by Leela Ash
“So?” she asked, looking at Carla suspiciously.
“You like Carla, don’t you?” Kal asked.
Arizona nodded, “Yes, she’s my friend,” she said, apparently more confused than ever.
“Great. Now, we want Mommy to marry Mr. Cooper, so we can have a new daddy and Carla can have a new mommy,” Kal explained.
“And,” Carla added, also dropping onto her haunches in front of Arizona, “if my dad marries your mom, you become my little sister, which means you can play with all my toys any time you want. Wouldn’t that be fun?”
Arizona’s eyes brightened, “Really? All of them? Does that include Mr. Bunny?
Carla grinned. Mr. Bunny was her most coveted toy for sure. Her dad had gotten it on a trip to Africa and she remembered him telling her all about the little girl who made it. But more importantly, he had brought it all the way home for her.
“Yes, Ari, even that.”
Arizona beamed. Then she looked at them, “Then why do we have to hide here. It’s so dirty.”
“Mom is almost done baking cookies, so she’s gonna come looking for us to give us some soon. We left the front door open when we left so she’ll think we’re missing or something. So shush, Ari. Please,” Kal said, placing a forefinger against his sister’s lips for emphasis.
The little girl nodded her understanding and fell quiet beside the others, though she kept staring worriedly at the mud caking her feet, which seemed to be rapidly increasing.
The kids were so intent on peering at the house that they didn’t notice the three men in camouflage uniform who were observing them. The men exchanged glances when they recognized Carla Cooper among the kids. Roy had sent them, a few nights ago, on a reconnaissance mission that hadn’t been successful, no thanks to Cooper’s installation of a high-powered security system around the perimeter of the sanctuary. They hadn’t been able to come within three feet of the fence, never mind scaling it.
They had returned this morning, hidden beneath a bed of supply materials, but they had had to be just three. Their leader, Sean, was a short man with a crew cut and a perpetually bad temper. He looked at the three kids and whispered, “How about we change the game plan?”
The two men with him looked at him dubiously. “The boss doesn’t like it when we change plans without his knowledge.”
“Maybe not, but we are the ones in the field, so I say we have more at stake. I mean, picture us capturing Carla Cooper. Everyone knows she is Theodore’s life. If we do so, he’ll be more than willing to cough up a whole lot more money for her rescue,” Sean predicted.
Moving stealthily, the men advanced on the three kids at the same time Jessica ran out of her home, looking this way and that, frantically, for the kids. The men saw her and immediately pounced.
Carla shrieked when large rough hands grabbed her, and Kal and Arizona screamed bloody murder too. Their shrieks brought their mother running in that direction and when she saw the men holding Carla, she almost passed out.
“What are you doing? Put her down this instant!”
The men looked at the blonde woman covered in baking powder from head to toe and wearing a flowery sundress and flipflops with a rolling pin held in one hand. They began to guffaw among themselves. She didn’t seem like much of a threat.
One of their hands shot out and grabbed her, and they laughed again at how easily he subdued her. Jessica stamped a foot down hard on the foot of her assailant but her flipflops didn’t make any difference. Instead, she almost broke her leg. With a howl of outrage, she jerked herself around forcefully and drove two fingers into his eyes. He screamed and released her. At the same time, Carla bit down hard on the arm of the man holding her. He yelped and flung her away. The momentum carried her over a small shrub and she fell, hitting her head on a stone. At the same time, Jessica threw a stone at the man’s head and he was knocked out cold.
The third man was a dangerous-looking man with a crew cut. He glared at her and the three kids. His eyes went longingly to where Carla Cooper was sprawled, unconscious, then he thought better of it when Jessica hefted the rolling pin. He turned and ran away, leaving his two comrades in varying degrees of pain.
Jessica dialed Theodore with shaky fingers and the moment he said hello, before she even got a word out, he had already sensed her turmoil.
“You’re in danger, aren’t you? Where are you?”
“Home,” she cried.
The line tripped off. In less than a minute, he appeared there, with Connor and Michael at his side. “Jessica?” he called, rushing to pull her against his chest. “What happened? Are you all right?” he added, seeing the men lying on the floor.
Jessica shook her head and pointed at Carla. The blood drained from his face when he saw her laying on the ground. He rushed toward her and lifted her into his arms. “Baby? Baby!”
Carla’s eyes opened slowly and she looked up at her father, “Don’t be such a scaredy cat, Dad. You’ll ruin your macho image.”
Then she drifted back into unconsciousness.
He looked wildly at Connor, and the other man nodded, “I’ll get Jonathan to come look at her.”
Theodore glared at the two men sprawled on the ground, and Michael nodded looking more grim than Jessica had ever seen him. “Don’t worry about them. We’ll deal with them.”
Jessica followed Theodore hastily as he carried his daughter toward her house, with her two kids scampering in their wake. Kal reached the door first and he flung it wide open. He and Arizona marched inside and led the way to the living room.
Jonathan Hale arrived almost at once, his clothes smelling of sunshine and wild open fields. “Theodore?”
Theodore looked up urgently, “Jonathan. You’re here. Thank goodness. She hit her head on something. Does she need a scan?”
Jonathan lifted one eyelid and checked her pupils; he checked some other parts of her body and listened to her heartbeat. When he was done, he hung the stethoscope around his neck and looked up at his friend, “Well, the good news is, there’s no concussion.”
“And the bad news?” Theodore asked, his heart in his throat.
Jonathan grinned at him, “The bad news is, you’re gonna have to play nursemaid and wait on her hand and foot for a while, and she’s going to love it. She’s fine, just a little stunned from the blow and the attack. She’s a healthy kid. I’ll just give her something for the pain, and you can watch her overnight.”
Theodore almost wilted with relief, and Jessica was shocked when she caught the sheen of tears in his eyes. Unable to help herself, she reached out a comforting hand to his shoulder. He looked at her and before she knew it, she was in his arms, hugging him, giving comfort and also receiving it.
He pressed a kiss into her hair. Then, heedless of Jonathan’s fascinated gaze on them, he delved a hand into her hair and pulled her head back a little before sinking his mouth to hers and kissing her until every last one of her toes curled.
Chapter 20
“Carla, you have to eat,” Jessica fussed the next morning, holding a spoon of cereal to Carla’s mouth. Seeing the bandage wrapped around the little girl’s head had left a permanent ache in her chest.
“I’m fine. I’m just not hungry. Where’s Dad?” Carla wanted to know.
“Right here,” Theodore said, stepping into the room with Arizona balanced on one arm and Kal’s hand clutched in his other hand.
Carla beamed when she saw him. “You took them on your run?”
“Walk,” Theodore corrected. “Arizona didn’t want to get her shoes dirty running in the grass. So we had a neat, brisk walk up and down the sidewalk.”
Jessica grinned, “Arizona’s a little lady.”
Arizona began to struggle to get down and Theodore obligingly placed her on her feet. She ran up to Carla. “Are you all right?”
Carla nodded. “Please tell your mom I’m not hungry.”
Arizona peered with interest into the bowl of Wheaties then she dimpled at Carla, “Mommy says cer
eal will make me big and strong. Don’t you wanna be big and strong?”
Jessica looked up from smiling at the two kids and caught Theodore watching her with such an intense and personal look that her grin faded and was replaced, in an instant, with attraction. She shifted uncomfortably beneath the heat of his gaze. She truly didn’t want to feel things around Theodore. She didn’t want to feel his presence or his strength; she didn’t want to feel that hot lurch in her stomach when he gazed at her; she didn’t want to feel the desire that pooled easily between her legs whenever he was near.
“Is — Is something wrong?” she asked.
“Nothing that can’t be fixed,” he told her.
Jessica returned her gaze to her task, trying not to think about how domestic it felt being here like this with him and the kids.
“Dad, can we have ice cream?” Carla asked.
“Yes, Dad, can we?” Kal echoed.
Jessica’s shocked gaze flew to Kal and then to Theodore. He didn’t seem to mind as he grinned at the kids. “Ice cream, coming right up.” Then he cast her a frowning glance, “Unless, of course, your mom says no. Then it’s out of my hands.”
Jessica’s heart was beating wildly. What was going on? The kids, in their innocence, were trying to push them together without even knowing what they were doing. She might be uncertain of a lot of things, but the one thing she knew was, that she didn’t want her kids getting attached to him only to have their hearts broken.
She lifted her head just then and looked at him, “Perhaps you should take Carla home. She would be more comfortable.”
He looked at her as though he was trying to read her mind, then he said, “She might be more comfortable but she would definitely be more miserable. At least, here, she has Kal and Arizona to keep her company.”
Jessica ground her teeth. She wanted to get her kids far away from him before they truly started seeing him as their father and got hurt when it inevitably came time to leave. “They can come visit at your place. Just take her home.”
Carla touched Jessica’s arm, “Am I bothering you, Mrs. Harris? I promise, I’ll be quiet from now on and eat my cereal when you say to. But please, don’t make me leave. I want to stay with you, Kal, and Ari.”
Jessica sighed. She would have to be the elder sister of the Wicked Witch of the West to deny a plea like that. She patted Carla’s arm. “It’s okay, sweetie. You’re not being a bother. I was just … worried that you weren’t as comfortable here as you would be at home in your own bed.”
Carla beamed, “I’m very comfortable here. I promise, Mom.”
She heard Theodore’s indrawn breath and she chanced a glance at him. He was staring at her as though he had just realized something, something he didn’t like very much.
With a low growl, he left the room and Jessica sighed as she fed Carla the rest of the cereal and left the kids to watch their cartoons.
She found Theodore standing at the kitchen sink, staring out the window at nothing in particular. She walked around him, placing things in the sink and doing things to set everything in place.
“She didn’t mean it, you know? She was just being emotional,” she said finally, after he had cursed for the second time.
He turned to face her, “Didn’t she? And what about when Kal called me dad?”
Jessica shrugged. “They are kids. Fantasy is their forte.”
“Is it?” he demanded.
Jessica fell silent, having nothing else to say.
He sighed and walked toward her, to hold her shoulders in gentle hands. “Listen, Jessica, at this point, there’s no use denying that I’m wildly attracted to you, but I would never want to put you in a position where you feel I’m using your kids to achieve something you don’t want. I like your kids and I like you a lot.”
Jessica shifted under his hand, feeling the incredible heat already flowing from where his hands were on her shoulders. His gaze followed hers to where his hands rested and he looked back at her with impossibly hot eyes. In a flash, he leaned toward her and took her lips in a wild, impetuous kiss. They came together in a flash, hot and furious, as their mouths and limbs entangled. He lifted his head and looked at her, “I can’t stop, if I go further than this. Ask me to stop now, Jessica.”
Her grin was pure mischief as she responded, “Now, why would I want to go and do a foolish thing like that? Come here, sailor,” she whispered as she pulled him back down to her by his shirtfront.
Theodore kissed her deeply and maneuvered her backwards until she was close to the door. He slammed the kitchen door shut and it clicked into place in the jam.
Then he deepened the kiss, tangling his tongue with hers, their breaths coming in harsh urgent gasps. His mouth left hers and trailed down toward her chest. His hands undid her shirtfront and he buried his mouth in her cleavage. He began to kiss her breasts, working his way down to her nipples. Her breath hissed out, urgent and hot, as he kissed and licked the hard nub of flesh.
Jessica held his head to her breasts, enjoying his caresses as he began to move his lips downward toward the fly of her pants.
“What are you doing?” she gasped.
He chuckled, “Watch and see.”
His hands easily removed her shorts and yanked them down her hips in one fluid motion, taking her panties with them and leaving her naked. He bent forward and captured her pussy with his mouth, his tongue laving smoothly over the soft, pink flesh.
His hands held her ass, keeping her steady as he claimed her with his mouth. Jessica moaned, gasped and groaned as he continued to pleasure her with his mouth. Her hands fisted in his lush hair as he took her along for a wild ride. Then, just when she thought she couldn’t take it anymore, he shoved two long fingers deep into her, stretching her unbelievably.
With a shuddering gasp, the last of her control splintered, and she came in wave after wave of shocking pleasure.
Theodore kept sucking her until he had milked the last of her juices. He lifted her easily and placed her face down against the kitchen table with her ass pushed upward, waiting for his invasion. He entered her in one sure swift stroke and began to move in and out of her.
Jessica’s cries were soft and she tried to lower them because of the kids but she was almost helpless against the onslaught of feelings and emotions rising in her with each thrust. He continued to take her, his large hands grabbing her breasts and kneading as he increased the tempo of his thrusts.
He fucked her harder until she was incoherent. His other hand snaked around her body and pressed against her clitoris, enhancing her pleasure as he fucked her.
“I love your sweet pussy, Jessica. I can’t get enough of it,” he whispered.
She moaned and began to twist her hips, “I want to taste you,” she groaned.
He slowed and then pulled out of her. She knelt before him and covered his dick with her hands and pulled the tip into her mouth. He grunted, the sound almost animal, as she began to lick and suck him.
“Baby, you do that so well,” he moaned as he fisted a hand in her heavy fall of hair.
Jessica moaned, enjoying the feel of his huge dick in her mouth. He tasted great, she thought as she licked the precum off the tip of his penis. He made her want more of him. She continued to kiss and lick until she began to grunt and gasp from the effort it took to cover his huge dick with her mouth.
He held her head in place and began to fuck her mouth until she was afraid she would gag. He helped her to her feet immediately and kissed the side of her mouth in apology. “Your lips are so sweet. I got carried away,” he whispered.
Then he turned her around and entered her in one sure thrust that buried him in her to the hilt.
Her pussy tightened around his hard length, welcoming him and clutching at him. He felt such pleasure course through him that the top of his head almost came off.
He lifted his head and entered her again and again, roaring as the bear in him came to life. With a growl, he started to bend to mark her when he realized what h
e was doing and straightened up again.
He groaned as the pleasure increased. Then he began to press against her G-spot, increasing the pressure against her clitoris with his fingers until she screamed and started to cum again. This time, he joined her as they catapulted over the sunset and into a world of clutching pleasure.
Chapter 21
It had happened again and again and again, Jessica thought to herself five days later, hiding her smile behind the file in her hands. Theodore was a demanding lover, she had quickly learned, and extremely creative too. He had devised clever strategies to make love when the kids were sleeping with a soft hanky stuffed in her mouth to contain her screams; he had devised strategies to milk her breasts and pussy in the shower, and he had even gotten handsy in the office elevator on the short ride from the ground floor to his office on the sixth floor.
Early this morning, he had halted a Zoom meeting with important would-be investors and called her into his office only to whip out his dick and wave it in her face. She had sank to her knees in front of him at once, unable to control herself, and had sucked him until she had finished him off.
Now seated at a conference briefing with his staff, his dick and his taste was all she could think about.
She licked her lips, remembering his clean, wonderful taste. Just then, he looked up and his eyes burned so hotly into hers that it was a wonder he didn’t leave scorch marks on her face.
“Are you listening, Jessica? You have to make this run into town with Maria to get the supplies. It would help you learn a thing or two,” Anita said.
Jessica startled and realized she had gotten lost in his gaze right there in the meeting. She nodded wordlessly and could have cheerfully kicked Theodore when he gave her a choirboy grin.
As she got ready to leave the office, twenty minutes later, Theodore’s call came over the intercom, requesting her urgently. She entered his office and he was leaning against the table waiting for her. He held open his arms and she fell into them. He buried a kiss in her hair.