Righteous Obsession (4 page)

Peter laughed and agreed, “Yes, he did cry a lot.  I
don’t think any of us got a decent night’s sleep for at least that long!”

They sat around the table laughing and talking about
various subjects when Colin noticed how late it was getting.  Alethea caught
his signal and nodded then he said, “We’d better be going.”

“We’ll be by about nine to pick you up,” Peter said as
he and Amanda walked them to the door.  They were going to drive Colin and Liam
to the airport.

“I’ll bet I find a dozen messages from Steve reminding
me not to forget to set my alarm,” Colin joked.

“Alethea, any time you’re in the area in the future,
please give me a call and we’ll have lunch,” Amanda said.

“I’ll do that, Amanda,” Alethea promised.  She gave
both Colin’s parents a hug.  “Thank you for welcoming me into your home and for
the good food.”

“See you tomorrow,” Colin called.

“Drive carefully,” Amanda called a final caution to
Colin as she shut the door.

“I think our son’s finally found himself a permanent companion,”
Peter remarked.

“I think you’re right, darling,” Amanda agreed.  “It
was so obvious in the unspoken signals between them, in the way he touched her
and in the way he almost never took his eye off of her.”

Peter put his arms around his wife and pulled her
close to him.  “You know, Mandy, I just now realized how grateful I am for all
these labor saving devices.”

“Are you suggesting we leave this mess until later?” 
Amanda teased.

“I see you’ve read my mind.”

Colin leaned against his Jeep and drew Alethea to
him.  He undid the buttons on her sweater and then pushed it and her jacket off
her shoulder.  He kissed her neck and her shoulder, moving down to her breast.

Alethea stirred uneasily and looked around.  Although,
the neighborhood was quiet and there were very few lights on in the other
houses on the street, looks could be deceiving.  She knew from what Colin had
told her that Hillsborough had its own private security force, but she didn’t
know how often they made rounds.  “Colin, I don’t think this is the right place
to be doing this,” she said rather breathlessly as she gently pushed him away.

“I know,” he sighed. He helped Alethea into his car
and then got in the other side, started it and pulled away from the curb.

“Your parents are so nice and they seem like they're
still so much in love.”

“They are.  Dad drives one hundred fifteen miles round
trip every day just so he can be home with mom at night.  Mom offered to give
up her career and move to Sacramento when he was appointed, but he wouldn’t
hear of it.”

“I don’t know of many men who would do that.  You’re
really close to your parents, aren’t you?”

Colin smiled in reminiscence.  “Yeah.  They’ve always
been there for me and there were times if I’d been them I’d have traded me in
for a newer model!”  He laughed for a few seconds than got serious again.  “I
guess you probably noticed I had a different last name when I was born?”

“Yes, and I do confess to being curious,” Alethea
admitted.

“Liam and I were just talking about this same subject
earlier.  It’s funny having it come up twice in one day.”  He paused for a
moment then continued, “The bottom line is that my biological father split on
mom when she informed him of his impending fatherhood.”  A slight trace of bitterness
had seeped into his voice.  “Mom married dad and he adopted me.”

“Have you ever seen him?”

“No, and I don’t care to either.”

They were silent for a few moments in which Colin
became aware of Alethea’s hand moving up his thigh.

“Colin, do you think you could drive faster?”

 “He grinned.  “I don’t think that’ll be a problem.”

It seemed like an eternity before they reached
Sausalito and pulled into the driveway of Colin’s home.  Alethea slid out of
the Jeep and waited until Colin had locked it.  They walked quickly across the
yard, Colin’s arm keeping Alethea close to him.  He unlocked the front door and
canceled the security alarm.  He suddenly felt Alethea’s arms go around him as
she began kissing him and pressing herself to him.

He responded, kissing her mouth and her throat.  He
slipped off her jacket and laid it on a small cabinet in the foyer.

Alethea kicked off her pumps and allowed Colin to
remove her sweater that he tossed aside followed by her silky bra.  He pulled
her close to him, kissing her breasts and teasing her nipples with his tongue.

She gasped loudly, shivering excitedly under his
caresses.  She pulled his T-shirt over his head and let it fall to the floor
while placing kisses all across his broad chest then unfastened his jeans and
pushed them down, freeing his already erect penis.

Colin reached down to pull off his shoes and socks,
hopping first on one foot then the other in doing so.  He stepped out of his
jeans and kicked them aside.  He pulled Alethea close to him again and kissed
her hungrily, giving his mouth free reign to explore her soft skin.  His hands
stripped her of her jeans and silky panties then he knelt in front of her,
kissing and stroking her clitoris with his tongue.

Alethea cried out, shuddering and clutching his shoulders
tightly as the waves of pleasure swept through her body.

Colin picked her up, carried her into the living room
and laid her on the couch.  She pulled him down on top of her, spreading her
leg and feeling the force of his thrust, radiating to the top of her spine.  He
gave a loud growl of pleasure, feeling her warm, wetness envelope and draw him
inside.  He began thrusting, slowly at first then harder.

“Oh God!  Oh yes!”  Alethea cried out loudly, arching
her body to meet his thrusts, feeling each one going deeper, building up to an
imminent explosion of pleasure.  Their joining, was so complete, neither of
them heard the cell phone in the pocket of Colin’s jeans buzzing.  Alethea
writhed, uncontrollable in her passion, and dug her fingernails into Colin’s
back as a massive wave of pleasure convulsed her body.  She heard Colin groan
loudly and felt his body shudder violently then felt a warm gush of liquid
inside her.  He went limp and lay on top of her sweaty and panting heavily.

“Jesus!”  After a moment he rose halfway up and looked
down at Alethea.  “That was really something!  Are you okay?”

Alethea smiled, a teasing smile, then stretched
sensuously and replied, “I’m feeling fantastic!”

“I wouldn’t have it any other way!”  Colin replied,
catching her hand and kissing her palm.

“I think we should continue on with what we were doing,”
Alethea urged, pulling him closer to her.

“Sounds like something I might enjoy, but …” he
shifted his body, obviously uncomfortable and then said, “I don’t think this
couch was intended for anything but sitting.  Why don’t we continue this
upstairs?”

“I’m all yours.”

Their arms around each other and their bodies close,
Colin and Alethea went upstairs.  At the top of the stairs Colin stopped and
scooped her up into his arms.  His bedroom was at the end of the hallway, at
the very back of the house.  From his double windows he had a breathtaking view
of the San Francisco skyline.  He gently laid Alethea on his bed and she drew
him down on top of her.  They began to explore each other’s bodies without reservation
or restraint, prolonging the anticipation of their joining for as long as
possible.  When they finally came together it was very gentle but the passion
that resulted from it was very intense and shook them both.  Afterwards as they
lay loosely entwined, Colin suddenly groaned and slapped himself on the
forehead.  “Shit!”

“What’s wrong?”

“I did exactly what I’m always on my fans not to do –
getting so caught up in your passions that you don’t think about using protection
and I did it twice!  Some role model I am!”

“Colin, it’s not like we have to worry about that
since we’ve both recently tested negative for HIV and I’m on the pill…”

“Using protection never even entered my mind, Alethea,
and it isn’t like I didn’t know what we were going to be doing when we got
home!  It’s all I thought about the whole damn evening!”

Alethea giggled.  “Me, too!  In fact, I wondered if
we’d make it back here without having to pull off the road first!”

Colin laughed too.  “I did think about it when you
were exploring my thigh.  I decided, with my luck, some Good Samaritan cop
would come along, think we needed help and end up busting us!   Metal Now
would
love that!”

“They’d put you on the cover with a headline reading,
Rock Star Gets Busted after Anatomy Exam.”

“And guess which part of my anatomy they’d be
examining,” Colin joked.

“It’s a part I’d like to examine right now!”  Alethea
announced.

 “Be my guest.”

Colin remained awake after Alethea had fallen asleep. 
He wondered what time it was, but could not see his bedside clock from his
position.  He held his arm up towards the window but could not make out what
his watch read.  Whatever time it was there was not much sense lying here if he
couldn’t sleep.  He sat up and carefully eased his arm out from under Alethea
who sighed and stirred but didn’t awaken.  He got up, pulled on some jeans and
a T-shirt then went downstairs.  At the bottom of the stairs he turned right
and entered a room, intended as a dining room, but which he used as a den and
studio.  The room contained a 55-inch television, DVD recorder-player, a state
of the art stereo system, several guitars (the ones he wasn’t taking on tour
with him) and his practice amp.  He and his band mates spent a lot of time in
here when they were working on songs for a new CD.

He flopped down on the couch and suddenly heard his
cell phone buzzing from somewhere.  He went into the living room, trying to
remember where he’d left it that morning.  It had been buzzing since last
night, but he was running late this morning and hadn’t bothered to check his
voicemail.  He saw he had two messages. He punched in his code to listen.

“Colin Matthews, this is the voice of your
executioner.  God has given you many chances to reform and you have refused to
give up your evil lifestyle.  He has finally lost patience with you and has
summoned me to kill you!  You won’t know where or when it will happen, but you
are from this moment on a dead man!”

Colin dropped his cell and jumped back as if it might
explode.  There second voicemail was the same chillingly evil voice. “Don’t
comfort yourself by thinking this is a crank call – it isn’t!  I will kill you
no matter how long it takes!  You are a dead man and you are going to burn in
hell for all of eternity!”

There were no other voicemails.  Colin picked up his
phone and was on the point of erasing them when he had second thoughts.  If
this nutcase continued to harass him and he wanted to press charges, he would
need these as evidence.  He saved both voicemails and then sat down again,
turned on the television to CNN
©
and muted the volume.  He stared at the
screen while chewing on his fingernail absent mindedly.  Sure, he knew he
wasn’t popular with some of the right-wing religious groups because of his
outspoken stands against censorship and in favor of abortion rights.  Those
people usually contented themselves with telling him they’d pray for him or
warning him he was heading for hell unless he got reborn in Jesus.  They
usually weren’t threatening.  Of course as been seen all too lately in the
abortion wars, they did have their fringe loonies.  What really made him uneasy
was that this person, whoever he was, had his cell number.  How the hell had he
gotten it?  Only a handful of people knew it and the ones who did would never
give it out.  The only answer Colin could come up with was this person had been
inside his home!

“Colin?”

Colin’s head jerked up in surprise to find Alethea
standing in front of him.  She

looked
freshly scrubbed and wore a short, silk sheath in a deep coral color.  He’d
been so deep in thought that he hadn’t even heard her come into the room.  He
rubbed his face then asked, “How come you’re up?”

She sat down beside him.  “Well, I rolled over with
the intention of snuggling up to you, but you were gone.”

“I’m sorry, but I couldn’t sleep and I didn’t want to
wake you tossing and turning.”

“Why can’t you sleep?”

Colin shrugged then gave an uneasy laugh.  “I guess I
have a bad case of the 3 AM heebie-jeebies.”  As he said it, he realized he’d
already made a conscious decision not to tell Alethea about the threatening
calls.  After all, there was no point in worrying her about something that
might only turn out to be somebody’s idea of a sick joke.

“What are these heebie-jeebies?”  Alethea teased, playing
with his hair.

“They’re dumb things that don’t bother you during the
day, but by 3 am they’ve grown to humongous size and they grab you…” Colin
grabbed Alethea who squealed in fake horror as he pulled her to him.  “And they
start gnawing at you and won’t let you go!”

“What do they consist of?”

“Like I said – dumb things.  What if the audience
hates us and sits on their hands?  What if I lose my voice?  What if I forget
the words to our new songs?  What if our equipment gets lost between here and
Atlanta?”

Alethea knelt behind him and began massaging his
shoulders.  “I think while it’s possible for any of those things to happen, the
chances of them actually happening are slim to none.”

“Basically I know that but at 3am it feels like any or
all of them are a given,” he joked.

“Well, I’ve got a definite cure for this problem,” She
announced, taking hold of his hand.

“I’ll bet you have,” He teased her.

“Coming?”

“You go up and I’ll be there in a minute.”

“Okay, don’t be too long.”

After Alethea had gone back upstairs, Colin quickly
checked the locks on both doors.  As he came back into the living room he
noticed he’d forgotten to close the blinds.  They’d been open the entire time
Alethea and he had been making love.  As he shut them he suddenly shivered as he
wondered who might be out there watching his every move!