by Love, B. T.
I opened the door and stood quietly at the top of the stairs. The pings and pangs of the video game that James was playing in the living room was the only sound that filled the house. This was it, I was about to surprise him with what he’d been wanting for months now.
My heart raced as I trailed my fingers along the banister and descended the flight of stairs. Every step I took brought me closer to the sounds below. My body was humming; the suspense was turning me on more than I anticipated.
When I reached the bottom I stood with one hand on the banister and one hand on my hip. I smiled at James, who was completely focused on his game. He looked so cute.
“I tried on my clothes,” I said, trying to draw his attention.
“Did they fit?”
“You tell me.”
He glanced over at me, his eyes widening with surprise. “Holy crap.”
I smiled, feeling extremely pleased by his reaction. “Do you like what you see?”
“Uh, yeah, I do.” He grabbed the remote and turned off the T.V. “They’re black.”
“Yes, they are.”
“And, they’re see-through.”
“I know. You want me to come a little closer so you can see better?”
“Absolutely.”
His face was expressionless as I approached him. It was almost as if I had caught him so off-guard that he didn’t know how to act. It was very amusing, and I smiled as I planted myself in front of him. He leaned forward on the couch, his face inches from my stomach.
“You look breathtaking,” he said as he looked up at me.
I ran my fingers through his hair. “Well I hope to take your breath away tonight.”
A trace of a smile formed on his lips. “Oh really?”
“Yeah.”
He looked down at my panties. “I’m kind of afraid to touch you.”
“Why?”
“Because I want to be sure you’re ready.”
“Do you want me to prove to you that I’m ready?”
“Yes.”
I bit my lip and put my hands on his shoulders, gently pushing him back against the couch as I climbed on top of him. “Does this help?”
“A little.”
“A little?”
“Show me more how ready you are.”
I smiled devilishly at him. “Oh I know what you’re doing now. You want me to take control.”
“Hell yeah I do.”
“Okay. You asked for it.” I dove into him, thrusting my tongue into his mouth as I wrapped my arms around his neck. God he smelled so good; his cologne heightened my senses. I couldn’t resist grinding against him as my body took over.
At this point he felt comfortable enough to make his move. He brought his hands around my waist and grabbed onto my backside, feeling my bare skin. I moaned as his fingers followed the string of my thong down between my legs. “You’re so sexy,” he breathed between our kiss.
“Show me how sexy I am.”
He smiled against my mouth. “You asked for it.” He tightened his arms around me and then stood up, holding me as he carried me over to the bottom of the stairs and pushed me against the wall.
I wrapped my legs firmly around him. “I remember this move from last time.”
“I recall you liked it.”
“I loved it.”
He got a tighter grip on me and then carried me up the stairs, taking me into his room. The lights were off but his curtains were open, allowing the brightness of the moon to cast a pleasant glow around us.
I unwrapped my legs from around his waist and he lowered me so I could stand. For a moment we just stood quietly in front of each other, unsure of what to do or say next. Even though I had been so assertive downstairs, climbing on top of him, I was still completely nervous about taking things further. Now that we were in his room next to his bed he would have to be the assertive one.
As if knowing what I needed him to do, he pulled his shirt off and threw it on the floor, revealing his muscular chest. He looked amazing. I put my hand out and traced my fingers down his stomach, feeling the contours of his masculinity. And just like that, my shyness was gone. Without a second thought my hands went right to his belt. He smiled.
“What?” I smiled in return.
“You must really want me.”
“I do.”
His hands came to rest on top of mine. “But, I, I don't have any, you know, protection.”
“I do,” I smiled.
“Really? So my woman came prepared with everything, huh?”
“Oh, I've been preparing for a while. I'm on the pill.”
“Seriously?” he asked, his eyebrows lifting at my revelation.
“Mm hmm.”
“Since when?”
“Since a few months ago.”
“Wow. Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because I knew I was going to make love to you at some point but I still wasn’t sure when. And it’s good to be on them for a few months so they’re in my system.”
He smiled. “Well, let's do this then.” He gave me a gentle kiss and then watched as I continued on, unbuckling the strap of leather and pulling it off of his jeans, dropping it on the floor.
“I feel like I’m unwrapping a present,” I joked.
“I think I’m the one who’s going to be unwrapping a present.”
“Believe me,” I said as I unfastened his button and pulled his zipper down, “right now it feels like my birthday.”
His pants fell to the floor. He stepped out of them and kicked them to the side. He looked absolutely magnificent, standing firmly before me in the darkened room, wearing nothing but his boxer briefs.
His hand found my waist and he pulled me against him while kissing me deeply. I laced my arms around him; I could feel the intense heat that was radiating off of his skin. He was a man on fire. His lips left mine and he kissed down my neck while pulling down my bra strap. “Just you wait,” he whispered as he slid his hand behind me and unclasped my bra completely.
“For what?” I smiled, taking my arms away from him.
“I'm going to make you feel so good.” He pulled my bra off and let it fall to the floor. “God you're beautiful,” he admired while taking in the sight of my breasts.
He brought me against him once more and carefully moved us back to his bed, laying me down against the laundry-scented comforter. My excitement heightened as he moved over me and gently lowered the weight of his body down onto mine. I wrapped my legs around him and delved my fingers through his hair while he kissed me with an intensified passion. Then he broke away, taking his mouth to my neck and then landing on my breast. Just feeling his tongue running along my skin was driving me wild.
He pushed off of me and sat back on his heels, locking his eyes with mine as he ran his hands up my thighs and grabbed onto the thin strings of my thong. “Are you ready for me to make love to you Katie?” he asked deeply.
I was trembling. “Yes, I am,” I breathed with assurance.
His eyes seemed to smile but his face kept a serious expression as he pulled my lingerie down and off of my legs. “You will be completely satisfied once I'm done with you.”
The words he spoke were a complete turn on. I sighed as he continued to make right on what he said, showing me his many talents. He made love to me with a tremendous fervor, changing up his variation, making me moan with pleasure. I melted into him as he whispered passionate words in the dark that summoned my body to revel in my excitement. He was excellent at what he was doing.
When I opened my eyes I spotted the tattoo on his flexed bicep and I grabbed onto it, digging my nails into his skin. I arched beneath him and watched as a faint confident smile lifted the corner of his mouth. It was then that I gave into him completely.
* * *
His kiss was tender. “That was incredible,” he said when he broke away from my lips.
I nuzzled my face into the side of his neck. “I agree completely.”
“You are the sexiest w
oman alive.”
I chuckled quietly and smoothed my hand across his chest. “You think so, huh?”
“I know so.” He lifted his head, placing a kiss on top of my hair. I could feel his smile. “I love you, Katie.”
Eleven
“Oh . . . my . . . god,” Mary said almost in disbelief on the other end of the phone. “That sounds completely amazing!”
“It was.”
“I bet. So he was really that good, huh?”
I bit my lip shyly while remembering our exhilarating night together. “He was better than good; he was . . . a master.”
“Wow, master status. What a lucky woman you are.”
“I am. I’m just so in love with him, Mare; I'm completely taken with everything that has to do with him. He really is my soul mate.”
“Awe, I’m really happy for you Kate. You deserve it.”
“Thanks,” I smiled.
“And thank you for dishing all the juicy stuff!”
“Well I figured I owed it to you since you’re the one who has helped me through all this. And you always tell me your sexy stories, which are great.”
“They are, aren’t they?”
“Yep,” I laughed. “And now we have yet another thing in common: boyfriends who are amazing lovers.”
* * *
The bank was slammed for a Wednesday, and for some reason every customer who came in was in a horrible mood. The only thing that was getting me through the day was thinking of the plans we had for the upcoming weekend. James and I had put together a surprise day at the zoo for the kids. It was hard keeping the secret from them but we we’re trying our best.
It had been a couple of months since James and I had made love for the first time. And quite frankly, we turned into quite the little pair of rabbits. We literally couldn’t keep our hands off of each other. Yeah, our little family unit was blending together nicely, and for the first time in years I felt calm and at peace. I was blissful.
“Hey Kate?” my coworker Jim called out from a couple of stations down from me.
“Yeah?”
“When you’re done with your customer you have a call on line two.”
“Okay, thanks.” I finished up with the rude old lady I was trying desperately to make happy and then picked the phone up, hitting the flashing button for line two. “Hello this is Kate.”
“Katie?” It was James, and his voice was strained.
“James? What’s wrong? You sound stressed.”
He sighed heavily on the other line. “I’m sorry to bother you at work . . .”
“No, it’s fine. What’s wrong?”
“I have some really bad news. Um,” his voice broke, and he began to cry.
My eyes widened. “Oh my god, James, is something wrong with Tyler?”
“No.”
“Tell me. Now.”
“It’s Brad Thomas.”
“Your Chief?”
“Yeah.”
“What’s wrong?”
He sobbed quietly before answering, “He’s dead.”
The news hit me like a swift kick in the stomach. “What do you mean he’s dead?”
“He, he was shot. There was a call that he showed up for between those two street gangs I was telling you about. I don’t even know why he went out there, but, I guess there were a lot of arrests that were being made so he showed up on the scene. One of the gang members hadn’t been apprehended and they said he shot at the Chief from inside of a house.”
“My god, James. I’m so sorry.”
“Yeah, so am I. They don’t know where the guy went. He got away.”
“He got away?”
He sniffled quietly. “Yeah. I’m gonna find who did this to him.”
“James, I know you lost someone very important today. But you have to make sure you don’t do anything too irrational—”
“The guy shot him in the damn head, Kate!” he lashed out.
My mouth dropped open, but no words came out. The news was a nightmare, and learning how he had been killed just added to the devastation. “That’s so horrible,” I finally managed.
“The guy shot him like he was some kind of farm animal or something. The Chief was a great man and he deserved to have a dignified death. The way he left the world today is unacceptable.”
I stayed silent, quieted by the shock of what had happened. I didn’t even know what to say to comfort James. “I, I am so very sorry. I can take off work right now and come help you.”
“No, don’t worry about it. I have a crime scene to help clean up.”
“You’re going over there?”
“I’ve already been there. I saw his body.”
“Oh, James . . .”
“I’ve gotta go. I’ll call you when my shift is over. I love you.”
“I love you too.”
He hung up, leaving me with the sound of the dial tone. What happened to the Chief was exactly the nightmare I was afraid of. What if it were James who had been killed?
* * *
The funeral was hard. James was a wreck the whole time, hanging his head in the palms of his hands while he sobbed openly in front of his workmates. There were literally hundreds of men and women there, the majority of them dressed in uniforms. I recognized a lot of the people from the dinner we had went to together, John and Sammy being two of them. They were by James’s side constantly, trying hard to comfort him the best they could. I noticed a lot of people made sure to come up and say their condolences to James as if he were a part of the Chief’s family.
When we got back to his apartment he sat on the couch and slumped down, laying his head back and staring up at the ceiling. I took my heels off and sat next to him, pulling my legs up on the soft cushion. “Are you okay?” I asked.
He shook his head. “No.”
“I don’t even know what to say to you other than I’m sorry.”
A tear rolled away from the corner of his eye. “You know, I love my dad and I’m really close to him, but the Chief was like a dad to me as well.”
“I know, baby,” I said, wiping the tear away from his cheek.
“I feel like I lost my dad.”
“Well, you basically did.”
“I promise I’m gonna find that bastard—”
“James—”
“I’m being serious, Katie,” he said, looking over at me. “I’ll find him and when I do he’ll be sorry.”
I breathed out a defeated sigh and placed my hand on his shoulder. “I know you’ll take care of him.” It was all I could think of to say. There really was no arguing with him when it came to the situation. I was hoping that he was just angry in the moment and once his anger passed that he would go back to his old self. It would take time, things like that do, but I was clinging to that hope.
* * *
James came up behind me and ran his hands down my shoulders. “Can I make love to you?”
I smiled at the warm feeling of his palms on my skin. It had been almost three weeks since he had touched me like that, and I was really starting to miss our closeness.
“If you feel like it,” I answered him.
He carefully spun me around to face him. “I’m sorry I haven’t been intimate with you. I’ve just been really depressed.”
“I know baby. You don’t have to explain.”
“Yeah, but I want to. I just want you to know that all that’s happened has been hard on me but I’m starting to feel like my old self again.”
“I can tell. You’ve been a little happier each day.”
“You’re right, I have been. And I miss you.”
I wrapped my arms around his neck. “I miss you too.”
“Then can I?”
“What?”
“You know what,” he smiled softly.
“Of course you can.”
He smiled in return and kissed me, his tongue slowly entering my mouth, reminding me of the man I was so enamored with. I raised my arms above my head and he slipped my shirt off
and threw it on the floor. “I really missed you,” he repeated as he unclasped my bra and tossed it aside.
I pulled off his shirt and clung against him, holding on as he moved us down to his carpeted floor.
* * *
I draped my leg over one of his. “Are you okay?” I asked.
“Yeah. I want to apologize again for being so distant.”
“I understand why.”
“I’m just scared.”
I shifted my head so I could see his face. “Why are you scared?”
“I don’t know. I guess I’ve just been thinking a lot about my job and the dangers of it.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. I mean, the gangs are getting really bad in Lexington.”
“Yeah.”
He nuzzled his nose into the top of my hair. “What would you think if I put in for a transfer?”
“A transfer? To where?”
“To Mapleton.”
“Really?” I smiled. “You would move to Mapleton?”
“Yeah,” he shrugged. “I mean, there’s literally nothing that goes on in your town. And I know the Chief there so I can give him a call and let him know I’m looking for something.”
“Yeah but wouldn’t you be bored?”
“Nah. I’d rather be bored and be alive. I have a family to look after, after all.” He squeezed me gently, letting me know that Hailey and I were a part of that family unit.
I squeezed him back. “I would love it if you were to transfer.”
“Then I’ll put in for it. I’m not sure how long it will take but I’ll get on it right away.”
I pushed up onto my elbow and smiled at him. “Thank you, James.”
* * *
James put in for his transfer but was basically waiting for a position to open up in Mapleton. In a way he had a leg in the door since he knew the Chief, so he had high hopes that he would contact him when something came up.