Awakening Veronica (17 page)

“Fuck you!” Travis yelled back with laughter in his voice. “I don’t know how she keeps up!”

“You can have her in a minute after I’m done.”

“What are you telling her?”

“You’ll see. You can ask her in a minute and help her out.”

“Hank? Are you there?”

“Sorry, Nika. I’m not fast on this keyboard like you are. Still naked for us?”

“Yes, I am. I’ve brushed my teeth and I’m ready to get in bed.”

“Did you come while you were writing?”
It was a natural assumption in his mind, if she was turned on when they left and writing erotic romance all night.

There was a longer pause before she replied.
“I wanted to but I didn’t. I didn’t know if I should since we didn’t talk about…that.”
Her honesty created a knot of heat and hope in his chest.

“Did you bring any toys with you to Divine?”

“No. I don’t have any.”

Hank’s eyes bugged when he read her reply. He could think of only a couple of reasons why
. “We’ll remedy that while you’re here. I don’t want to control your orgasms, Nika. Push the covers to the foot of the bed and get onto it.”

“I can’t cover up?”

“No.”

“All right, Hank. I feel so exposed.”

“Good. Travis is waiting for your reply. Tell him what I had you do and then do as he asks.”

“Yes, Hank. Good night.”

“Sweet dreams, Nika.”

Into the dark stillness, he called out, “She’s all yours. You can thank me later, asshole!”

He heard the sheets and covers rustle when Travis moved and his good mood was evident in his voice. “I can’t recall ever being so happy to be awakened by a text message.”

The phone chimed and a second later Hank heard Travis’s throaty chuckle. “You’re a generous bastard, aren’t you?”

“Like I said.”

Hank’s cock twitched as he imagined her lying there, a rosy blush in her cheeks as she spread her legs and touched her pussy. He formulated their next encounter and knew what it would include. She needed to free herself from all those constraints on her sexuality.

The chimes were interspersed with moments of silence and the occasional chuckle or groan from Travis.

A soft curse came from down the hall and Hank gave in to temptation. He reached for the bottle of lubricant in his night table drawer and squeezed a dollop into his hand. Knowing that she was sharing herself with Travis had him close to the edge already, and he was content with the role of voyeur as he imagined the pace of her breathing gradually increasing as her juices soaked her fingers and became more abundant with each stroke on her clit. She’d struggle with being laid bare, but in the end, it would only make her hotter.

A chime sounded and Travis murmured, “Oh, fuck yes, baby. Go there.”

It was a short trip for Hank as he slid his hand around his cock, thick, hard, and hot from his visions of her writhing on her bed, her legs spread wide and her head tilted back as she neared the point of no return.

As if psychic sexual vibrations were bouncing off the walls and traversing the distance between her house and his, his strokes grew long and fierce even as Travis’s vocalizations indicated he was going along with her, too.

A chime sounded and Travis groaned and replied out loud, obviously wanting Hank to know as well. “Come for us, Nika. That’s right, baby.”

Hank grasped the sheets in one fist as he tightened his grip on his dick and groaned deep as the first searing jet of cum burst onto his abdomen, stinging and opening the dam on a release that left him wrung out and bathed in sweat.

He grinned as he heard the telltale sounds of a man finding his satisfaction from down the hall. Hank grinned, glad that Travis hadn’t felt the need to hide what was going on. Soon they’d be sharing a bed and much more intimate contact with her. Just that thought made his sated cock twitch. He chuckled as he wiped his abdomen clean with tissues and put the phone back on the night table, imagining her lying there, breathless and smiling like she had earlier. The sappy grin on his face felt like it was there permanently, as he rolled over and drifted back to sleep in the darkness, holding a pillow against him, anticipating the night it would be her gorgeous body he held against him.

* * * *

Tabitha Lester gathered her bible and her purse and tote bag as she prepared to leave the Sunday school classroom, letting a sigh of frustration erupt from her lips as the last of the ladies filtered out of the door.

Attendance in the Sunday school class she taught every week had been light lately. She figured they were all probably home being lazy, or sleeping off their hangovers…or attending someone else’s class. But no, she was willing to bet, those same faces would be absent in the pews during the church service as well. She thought it was a disturbing trend that so many were falling away.

“Tabitha?” a timid voice said from behind her.

She turned, accidentally losing a grip on her tote bag handle, and growling as the contents fell to the floor. She curled her lip, barely holding back a curse, and said, “What, Ann?”

Ann had been one of her students for a while, a woman in her thirties with two young children who regularly terrorized the church Sunday school volunteers, judging from what she’d heard.

“Tabitha, I wanted to let you know about…a change that’s coming.” She looked ready to bolt but she still knelt down and helped Tabitha gather up all the flyers and posters Tabitha had recently had printed for
Keep Divine Pure
. Irritation filled her when she saw the box of business cards had split open, too.

Ann picked one up and peered at it. “
Keep Divine Pure
,” she read out loud. “Say no to polyamory.”

Tabitha snatched the card away from Ann when she held it out to her and looked at Tabitha with sympathy in her eyes. “Anyway…”

“What is it, Ann? I have to get to the church foyer. I’m scheduled to be a greeter this morning.”

Ann’s eyebrows shot up at that announcement and she bit her lip, her eyes darting around before she finally rose to her feet as Tabitha did. “The pastor’s wife has contacted me about starting a new Sunday school class.”

More competition!
If they kept adding new classes, she’d lose all of her students, which were already too few in number. “Well, I hope that works out well for you. What will you be teaching?” In Tabitha’s opinion, Ann was too timid to teach anything besides her kids how to be hooligans.

“I’m starting a study of the Book of Daniel next Sunday. Um…you should come…maybe?”

Tabitha frowned and then shook her head. “I can’t. I have to teach.”

Ann smiled weakly as she backed away toward the door. “Well, I just wanted to let you know. It’s a ladies class, like this one, and—”

“You’re stealing all of my students, aren’t you?”

Ann had the audacity to roll her eyes as she said, “Don’t look at it that way, Tabitha. You’ll always be welcome.”

“And where will your class be?” Tabitha asked, hands on her hips.

Ann chuckled weakly as she stood in the doorway. “I’m…not really sure. Anyway, they asked me to let you know, and suggested that I invite you to join the new class.”

With all the kindness she could muster, Tabitha said, “No, thank you. I plan to continue on with teaching my class.”

Ann grimaced at that news. “Okay then. Talk to you later! Have fun greeting everyone this morning.”

Tabitha shook all over. They’d been dividing and subdividing the women’s class she and Elizabeth Owen had taught for years until there was practically no members left. She still missed Elizabeth. Sure, she’d made some errors in judgment, but she’d been a great teacher, as vehement in her defense of the truths they taught as Tabitha was.

Tabitha wished there were more loyal friends around her like Elizabeth. Beverly Dumphrey on the school board had proved she couldn’t be trusted or relied on. She’d fallen victim to her sympathies toward that Maizy Owen. If she’d kept her trap shut and stuck to the plan, that’d be one less poly-pervert group in the area.

“Did she not understand I was trying to save her?” Tabitha muttered, ignoring a church member as they stared at her when she walked past. She knew what she was talking about and no one seemed to be listening to her “cries in the desert,” as it were.

Speaking of Owens, that Roberta Owen had been a turncoat, too! Calling her up and yelling at her for showing around that picture of Maizy with her three men right after they all three asked her to marry them. It was unholy! Then Roberta had the gall to get mad at her for using that picture against her sister.

“Both idiots!” she growled as she grabbed up the stack of church bulletins outside the church offices.

On her way out of the building, she caught up with the pastor, who glanced at her and hurried on through the breezeway. “Pastor Robert!”

He looked back, seeming like he was in a great hurry, and then stopped and smiled. “Good morning, Tabitha. Did Ann talk to you?”

“She did. That’s what I wanted to speak with you about.” He looked pained and ready to run off so she hurriedly continued. “Each time your wife asks someone new to teach, I lose members of my class. Soon, I’ll be teaching my class on marriage to an empty room.”

“About that, Tabitha. A new class on marriage, being taught by my wife, will be starting next week as well. She and I talked about it and we feel the class on marriage should be taught by…someone who is married. And actually, your classroom has been assigned to Ann for her class as of next Sunday.”

“But—”

“Your class has been running for quite some time and I…we, the education committee, too, feel that it’s time to move on.”

“But it’s so important. If I don’t teach, they won’t understand why it’s so important that we stamp out all those polyamorous marriages in this town. If we don’t do something—”

“Tabitha, may I be blunt?”

“I thought that’s what you were being, Pastor.”

Robert smiled at her as they continued on the walkway. “Pastor Ryan paid a visit to us last week and he told us—”

Tabitha had to hold back a growl. She hated the reminder that soon she would have to make a hard decision about her living circumstances, since that coward Ryan had fired her from her job, accusing her of gossiping. “Told you how he fired me, for doing my job as a God-fearing—”

Pastor Robert put up his hand to interrupt her. “Please don’t say God-fearing Christian, Tabitha.
Not
before I have to go preach. It’s not only that. We really can’t have our Sunday School teachers doing things like staging protests at weddings and gossiping. And we’d appreciate it if you didn’t mention your affiliation with this church when you write your blog articles for…what’s it called?”

“
Keep Divine Pure
?”

“Yes. While you’re entitled to express your opinion, we don’t want to be held culpable if you get sued for libel or slander. The education committee has decided that the best thing to do, in light of the circumstances, is for you to take a break from teaching until further notice. Maybe it would be good for you to take a vacation. Get out a bit. Well, it was good chatting with you.”

Tabitha was hot—
red
hot—as she watched him scurry off, probably to do more of his wife’s bidding. Hell, that church needed her class on marriage from the pulpit down.

The leader of the welcome committee was standing at the door smiling and greeting church members as they meandered like cattle through the church doors. She bustled over and plopped her tote bag, purse, and bible down on a chair by the door before she took up her post opposite of him, smiling, handing out bulletins, and giving the warmest welcome she was able to muster under the circumstances. People didn’t understand her gift and the talent she had been blessed with for teaching. Many of the apostles hadn’t been understood in their day either.

* * * *

Hank’s workday crept by, with bursts of activity in the department offices and around town punctuated by periods of quiet, where he thought of Veronica asleep in her bed. He was the kind of guy who got up at the crack of dawn and kept fairly regular hours whenever possible. Veronica, on the other hand, seemed to be able to function at any time of the day or night, and he got that. His own mother, deceased for ten years, had been the same way. Up at all hours working on the craft projects she made for Christmas gifts or reading. He smiled, thinking that his mom would’ve loved Veronica.

Travis was at his house chopping firewood. Even though he had a full stockpile of it already cut, Travis had texted him and told him he needed something to keep himself busy. Hank understood. His job didn’t fully distract him from the restlessness, either.

He was sitting in his SUV at the intersection of Main Street and Crockett, heading back to the station, when a late model red Chevy Camaro rolled past him, headed down Main. The windows were rolled down and the redhead behind the wheel waved at him, a big smile on her face. Her stereo was blasting loud enough to make the windows in his vehicle rumble in their frames.