by E. D. Brady
It had been so long since she had slept in a comfortable bed, it almost made it harder to sleep. So foreign was the soft, fluffy mattress that Shannon’s body almost missed the hardness it was used to, but not for long. Soon, her thoughts began to blur and take on a life of their own. She jerked hard, half-dreaming that she fell down a step, it was the last coherent thing she remembered.
⃰ ⃰ ⃰
The smell of fresh coffee brewing was always hard for Shannon to resist. Even in her thick haze of sleep, some rational part of her mind understood that if she forced her eyes open, she would be rewarded with a piping hot cup.
She sat up and looked around, momentarily confused by the strange décor until the events of the previous night slowly began to seep back in. She scowled at the memory of Chad’s face as he stood in the doorframe of her apartment.
Another thought suddenly occurred to her. It was Monday morning and she simply couldn’t afford to be late for her new job. She needed her job more than anything and was determined to keep a good track record.
She hopped from the bed and raced out into the living room to find out the time. Seeing no clock, she hurried into the kitchen to find Chad washed and dressed in a navy-blue suit that sat perfectly on his muscular body. “What time is it?” she questioned in a hurried voice.
“Eight-thirty,” he replied, setting an empty coffee cup into the sink. He turned and stared at her. His eyes fell to her feet then traveled up her legs and stopped around the area of her breasts. She felt her face flush, knowing that he was admiring her body through her small, thin excuse for pajamas. Why hadn’t she changed out of the t-shirt before leaving the room? He pulled his eyes up to her face and sighed. “Go back to bed, Shannon,” he said in an authoritative voice.
“But work—
He cut her off. “I’ve already texted Sarah and told her to let whoever it is you report to know that you’ll be out doing research for me today.”
“Maureen Black,” Shannon whispered.
Chad nodded. “I’ll call Maureen later to confirm that she got my message.”
Shannon stood stock-still not sure of how to react.
“I’m going into the office to attempt to contact Danya Lovitz and to call Bazarov. I’ll be back in two hours or so. I’d like to have a serious talk with you when I return.”
“Okay,” she replied, feeling like a child being scolded by her father. She had an urge to ask him if she’d done something wrong, but thought better of it. She was an adult after all, not some naughty child who deserved to be sent to their room until their parent had a chance to ‘deal’ with them. She squared her shoulders, raised her chin and tried to look as dignified and mature as she could manage in her flimsy nightwear. “If you don’t mind, I’ll have a cup of coffee first,” she stated confidently.
“Help yourself,” he answered. Shannon thought she saw a small grin play on his lips. “I’ll see you in a couple of hours,” he added and headed for the door.
Shannon took her mug of coffee into the living room and plopped down onto the couch. She picked up the remote control and turned on the sixty inch TV. She realized that she hadn’t watched TV in weeks but after flicking around the channels, concluded that she wasn’t really missing anything. She wandered over to the long bookshelf that framed one side of the TV and glanced over the titles. Chad certainly liked Science Fiction and Fantasy. With the exception of a couple of non-fiction books on yoga and meditation, that was the only genre he owned out of a least one hundred books. She pulled ‘The Hobbit’ off the shelf, knowing that it was the prequel to The Lord of the Rings. Since Chad was determined to make her see the movies, she supposed she should start the experience by reading at least some of the story first.
She went back into the guest bedroom, changed back into her jeans and sweater, lay down on the bed and opened the book.
Within what seemed like only minutes, she heard the front door open. As she dog-eared the book, she realized the reason for the time warp—she had managed to make it through half the novel and was enjoying every word.
She walked into the living room just as Chad was setting his briefcase next to the hall closet. “How did it go?” she asked.
He turned around and smiled broadly. “Really well. We’re in the process of setting up a meeting for some time in December,” he answered.
“In Israel?” Shannon probed.
Chad nodded. “Tel Aviv,” he responded. “I have you to thank for that, by the way.”
“You probably would have found the information yourself eventually,” she replied, shrugging her shoulders modestly. “What did you want to talk to me about?” she asked, seeing no point in stalling.
“Let me change out of this suit and I’ll be right with you,” he replied then walked toward his bedroom.
He came back into the living room moments later, wearing an old pair of gray sweat pants and a white V-neck undershirt. Shannon felt her heart stammer in her chest, overwhelmed by how beautiful he looked in casual clothes. He jumped onto the couch, tucking his right leg underneath so that he was sitting on it and flung his right arm over the back of the sofa. With his left hand, he tapped the seat next to him in a gesture for Shannon to join him. She sat down and turned around, leaning against the arm so that they were facing each other. She said nothing, just stared at him, wondering what it would be like to kiss his perfect mouth.
“First of all, I want to apologize for my foul mood last night. It was uncalled for,” he began.
Shannon nodded.
“I guess I was just tired, not to mention a little drunk, and your living conditions were cause for worry.”
Shannon nodded again.
“So do you want to tell me what you were doing in a place like that?”
“It’s all I can afford,” she said again.
Chad ran his left hand through his hair and shook his head. He looked straight into her eyes, his expression dire, letting her know he was not playing games, that he was not interested in half explanations. “Why don’t you tell me where your mother and her husband are?” he said.
“My mother is dead,” Shannon answered, meeting his fixed stare.
His eyebrows rose. “How long?”
“Two weeks ago,” she replied bluntly.
“Fuck! Are you kidding me?” he questioned, leaning forward, a horrified look crossing his features.
“No, I wouldn’t joke about something like that,” she explained.
“Tell me the whole story, Shannon,” he demanded. “I want to help you but I need to know what I’m…what you’re up against.”
Shannon took a deep breath and nodded. She sensed that he was sincere, that he was a good guy that cared about people, someone that could possibly care about her. As it was, he was the only person on earth who cared enough to show her any concern at all. Ironic and sad no doubt, but no less true, he was her only friend in the world, even if she’d only met him a couple of days ago. “There was a time when I had a normal family,” she began then looked down uncomfortably.
“Go on,” he encouraged, smiling reassuringly.
She picked up a couch cushion and rested it on her lap. She toyed with the zipper nervously. “I already told you how my father and brother died when I was eleven and how my mother remarried a few years ago.”
Chad nodded. “A businessman from Miami,” he recalled, “and then you moved there.”
“Yes,” Shannon confirmed. “But I didn’t tell you what Bill’s business was.”
“Go on,” he pushed.
“He is a drug dealer,” she said, glancing up to gauge his reaction. “Or was,” she added. “I don’t know if he’s still alive.”
Chad blew out a sharp breath. “Really?” he asked. “Did your mother know when she married him?”
“I don’t think she did at first,” Shannon replied. “I can’t be sure, but I think it didn’t hit her until we moved to Miami.
“Which was three years ago,” he recalled.
She nodded.
“At any rate, Bill drove a nice car and had a beautiful house. He had a real comfortable life. Business must have been good for him before my mother came along.”
“What did she do?” Chad questioned.
“I guess my mother found out what Bill really did for a living and couldn’t resist sampling the goods. She was never the strongest woman and always had an addictive personality. I think the only thing that kept my mother on a straight and narrow path, when I was young, was my dad. Unfortunately, Bill didn’t have a strong personality like my father, and was already living a shady life.”
“Was your mother a drug addict, Shannon?” he probed.
She nodded again. “Yes and it didn’t take long until he was nipping into the product also, I can only assume at my mother’s coaxing. By the time we lived in Miami for fourteen months, both my mother and Bill were completely strung out. Both of them had that skinny, druggy look after a while, complete with bad skin, bad teeth and sunken eyes.”
“What were you doing at the time?” Chad questioned.
“Mainly just going to school and taking as many babysitting jobs as I could. All I could think about was saving enough money to run away, which I suppose was a bit of a pipe dream—babysitting doesn’t really pay that much.”
“Did you try to get them help?” he asked.
“I tried to talk to my mother, but if you mean professional help…no. The last thing I wanted was to end up in a foster home—the devil you know…” She shrugged her shoulders and bit her lip, trying to suppress tears. She didn’t want Chad to have to witness a display of self-pity.
“What about when you turned eighteen?” he probed.
“They were already so far gone at that point. My mom kept making false promises that she was going to get help, but she never did. I wanted to believe though…”
“Of course,” he said kindly. “That’s completely understandable.”
“Anyway, at one point, almost a year ago, the house had to be sold to pay off Bill’s suppliers. That’s when we moved into a trailer park with a nasty reputation. This wasn’t one of those nice places that elderly people move to when they want to downsize; this was a place for meth heads and criminals. I stopped babysitting at that point. I didn’t really like leaving the house or whatever you’d call it. I went to school and straight home, that was it, well apart from the supermarket. What little money my mom and Bill made went to drugs. I used to check their pockets when they were asleep and steal any cash I could find to buy food.” She looked down with a guilty expression. “Sometimes I just stole it to add to my babysitting money.”
“It would have only gone to drugs anyway,” Chad piped in. Shannon could tell he was trying to ease her conscience.
“So I guess Bill ran out of ways to pay off his suppliers. Two weeks ago, some men came to our door looking for him. My mom seemed to know who they were and what they were capable of. When it became obvious that they were going to break down the door, she pleaded with me to hide in the cupboard under the sink and to remain there regardless of what I heard…” Shannon bowed her head, overcome by the painful memory.
Chad took her hand between both of his. “It’s okay,” he breathed.
“I heard every punch, every whack, every thud as her body was being tossed around the place…” She closed her eyes, threw her head back and counted to ten before continuing. “When the…noise…stopped…when I knew they were gone, I crept out from hiding, grabbed my wad of money and ran…”
Chad let out a heavy sigh and ran his left hand through his hair. “Shit…” he breathed. He squeezed her hand firmly between both of his and looked deep into her eyes. “I don’t even know what to say.”
“It’s okay,” she replied, smiling sadly.
“Jesus, Shannon…” he mumbled. They sat in silence for many long moments while Chad absorbed the gruesome information she had just laid on him. After a while, he straightened his back and nodded once, as though having an internal conversation with himself. “Okay, so here’s what’s going to happen,” he began. “You’ll stay here with me until we can find you a decent apartment. You’re not going back to that slum.”
“But how can I afford—
“My friend Alex, that you met last night, he’s a real estate agent. Mostly high end, but he knows people. I’ll have him make a few phone calls. He can probably get you a place within a few weeks. If we have him look for a place with a roommate, maybe…a nice young girl your age…” He raised his eyebrows questioningly.
“I suppose…” she trailed off, not feeling very confident.
“You’re welcome to stay here in the meantime, until you get your first check. And we can always find stuff for you to do to get you more overtime.”
Shannon felt grateful tears well up. Never had she met someone so kind and decent. The man in front of her was a lifesaver. This time she let the tears flow as she tried to stammer out an appropriate ‘Thank you’. One simply didn’t exist. She had no experience with the opposite sex, but a hunch told her that the feeling inside was more than a crush. It was possible that she’d just fallen in love.
He put his arms around her shoulders and she relaxed into his embrace, crying into his neck, letting the weeks of grief and torment ooze out through her sobs.
Then, as he rubbed circles into her back, Shannon made a terrible mistake.
Overwhelmed with relief, but also a deep sense of loneliness, not to mention a natural attraction to the older man that held her in his arms protectively, she turned her head and kissed the side of his mouth.
Instantly she felt his body stiffen and she realized her blunder. What the hell was she thinking? She’d never even kissed a boy her own age, let alone a man so much older. What did she think would happen? That he’d succumb to the pathetic attempts at seduction from an inexperienced girl, and if by chance he did, was she even prepared to follow through?
It didn’t matter though, because Chad pulled away from her slowly and stared into her eyes, an unmistakable look of agitation on his face.
“I’m…I’m sorry,” she stuttered, feeling her face flush red from humiliation and self-disgust.
“Don’t ever do that again,” he said firmly. He let go of her shoulders and stood up, once again, running his hand through his hair. “I’ll be back in a little while,” he announced without looking in her direction. He went into his bedroom and came back out fully dressed. He walked to the front door then disappeared behind it, not bothering to let her know where he was going or when he’d return.
She pulled both knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them then rocked back and forth on the couch, wishing she could just disappear.
She was a fool, an idiot to think a man of Chad’s caliber would ever want to kiss a girl like her.
Chapter 9
“Turn your gaze to the floor and step the back foot forward so that the feet are parallel at the front of the mat. Keep the bind while you do this. Shift your weight into your free leg.”
Chad did as instructed, feeling his muscles stretch.
“Slowly bring yourself up to standing. When you feel steady, extend the left leg to a straight position. Bring your gaze over your opposite shoulder.”
Nothing felt better after a six mile run than some intense yoga.
Before long, he was on his back, concentrating on his breaths, on being present, or at least that was the idea, but he was having a hard time staying in the now. His mind kept jumping back to Shannon’s behavior earlier. It was hard enough trying to resist the girl, trying to overcome his intense desire for her, without her trying to kiss him. As it was, he’d spent the entire previous night writhing in his bed, aching at the thought that she was lying in the next room. With the most severe hard-on he’d ever had, his unrelenting imagination showed no mercy, flashing up images of him between her thighs. There was nothing left for him to do than to grab his cock and jerk off until he had meager relief.
Then, that morning, she walked into the kitchen wearing a t-shirt
that barely covered her ass, one that was so thin that he was sure he’d seen her nipples through the flimsy material. Obviously the gods were having a laugh at his expense, making wagers on how long it would take for him to go insane. Could lust actually drive a man insane? He was sure he’d know the answer to that question before he found Shannon somewhere more appropriate to live.
On his way to the showers, he ran into Roland who convinced him to do a little weight training while he was at the gym.
There seemed to be no amount of physical effort that could clear his muddled mind. After bench-pressing his personal record, he still didn’t feel any better.
He hit the grocery store on the way back to his apartment. There was no point in starving the girl just because he didn’t want to face her.
Once inside the apartment, he knocked on the guest bedroom door and called her name.
“Yes?” she answered.
“There’s food out here if you’re interested,” he replied, trying to sound as composed as he could manage.
She opened the door and stood in the doorway with slumped shoulders, wearing a look of remorse. Her big eyes looked up at him from under her long lashes, a pink tint gracing her full cheeks.
Chad felt instantly sorry for her. She looked so sad, but also dejected. For a split second, he entertained the thought of taking her in his arms and kissing her to relieve the rejection in her eyes, to let her know that he’d refuse to kiss her not because he didn’t find her attractive, but because he would not have been able to stop at just that. Thankfully, common sense kicked in just in time. Instead, he smiled warmly. “You okay?” he asked.
She nodded.
“Okay, good,” he replied. “I brought some sandwiches.”
They ate in almost complete silence, save for the TV droning in the background that, thankfully, made the uncomfortable situation somewhat bearable.