6. Chapter 6
Chapter six
Burris
“This is a wonderful surprise,” I said, noticing the rings under Anelya’s lovely brown eyes.
I hugged her and kissed her lips softly. “Long shift?”
“Yes, but I really like the team.”
“We want to hear all about it. I was grilling salmon and burgers out back if you want to hang out with us. Or do you want Greg to give you a tour?”
I glanced at Greg.
“Why don’t I grab you something to drink, and you get comfortable on one of our chaise lounges out there by the pool? We can do the tour later.” Greg motioned towards the back.
We could see she was exhausted, and she seemed like she wanted to tell us something serious. I hoped she didn’t come to tell us she didn’t want to date us. Maybe the idea of dating two guys seemed too much.
“This is lovely,” she said, stopping at the back door. She gazed at the view of the pool and down to the pond, and over to the outdoor kitchen, where my food was sizzling. I hurried over to tend to it.
“Get comfortable,” I motioned to one of the soft loungers in the shade of the porch.
She hesitated, then sat, pulling off her sandals first before stretching out her legs. She leaned her head back and closed her eyes.
By the time Greg came out with strawberry lemonade, she was asleep.
***
“My cousin said she did a great job,” Rhonda said from the outdoor dining table an hour later as she, Bryan, Greg, and I ate. “She did say they had a lot more calls than usual.”
Anelya was still asleep.
“I don’t want to disturb her. If she stays asleep, we’ll bring her inside,” Greg said.
I nodded. “Bryan and Rhonda, why don’t you catch us up on the investigation in the meantime?”
Bryan took us through all the employees on the sales team that he’d met with. “No one said or did anything unusual. I wasn’t really expecting anything right away, but I thought maybe someone would do a hard sell. There was nothing like that.”
“No one works on commission,” I said. “I changed that from my stepfather’s time. Speaking of, he was one of the few who couldn’t attend the meeting. He did email from the cruise he is on with my mom and said he’d be happy to talk to you when he is on land again in a few days, Rhonda.”
She nodded. “That would be great. I know you’ve been keeping him informed.”
“He was always secretive about parts of the business,” Greg said. “It would not surprise me if he had ideas about who might be behind this, or if he remembered something similar that happened in the past.”
***
“How long have I been asleep?” Anelya stretched. “Oh! You’re all eating. I must really have been tired. Hello Detective.”
“I can bring you a plate. You must be exhausted,” I said.
She stood. “Please don’t. I will come join you.”
She was still yawning when she sat next to Greg at the table. I put a plate in front of her with a burger and a small piece of salmon, fresh fruit, and potato salad.
“Thank you, this looks amazing.”
“I love grilling,” I said.
“I think we will need to have many, many meetings out here about this case,” Rhonda said.
We all laughed.
***
An hour later, Rhonda and Bryan left, and Greg was showing Anelya around the house while I cleared up from dinner.
When I brought in the last of the dishes, she was studying pictures on the mantlepiece in the family room. “Your dad looks so familiar,” she said to Greg.
“No one thinks we look alike,” he said. “I take after my mother.” He pointed towards an older photo, of his late mother when she was younger.
She nodded, then looked at the picture of his dad again.
“He looks just like someone from my hometown. Someone Carolina dated for two years, actually. Jared Waltzan. Just like him. The nose and the eyebrows especially. Jared had grey eyes. He had a twin sister, Evie, though she took more after her mother.”
“My father has grey eyes.” Greg looked startled.
“Do you have any pictures of Jared?”
“Hm, Carolina may have some old pictures of him on her social media. Do you mind if I search on my phone for a few minutes?”
“No, why don’t we turn on a movie while you do that?”
She sat between us on our long leather sofa as if we’d been doing that forever after Greg let her pick a Marvel movie. I was delighted that she liked those as much as we did.
After a few minutes into the movie, she passed me the phone. Jared did look like my stepfather. I handed it to Greg.
He frowned. “It’s uncanny. Do you mind if I send myself this image?”
“Of course. Do you think you might be related?”
“You know what people say about small towns,” he said, but I could tell he was not joking.
Anelya rested her head on my shoulder and was soon asleep again.
***
“Do you think we should put her in a bed?” We asked later when I put a light blanket on her.
“I’m not sure. She might be uncomfortable when she wakes up. Do you want to stay here with her, or should I?”
Our couch was big, but Greg was right. We wouldn’t both fit along with Anelya. “I’ll do it.”
He nodded. “I’ll make breakfast in the morning. I’m not sure when she needs to be up for work.”
“Good point.” I noticed neither of us cared about when we had to go in to work.
I closed my eyes and stretched out, enjoying the soft sounds of Anelya’s breathing. I had it bad, definitely.
***
“Did I fall asleep here?”
I woke to hear Anelya in the kitchen with Greg. I could smell our good hazelnut coffee. He was trying to impress her.
Her laughter made me smile. I hurried upstairs to take a quick shower and brush my teeth before joining them.
“I like the beard scruff you both have going on,” she said when I joined them. I was still buttoning my shirt.
I leaned in for a kiss, and her hand lingered on my chest. I pulled her close for a longer kiss and she wrapped our arms around my neck. I lifted her up so she was sitting on the edge of the island.
Her legs wrapped around me as our tongues slid against each other. The rich coffee taste covered her silky tongue. My hand held the ponytail in the back of her head, holding her head close.
“That’s so hot.” Greg turned off whatever he was about to make on the stove and came around to the other side of the island. He took the ponytail from my hand and gently pulled her back, off my mouth. When she was resting against the counter, he leaned over her and kissed her passionately.
Our hands roamed over her and she had a hand on each of us.
She made a soft moaning sound into Greg’s mouth as his hands coasted over her breasts.
He moved to pull up her shirt, and I helped. Soon we were looking at her pretty lavender bra.
She reached up to pull me down for another kiss, as Greg unclipped the front clasp of her bra.
My mouth sunk into hers, but one of my hands teased her bare nipple. Greg moved beside me so her could suckle on her other pretty breast.
She arched her back, offering more of herself to him while my mouth slanted more deeply over hers.
I moved to cover a breast with my mouth, and she sighed as we each pleasured her with our mouths.
Greg rose and pulled off her shorts and underwear.
I’d never forget the beautiful sight of her laid out on our kitchen island. And I was ready to devour her. I kissed my way down her torso as Greg kissed his way up from an ankle.
She sucked in a breath as we each reached the hot, wet place between her legs. My mouth teased her mound while my finger swirled around her clit. Greg slipped two fingers inside her.
She reached up and pulled him down to kiss her, lost in pleasure as we brought her higher and higher.
The sweet taste of her imprinted on my mind as I held her legs open and stoked her pleasure even higher. She was whimpering into Greg’s mouth now, and his fingers were moving faster.
I carefully slid two of my fingers in beside his and she cried out as her orgasm rolled over her. For long moments she shuddered as we slowly brought her back down to earth.
I knew I would need at least one more cold shower that morning.
Finally, she propped herself up on her elbows. “That was amazing. But don’t you both want me to please you?”
I kissed her. “There’s plenty of time for that. This was about you and I really, really enjoyed watching you, and listening to you.”
“And tasting you,” Greg said, kissing her breast again. “Thank you.”
We heard her stomach gurgle and we all laughed.
I helped her off the island and back into her clothes while Greg went back to making pancakes.
“I hear we need a waffle iron,” he said. “Caroline said those are your favorites.”
She sat in a chair. “I’m pretty sure I just found a new favorite.”
***
After we’d enjoyed breakfast and a long, lingering goodbye, Anelya raced off to get her clothes at home before her shift.
“I don’t feel like going in today,” Greg admitted. “But I know some of the interns are there on the weekend. And I feel like we need to be around all the time now.”
“I know what you mean,” I said. “But I’m kind of interested in what she said about that Jared person looking like Stephen.”
“You think that might have something to do with everything that is happening?” Greg folded his arms over his chest.
“I don’t know. You know I love your Dad, but you said yourself that your mom said they were separated when you were little. He would never talk to you about that, right?”
“But why come sabotage us? That seems like a big stretch.”
“We’ve had others try to hurt our company before – former employees, competitors, and former board members who just didn’t like your dad. I asked Bryan to run checks on all of them. Why not look into this too?”
Greg nodded. “I am suspicious of everyone now. I wish I could talk with Dad directly.”
I did too, but I knew my Mom and Step-dad had gone to counseling before about how Stephen had a hard time opening up. He rarely discussed Greg’s mother as it was.
“How will you look that up?”
“The genealogy department at the public library. Remember, we helped fund it.”
Greg nodded. “Good thought. But how will you keep it quiet?”
That would be harder. “I’ll say we are looking into the history of the company for our 100 anniversary next year.”
“Smart.”