Keeping Her Love (20 page)

“It’s okay to be doing this?” Tula managed to emit between kisses. “Your mother won’t be mad?”

“Hell no. She’s not like that—my mom realizes that hot-blooded twenty-year-olds need to let off steam.”

“That’s all it is to you?” Tula said with a smirk. “Blowing off steam?”

“Of course not,” said Rhett as he unbuttoned her blouse. “But it does help you relax, doesn’t it?”

“With the right pair of hands, I suppose so.”

He looked up to her, eyebrow raised. “You suppose so?”

She smirked, knowing fully what she was doing. “Yeah, I guess so. Sometimes.”

He reached down between her legs, brushed aside her skirt and panties, and then inserted a single warm finger. She let out a mild gasp, staring into his eyes with a level of excitement he hadn’t seen in quite some time. Perhaps if there had been more daylight available when they were getting intimate at the beach, he would have been able to see a lusty look in her eye. Putting that thought aside, he tugged on her lacy bra, licking at her pink areola.
 

She slowly melted into his touch, her body relaxing and her back arching ever-so-slowly. Brushing her long, smooth hands into his hair, she let out a sigh.

“I can’t wait until we live together in a house,” she said.
 

“Don’t like my mother’s spare bedroom?” He asked with a bit of sarcasm.

“The white picket fence, the line of flowers, the cobblestone path… I want to create our own little paradise. I want our house to be filled with wonderful smells, and for the space to be filled with our voices… Our voices alone… Ahh…”

He pressed his finger back and forth inside of her, loving the feel of her silky vaginal walls. “Soon it’ll all be ours, Tula. We just need to get through this. We’ll live happily ever after—you’ll see.”

She grasped at his shoulders, pulling off his shirt. He was there before her, the shadows from the beside lamp showing off his muscles and masculine curves. Her eyes were lazy with lust and contentedness, like a happy cat.
 

“I want you, Rhett,” she said, spreading her long, thin legs.
 

Lust blazed through him when she said the words. He got off the bed, doing a little dance as he stepped out of his blue jeans. She let out patters of laughs as he tripped on the fabric of his pants. He smiled it off as he stood there naked, stepping back onto the bed to join her. They kissed before Rhett entered her, his body lingering over her slim one. It was so wonderful to finally feel at ease together as their bare skin met. If there was a heaven, they felt that they were in it as they held each other. Their eyes joined as they felt the moment was looming, Tula putting in one extra kiss as the end of Rhett’s cock touched her vulva.
 

“I love you,” she said.

“I love you, too. So much.”

He lifted himself on his hands, slowly sliding inside. They both let out happy, high pitched gasps as Tula was filled with him. She immediately wrapped her legs around his torso, pulling him in more closely. Rhett found himself right next to her face again, and they kissed once more as they enjoyed the simple sensation of being so close. Rhett wanted to repeat so many times that he loved Tula, but held it all back so that they could share the twists and turns of deep French kissing.
 

He started to move slowly as they made out, and he could feel Tula’s mouth buzzing with her sounds of satisfaction. Every movement of his hips seemed to produce a feeling of bliss, and not wanting to desensitize himself too much, he only increased his speed when he felt the need to. He couldn’t really stop Tula, though—she was wriggling underneath him happily, always trying to pull him back inside of her more deeply for every time he gradually pulled out.

“Every day will be like this?” She asked, touching his grizzled face. “You’ll love me as you do now, and nothing will ever change between us?”

If anything were going to change, it would have happened after what I had to put up with after your family,
he thought. “No, everything is going to stay just the same. Maybe I’ll start rubbing your shoulders when you get home. Is that okay?”

She laughed a little. “I’ll have to consider it.”

Their joined lips were tighter on each other this time, and Rhett let himself really lay into her. She responded to his movements, letting out moans and rocking with his body. Their bodies had been apart for so long that it didn’t take long for the hard rush of their orgasms to hit them. Tula came first, gripping hard at Rhett’s arms as she fell over the falls of pleasure. Hearing her become filled with so much pleasure just spurred Rhett on, and he followed after her not long after. They peppered each other with soft kisses in the afterglow, remaining close to each other as they caught their breaths.

When Rhett slipped out, he just paused to gaze at her face. She was so lost in her peace of mind that she almost seemed ethereal. They just looked at each other, studying the lines and planes of each other’s faces.

“I’m so glad that I decided to come here,” said Tula. “I’m so happy here with you.”

“I am, too. I’m glad you don’t regret it.”

“Speaking of which, I need to talk to my mother. I know that she’s probably been wanting to talk to me.”

Tula put her clothes back on, as if for some reason she were going to talk to her mother in person, and picked up her phone off of Rhett’s cabinet.

“Oh my,” she said to herself as she stared at the screen.

“What is it?” Rhett asked, reclining on the pillows.

Tula turned around, her gaze still on her phone. “My mom called me thirty-two times. My dad wasn’t much better. I think he tried about a dozen attempts.” She let out an exasperated sigh. “Max didn’t call me at all, though. Hmm. Some text messages here from my mom… I’m not surprised. She’s not happy.”

Tula wandered back to the bed, and Rhett wrapped his arms around her as she read the messages. Most of what Mrs. Florian had to say concerned how Tula was making a big mistake, and that she could potentially be ‘forgotten’ by the family for this.

“What are you going to do?” Asked Rhett. “Will you still call them?”

“No, I don’t think so,” responded Tula. “They’re upset and I don’t need any more stress in my life. They know what my decision was. I’ll send Mom and Dad one more text message explaining myself, but I’m going to hold off on the deep conversations for when things have cooled down. Does that seem like a good idea to you?”

“It’s probably what I would do in your position. You can’t really reason with them, right? They were pretty cold when they had that ‘talk’ with us over the dinner table about leaving.”

“Yeah,” she said absently, typing her responses. “They’ll just have to deal with it. At worst, I suppose they’d come to my work to chew me out. Whatever, Karma could always throw them out if it starts getting to harassment. I don’t care.”

He planted a kiss on her cheek, holding her close.

“I need to go to bed,” she said with a yawn, placing the phone on the bedside table. “Tuck me in?”

Rhett smiled, wrapping some covers around her as he held her. The future felt so bright at that moment.

Chapter 10

Rhett didn’t wake when Tula left for work the next morning. He had wondered when he fell asleep the previous night if that would be the case. Not that it would have bothered him too much, but now he knew with some certainty that he was a heavy sleeper.

Tula might need me to help her when she starts her business,
he thought as he pulled his work clothes on.
I might have to start waking up in the middle of the night like she does. Hmm. I guess if I’m waking up with her, it doesn’t bother me too much. I’m sure she got a nice rest last night after all of our activity.

After going through his usual routine of cleaning up and having some breakfast, he headed off for work. His phone buzzed on the passenger seat, and when he gazed down for a moment, he saw that Tula had sent him a text message:

Love you, honey bear. CU tonight.

He smiled, but the warm feeling of gratification passed quickly. Right before his eyes, a white van slammed on the breaks, the squealing of the tires slicing through the air. If Rhett hadn’t been a careful driver, along with having the good reflexes he did, he most certainly would have rear-ended the man in front of him. When he stuck his head out of the window to see what had caused the abrupt stop, he saw a lime-green tennis ball bouncing towards the divider, followed shortly by a small white poodle.

Freaking dogs,
he thought with a grumble.
I could have just been seriously injured. If my eye had been down towards the phone for just a second longer… It might have even turned into a hospital visit.

Continuing on to the shop, he couldn’t shake the feeling that something suspicious was going on. It could have been nothing—it likely was—but he had also taken Tula away from her family recently. He had his suspicions that Max might be up to something again considering his track record, but with no way to look into it or check on the guy at the moment, there was nothing he could do but wonder.
 

When Rhett pulled up to the shop, he was shocked to see that the front windows to the office had been broken and that his co-workers were standing in a circle with their coffees, observing the damage scattered on the pavement.

“What happened?” He asked to no one in particular.

“Some idiot vandalized the place,” said an old mechanic with long white whiskers.

“Vandalized it? It looks like someone tried to break in,” said Rhett.
 

“Well if they were, they suck at it,” said a middle-aged man with tufts of red hair. “The idiot didn’t get far. Look—he couldn’t get past the solid door leading into the garage. Wonder what the guy thought he was going to do in the office. There’s no money in there at this hour, and the place looks immaculate. See?”

Rhett peered inside. It looked as it always did—framed certificates and photos on the wall, a Buster Posey bobble head on the end of the desk, some papers sitting idling on the right side. The floor was as dusty as it ever was, with no amount of important documents or items thrown on the floor, something one would expect of a break-in. The only thing scattered on the ground were some small red bricks.

“So the guy came, broke the windows, tried to get into the garage, and left?” Asked Rhett.

“That’s what we think,” responded the mustached old man. “I mean, why else would someone throw some bricks through a window well enough to make a path?”

They all hummed their approval of the comments. Not long after, their boss came by and forced them to scuttle. And then not long after that, the red and blue lights of a squad car showed up, two police officers exiting the vehicle as soon as it parked. Rhett headed for his red Camaro inside of the shop, seeing it tucked at the back unharmed.

I had only moved it yesterday,
he thought.
Was it Max trying to further damage it? I could definitely see it as something he would do. With no way to prove it, and no real damage done, I can’t really say it was him. My gut tells me that he had something to do with it, and even if I’m right, what can I do? I just need to get through this day. Christ… This whole thing makes me want to take Tula to the Bahamas or something and just stay there for good.

He took his phone out of his pocket and tried calling Tula. The line rang a few times before he was forwarded to her voicemail.

No use in trying to talk to her right now. She’s probably busy making some pastries. I’ll talk to her later about all of this later. Maybe I could stop by the bakery. I’ve just got this crazy feeling right now that something is seriously wrong. I could be completely incorrect about that, but seeing her face would make me feel a lot more at ease.

As he worked that day, he made more mistakes than he would have liked to admit. If his fellow mechanics hadn’t discovered some of the things he was doing wrong, he would have been in deep trouble with his boss later that day. It was enough that the garage itself had been broken into, Rhett didn’t need the old man yelling his head off about a customer coming in the next day with a broken engine.

He was tempted when lunch rolled around to just call it a day. Not that he really could just walk off the second half of his work day, but the feeling was strong in him to do just that. He went to his Honda parked outside, got in, and headed for Karma’s Bakery.

No more bad things today,
he thought as he drove down the road.
I’m gonna see her, have a good lunch break, and then get back to the shop to work some more.

When he got to the parking lot of the bakery, he saw that Tula’s car was in her regular spot. He walked up to the front counter, greeted the cashier, and then inquired on where she was.

“Oh, you didn’t know?” The cashier mentioned. She had been around for a few months, more than a dozen piercings dispersed around her head.
 

“Know what?” Rhett asked, his heart rate increasing.
 

“She’s didn’t show up today. Karma got a text early in the morning that she was deathly ill. Don’t you guys live together?”

Rhett swallowed, his world going a few shades darker. “Yes, we live together. She left before I woke up this morning. Her car is out front.”

The cashier shrugged. “Yeah, I noticed that, too. Weird, huh? I wonder what’s going on. Maybe she tried to get here and had to go to the hospital or something.”

As the morbid possibilities of what might have
really
happened raced through his mind, he found that his legs momentarily lost their strength. In the humid heat of the building, he felt that he wanted to throw up right on the tiled floor.

“Are you okay man?” She asked, pulling her slim body over the front table to more closely observe him.

“Um, I’m okay… I think… I need to find her. I need to know where she is.”

“Man, you don’t look so good. You’re as pale as a ghost.”

“I’ve gotta go,” was all he could manage to spit out before he exited the bakery.
 

As he raced to his car and pulled his keys out of his pocket, he realized that his hands were shaking. The first place that he thought he could go was Mr. and Mrs. Florian’s house. Where else could he start this investigation? Tula would never skip out on work without letting Rhett know about what was going on, and she had seemed perfectly healthy the night before. Besides that, it was suspicious as all hell for her car to be at the bakery while she herself was absent.