Heavy: A Contemporary Romance (24 page)

Cali

I didn’t make it to my old apartment until after ten o’clock that night
. I’d used the motel room across from Harry’s studio as a sort of temporary basecamp until the video was made and the finished edit was up on the internet. I spent two hours dealing with Twitter and exchanging calls with Ruby before I finally checked out and felt ready to face the scene of my abduction for the first time in over a year.

After parking in the spot allotted to my apartment, I sat there for thirty minutes before I finally got the nerve to exit the car
. It didn’t help that it was dark outside and looked exactly the same as it had on that night I was taken.

“Come on, Cali,” I whispered under my breath
. “You can do this, girl.”

I looked around me several times before hurriedly opening the trunk and taking out my bag
. I practically ran up the steps to Apartment 237 on the second floor of the two-story building.

The place was exactly as I left it
. Because it was still being viewed by prospective buyers, it was clean, and tidy, and ready to show. I walked through each room slowly and couldn’t stop myself from checking every closet and window, as well as looking under every bed just to quell my over-anxious mind. My abductors had never actually entered my apartment, but I still felt more at ease once I’d made the rounds.

I then took the longest and hottest shower I could stand
.

When I was finally settled on the couch with a blanket and my e-reader, I saw I’d missed several calls from Lake and Tallulah
. Those two must be going mental after my public announcement. I wondered if my dad had seen it yet. Bernie would make sure of it. I’d deal with all that tomorrow when I finally headed over to the estate to face them.

The thought of
confronting my family had made me so anxious, I realized I hadn’t eaten dinner yet. Not good. It was well after midnight and I hadn’t eaten since a snack at lunchtime. Thank goodness for L.A. and twenty-four hour diners! I called for a delivery.

Forty minutes later
, there was a knock on the door and I grabbed my purse and went to pay for my food.

I nearly had a
heart attack when I saw who it was through the peephole.

“Thatch?”
I asked in astonishment as I opened the door.

“Surprise,” he said with a hesitant smile
. “Although, it looks like you were expecting someone else?”

“I ordered some food
. But, what are you doing here?”

He looked
exhausted, which was no surprise as he’d just made the four and a half hour drive from Vegas to L.A.

“I brought a tired little boy with me who’s fast asleep in the car
. Are you going to let us in?”

“Oh my God, go get him,” I said
, taking his bag and pushing him back toward the stairs.

As Thatch made his way back to the parking lot, the delivery guy showed up and I paid him
, still in shock from the fact that Thatch was here. Thatch
and
Thaddeus were here… at my apartment… in L.A. What the hell was going on?

I waited in the doorway for Thatch to get back and it wasn’t long before he appeared again with Thaddeus cradled in his arms
. The little angel was rubbing his eyes and clutching his toy rabbit to his chest; his aviator hat slightly askew.

“Hi, Cali,” he said in a sleepy voice, reaching both arms out to me for me to take him.

“Hey, angel,” I replied softly, pulling him into my arms. “I’m so surprised to see you here.”

“You went
weally, weally far, but Daddy found you again,” he smiled and then gave a big yawn.

“That he did, angel
. Looks like you’re ready for bed. Come on, I have a special room just for you.”

Thatch followed me as I took his son to my guest bedroom – a room that had never been used before
. The sheets looked fresh, like the cleaning lady that came every couple of weeks had been changing them regularly.

“There’s a bathroom right there, sweetie, okay,” I pointed out the open
en suite across the room.

“And I’m plugging your night light in right next to it, little man,” Thatch said, pulling the little airplane-shaped light out of his bag
. “You need anything, you just call us, okay?”

“Okay, Daddy
. N’night,” Thaddeus said as I tucked him into bed and kissed him on the cheek. “Make sure you say yes, Cali,” he whispered as I stood up to let Thatch come finish tucking him in.

Giving him a little wave, I walked back out into the living room and sat on the stool at the counter that separated it from the kitchen
. Thatch followed me a few minutes later, after he softly closed the door to the spare room. He took the seat next to mine.

“Mr. Reston,” I
said, as I started opening the containers that held my turkey club and chicken caesar salad from the diner. “Are you shamefully using your son as a means to get back into my good graces?”

He gave a low laugh that made the butterflies in my stomach go epileptic
. “I wasn’t aware I needed to get back into your good graces,” he answered, accepting the plastic fork I handed him.

I moved the two containers so that they were directly between us on the counter
top.

“I don’t know,” I te
ased, “I’m feeling a little
Jerry Maguire
right now.”

“You aren’t about to say ‘you had me at hello’ are you?” Thatch joked back.

“Well, in this case, it would be more ‘you had me at surprise,’ wouldn’t it?”

He took a bite of the
club sandwich and I got a forkful of salad. We chewed our food and looked at one another thoughtfully. He took a large helping of salad and shoved it into his mouth. I stuffed the remaining quarter of the club he had taken a bite from into mine. He took a second quarter of the club and pushed it into his mouth on top of the salad. Trying to keep a straight face, I did the same. It became a game of who could shovel the most food into their mouth at once.

I won, of course
.

I got up and ended the game by filling two glasses of water from the tap
. I pushed one in front of him and took a few gulps from mine to help wash down all the lettuce still in my mouth.

“
Do
I have you, Cali?” he finally asked softly.

“You had me at ‘surprise,’ you idiot,” I smiled at him.

Thatch

As soon as she uttered the words I jumped her. I didn’t even know I had it in me to move that fast. I guess all my obsessive training for that damn show paid off in the end.

I kissed her hungrily, possessively
, and obsessively. I kissed her like a man should kiss his woman, because that’s what she was, whether I was comfortable admitting it or not. She was mine.

“Wow,” she said when we came up for air
. “That was some kiss. Whatever are you going to do to me next that could possibly top that, Mr. Reston?” she added cheekily.

“Well, Miss Huntington, I thought I might follow it up with some more kissing and then take you into the bedroom and fuck the breath out of you.”

“Ooo, the bedroom. Some might suggest that’s quite tame considering the locations of our past encounters,” she giggled, nipping playfully at my collarbone with her teeth.

“Trust me, there is nothing tame about what I plan to do
to you in an actual bed,” I said, covering her mouth with mine again.

“Oh, Mr. Reston, do tell me more,” she said breathlessly against my lips.

“Talking is very overrated. How about I show you instead?”

I picked her up and carried her to the room at the end of the hall, which I assumed was her bedroom.

“Please tell me you have condoms,” I said as I set her on the bed.

“No
. I wasn’t exactly expecting company and I’ve never brought anyone home before. I’m on the pill and I was fully tested at the Recovery Center.”

“I’ve been tested recently and I’m clean,” I replied with relief.

“Thank God, because I don’t want to stop now,” she said in a husky voice.

“I don’t think I can.”

Within seconds of placing her on the bed, I had stripped the clothes from both of our bodies. I stood transfixed at the sight of her, naked and aroused before me. As my eyes leisurely traveled the length of her, from the shiny gloss of black-painted toenails all the way up to the soft curve of her breasts, she grew adorably impatient and raised herself to her knees in front of me.

As I stood mesmerized, she gently took hold of me, running her
soft hand sensuously up and down my hardness. As I gasped from her touch, she lowered her head slowly, her eyes fixed on mine to gauge my reaction before taking me into her hot, wet mouth. I couldn’t stop the low growl at the back of my throat as her tongue flicked against the pulsating vein she found there.

“Fuck,” I groaned as
she slowly worked my shaft with one hand while focusing on the sensitive nerves under the head with her tongue. “If you don’t stop I’m going to—”

My hoarse whisper seemed to spur her on
, and she widened her mouth and took as much of me into it as she could, until I was deeper than I’d ever been before. My breath hissed as she sucked harder and whirled her tongue while she used her free hand to cup and squeeze my balls. There was no way I could survive that for long, and I felt the pressure build at the base of my spine right before my balls tightened and I came hard and fast, her hands grabbing me by the hips to steady my bucking as I released into her mouth and down her throat.

I pushed her back onto the bed and covered her body with mine, our lips connecting violently
. I pushed my tongue into her mouth, tasting my saltiness as it swept across hers. My probing fingers, already sliding between her legs, discovered she was as turned on as I was from what she’d just done.

I smiled against her skin as I heard her give a happy sigh as I kissed, licked
, and nibbled my way down to her breasts. Taking one of the hardened peaks between my teeth, I pulled gently, before soothing it over with my tongue. California arched her back and I repeated the action on the other side.

“I need you inside me,” she pleaded in a low voice, her body flushed and heated from my touch.

I lowered myself until my shoulders were comfortably settled between her legs. I looked up into her hooded eyes and gave a cocky grin.

“
I
am
inside you,” I answered, teasing her drenched folds with my warm breath as I slowly continued to pump my fingers in and out of her.

Before she could voice a reply, I lowered my head and
brushed my tongue across her sensitive nub. She arched her back, gave a soft moan, and grabbed fistfuls of my hair - the perfect trifecta of sexiness. Curling my fingers, I kissed, sucked, and nibbled her lower lips in almost the same way I’d done to the lips on her face. Alternating between digits and tongue, I soon had her writhing, her thighs gripping my head tightly as she shuddered and finally clenched around my fingers, crying out my name as she came apart above me.

I moved back up her body, until I was at the right level to reclaim her lips with mine once again.
Positioning my lower body between her legs, I used one hand to slowly rub the tip of my erection up and down her wet folds. As I slowly began to push my way into her, I felt her legs and ankles pull me in tight, and she grabbed my ass with both hands, bucking her hips forward to further impale herself onto me. We both gasped, mouths wide and an inch apart, as I slammed into her to the hilt. We stilled as her body adjusted to being so filled, and I took the opportunity to lower my lips to hers again. I couldn’t get enough of her taste, her tongue, the way she sighed when I was inside her.

I finally began to move my hips, in and out, in and out, fast then
slow, a gentle thrust then a slam. I watched her face in wonder as I alternated my movements.

I t
ilted my hips and adjusted my thrust, watching for the slight widening of her beautiful eyes that happened when I moved just so. There it was. God, I loved that look. Then, I slowed way down, our sweat-soaked bodies slipping and sliding against one another and across the sheets of her bed.

I felt that tingle in my spine and I
knew I wasn’t going to be able to hold on for much longer. I looked into her eyes, both our faces sheened with sweat. From the way her body tightened around mine; I knew she was on the edge too.

“Now, California,” I whispered, my forehead pressed against hers.

It was all I had to say. It was as if the rasp of my voice was the last part of the equation – the very last ingredient needed to complete what was brewing inside her – and she cried out my name as her muscles clenched around me, her fingernails breaking the skin of my ass cheeks, her calves pulling me in tighter, harder, deeper.