The Unblocked Collection (58 page)

She looked at me, her hand pausing mid-air. “You’re leaving?”

“I’m going to Anna’s to get the box. I’ll be right back.”

She ate a bit more before she set it on the nightstand and buried her face under the blanket. Brea arrived a few minutes later and immediately crawled into bed with her. While they were wrapped in a hug, I slipped out of the room and got into my Suburban.

***

Given that this was the woman who had raised my pink ivory, I paid special attention to the inside of Anna’s apartment. I looked at the pictures of the two of them, which were everywhere—different ages, different memories. There were crafts and drawings Frankie had made her as a child, her signature maturing as her art did. It was hard to believe that Anna wasn’t Frankie’s biological mother. It was so obvious how much they meant to each other.

I found the box in the closet of her master bedroom. I tucked it under my arm and locked up, knowing it might be a while before Frankie was able to come here. When I returned to the condo, the girls were still in bed, the TV on, but neither of them watching it. Mounds of tissues were piled on the comforter; the soup was on her nightstand, still as full as when I’d left.

“I’ll leave you guys alone while you open it,” Brea said as I walked to the bed.

“No.” Frankie wouldn’t let her out of her grip. “I want you both here.”

I sat on the end of the mattress and set the box between us. “Are you sure you’re ready for this?”

“I’ll never be ready. I have to do it anyway…she asked me to.”

Using the knife I had taken from the kitchen, I sliced through the tape that held the box closed. I watched her as I pulled back the flaps and held them open. There was a card inside, resting on something wrapped in tissue paper.

Frankie uncurled herself from Brea’s arms and slowly lifted the card. “Peach flowers,” she said, running her fingers over the front of it. “Her favorite color.” She stared at it, took a breath, and handed it to me. “Will you read it?”

“Are you sure?” I asked. “It was meant for you.”

She nodded. “I can’t.”

Brea squeezed her harder, holding a tissue in case Frankie needed it.

The note inside was written in shaky cursive. “Doll,” I read out loud, “one day, hopefully soon, this will be for your baby—a chunky pink bundle of joy that will resemble a little bit of him and a whole lot of you. A baby conceived out of a strong love, born to two devoted parents. Until then, use it to keep your toes warm. Not just yours; his, too. With so much love, Anna.”

Tears streamed down her face as she held out her hands. “Please give it to me.”

I placed it on her lap and watched as she carefully tore the tissue paper, revealing a knitted blanket in pastel yarn. It was large enough to cover her bed—much larger than I expected a baby blanket to be. Anna had done that on purpose, making it big enough to cover a family.

“I saw all this yarn,” Frankie said, gliding her hands over the blanket. “It was on her kitchen table…she told me it was for her neighbor’s daughter who was due in a few weeks.”

“And the whole time it was for you,” Brea said.

“Yes. This whole time she knew…and she was making it for me. For…” She finally looked up, our eyes connecting for the first time since I’d placed the blanket in her hands. Then she quickly folded it, stuck it inside the box with the card on top and placed it on the floor. She laid back down, pulling the comforter up to her chin. There was a new emotion in her eyes…it looked like she was embarrassed. That was odd, considering everything she was going through.

And then it hit me—the note, the blanket Anna had made for a baby. Frankie’s baby. A baby who will resemble a little bit of
him
.

Anna meant
me
.

Frankie had lost her baby with Reed. I’d imagined she would want another one at some point and I knew that going into this. Right now, in this bedroom with Frankie and Brea staring at me, the thought didn’t freak me out. I hadn’t been able to say that before. In the past, getting someone pregnant would have been a fucking nightmare. But I didn’t feel that way now. Not at all. And I wanted to tell her, because I had a feeling she thought I was shutting down at the possibility, but this wasn’t the time to have that conversation.

Brea’s expression told me they needed a moment alone, so I stood from the bed and pointed at the box. “Do you want me to put it in your office?”

“Please,” Frankie said. “And I know you’re starving so why don’t you have something delivered?"

I was hungry and from the looks of her fridge and pantry, my opinions were limited to a salad or cereal, neither of which I wanted. “Can I get you girls anything?” Frankie shook her head, and Brea shrugged. “Wrong answer. You both need to eat. Whatever I order you, I’ll keep it light.”

“Thank you,” they both said as I left the room.

As soon as I shut the door, I heard their voices behind it. Frankie needed her girl and I was happy Brea was there for her. I needed a goddamn beer. Thankfully, there were plenty of those in the fridge.

FRANKIE

I WOKE,
gasping for breath, my skin covered in a thick layer of sweat. As I tried to get my breathing under control, I blinked several times to clear my eyes and take in my surroundings. Derek was beside me, his face so calm, finally getting the sleep he needed. The TV played softly in the background. Anna’s card was in the top drawer of my nightstand, the same spot I’d placed it just a few hours ago when I’d gotten up to read it again.

It didn’t matter how many times I read it; her words didn’t fill the emptiness. It felt as if my body had been flushed out, and everything inside me had been washed away. The only time I’d ever felt anything comparable was after I had lost the baby. I’d only been pregnant for a short time, and hadn’t had a chance to know the child who was growing inside me. But Anna had been in my life since I was four. I hardly remembered what life was like before her, and I couldn’t imagine what life would feel like without her. Who would be my voice of reason? Who would steer me when I lost my direction? Who would be my refuge when I craved a mother’s touch?

Derek said there were stages. I’d felt the pain, I’d felt the sorrow, and now I’d entered the numbness.

After so much numbing emptiness, I just wanted to feel fullness again. Having him deep inside me was the only thing that gave me that. And I desperately wanted it again and again. During those moments when he was thrusting into me, he didn’t promise me everything would be all right, or that things would soon return to normal. He gave me distraction and the most intense physical pleasure.

I needed it again…

I crawled under the covers and carefully moved between his legs. He didn’t stir until I pressed my lips to the tip of his cock. Then his hands went to my head and he tried to pull me up.

“No,” I said. “I need this. For me. Let me taste you.”

He stopped pulling, his hand resting in my hair, eventually guiding me as I sucked up and down his shaft. It became my focus—how hard I sucked it, how I massaged my tongue around the sides, how I paused at the top before I dove back down. I wanted him to feel each flick of my tongue, each time I sucked in my cheeks to give his head more pressure. But more than that, I wanted to taste him. I hadn’t been able to taste the food I’d put in my mouth lately. Bland, salty, sweet, I couldn’t differentiate the three. I could taste Derek, though, and he was one of the best flavors I’d ever had in my mouth.

“God, you’re delicious,” I said, my tongue covered in a thick spit.

He said nothing. Ordinarily he would have made a comment about how fucking spicy my mouth was. But he stayed silent, other than the guttural moaning that told me how this was making him feel. Making him feel good, was making me feel good. And it made me feel in control…the only thing I was in control of lately.

I used my hands to stroke the base, which I could barely reach with my mouth, and met my knuckles in the middle. His hips moved with me, flexing up and shifting back. He was fucking my mouth…and it was making me so wet.

He released my head and reached for my nipple. He wasn’t gentle about it, either, and I didn’t want him to be. The rough, erotic movement caused me to groan. Every time I did, his breathing sped up.

“I need to be inside of you,” he said finally, his hands sliding around my arms as he pulled me up. “Right now.” He flipped me onto my back, though I didn’t stay flat for long. My legs were in the air, bent over his shoulders as my ass aligned with his waist. “Always so fucking wet,” he said as his thumb moved inside me. The pressure made me grind against it. “Tell me you want my cock…” It stood erect in front of me.

As I bit the corner of my lip, my gaze landed on his tattoo.
White
.

Derek White.

And
my
Derek Block.

It seemed so long ago that I had learned its true meaning. It had only been less than a week.

The truth hadn’t changed the way I felt about him.

“I want it,” I said. “I want it more than anything.”

He added a second finger to plunge in and out of my wetness. My moans were getting louder, enjoying what he was giving me, begging him for more.

“Keep your eyes open, Frankie.” I moved my hands to my nipples, pulling them as hard as he had. “I don’t want you closing them at all. I want them on me. I want you in this moment and nowhere else.”

I opened them, watching his lips move into a soft smile. It was there so briefly…and then it was gone. “I’m here, Derek.” I had just enough time to take a breath before he drove his cock inside me. It filled me much more than his fingers and reached the deepest part of me. His thumb rubbed my clit, circling it as he swiveled his hips and I pressed my head back into the bed.

“No,” he snapped. The sound startled me, and I looked up again. “Eyes on me.” His gaze was so captivating, it was easy to watch him. “Tell me how it feels.”

I observed the way his eyelids narrowed, the shape his lips made when he pumped into me. He gave me every bit of pleasure I desired. “It feels…amazing. Everywhere.”

“You want more?”

“Yes,” I moaned. “Deeper.”

He lifted my legs off his shoulder, gripped my waist and in one swift movement I was straddling his dick and he was on his back. “Ride it, Frankie. Ride it until you’re fucking quivering on top of me.”

Keeping my eyes on him, I placed my hands on his stomach for balance and I ground my pussy over him. The speed and pressure sparked a steady build inside me. Derek’s thumb was back on my clit, another hand on my nipple…the pleasure now spreading from every region of my body.

“Derek…oh my God.”

“I want to feel you come…and after you do, I want you to just keep fucking me.”

I rocked my hips back and forth as the orgasm shot through me. When I tried to slow, he grabbed my waist, pushing me to keep up the rhythm, not giving my body a chance to relax once the shuddering stopped.

“Fuck,” he hissed. “You’re sopping wet…and so goddamn tight.”

My skin was so sensitive, but he didn’t let up at all. If anything, he moved me faster, grinding into me as hard as he had at the beginning.

“I want you to come again,” he demanded. “And when you do, I will.”

His words brought me even closer and so did his hands, which were now on my nipples, tugging the tingling buds. My back arched as my hands pushed into his stomach.

“Harder, Frankie. Fuck it
harder
.”

Derek’s hips had stilled and I now had the control back. I rode him as hard and as fast as my body would allow. Holding my breath, I took in every sensation—in my nipples, in my clit, in my pussy as it was filled with his cock.

“I’m there…” I said

My moans bled into the air, and I felt myself unravel as his sounds began to join mine. It was such a deep, sensual tone. Then I felt his cum fill me and I continued riding him until he grabbed my hips and lifted me into the air.

“Jesus,” he said, now on top of me, his mouth meeting mine. “You can wake me up like that anytime you want.”

“It just might be happening more often now.”

“I won’t complain.” He had turned serious. “But Frankie, you need your sleep. I watched you drift off, so I know you got a little. What woke you?”

I had tried to forget. Fucking Derek was part of that. But it was all back in my head now. “A dream, I think.” Or maybe it was a reminder of how empty I was now, how alone. Whatever it was, it had woken me with the echoing realization that I no longer had Anna in my life.

He’d only been out of me for seconds and already it was back.

The numbness. The emptiness.

“Was it a good one?” he asked.

I shook my head. “I don’t think so. It was more like a nightmare.”

“I need to get you to relax again so you can fall back asleep.”

I leaned forward so our lips were touching. “You could fuck me again.”

He laughed. “Insatiable…I like it.” But he didn’t like it enough to give me his dick. He got off the bed and picked me up into his arms, carrying me into the shower. He waited for the water to warm before he moved us under the stream.