taking me inside of her inch by inch. Watching her face, she closed her eyes and lowered her forehead against mine. We were both breathing hard now. With my hands on her hips I guided her until her heat was almost at the base of my shaft, god she was exquisite, her warm breath on my lips, the flush of pink in her cheeks, the tightness of her sex engulfing me and the brush of her hard nipples against my chest as she slowly started to move. Moving my mouth to hers, I gently bit into her lip which caused our mouths to once again
fuse together in a symphony of hot, wet, kisses that quickly caused me to thrust my hips up harder into her. She moaned and panted into my mouth and I could feel she was close. A shrill ran up my spine when I felt her legs start to tremble with the movement of her hips as she ground down harder onto me, and when her head fell back and that blonde hair grazed along my thighs, I lost myself inside of her, hot liquid filling her as her sex pulsated around me. Pulling her hard against my chest, her head burrowed into my neck until our heavy breathing and shuddering slowed and calmed.

  Being woken early by the buzz of my phone on a Sunday morning while having Casey’s warm naked body wrapped around mine, was not what I wanted right now. I tried to ignore it but the fucking thing was so persistent. Reaching over to the side table, I blindly slid it to answer and pressed it against my ear “Hello.”

  “Mr. King, I’m sorry to call at this time but there’s been a break-in at The Bazaar nightclub and the technicians are having a problem turning the alarms off.” Charlie’s voice sounded as annoyed as I was feeling.

  “Did they try the master key?” I said rubbing my hand over my face in an attempt to wake myself up.

  “Yes, but nothings working and it’s been going now for over an hour.”

  “Ok, I’m on my way.” I sighed and disconnected the call.

  “Who was it?” Casey’s groggy voice asked.

  “An alarm at the nightclub won’t turn off. I have to go down there, just go back to sleep, I’ll be back before you know it.” Leaning down, I placed a kiss on her forehead and slipped out of bed and into my own room to get dressed.

  Chapter Twenty-nine

  Casey

  Rolling over in bed, I reached out and slid my hand across the space to where Nate slept. It was still empty he must still be working on the alarm. Stretching and yawning, my thigh muscles ached and I smiled remembering the reason why they were aching. Looking over at my phone the time read 9.36am, so I pulled myself out of bed and into the bathroom, taking a quick shower and dressing, then heading downstairs. I thought I might find Nate asleep on the couch or in his office, but he was nowhere in the Penthouse, so I resigned myself to grabbing a bowl of cereal and headed for the couch, picking up the remote to turn on the TV and watch the morning news. Before my ass hit the leather, the intercom on the wall beeped. Placing the bowl on the coffee table, I walked over and picked up the handset. “Hello.”

  “Good morning this is the front desk. Mr. King's secretary is downstairs, she has some papers to bring up for him.” Damn, really? This chick never gives up, but what can I do? It’s not my place. Sighing, I said, “Ok. Send her up.”I hung up the receiver and went back to my cereal and flicked through the hundreds of channels until I found something that resembled world news.

  The elevator pinged and I looked at the opening doors. She wore jeans and a green silk blouse, her hair pulled up in a tidy chignon, her make-up flawless. Fuck what does she do, sleep with that crap on her face, it’s so thick if she smiled too wide I am sure her face would crack. Turning my eyes back to the TV, I continued spooning cereal into my mouth, hoping if I ignored her she would do what she had to do and leave. It was too early in the morning for a fight. She walked past me carrying what looked like some white folders in her arms and went through to Nate’s office. A few minutes later she came back out and stood right in front of the TV. “I’ve placed the files that Nate wanted on his desk, He forgot to take them when he left this morning. Oh, and he forgot this too,” she said, placing what looked like his phone on the coffee table. I looked down at the phone and then back up to her. “It must have been a busy night if he left his phone somewhere.”

  “Oh he was busy alright, but not just with the alarm.” She said smugly. Jerking my head up to look at her so fast I almost gave myself whiplash, I peered at her through narrowed eyes.“What’s that supposed to mean?” She smiled and picked up her purse and headed back towards the elevator.

  “Let’s just say, the alarm was fixed within a few minutes of him arriving but he didn’t want to disturb you, so he came back to my place for coffee and we found something…. fun to do for the next few hours.” Jumping up from where I was and almost running over to the elevator, I swear I was going to crack that pretty little face of hers, but before I could get to her she was in the elevator and as the doors were closing I heard her smug laugh as it descended. I banged on the metal doors and yelled, “In your dreams you Bitch”.

  Infuriated, I paced back and forth in front of the elevator doors contemplating whether to go after her and punch her perfect pearly white teeth down her throat or make a wish with her skinny legs. Anger bubbled inside of me at just the thought of Nate touching any part of her body. My brain started to work overtime, thinking about what she had said. If the alarm was fixed that quickly, why hadn’t he come back here? And why did she have his phone? And if he had spent the night with her, where the hell was he now? Was he feeling guilty and couldn’t face me? Or was she just such a spiteful bitch she would try anything? My head started to throb from all the fury that was running through my body, and walking in circles around the apartment wasn’t doing anything to calm it down. Grabbing my iPod, I headed to the back room where Nate had it set up as a gym area. Pushing the earbuds in and selecting the fast-paced music of the heavy metal group “System of a Down,” I cranked up the volume and jumped onto the treadmill selecting a run speed. With the thumping music silencing my thoughts, I ran until my sweat covered body couldn’t take anymore, my mind felt clearer and my body felt sated.

  And that’s where Nate found me. Laying on the seat of the bench press, my clothes soaked with sweat, panting and trembling from the hard work out and the fury that I had inside me. “Casey?” he said, with concern coming over to the bench press. I sat up and held up both of my hands.

  “Don’t?” I said giving him a warning look. Standing, I walked out of the gym and down the hall into the bedroom with him following.

  “What the hell is going on?” he asked. Pulling off my wet clothes, I walked into the bathroom and locked the door, ignoring him completely. I just didn’t know where to go with this right now. All I knew is I needed a shower. As soon as the cold water hit my skin, it stung but I needed to cool down. Running my face under the spray, it felt so good right then, I washed my hair and body and got out wrapping a towel around myself. I unlocked the bathroom door and went into the bedroom Nate sat on the edge of the bed his elbows resting on his knees. As I started to dry myself off I could feel his eyes watching my every move. Without saying anything, I pulled on a pair of shorts and a t-shirt, then brushed my hair out. His eyes never leaving my movements. Once I had my hair up in a messy bun, my eyes met his, they were full of confusion with a hint of anger. Taking a deep breath in and releasing it, I sat next to him on the bed, feeling exhausted and shattered by my now depleted anger.

  Finally, he spoke. “Are you done now?” I just shrugged my shoulders. “What the hell just happened ?” His voice was deep, low and calm I closed my eyes and slowly shook my head. “ No, you did this yesterday morning and you gave me some bullshit excuse about your job and I let it go, but not this time, this time you talk.” Closing my eyes I searched for the words to try and start this conversation without looking like some possessive, jealous idiot, and I came up blank. Waving a hand nonchalantly, I headed for the bedroom door and mumbled “forget it,” as I headed down the stairs. He followed.

  “Not going to happen Casey” his voice now sounding slightly angry as he followed behind me. At the bottom of the stairs, he grabbed me by the elbow, spinning me around to face him. “Don’t run from me, just talk to me.”

  “I said forget it, it’s nothing important.”

  “Well it certainly was important enough to get you this pissed off, holy shit you looked like you were going to implode up there,” he said gesturing up towards the gym with a tilt of his chin.

  “I’m sorry I was angry and I couldn’t deal with it in the normal way of going for a run outside, so I did the next
best thing.”

  “Yeah, I get that, but you’re still not explaining to me what the hell happened to piss you off in the first place?”

  “More like who.”

  Narrowing his eyes, he said, “Someone’s been here?” I nodded “Who?”

  Chewing on my bottom lip, I said, “Charlie.”

  “Charlie was here?” he asked sounding slightly surprised.

  “Yes, this morning” Looking at him now he actually looked relieved.

  “Fuck Casey, you scared the shit out of me, what did she want?”

  “She brought some files and your phone. She said you left it at her place this morning.” He dropped his grip on my elbow and took a step back, folding his arms across the wide expanse of his chest. A smile started to appear on his lips and he looked smug.

  “Ok, I get it now. Look, once I got the alarm turned off and reset, I didn’t want to come back that early and wake you, so I went back to Charlie’s place for a coffee, and I left my phone there, and you’re thinking something happened between me and her right?” That arrogant look that he had on his face right now made my anger start to resurface.

  “You egotistical prick. See this is why I wasn’t going to say anything, I knew that’s exactly what you would think, puffing your chest out like a caveman on ego overload. I don’t have to think anything about Charlie because she’s made it clear to me on several occasions that you and she are fucking and I’m just the flavor of the month.” That wiped the smile off his face.