Shafted (11 page)

His fingers slipped under her hair and
tickled a path to the collar of her robe. Lightly caressing as he
went Teran took it for a ride down the length of her arms and off
the end of her fingers. Nipping her ear and nibbling his way along
her jaw line he guided her down until her head came to rest on the
pillow. Impatient, Callie took control cupping his chin and kissing
him deeply.

A growl rolled from his tongue to hers and
her legs squeezed together trying to satisfy the ache swelling
between them. He rolled her so she faced away, slid in behind her
and whispered in her ear. “I want you to see what I see.”

Callie looked up. There was enough light from
the little lamp to make their reflection visible in the window. She
watched her hand disappear under his and drift down the front of
her body under his command. Nestling into her neck he nipped and
kissed till she shifted and he could reach the hollow at the base
of her collar bone. “I’ve wanted so badly to do this with you.”

Releasing her hand right below her belly
button, Teran continued on and slipped his hand over her mound
encasing it in the heat of his palm. The heat coming off the folds
below doubled as his fingers touched the damp cloth. “Do you see
how beautiful you are Callie?”

He began to rub, varying the pattern and
pressure. Callie watched her lips part and her breasts lift and
fall in time to her labored breathing. Teran shifted restlessly and
pressed against her from behind. Nudging her legs wider, he
inserted his knee so he could support her and still open her legs
further.

Cool air hit the wet panel of her panties and
the flesh below trembled, frantic for relief as his fingers
caressed everywhere between her thighs except where they needed to
be.

“No cheating, keep your eyes open.” Callie
hadn’t even realized she’d closed them and popping them open, pure
feminine awareness uncoiled in her mind. If she’d been a cat she’d
have started purring. He was watching too.

Teran finally focused his attention where she
wanted it. When she couldn’t take it anymore, he moved her panties
aside, sliding two thick fingers home, pumping with increasing
speed while his thumb dipped under to work the engorged nub, now
screaming for release.

“Teran...please.” Callie’s head rolled back
and thrashed from side to side until he pulled his hand away
leaving her hanging over a cliff. “Wha—”

A deep chuckle vibrated against her back and
a smile broke over his face. “Hang on there greedy girl. We’re not
done.”

Her panties vanished and he had her back
where he wanted her before she remembered blinking. Drowning in a
sensual haze she watched Teran’s large brown hand lift her leg
higher this time and saw the large head of his penis come into view
as he nestled closer. Before he had a chance to do the job himself,
she reached down and settled him in position.

Teran’s hand slid down her forearm and
covered hers before she could pull it away. He moved her fingers
and stroked them both as he slowly entered a tiny bit at a time,
giving her body a chance to adjust. She could feel his heart rate
increase with his thrusts, gradually speeding up as each one
penetrated deeper until he was fully seated within her.

The feeling of being surrounded and filled by
him vanquished the remaining emptiness and Callie’s heart soared.
At this moment in her life everything was right.

Callie never felt more beautiful nor had she
ever seen anything as erotic as the picture they’re bodies made
straining in tandem. At least she hadn’t until she witnessed Teran
shift from seduction to primal instinct as he lost control. His
increasingly frantic plunges and exhaled bursts of heat striking
the back of her neck made her head dizzy. It was beyond exciting
knowing she drove him there.

Suddenly his hand shifted to hold her exactly
where he needed her without breaking the momentum his clever
fingers had built. One final thrust, a suspended second of shared
bliss, and Teran erupted taking her over the edge with him.

Callie’s climax tore through her in a
starburst of hot and cold sparks overloading her nerve endings in
delicious waves as Teran’s magical fingers and pulsing body wrung
every last ounce of pleasure from her before slowly easing her back
down.

When they could both breathe again, Teran
leaned over and kissed her. “Thank you.” Pulling back he stared at
her long enough Callie began to feel uncomfortable.

“What?”

A sad smile lifted his lips and his eyes
traced the landscape of her face in detail. “I want to hold onto
this moment, lock it in my mind, so I remember you always just like
this.” Callie opened her mouth to say something but he kissed her
words away.

“Sleep now, love.” Tucking her into his side
so her head rested on his shoulder, Teran arranged the blankets
around her and brushed her hair away from her face. “Sweet
dreams.”

Callie smiled and closed her eyes.

Chapter 16

The sound of a vacuum cleaner woke Callie.
With a satisfied smile she stretched like a cat and curled her
toes. Rolling on her side she reached out and touched...a cold
sheet?

Her eyes snapped open and she cautiously
looked around the room. The chair where Teran’s coat had been was
empty and the light on the dresser was off. Sitting up she reached
for the sheet and discovered there was no need. She was wearing her
favorite flannel pajamas.

“What the heck?”

Lifting the covers away she stood and looked
more closely at the room, alarm bells gearing up in her head.
Nothing was out of place. There was no sign anyone but her had been
in the room.

The bells ramped up, becoming a siren. Callie
snatched the matching flannel robe from the foot of the bed and
froze half way through swinging around to put it on. Flannel robe?
She shoved her arms in the sleeves and darted across the room to
the dresser. Yanking open the top drawer she gasped.

The silky robe she’d worn a few hours ago was
lying there folded neatly - right next to a pair of pretty black
panties.

Her stomach dropped and she spun around
pulling her door open with a bang and stared down the hall. The
vacuum noise was coming from the last room on the right.

Teran’s room.

Callie charged down the hall and burst in.
“Have you seen Teran this morning?”

Mrs. Turnbull lifted her head and smiled.
“Good morning sleepy head. Breakfast was served a while ago but I
left a plate in the fridge for you.” She started to turn back to
her chores.

“Thank you. But I was wondering if you’d seen
Mr. Anders today.”

“Why no dear, he checked out last night. Oh,
but he did leave this for you.” Reaching over to the bedside table
she held out the journal.

Callie looked around trying desperately to
find something to refute what she’d just heard. But there was no
other evidence he’d ever occupied the room.

Concern clouded Mrs. Turnbull’s face and
Callie knew borderline panic must be written all over hers. She did
her best to keep breathing and mold her features into a less
alarming array and backed out of the room. “Oh, yes, that’s right.
Guess I’m still half asleep.” Her mask wouldn’t last so Callie
escaped back to her own room and closed the door behind her.

On autopilot she managed to get to the
bathroom where she looked long and hard into the mirror. A chill
ran up her spine. She would’ve sworn she done this very thing last
night. Had she dreamt it all?

The strange light down by the water, the take
charge confidence to hunt down and attack Teran, the mind blowing
sex and warm cocoon of his arms afterward. It had all been so
perfect.

Of course it had been a dream.

Realizing it was the only possible
explanation calmed the fears in her mind, but stabbed a blade of
pain and loss through her heart. Callie’s hand flew to her mouth
and she swallowed hard. Sinking down onto the edge of the tub, she
tried to breathe as her chest seemed to implode.

Teran was gone.

Chapter 17

“Callist...Callie, come on. It’ll do you
good.” Christian rested his hand on her shoulder and the view out
the newly cleaned front window of the cabin blurred for a second.
She had to stop wishing it was Teran here right now instead of
Chris.

“Besides with you talking the social worker
into letting Jessica work out her community service here, that’s
one stipulation down. With this cabin all fixed, and the others
well on their way, the second is covered. Callie blinked to clear
her misty vision. A deep steadying breath filled her senses with a
mixture of clean lemon and a hint of smoke from last night’s fire.
All the charm of Grandee’s cabin had been restored but somehow she
couldn’t forget what it had looked like the day she and Teran had
come here.

With a mental shake Callie turned her
thoughts away from that little mine field laced memory and tried
hard to concentrate on what Christian was saying.

“You told me you could take care of the last
stipulation of the will over the weekend easy-peezy, and the
paperwork can all be finalized Monday. So, see, everything’s in
order. And like Mrs. Turnbull said it’s the perfect opportunity to
reintroduce, both you and Camp Penthesilea, to the community -
besides you need the break.”

The last two days had been grueling but
Callie welcomed any and all distractions to the gaping hole in her
chest, a hole that grew every time she thought about the journal
and the final condition. It had all been so easy until the night
she tripped over Teran. Why couldn’t she have just listened to
Grandee?

Christian on the other hand had been a
prince, never once mentioning Teran’s desertion and worked like a
madman to see at least the main cabin habitable before he had to
fly back to Seattle. She had no idea what she’d have done without
him.

“Chris, thanks for be concerned and I really
appreciate what you’re trying to do, but I really think the last
thing I need right now is to go to a Valentine’s dance.”

“I couldn’t disagree more. It’s exactly what
you need.” He struck a pose only a true fashion plate could pull
off and smiled his best ‘charm the pants off them’ smile. “And you
owe it to the deprived females trapped here in Backwoods-Ville to
parade ‘Yours Truly’ around. You know, brighten the tedium of their
everyday existence with a blast of my magnificence.”

“Yo, can you say, head the size of a planet?”
Jessie’s now green spiked head popped up from behind the newly
installed kitchen island. “Full of yourself or what?”

“Jessica my dear, one is only considered full
of one’s self if there is no cause for one to be so. Hence I am
not.” Christian’s body language suddenly morphed into something
straight out of East L.A. “Cause yah, uh huh, I’z all dat, and you
know it girlfriend, auight.”

Callie’s jaw dropped and she couldn’t help
smiling, since when had Christian gotten, well, funny?

“Ha! Five bucks young lady; told you I’d get
her to smile before lunch.”

Jessie came out from behind the island and
hit him with a rag, creating an amoeba splat of dust on the sleeve
of his royal blue Armani shirt. “No go Slick-town, it’s after
twelve o’clock, past lunch.”

“No go, back at ya Sticks-Ville. It’s only
after lunch if you’re a Bohemian punch the clock type. I for one,
never eat lunch before one-thirty.” Christian’s usually perfectly
manicured hand looked a little rough around the edges with his
fingers wagging for Jessie to hand over the money. “Not my fault
you weren’t more specific on the rules.”

“Damn, you suck, you know that.” Jessie
rammed her hand into the front pocket of her jeans and started
fishing around.

“Ah ah! Language my dear, language. Remember,
others perceive who we are by our diction.”

“Oh right.” Jessie cleared her throat and
screwed up her face. “You sir, sucketh big.” She wasn’t doing very
well hiding her grin and finally gave up. The transformation on her
normally surly face was like night and day.

Jessica had been hiding a very pretty girl
under all that teenaged angst.

Jessie’s hand pulled out a crinkled up ball
of paper and she chucked it at Christian. Something niggled at the
back of Callie’s mind and their good natured chatter faded to the
background. Her heart sped up and a tiny buzzing started in her
ears.

Callie had no idea why but suddenly it was of
the utmost importance she figure-out why Jessie’s pocket had her
sitting on pins and needles. Replaying everything she could
remember from the past several days, one picture flashed in her
mind and she grabbed onto it. She was standing in front of a mirror
and she’d pulled off Grandee’s ring...

“Callie? You okay.”

Christian’s voice came from somewhere at the
far end of a tunnel and sounded like he was under water. Standing
very slowly Callie stuck her hand in the right front pocket of her
pants, wrapping her fingers around the contents and pulled them out
in a closed fist.

She focused on Christian’s face watching the
clown disappear. “Callie, what’s wrong you look like you’ve seen a
ghost.”

She couldn’t find her voice but slowly opened
her hand and they both looked down at the same time; her face
filled with dread, his with confusion.

Among the bits of pocket lint, a few screws
and other odds and sods one might carry around during a renovation,
twin rubies twinkled in the weak winter sun coming in the new
skylight directly above.

All the scenes she’d been trying to stitch
together that had stubbornly refused to line up in any coherent
order, suddenly clicked like dominos falling into place, one
cascading into the other.

Looking up at Christian she gulped some air
and hiccupped. “Chris?”

He moved in slowly and lowered her back into
her chair. “Jessica can you grab some water, please?”