Chapter 5 #2
As always, any mention of this man in Meggie’s life makes my jaw clench so tightly, I can feel the pain zipping through my skull.
“Even when my mom had proof that he’d been in one place, he’d still insist that she was wrong.”
“Gaslighting in all its toxic glory.” Demi sucks in a deep breath, puffs out her cheeks, and exhales slowly.
“It was more than that,” Meggie says. “Sure, he was gaslighting her, but he was waving his movements in front of her face, proving to her that he could do exactly what he wanted, and there wasn’t a fucking thing she could do to stop him.
One time, he swore that he’d been in Spain on business.
When my mom confronted him with a hotel bill from somewhere in London for the time he’d been away, he still insisted that she was wrong. ”
“Fucking narcissist.” Enzo says what we’re all thinking.
“So, what I’m saying is, he’s daring us to figure out where he has really been.” Meggie glances at me as if afraid I’m going to shoot her down. “Or in this instance, he’s daring us to find out where Amber is.”
It’s back again, the hope in her voice. Hope is all she has, and she knows him better than we do.
“That’s his fucking game?” Enzo downs his black coffee and heads to the fridge for a beer. He comes back to the table with three ice-cold bottles and scrunches up his face by way of an apology when he looks at Meggie. “Sorry. Doctors’ orders don’t include alcohol.”
But Meggie shrugs it off. “She must be somewhere close. We simply need to look at it from another perspective.”
I study the map. She’s right, with the crosses marked on the map, it’s easy to see the pattern leading him back towards Stowe, but there’s no X-marks-the-spot to locate the treasure. There’s no glaringly obvious hole in the route he took. Nothing jumping out at me to say LOOK THIS WAY.
“Meggie, why do you think he kidnapped Amber?”
The music reaching us from the sound system has been turned down so low, I hadn’t paid any attention until now. Roy Orbison is singing ‘Pretty Woman’, one of my father’s favorite songs.
“Power.” She blinks several times.
“Most abductors want something in return,” Demi chimes in. “So, what does our perp want?”
“I guess,” I say, “it depends on who’s paying him.”
Meggie’s hand trembles as she sets her coffee cup down on the table. “It doesn’t really matter if we can find Amber first.”
It matters a whole fucking lot to me, but I don’t drop this into the conversation. Amber is and always will be our priority. The rest will fall into place once she’s safe.
“I want to ride the cable car tomorrow.” Meggie looks directly at me when she speaks like she already knows how I’m going to react. “Before you say no, Gio, think about the view.”
“I am thinking about the view. You’ll be too exposed. He already got too close to Amber the last time you rode it.”
“I’ll be in a glass car surrounded by people.”
Her voice is gentle, and it does things to me that it shouldn’t do given the circumstances. Fuck I miss feeling her body pressed up against mine.
“She has a point.” Demi sits back in her seat. “Wherever Amber is being held, we know that it’s secure, and that no one is likely to stumble across her. If we take the map with us, we should be able to narrow down potential hiding places.”
“I’m in,” Enzo says.
Meggie watches me with wide hopeful eyes.
“Okay.” I sense the relief emanating from her. “But the first whiff of danger, and I’m getting you as far away from here as possible.”
“Deal.” Meggie’s smile lights up her face.
“When I say as far away from here as possible, I don’t mean the other side of the country, Meggie.”
“Okay.” She nods her agreement. She already knows that I will do whatever it takes to make her happy; I think it’s called wrapping me around her little finger.
“I mean the other side of the world.”
“Okay.” She leans forward and kisses me on the lips, and she has already won.
I wake up before Meggie the following morning.
She looks so peaceful with her rosy cheeks, and her hair glinting with gold in the early morning light. I spooned her through the night, conscious even when asleep of the curve of her ass against my abdomen, her hair tickling my face, the nape of her neck within kissing distance.
After all that she has endured, her shine refuses to be dulled.
I would love nothing more than to rouse her slowly by kissing her neck, her earlobes, her shoulders. The thought of rolling her over and tracing a damp line down her chest to her nipples, her belly button, her pussy sends hot stirring messages directly to my loins.
Instinctively, I push my hips closer, my cock rubbing between her ass cheeks.
“Hmm…” Meggie purrs like a cat and arches her back, thrusting the lower half of her body back against my throbbing member.
My hard-on must penetrate the fug of sleep. Her breathing gathers speed, her ass rubs against me, and then she rolls over, her lips meeting mine as if magnetized.
I wind my fingers through her hair, holding her close, my tongue instinctively finding its own way into her mouth. She reciprocates. Her tongue dances around mine, a tango choreographed specifically for us, while my cock starts knock-knocking against her pussy.
I pull away long enough to peer into her green eyes flecked with gold, and murmur, “Good morning.”
“I could wake up to this every morning for the rest of my life.” Her voice is husky.
“Your wish is my command.”
Meggie wriggles, trying to imprint our bodies onto one another, and flinches as her sore foot catches my shin. She squeezes her eyes shut and waits for the pain to pass, her face pales apart from the rapidly fading traces of sleep in her cheeks.
I ease her leg away from me, and trace circles around her nipples with my fingertips. “Fiore, I will wait a lifetime for you. Your body needs to rest, and my needs are unimportant.”
A mischievous smile tugs at her lips, and she wets them with the tip of her tongue. “My body needs you, Gio. I don’t know what you’ve done to me…”
I smile. “I’ve loved you. I’ve loved you the way you deserve to be loved. I’ve desired you. I’ve coveted every inch of your body and branded you with my kisses. You’re mine, Meggie. You’re mine, and I’m never letting you go.”
“Gio, I…”
I silence her with my tongue in her mouth.
When I pull away, I press a finger to her lips. “A little gentle loving never did anyone any harm.”
Her smile is all the encouragement I need.
I stick my tongue in her ear and suck on her lobe.
I plant kisses along her jawline and down her neck, sucking on the dip between her collarbones before dragging my tongue down to her perfect breasts.
My cock twitches against her hip when she tilts her head towards the ceiling and raises her arms to the headboard, gripping the patterned metal frame, and exposing her naked body to me by kicking the comforter off the bed with her good leg.
I tease her nipples with my tongue, nibbling on them with my front teeth until they are plump and erect. Eyes closed, Meggie groans softly, the sexiest sound in the world.
Taking extra care with the foot in the plaster cast, I spread her legs and stroke her body with my hands, denying myself the pleasure of looking at her pussy for as long as I can bear.
When my gaze finally settles on her sex, my body reacts instantaneously, and pre-cum oozes from my cock.
“I’ve missed you, fiore. A day spent without touching you is a day wasted.”
Meggie moans softly in response.
Gripping her thighs, I lick her wet pussy, teasing between her folds with my tongue.
I take my time. Going deeper slowly, a little at a time, my tongue flicking back and forth across her clit.
She has missed me too; she has never groaned this way for me before, and it is music to my ears. And my cock.
“Sing for me, fiore. Sing like a bird taking flight.”
“Don’t stop, Gio. I can’t hold it in.”
“Don’t ever hold it in, Meggie. Come in my mouth, let me taste you.”
Her orgasm rips through her. Her pussy clenches and pulses on my tongue, and I suck her juices from her while her body shudders and twitches beneath me.