Chapter 14
Clem
I’m not sure if I’m in heaven or hell.
She’s everywhere, her scent, her taste, her curves filling my hands, and her soft skin under my fingertips. It’s fucking bliss to bury my face in the swell of her breasts almost escaping the lacy bra peeking out I exposed when I unbuttoned her shirt.
But her round ass shifting restlessly on my lap, rubbing against my throbbing hard-on, is almost painful.
Sweet torture, nearly impossible to resist. I want to throw her down on the couch, strip down those butt-hugging jeans, and plant myself as deep as I can, fucking her senseless.
It would end a drought that lasted longer than I’m willing to admit, which is probably why this went from that first cautious kiss to this steamy make-out session.
And I’m not alone. Tessa was a willing participant in ramping up the heat, her mouth matching my hunger, her nails scraping my scalp, and finally climbing on my lap and pressing her tits in my face. The woman is on fire.
So far I’ve been exercising all kinds of restraint—the clothes are all technically still on—but with every minute that passes, I feel my resolve wearing down.
Sweet Jesus, I’m trying hard to be a gentleman, but I’ve come to a point where I can’t resist tugging down her bra cup so I can close my lips around her nipple. Her response is instant as she arches her back, offering herself while she rotates her hips and grinds down on my cock.
After this long and heated buildup I’m about to blow, but if I do, I’m not about to leave her behind.
With one of my hands bracing her in the middle of her back to keep her right where she is, my other works its way down the back of her jeans and into her panties.
Wet heat greets me as my fingers dip between her legs, teasing her soft folds as I look for that little pearl, rolling it under my fingertips.
The only thing I hear are her soft moans and the pounding of my own heart, when we’re suddenly interrupted by the opening strains of what I recognize to be “Sweet Child O’ Mine” by Guns N’ Roses.
Both of us freeze for a moment before Tessa abruptly disentangles herself and scrambles off my lap, tugging her clothes back in place. Then she dives for her coat she left hanging over the stair railing and comes up with her ringing phone.
“Everything okay?” she greets whoever is on the other side breathlessly.
I watch her close her eyes and blow out a relieved breath as she squeezes the phone between her shoulder and her ear, while buttoning up the shirt I so deftly undid not that long ago.
Reading the room, I press the heel of my hand down on my groin to signal to my body the fun is over.
This is probably for the best with the limited time we had, and the hard-to-control heat we generated, we would’ve been restricted to a quickie.
I’d much rather have the time to explore the mysteries of Tessa’s body at leisure.
It’s clear that won’t be tonight.
“Didn’t I give you money to grab something to eat there?” I hear her ask.
Getting to my feet, I tug on my pant legs to give myself a little more breathing room. Then I cross over to her, taking the jacket she’s trying to wrestle herself into while navigating the phone from her hands, and helping her into the sleeves.
“And that wasn’t enough?” She rolls her eyes at me, before adding, “Fine, yes, I’ll put in an order now so it’ll be there when you get home. Just be careful, okay?”
“Linc,” she explains when she ends the call and slips her phone back into her jacket pocket.
“I gave them each a twenty to get something to eat at the concession stand, but Linc said it only paid for a hot dog, fries, and a drink, which he scarfed down before the game, but he’s still starving.
In my experience that’d constitute a meal, but not for my boys, apparently.
He wants me to order pizza for when they get home.
Evidently, he just got off the field and is about to hop in the shower.
I’m guessing they’ll be at least another twenty minutes or so, but to be safe, I should probably get going. ”
She’s rambling a little, which is cute, but not like Tessa. She’s usually pretty self-assured and to the point. I suspect she’s a little embarrassed because of what we were doing a few minutes ago on the couch.
Sliding a hand behind her neck and pulling her close, I cover her mouth with mine. A little reminder of how much I was enjoying our earlier activities. She hums against my lips, remembering she enjoyed it as well.
“I’m sorry…”
“For what?” I ask, pulling back a little so I can see her eyes.
She shrugs. “Bailing out on you in the middle of…” She gestures at the couch.
I chuckle. “Yeah, but there’s nothing to apologize for, because I’m already looking forward to a chance to repeat, and maybe build on the experience.”
She grins back. “Apparently, we have the chemistry part down. There was definitely no communication breakdown there. Sign me up.”
She slides her arms around my neck and kisses me deeply. I growl into her mouth and tighten my arms around her. Still, I’m the one ending the kiss, and shove my face in her neck.
“You’d better get out of here now, or your kids are gonna have to do without their damn pizza. I’m seconds away from dragging you to my bed,” I grumble against her tender skin.
“Promises, promises,” she whispers before escaping my hold and rushing down the stairs.
She stops at the bottom and looks up at me.
“Almost forgot the reason I stopped by in the first place,” she shares, slapping her hand against her forehead. “Remi is going back to school Monday and he wants to come back here after to work on his truck. I told him I’d have to check with the security team and you first.”
“Fine by me,” I agree, but I understand her concern so immediately add, “I have Battaglia Security monitoring the shop and the cameras outside, but I’ll give Roy a call in the morning to make sure they keep an extra eye out.”
She smiles, and I start walking down the stairs, drawn to her.
“Well, I’m not going to say no to the extra eyes. Are you sure though?”
“Of course,” I assure her when I reach her.
“Thank you.” She grabs my hand and we start moving to the front. “I know he’ll appreciate it, it’s his sixteenth birthday tomorrow.”
“Wow. Does he have his learner’s permit?”
“He does,” she confirms, turning to me as she stops by the door. “But I stopped taking him out after he got himself in trouble back in Spokane, and then things got busy. He’s nowhere near his required hours.”
“If you’d like, I can help with that and take him out from time to time, once things settle down for him,” I offer, reaching out to strum the pad of my thumb along her bottom lip, which still looks a little swollen.
I can’t resist kissing her.
“You continue to be a surprise, Clem Tanek,” she states as she opens the door and steps outside.
I watch from the door opening as she walks toward her Jeep, and call after her.
“A good one I hope!”
She glances over her shoulder with a grin.
“Oh yeah.”
Tessa
The phone call comes as I pull into the driveway.
I put the Jeep in park, turn it off, and fish my cell from my pocket, noticing Linc’s name on the screen.
I answer and immediately launch into, “Yes, I already ordered, the pizza is on its way.”
“Mom?”
The moment I hear his voice, my heart drops to my stomach and I’m instantly nauseous.
“Linc? What’s wrong, baby?”
“I can’t find Remi,” he confirms my worst fear.
“What do you mean you can’t find him?” I snap, jabbing the keys I’d just removed back in the ignition.
“He was supposed to wait for me outside the locker room after the game, but he wasn’t there. I tried his phone, but then I remembered he doesn’t have it anymore.”
He’s been begging for a new one, but I’ve held off. Something else I’m regretting right now.
“Where is your security detail?” I ask, as I back out of the driveway. “Where are Frank and Debra?”
“They’re looking. They came up to me when I came out of the building and asked where Remi was. They said he’d gone in, and figured he was looking for me, but I never saw him. They told me to head back inside and wait, but I couldn’t stay there. And now I don’t know where they went either.”
His voice is high-pitched with panic, and as much as I feel my own panic clawing at my throat, I need to stay calm for his sake.
“Lincoln, take a deep breath. Where are you now?”
“By the edge of the field, near the bleachers. Most people have already left, Mom. There’s no one left in the locker rooms.”
“Listen to me; I want you to go to the concession stand, someone should still be there.”
They often keep it open to catch people on their way to the parking lot who might want to grab something on their way home.
“Okay.”
“Then stay put. I’m on my way, but I need to make a few calls, okay? Don’t move until you see me.”
“Mom?”
“Do what I ask, Linc.”
It’s hard to end the call, but I need to get hold of the team and find out what the hell is happening.
“What’s going on, Frank?” I ask when he answers.
“Does he have a girlfriend?” he answers with a question of his own.
“Who, Remi? Not that I know of.”
But then I remember the sudden increased attention to personal hygiene recently, which had been sorely lacking before. The frequent showers, the can of Axe he stole from his brother. I’d already been suspicious there might be a girl in the picture.
“But there could be. What is happening?”
“Earlier he was sitting in the bleachers next to a blond girl, they seemed to be talking. Then the girl left with maybe a minute left in the game, and shortly after, your son was up and making his way over to the locker rooms. I saw him go inside, but he never came out.”
“So how long ago was that?”
There is a lengthy pause, telling me he’d rather not answer that question.
I help him out. “At least twenty minutes, but probably closer to thirty, by my calculation.” I’m guesstimating the length of time between Linc’s first call about the pizza and now.
“I’ve already got the sheriff’s office en route and school security is helping us look.”
“You’d better find my son, Frank.”
“I will,” he states with far more confidence than I can bring myself to feel right now.
“I told Linc to go to the concession stand and wait there for me. I’m right around the corner.”
I end the call and turn onto the road leading to the school and the sports fields behind it. A stream of vehicles pass me, heading back to town, and it occurs to me Remi could be in any one of them. Then I shake my head to clear out the doom thinking. It won’t get my son back.
When I turn into the parking lot, I’m fighting traffic trying to get out and end up leaving my Jeep parked on a strip of grass. I ignore Debra Stanton, the other agent, who is at least making some effort to check cars leaving the lot, and take off on foot.
I head straight for the concession stand and spot Linc from a distance. My tall son towers over the older lady who runs the stand.
“Mom!” he cries out when he catches sight of me.
My head barely clears his shoulder as he wraps me in a bear hug.
“Any news?” I ask, releasing him.
He shakes his head.
“Hey, do you know if your brother is seeing someone?”
“Remi? I don’t know. Why?”
“Frank says they saw him talking to a blond girl in the stands.”
“Yeah, I saw him sitting with Katie Van Buren, she’s Jacob’s sister. He’s our center guard. Remi better not be messing around with her, or Jacob will pulverize him.”
I have a vague recollection of a blond guy built like a Mack truck on Linc’s team.
“Can you chase him down and see if you can get a number for Katie? Maybe there is something Remi mentioned to her.”
“Yeah, sure.”
As he pulls out his phone, I turn to scan the field and the stands. I notice a security guard walking along the perimeter of the field on the far side, where it borders the woods. Another one is ducking in and out from under the metal bleachers, appearing to be searching.
On the other side of the stands is the sports building, where the public washrooms and team locker rooms are housed. I catch sight of Frank circling the building.
“Mom…”
I swing around.
“I’ve got her number. Jacob says he just got in but she’s not home yet.”
“What’s the number?”
I dial as he recites it, and listen to it ring and ring before I am bumped to voicemail.
“No answer. I want you to wait here, Bud, while I go talk with Agent Laliberté, okay?”
As I approach, I notice all the windows on this side of the low-slung, single-story, cinder block building are narrow, and set just under the roofline, so you can’t really look in or out.
I don’t know if there are windows on the backside of the building as well, but if they are like these, I don’t think Remi would’ve been able to get out that way.
“Frank,” I call out when I see him exiting the ladies’ room. “Anything?”
The public restrooms are only accessible from outside the building.
“I could swear Remi went in and never came out, Tessa. I was watching him like a hawk. I’ve been through the locker rooms and bathrooms several times.
The only place I haven’t been able to get into yet are equipment rooms and a supply closet at the back of the building.
They’re locked tight, so I got hold of the janitor and am waiting for him to get back here.
He was around earlier, but had to leave shortly after the end of the game. ”
I pull open the door and head inside. A hallway runs to the back of the building, with two men’s locker rooms on the left, and two women’s locker rooms on the right. At the back, the hallway turns into a T, with three doors sporting key locks along the back wall.
Even though I’ve been told they’re locked, I still have to try for myself. When there’s no budge in the first door, I bang on it.
“Remi!”
“I tried that,” Frank states behind me.
I ignore him and press my ear against the door, but am met with silence.
Moving on to the next door, I go through the same routine, and by the time I get to the last, I’m just going through the motions, not really expecting anything to come of it.
But just as I am about to walk away, I hear something move on the other side of the door.
“Remi?” I repeat.
“Mom…”
Less than two minutes later the door is open, the harried-looking janitor who came running in seconds ago eyeing my strained face with worry moves aside as I push by him.
Relief hits me like a fist in the chest when I see my son, unharmed and looking sheepish, standing beside a blond girl.
Her face is beet red and tear-stained, while Remi’s arm is draped protectively around her shoulders.
“It’s my fault,” he admits, but the girl shakes her head.
“No, it’s mine.”