RANSOM (22 page)

   “Oh, hey! I didn’t see you there. Sorry, I am happy you are here, too,” she says, feeling bad about not paying attention.

   “Yeah, yeah.”

   “So, what were you two doing over here all by yourselves?” she ask, wiggling her eyebrows.

   Sage laughs and says, “Stop that, you look like a crazy person. We weren’t doing anything but talking.”

   “Good, it’s time to get this party started! Come on, let’s knock the cake cutting out so we can boogie,” Jennifer says while pulling Sage behind her to the main table.

   I stand behind Sage at the end of the table as we watch Jen and John feed each other cake and interlock their arms to drink from goblets. The wind blows, and Sage’s intoxicating scent hits me like a ton of bricks. I grab her waist and pull her back into me. She tries to pull away, but I don’t let her. I keep my hand firm on her stomach.

   “Lynkin, please,” she pleads to me, quietly.

   “Please what?” I ask next to her ear.

   “Stop, we can’t do this.”

   I brush the hair off of her neck and place a soft kiss just below her ear. “You stop. Stop fighting this. I know you want to be with me. There isn’t anything stopping us from being together, except you. If it’s Richard you are still worried about, he isn’t going to be let off.”

   She turns around in my arms and looks up to me, “He could still get out on bail. What if he comes after me and sees the two of us together? I can’t bear the thought of you getting hurt, or worse, because of me.”

   I look over her shoulder at the bride and groom as they start their first dance and a different fire ignites. I want that to be us one day. “I can take care of myself. And if you would just let me, I can take care of you, too. I won’t let anything happen to you.”

   “There is no doubt of you being able to take care of yourself, Lynk. I just don’t want to be the cause of putting you in a situation where you have to.”

   “I don’t have to do anything. If it has anything to do with you, I
want
to do it. I’m not giving up on this,” I pause to motion in between us, “again. Do you understand? I am not going anywhere, and you can’t push me away.”

   “Are you sure? I can be pretty convincing.”

   “Yes, you can. I may just let you try and convince me all night,” I give her a wink. “But I’m not changing my mind.”

   “You really aren’t going to give up, are you?”

   “How many times to I have to say it? Do I need to scream it so everyone here knows, too?” I ask raising my voice mockingly.

   She puts her tiny hand up to my mouth to quiet me down. “No, no you don’t have to go and do all that. You win.”

   I cup a hand behind my ear and ask, “What was that? I didn’t quite hear you.”

   “I said you win, dammit. I will stop pushing you away,” she says, sounding completely vulnerable. “Just don’t go and do anything stupid. Okay?”

   “Like what? Kidnapping someone? I think it’s a little too late for that advice.”

   That gets a little giggle from her. “I am glad, though.”

   “That’s a bit disturbing. I mean, really? Who is glad about being kidnapped?”

   “Let’s just say this little old lady told me some guy would flip my world upside down, and she was right. Sometimes everything you thought you were happy with needs to be taken away for you realize what really makes you happy.”

   “Couldn’t have said it better myself,” I tell her. I notice the change in music and see that the first dance is over and others  are starting to join in the fun. I grab Sage’s hand and raise it above her head to give her a little spin, then bow slightly to her. “Will you do the honor of giving me this dance, Beauty?” She beams me a smile, and off we go.

Sage

I could tell you down to the minutes—probably even the seconds, but that may be a little bit overboard—since the last time I had Lynkin’s hands on me. So having his body rubbing against me and his hands running all over me as we dance is like dangling a juicy hamburger in front of a starving person.

   He doesn’t ask where we are going when I pull him to my car and we climb in, nor does he blink twice when I pull up in front of my house and get out. No one is around as we walk in and up to my room. I let go of his hand long enough to shut my door and lock it.

   His eyes don’t leave mine as I reach behind my neck and un-button the halter around my neck. The top of my dress falls to my hips, exposing my breasts that are heavy with the desire for him to touch them. Hooking my thumbs in the inside of my dress, I push it and my thong the rest of the way off. I stand before him, completely naked except for my heels. I watch as his breathing becomes heavy, and he swallows.

   He walks to me with determination in each stride, then he grabs my face in his hands and takes my mouth. His tongue dives into my mouth with need and I meet its strokes with my own. He pulls back, looks at me for what feels like forever, and says, “I love you.”

   “I love you, too,” I tell him as I reach for the button on his pants. He pulls his shirt off as I free him from the confinement of his slacks. I push him back on the bed, pin his hands above his head, and reconnect our mouths. Our tongues mingle and mix as our lips softly mesh, and our teeth nip. He lets out a groan into my mouth when I grind down on his hardness, and tries to life me up so he can enter.

   “Not yet,” I stop him.

   I place a kiss to his chest and work my way down to my final destination. I start from the base and lick up to the head, taking the little drop of pre-cum into my mouth and savoring the taste of him. When I take him in my mouth, Lynkin hisses in pleasure. I start off slow at first, sucking, licking, and kissing. I pick up the pace when his hips start moving and he fists his hand in my hair. Using both my mouth and hand, I take him as deep as I can, as fast as I can go. I know he is getting close when his fingers get tighter in my hair, and his dick pulses in my mouth. I don’t stop until he finishes, and I swallow down every last drop.

   I lick my lips clean as he opens his eyes. They are nearly piercing me with the heat in them as he says, “My turn.”

   He flips me over, and wastes no time as he spreads my legs open and buries his head between them. He gives one long lick to the top, circles his lips around my clit, and sucks. I clinch the covers in my hands and bow my head back. “You taste so fucking good.”

   He continues suckling on that heavenly ball of nerves as he inserts two fingers inside, and curl them so they rub against the spot that makes my whole body feel as though it is on fire. Each time he runs his fingers across it, he takes a long pull with his mouth. This goes on until I am nearly spent and clenching uncontrollably.

   “Look at me.”

   I open my eyes to find Lynkin over me, his face soft and full of love. He places himself at my entrance and slowly enters. He is shaking a little as he pulls out and pushes back into me again. My heart swells as I realize that what I have with Lynkin is the kind of love that you only read about or see in movies. Earth shattering, soul searching, written in the stars, kind of love.

   We make love twice and have rough, dirty sex three times before we finally pass out from exhaustion, naked and wrapped up in each other. The last thought I have before I give into sleep is that I would be happy to spend the rest of my life just like this.

   Two days of pure bliss pass. It has been nothing but Lynkin and I spending all of our time together. Dad caught us leaving the day after Jen’s wedding, and we all sat down and talked about what all has happened. He even told Lynkin he could have Richard’s old job. They were going to have to fill it either way, and he said it would be better to hire someone that already knew all of the clients and how to do the job without having to be trained. Seeing the two of them together has been like watching a father reconnect with his son. I get the warm and fuzzies every time I watch them bonding.

   But, all of that was just ruined. We just got a call saying that Richard had a bond hearing this morning and was granted a bail of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Apparently, there was nothing we could do to keep him behind bars until the final court date, where he will be either sentenced as guilty or innocent.

   Dad and Lynkin decide that we all should just stay at the house tonight. They doubt Richard would be stupid enough to try anything, but none of us are willing to chance it. We order some pizza and the men decide to shoot pool in the rec room.

   “Do you want to play, Sage?” Dad asks.

   I sit down in one of the chairs at the back of the room and throw my legs over the arm. I hold up my book and reply, “I’m good.”

   “You sure you don’t want to take the chance at showing up your old dad and Lynkin?” he asks again.

   “No, really dad, I am good. You two go ahead,” I reassure him.

   Lynkin walks over and kisses me on the forehead. “You are being paranoid. Try and relax.”

   I give the most convincing smile I can manage. He isn’t convinced, but walks away to play. I open the book to the page I placed my bookmark, where I left off the last time I picked it up.

   After rereading the same two pages five times and not actually getting anything from it, I shut it and put it on the side table. I watch the only two men in my life talk shit back and forth about how one is going to run the table on the other. I get a good laugh when dad wins the first game and Lynkin looks at the table dumbfounded. I laugh even more when Lynkin loses the next one because he accidently knocks the eight ball in before its time. Dad reassures him that sometimes some things just happen pre-maturely and that he better get used to it. Of course, to my embarrassment, he lets my dad know he doesn’t have that problem.

   My stomach lets out a warning that it’s about to get hungry about the time I hear the doorbell ring. Mom yells down the hall from the sun room for Mary-Anne to get the door.

   “Is it the pizza, Mary-Anne?” my dad asks her as he pulls out his wallet from his back pocket.

   It’s not the pizza, though. Mary-Anne walks in, Richard behind her holding a gun that’s jammed into her neck.

   “You bastards thought you got rid of me, didn’t you? Well, you didn’t,” he says.

   “Way to state the obvious,” Lynkin mumbles. Always a smartass.

   Apparently when Richard walked in, he didn’t see Lynkin off to the corner, but Lynkin’s comment brought his attention to him. The sinister look that comes on his face at the sight of Lynkin makes my blood curdle.

   “Oo…ooo…k,” Richard stutters out, “You are all in this together! I should have known you couldn’t have done the dirty work by yourself, Carl. You are too much of a coward. But, I didn’t think you would stoop so low as bringing in the mutt to do it.”

   Dad takes a step over to stand in Richard’s line of sight to Lynkin. “I don’t know what you are going on about. We didn’t have anything to do with you getting caught.” He stops and puts his hand out in front of him and says, “Why don’t you put the gun away, and let’s talk about this reasonably. I have a new bottle of scotch just itching to have its seal broke.”

   “Don’t lie to me. I’m not an idiot!” he screams at Dad. “Are you going to try and tell me it is a coincidence that this man set up a fake meeting with me to threaten me into leaving and never coming back or he would ruin everything that I had the same night that I am arrested and the tape was turned in? Now I find him in here with you both, living it up while I am to rot in prison?”